4 Mat Book Review Wheelan
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Feb 20, 2024
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Uploaded by dcjones21
Carolyn Faines
LEAD 610
4 Mat Book Review: Wheelan
April 2, 2016
Dr. Debbie Warren
Abstract
Susan Wheelan is a well-known author and speaker who uses what she knows and her experience to help others build effective teams. In this book, she gives detailed instructions on how to create effective teams. Wheelan gives advice on transforming a work group to a team. This book is used to organize your group into a high performing group (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 6). The reason to have a group is so that capable people can unite in their work to effectively achieve specific goals (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 7). So, according to Wheelan there are four stages to assist in achieving this goal. She describes each stage in great detail and provides the reader with answers to productivity that can help a leader and its team be more effective. Stage one is dependency and inclusion. This is the process of the members feeling safe and comfortable enough to talk and share with the group. These involves being loyal to group and developing a sense of belonging. Stage two is counter dependency and fighting. This stage involves freeing oneself from depending on the leader. It also involves developing a unified set of procedures, goals, and values which will probably form conflict (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 26). Stage three is trust and structure. This stage is about members working to improve and stabilize working relationships and one another (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 27). And stage four is work. Just as it says, stage four is when the group takes on “intense team productivity and effectiveness” (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 28). Wheelan gives examples of different situations that people might come across when working with a group. She also give suggestions on how these situations can be handled by the group members and leaders. Once Wheelan finish explaining the stages, she goes into outlining the behaviors and attitudes of an effective team member and team leader. There are Assessments that show how effective a person is as a team member or team leader. At the end of each
assessment is a way to show where improvement is needed and refers you back to the book to learn how to improve. In addition to the assessments, there are some chapters that offer real world scenarios that give suggestions on what can be done throughout the stages. This book offers checklists after each chapter to evaluate your accomplishments and detailed information on the stages involved in the process of creating an effective team. Concrete Response
While reading the section on group development, it brought back a memory from long time ago. As a young mother, I was scared and felt that I needed help with being a mother. I joined a group that was designed to help young mother cope and deal with motherhood. The one thing about this group that I remember is that no one would talk except the group’s mentor. I thought it was weird and it was very uncomfortable. It was so uncomfortable that I would not ask
questions until after the meeting was over. The others felt the same way because there was a line to speak to her after each meeting. So what happen was she had a meeting dedicated to us getting
to know one another. She said that she was spending just as much time after the meeting as she was during the meeting. The meeting got us together and we learned so much about one another. We didn’t think about how much we could help one another if we would just open up. For me it was about trust. I didn’t know them and so I didn’t feel I would discuss my personal problems concerning motherhood. But in the end we all was there for the same reasons. We needed confirmation that we could me great mothers. What I learned in those sessions is that there is no such thing as perfect. And because of this that I shouldn’t have felt guilty for not being perfect. I learned that it requires patience to raise a child. Believe me, I found out the hard way that patients is a virtue.
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Reflection
The question that is on my mind is, what should I do if I am assigned to a group that has people who is comfortable doing things as individuals? Or how about people that like competition and pits the group members against one another. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (ESV) There’s nothing
wrong with competition but it’s all about the attitude that you take on while in the competition. Wheelan shares many valuable ideas but she kind of repeats herself a little. She writes, “Organizations often forget to ask training providers some very basic and important questions.” (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 14) Wheelan then proceeds to list the questions and then afterwards says that all trainers should be able to answer the first three questions pretty good (Wheelan, S. A., 2016, pg. 14). A couple of pages later some questions are asked that are very similar to the previous page. This incident doesn’t take away from the goodness of the book but the repetitiveness of information can be confusing to some. Also there is a lot of information in this book that can be overwhelming to some. The information is very detailed but it can be like an overload to some who are reading it. It seem like Wheelan used a kind of reader friendly format to help people understand the information but I still felt that it was a lot of information. Maybe if there was a workbook to help outline and organize the information than the reader wouldn’t be so overwhelmed. Action
Looking at the developmental stages, they help people change the relationships that they have with other people. Once this takes place, they can work together in a more friendly and productive environment. In reading this book, I realize that most of the conflict that I have encountered at work is because I refused to change my leadership style to meet the need of
others on my job. In my reading, I realized that I was only getting through stage one and two as new people started to work with me. Even those who I had been working with never saw me pass
stage one and two. Being who I am in God should have motivated me to do a better job of connecting to the people around me. In the next five weeks, my goal is to communicate with my co-workers and really get to know them on a more personal level. I just realized the other night that I did not know where the majority of my co-workers lived. This comes from lack of communication on my part. I mean they know where I live because they asked. By doing this I feel that my relationship with my co-workers will improve and the communication problems that
we are experiencing will work themselves out. Also, in an effort to decrease the conflict and tension between me and my co-workers, I am going to stop taking everything that they say so personal and serious. In talking to them, they were trying to get to know me but they felt that I was a little ‘suck up’ as they said. Looking back, I probably was because I didn’t know them and
was afraid that they would not accept me as being a minister. This all stems from what had just happened in my life and I was judging them according to how others had judged me. So, in order
to decrease the conflict and tension I am going to try to understand my co-workers more. The only way to do this is through communication. Usually when I arrive to work I go straight to preparing for my shift. I have never taken the time to have a regular conversation with those who
are leaving for the day. The only way to keep the communication lines open is by acknowledging
the problems that are present between me and those who are leaving. In keeping the lines of communication open my relationship with my co-workers will improve and the atmosphere on the job will not be so stressful. This way we will trust one another more and this will make the job environment a little more enjoyable.
References
Wheelan, S. A. (2016). Creating effective teams: A guide for members and leaders
. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.
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