Leading Teams

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Leading Teams

This course is part of Leading People and Teams Specialization

Instructor: Maxim Sytch, Ph.D.

106,209 already enrolled

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4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

2,412 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

1 week at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

2,412 reviews

Beginner level

No prior experience required

Flexible schedule

1 week at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

What you'll learn

Learn how to build your team, and improve teamwork and collaboration.
Establish roles, build structures, and manage decision making.
Manage critical team processes such as conflict resolution.

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

4 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer

Taught in English

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This course is part of the Leading People and Teams Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

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There are 4 modules in this course

In this course, you will learn how to build your team, improve teamwork and collaboration, and sustain team performance through continuous learning and improvement. Specifically, you will learn best practices for composing a team and aligning individual and team goals. You will also learn how to establish roles, build structures, and manage decision making so that your team excels. This course will also help you manage critical team processes such as conflict resolution and building trust that have a profound impact on your team’s performance. You will discuss some of the best ways to harness the productive potential of teams while mitigating the risks and traps of teamwork.

In modern organization, most of work is done in teams, yet the results of teamwork are exceptionally mixed. Many teams are poorly designed and structured, fraught with dysfunctional conflict, experience coordination breakdowns and serious motivation challenges. As a result, many teams fail to realize their potential and frequently underperform even individuals working on similar tasks. After completing this course, you will acquire a set of tools and practices that enable you to effectively set up, run, evaluate, and continuously improve your team. Such insights will both make you a more effective team leader but also a standout contributor in team settings.

As a team leader, you must determine how best to compose and structure your team. You will need to determine the optimal team size, diversity of team members, values, and goals for the team -- all of which will have a big impact on team dynamics and performance. In this module, you will learn strategies and tactics to design your team effectively.

What's included

15 videos7 readings1 assignment

15 videosTotal 102 minutes

01.01 - Intro: Designing Your Team for Excellence6 minutes
01.02 - Designing Your Team with the Client in Mind1 minute
01.03 - What is the Optimal Team Size?14 minutes
01.04 - Demographics: How Demographic Diversity Impacts Teams13 minutes
01.05 - Demographic Faultlines: Be Very Careful!11 minutes
01.06 - Personality: How Diversity in Personality Impacts Teams7 minutes
01.07 - Values-based Diversity in Teams (Part 1)11 minutes
01.08 - Values-based Diversity in Teams (Part 2)8 minutes
01.09 - Team Values and Person-Team Fit10 minutes
01.10 - Building a Collaborative Climate1 minute
01.11 - Goal Setting in Teams14 minutes
01.12 - Managing Individual Expectations2 minutes
01.13 - Emphasizing Shared Goals1 minute
01.14 - Avoiding Self-Similarity in Composing Teams1 minute
01.15 - Recap: Designing Your Team for Excellence3 minutes

7 readingsTotal 34 minutes

Help us learn more about you!10 minutes
Introduction to Jeff Brodsky, Chief Human Resources Officer at Morgan Stanley2 minutes
Course Syllabus5 minutes
Introduction to John Beilein, Head Coach, University of Michigan Men's Basketball Team2 minutes
Can You Compose Your Team With Too Many Stars5 minutes
Notice for Auditing Learners: Assignment Submission10 minutes
Unit 1 Lecture Slides0 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Designing Your Team for Excellence30 minutes

In the first module of the course, we discussed your role as a team leader in designing your team's size, composition, diversity of personalities and values, and goals. In addition, you must determine how best to structure your team, specifically how you will structure decision making, rewards, and roles. You must also ensure the team has a clear set of norms that guide its behavior. In this module, you will learn strategies and tactics to structure your team effectively.

What's included

13 videos5 readings1 assignment

13 videosTotal 109 minutes

02.01 - Structuring Your Team for Excellence: Apollo 13 Case Study9 minutes
02.02 - Departmentation: How to Group and Organize Jobs in the Team10 minutes
02.03 - Centralization: How to Structure Decision Making in the Team13 minutes
02.04 - Rewards: How to Structure Rewards in the Team14 minutes
02.05 - Team Rewards and Punishments2 minutes
02.06 - Virtuality: How to Manage Virtual Team Structures15 minutes
02.07 - Roles: How to Define and Organize Roles in the Team15 minutes
02.08 - Every Role Matters in Teams2 minutes
02.09 - Keeping Individuals Motivated When They Do Not Get Their Preferred Role1 minute
02.10 - Norms: How to Create Productive Norms in the Team10 minutes
02.11 - Creating a Culture of Teamwork Through Norms and Expectations3 minutes
02.12 - Team Charters: A Tool for Designing Your Team9 minutes
02.13 - Recap: Structuring Your Team For Excellence6 minutes

5 readingsTotal 25 minutes

Gene Kranz Video5 minutes
Rewarding Teams or Individual Stars7 minutes
Template: Team Charter7 minutes
Team Charter Documents6 minutes
Unit 2 Lecture Slides0 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Structuring Your Team for Excellence30 minutes

It is common to see teams working on identical tasks and having similar access to organizational resources and talent produce systematically different performance outcomes. This occurs because we mismanage team processes, or how teammates work on the task and interact with one another during teamwork. In this module, you will learn how to recognize most typically process hurdles in teamwork and how to overcome them, thus creating high-performing teams.

What's included

8 videos2 readings1 assignment

8 videosTotal 49 minutes

03.01 - Coordination12 minutes
03.02 - Common Information Effect7 minutes
03.03 - Social Loafing5 minutes
03.04 - Language5 minutes
03.05 - Working Across Cultures3 minutes
03.06 - Managing Conflict9 minutes
03.07 - Resolving Task Conflicts5 minutes
03.08 - Recap: Manage Team Dynamics3 minutes

2 readingsTotal 5 minutes

Conflict Resolution from The Office5 minutes
Unit 3 Lecture Slides0 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Managing Team Dynamics30 minutes

This module is focused on creating sustainable levels of high-performance in teams. In this module you will therefore learn how to evaluate team performance and how to ensure this high performance is sustainable in your teams. Relatedly, we will discuss how to ensure team learning and effective flow of new ideas in your teams.

What's included

15 videos3 readings1 assignment1 peer review

15 videosTotal 53 minutes

04.01 - Evaluating Team Performance6 minutes
04.02 - Assessing Performance1 minute
04.03 - Managing Teammate Satisfaction2 minutes
04.04 - Managing Team Performance2 minutes
04.05 - Creativity8 minutes
04.06 - Psychological Safety7 minutes
04.07 - Engaging Your Team3 minutes
04.08 - Hit and Hug2 minutes
04.09 - Building a Safe Environment2 minutes
04.10 - Transactive Memory8 minutes
04.11 - Facilitating Team Learning3 minutes
04.12 - Learning from Adversity3 minutes
04.13 - Instilling a Learning Mindset1 minute
04.14 - Manufacturing Team Success2 minutes
04.15 - Creating Sustainable Team Performance4 minutes

3 readingsTotal 20 minutes

Unit 4 Lecture Slides0 minutes
Post-course Survey10 minutes
Keep Learning with Michigan Online!10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Creating Sustainable Team Performance and Learning30 minutes

1 peer reviewTotal 120 minutes

Improving Your Team’s Performance 120 minutes

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Instructor

Instructor ratings

(325 ratings)

Maxim Sytch, Ph.D.

University of Michigan

15 Courses619,799 learners

Offered by

University of Michigan

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Reviewed on Jan 30, 2016

A good course. Although within this University of Michigan specialization there are ones that I found more captivating so check out the whole specialization.

Reviewed on Mar 1, 2016

Good course. I immediately recognised some of the situations that were discussed. The analysis about the effects of values vs demographic vs cultural differences in teams. Are especially good.

Reviewed on Jan 26, 2019

Very good, practical course on leading teams. As an experienced team leader, I got a lot from the course which will help me more effectively lead teams in the future.

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