PROGRAM CURRICULUM

The program design will be for 4 two day sessions, three intersessions, and an alumni learning network.  The program and topics will be as follows:  

Onsite Session One: Team Models and Skills:  During this introductory two day session, participants are introduced to the program, including expected outcomes. Participants are encouraged to explore their own team skills and needs, and through lecture, discussion, self -assessment and evaluation, develop a plan for their team development. Expert consultant faculty for this session includes Dr. Thomas Sappington and Dr. Cynthia Persily.  Prior to this seminar, accepted participants will have completed assessment instruments, including the Myer’s Briggs Temperament Inventory (MBTI®), and the FIRO-B. The MBTI® is the most widely used personality inventory in the world; the MBTI® instrument provides an accurate picture of a person’s personality type. The MBTI® instrument determines preferences on four dichotomies:

Extraversion—Introversion: describes where people prefer to focus their attention and get their energy—from the outer world of people and activity or their inner world of ideas and experiences

Sensing—Intuition: describes how people prefer to take in information— focused on what is real and actual or on patterns and meanings in data

Thinking—Feeling: describes how people prefer to make decisions—based on logical analysis or guided by concern for their impact on others

Judging—Perceiving: describes how people prefer to deal with the outer world —in a planned orderly way, or in a flexible spontaneous way

Combinations of these preferences result in 16 distinct personality types. Understanding characteristics unique to each personality type provides insight on how they influence an individual’s way of communicating and interacting with others.  The MBTI® Step II instrument drills down and details 20 facets of the preferences for more in-depth personality type understanding. The tool will be used by participants to identify their preferences relative to teamwork, and to formulate a team development plan. The Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation/Behaviorª (FIRO-Bª) is a 15-minute tool for improving organizational relationships and individual effectiveness.  As an integral part of team-building initiatives, management training programs, and communication workshops, the FIRO-Bª instrument is one of the most widely used tools for helping people understand their own behavior— and that of others—in interpersonal situations.  With its straightforward approach, the assessment lets participants quickly gather insights about their interpersonal needs and how those needs affect their interactions.  This information helps illuminate why some relationships click and others miss.  The FIRO-Bª instrument is based on three basic interpersonal needs:

Inclusion: participation in forming relationships and associating with people

Control: decision-making, control, and influence

Affection: closeness and loyalty between individuals

The FIRO-B^a measures these basic needs along two dimensions:

Expressed: the extent to which a person initiates a particular behavior

Wanted: the extent to which a person wants others to initiate the behavior

The FIRO-B^a can be used in many different settings and across a variety of applications.  Its insights can make a powerful difference in one-on-one, small group, and team relationships.  It can expand a person’s view by shedding light on some additional nuances of variable interpersonal style. Both of these tools will be used in this seminar and throughout the Institute to match team development strategies to individual and team preferences and behavior. Topics for lecture, discussion and activities during this seminar include introduction to effective team models, preferences related to teamwork, giving feedback within a team, dealing with conflict, organizational analysis and needs for effective team work, and managing change as a team.

Intersession One: Problem Identification in the Home Organization:  Intersession work continues building on team knowledge gained in onsite Session One. Each team has assignments to complete, develops an improvement plan for team development to guide them throughout the program, participates as a team with their organizational sponsor to identify a problem amenable to team intervention in the home organization, and participates in one live webcast on team development.

Onsite Session Two: Taking Action/Program Planning:  Session Two moves from development of the team to team work in the organization through the planning of a project amenable to team intervention, which will impact on patient care quality, nurse satisfaction, and/or nurse retention. In this session, participant teams gain the tools needed to impact change within organizations. The impact of Appalachian culture on individuals, teams and organizations will be stressed. Participants begin to plan for the implementation and evaluation of local projects in their home institutions.  Use of a logic model for program planning will be introduced. Appropriate metrics to evaluate effectiveness of the project will be emphasized. Expert faculty for this session includes Dr. Becky Bowers-Lanier.

Intersession Two: Local Teamwork in Action: Planning, Implementation, Metrics, and Evaluation of Team Functioning: During intersession two, participants begin to practice team skills through implementation of a creative, organization specific, culturally sensitive, patient care quality, nurse empowerment, nurse satisfaction and/or nurse retention program in their home institution. In addition, teams will be assisted in evaluating their team functioning and effectiveness through completion of the Campbell Hallan Team Development Survey. The Team Development Survey (TDS) provides team and work group feedback to improve team effectiveness and help reach their maximum potential.  The survey addresses how team members feel about such issues as interpersonal interaction within the group, innovations, organizational support, and mission clarity.  Survey results provide objective information on the team's strengths and weaknesses and can create a framework for effective change to help team members improve morale, productivity, and communication.  The TDS results can help work groups to identify their strengths and weaknesses, assess and improve team effectiveness, benchmark team progress, strengthen team-building efforts, support total quality management and continuous improvement initiatives.   Based on years of careful research, the TDS survey authors have identified 19 aspects of team functioning that are critical to effectiveness.  These dimensions are grouped around four major themes including resources (time and staffing, information, material resources, organizational support skills, commitment, skills), efficiency (mission clarity, team coordination, team unity, individual goals, empowerment), improvement (team assessment, innovation, feedback, rewards, leadership), and team success (satisfaction, performance, overall index).

Onsite Session Three: Team Issues and Challenges:  Teams continue development by building on strengths identified in the TDS, and applying knowledge to challenges such as fostering creativity, managing change, and thriving in a chaotic environment. During this session, team development specialists (George Sweazey and Tom Sappington) will provide group review of feedback from the TDS, along with action planning for success. In addition, each team will have an opportunity to participate in a one to two hour individual consultation relative to team strengths and development needs with the development specialists.

Intersession three: Local Teamwork in Action: Evaluation: Participants begin to implement a plan to analyze the impact of their local projects using accepted metrics, begin to analyze the results of the project, and develop a plan for dissemination in their own institution and with other participants. They are to attend one live webcast on a topic driven by their needs and provided by Institute faculty, and begin to mentor a team in their home institution.

Onsite Session Four: Team Results and Leverage:  Participants share their team leadership and effectiveness successes and challenges. Participants will also evaluate how they can continue to build an environment to facilitate team engagement in their workplace. Participants will also examine methods to leverage results of their development and their projects both within the home organization and beyond. Topics such as selling upward and outward, and coalition building, as well as next steps in their personal and team development will be discussed. Sponsoring institutional representatives and team sponsors will be invited to participate in this session. In addition, key stakeholders in the state, who can help with leveraging team work and results and coalition building for the future will be invited to attend. These include representatives from the WV Center for Nursing, local foundations, professional organizations, and government officials.