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Nice Teams Finish Last
March 2011
Vol 93
REVIEWS
No 3
Health Form for Children with Special Needs” is provided from the American College of Emergency Physicians. Parents can fill out this form to document the child’s medical and identification information. State and national web sites for disease control, public health, immunization, and birth defects, to name a few topics, also are provided. This book has insights for parents with healthy children as well as those with special health care needs that will affect the family unit. This guidebook is useful for nursing students and perioperative nurses as well, because it can help organize nursing actions. This could be important because many nurses are not trained specifically in pediatrics, and the book provides a good review of specific childhood subjects. HELEN BECKWITH RN, CNOR STAFF NURSE VAIL VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER VAIL, CO doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.11.012
Editor’s note: Tylenol is a registered trademark of McNeil-PPC, Inc, Ft Washington, PA.
Nice Teams Finish Last Brian Cole Miller AMACOM 2010, 224 pages $17.95 softcover This book describes behaviors, communication techniques, and actions that team members can use to be part of a productive team. The content of the book is well organized into sections that discuss the characteristics of three different types of teams: nice, fierce, and bold. Being too nice is a way to try to get along with everyone, but teams that are too nice may not reach their full potential. Fierce teams, the 414
AORN Journal
opposite of nice, tend to put the project ahead of the team, which can lead to productivity but at the expense of the team members themselves. The happy medium between being too nice and being too fierce is being bold. The bold team is composed of true team players who strive to reach a common goal and do so without negatively affecting the team. Finding the balance between the positive attributes of both the nice and the fierce teams is the key to becoming a good, effective, bold team. The result is a team that communicates effectively and honestly. The author describes the four main principles that are necessary to becoming a bold team: assume innocence, build a bridge, speak your truth, and invite dialogue. There is a great table in the book that describes how each principle is demonstrated in each type of team. In each of the three sections of the book, which refer to the team types, the chapters are organized similarly, starting with the myths surrounding the nine types of team players. The myths are followed by explanations of the way each of the nine personality types conforms to each type of team. Finally, each chapter ends with a summary, which is very useful because it is a quick reference that gives an overall view of the content of that chapter. An example of a nice team myth that seems to be present in the perioperative environment is “Nice teams only praise each other, and we do it often.” Especially with newer staff members, team members like to praise the person so he or she feels good. What the new person needs, however, is honest feedback about his or her performance. A physician or peer may compliment a new nurse when, honestly, the physician or peer believes that the new nurse could have done better. The truth related to this myth is that the praise is vague or insincere, and the person may be talked about negatively behind his or her back. The author also gives examples of each type of team player in each type of team and notes that each type of player will demonstrate behavior related to his or her motives. These motives lead
REVIEWS to different actions in the team. For example, perfectionist team players have very high expectations for themselves and their teams. The performance standard of “good enough” is not acceptable for perfectionists, who always strive for excellence. Possible motives for perfectionists’ actions can include trying to achieve their high standards, an inability to accept being wrong, and wanting to champion the standards they believe their entire team should be demonstrating. These motives may lead perfectionists to be the team leader for projects so they have more control over the outcomes. This may also lead to criticism and judgment of others who may not perform up to perfectionists’ standards. Through team interaction, each team player will demonstrate his or her role in the team. When team members interact, they begin team development. The authors describe team development through four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Any team development must start with its formation, where team member and leader roles are identified. In the storming stage, ideas about how to accomplish the team’s goal are identified. Norming occurs when the team members work together to accomplish the team’s goal. Performing is when the team becomes effective without conflict. The author states that this book is not a tool to teach how to lead, resolve conflict, or fix one’s team; however, the book gives readers the tools they need to help create a positive team with good interactions that use constructive feedback. In any team, all members need to listen and speak honestly because open and honest communication is essential to becoming a productive team. Strategies that are identified in the appendix are good tools for managers, team members, and any team leader to use in identifying ways for the
www.aornjournal.org
team members to work together effectively. For example, the role type questionnaire makes it easy to figure out which role type fits a person. The role type questionnaire is very useful for any team, especially a perioperative team that works closely together. Sometimes perioperative team members work so closely with one another that they may forget how different they are in the ways they relate to each other. Using the role identifier questionnaire would be a great way for perioperative team members to interact and have a better understanding of their own and their teammates’ motives and actions. This book provides a good overview of how all team members interact related to their roles in a team. The role descriptions and corresponding behaviors help explain why some teams are unable to reach their full potential. The examples of role-playing for different situations can help teams become more efficient. There are many situations in the perioperative setting in which it is difficult to address certain behaviors because of time constraints. The use of roleplaying is a great tool for teams to use in staff meetings to better understand actions and motives in a group setting with lots of input from team members. Anyone who is seeking a more productive result from his or her team’s work will benefit from this book. Specifically, team leaders or those responsible for creating teams would benefit from the book and the different questionnaires and role-playing games that are described in the appendix. DAWN WHITESIDE BSN, RN, CNOR CLINICAL COORDINATOR, CARDIAC SURGERY MERCY GENERAL HOSPITAL SACRAMENTO, CA doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.09.017
The authors of this column have no declared affiliations that could be perceived as posing potential conflicts of interest in the publication of this article.
AORN Journal
415
Vol 93
REVIEWS
No 3
Health Form for Children with Special Needs” is provided from the American College of Emergency Physicians. Parents can fill out this form to document the child’s medical and identification information. State and national web sites for disease control, public health, immunization, and birth defects, to name a few topics, also are provided. This book has insights for parents with healthy children as well as those with special health care needs that will affect the family unit. This guidebook is useful for nursing students and perioperative nurses as well, because it can help organize nursing actions. This could be important because many nurses are not trained specifically in pediatrics, and the book provides a good review of specific childhood subjects. HELEN BECKWITH RN, CNOR STAFF NURSE VAIL VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER VAIL, CO doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.11.012
Editor’s note: Tylenol is a registered trademark of McNeil-PPC, Inc, Ft Washington, PA.
Nice Teams Finish Last Brian Cole Miller AMACOM 2010, 224 pages $17.95 softcover This book describes behaviors, communication techniques, and actions that team members can use to be part of a productive team. The content of the book is well organized into sections that discuss the characteristics of three different types of teams: nice, fierce, and bold. Being too nice is a way to try to get along with everyone, but teams that are too nice may not reach their full potential. Fierce teams, the 414
AORN Journal
opposite of nice, tend to put the project ahead of the team, which can lead to productivity but at the expense of the team members themselves. The happy medium between being too nice and being too fierce is being bold. The bold team is composed of true team players who strive to reach a common goal and do so without negatively affecting the team. Finding the balance between the positive attributes of both the nice and the fierce teams is the key to becoming a good, effective, bold team. The result is a team that communicates effectively and honestly. The author describes the four main principles that are necessary to becoming a bold team: assume innocence, build a bridge, speak your truth, and invite dialogue. There is a great table in the book that describes how each principle is demonstrated in each type of team. In each of the three sections of the book, which refer to the team types, the chapters are organized similarly, starting with the myths surrounding the nine types of team players. The myths are followed by explanations of the way each of the nine personality types conforms to each type of team. Finally, each chapter ends with a summary, which is very useful because it is a quick reference that gives an overall view of the content of that chapter. An example of a nice team myth that seems to be present in the perioperative environment is “Nice teams only praise each other, and we do it often.” Especially with newer staff members, team members like to praise the person so he or she feels good. What the new person needs, however, is honest feedback about his or her performance. A physician or peer may compliment a new nurse when, honestly, the physician or peer believes that the new nurse could have done better. The truth related to this myth is that the praise is vague or insincere, and the person may be talked about negatively behind his or her back. The author also gives examples of each type of team player in each type of team and notes that each type of player will demonstrate behavior related to his or her motives. These motives lead
REVIEWS to different actions in the team. For example, perfectionist team players have very high expectations for themselves and their teams. The performance standard of “good enough” is not acceptable for perfectionists, who always strive for excellence. Possible motives for perfectionists’ actions can include trying to achieve their high standards, an inability to accept being wrong, and wanting to champion the standards they believe their entire team should be demonstrating. These motives may lead perfectionists to be the team leader for projects so they have more control over the outcomes. This may also lead to criticism and judgment of others who may not perform up to perfectionists’ standards. Through team interaction, each team player will demonstrate his or her role in the team. When team members interact, they begin team development. The authors describe team development through four stages: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Any team development must start with its formation, where team member and leader roles are identified. In the storming stage, ideas about how to accomplish the team’s goal are identified. Norming occurs when the team members work together to accomplish the team’s goal. Performing is when the team becomes effective without conflict. The author states that this book is not a tool to teach how to lead, resolve conflict, or fix one’s team; however, the book gives readers the tools they need to help create a positive team with good interactions that use constructive feedback. In any team, all members need to listen and speak honestly because open and honest communication is essential to becoming a productive team. Strategies that are identified in the appendix are good tools for managers, team members, and any team leader to use in identifying ways for the
www.aornjournal.org
team members to work together effectively. For example, the role type questionnaire makes it easy to figure out which role type fits a person. The role type questionnaire is very useful for any team, especially a perioperative team that works closely together. Sometimes perioperative team members work so closely with one another that they may forget how different they are in the ways they relate to each other. Using the role identifier questionnaire would be a great way for perioperative team members to interact and have a better understanding of their own and their teammates’ motives and actions. This book provides a good overview of how all team members interact related to their roles in a team. The role descriptions and corresponding behaviors help explain why some teams are unable to reach their full potential. The examples of role-playing for different situations can help teams become more efficient. There are many situations in the perioperative setting in which it is difficult to address certain behaviors because of time constraints. The use of roleplaying is a great tool for teams to use in staff meetings to better understand actions and motives in a group setting with lots of input from team members. Anyone who is seeking a more productive result from his or her team’s work will benefit from this book. Specifically, team leaders or those responsible for creating teams would benefit from the book and the different questionnaires and role-playing games that are described in the appendix. DAWN WHITESIDE BSN, RN, CNOR CLINICAL COORDINATOR, CARDIAC SURGERY MERCY GENERAL HOSPITAL SACRAMENTO, CA doi: 10.1016/j.aorn.2010.09.017
The authors of this column have no declared affiliations that could be perceived as posing potential conflicts of interest in the publication of this article.
AORN Journal
415