Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Summer 2023 - FASS 206 D100

STT-Creating Effective Teams (1)

Class Number: 4716

Delivery Method: In Person

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    May 8 – Jun 19, 2023: Thu, 1:30–4:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

  • Prerequisites:

    15 units.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Explores how teams require a self-awareness, awareness of others and the ability to communicate expectations and norms. This course will use a selection of articles, tools and current events to develop an awareness of individual strengths, weaknesses and the impact on the team environment. Classes will be discussion and activity based.

COURSE DETAILS:

Working in groups is often a challenging experience, yet effective teamwork is more important than ever in the modern workforce. Whether you work in an office, lab, in the field or another type of facility, a key challenge is to figure out how can we work together. Employers are increasing the use of artificial intelligence and automation to eliminate individualistic tasks and jobs, meaning workers are increasingly required to collaborate and work on more complex tasks, whether it is in person or remotely.

These teams are often short term in nature, which leads to challenges in managing them and developing effective working relationships.  To be successful in this changing environment people are required to develop self-awareness, awareness of others and have the ability to communicate.

This course will use a selection of articles, tools and current events to develop an awareness of your individual strengths, weaknesses and the impact on the team environment. The SDI assessment will be used extensively in this respect.

Classes will be discussion and activity based, you are expected to actively participate in the discussion. Being prepared and actively participating is essential for success in this course. You will be working in small teams to apply and demonstrate the skills you develop in this course.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

  • Recognize, identify and explain individual strengths and the impact it has on the team environment.
  • Develop a team performance agreement to assess individual team member performance and explain the rational for the feedback.
  • Identify team conflict and apply strategies to take advantage of productive conflict and mitigate the negative effects of team conflict.
  • Analyze, critique and discuss behaviours in a team setting.

FASS 206 runs for 5 weeks (May 8-June 9). The first session is 1 hour, the rest of 4 sessions are 3 hours each. This is a 1 credit course.

Grading

  • Individual and Group Assignments 100%

NOTES:

This FASS Forward course is delivered entirely in-person. It is designed to improve your skills for future success and work in this class is expected to be of high quality. A competency-based grading system will be used to assess your academic performance and active participation in all learning activities. That means only a P (pass) or F (fail) will appear on your transcript. There is no numerical equivalent for the final grade, and it does not affect either your grade point average or cumulative grade point average.

  • P (pass) means that you have demonstrated your competency in relation to the learning objectives, met all the criteria for the course, and demonstrated the skills you have acquired.
  • F (fail) means that you do not receive credit for the course.

REQUIREMENTS:

All assignments are required to be submitted to canvas. If a paper copy is required, it will be written on the assignment page. Please pay carful attention to the format, the instructor will not be requesting you to resubmit in the correct format. If the canvas site is down, the assignment must be submitted by email to the instructor no later than the set deadline and the assignment must be submitted to canvas when it is operational again.

Submissions will be done using Microsoft Office software (.doc/.docx, .xls/.xlsx, .ppt/.pptx, etc…), unless otherwise specified. Assignments submitted in other formats may be penalized and/or awarded a 0 grade if it can not be opened or accessed. Google docs and proprietary formats (eg. .pages) are not acceptable.

Late Assignments - All assignments must be submitted by 11:55pm (PST) the day before the class they are due (eg. assignments due for class on June 10, would be submitted by 11:55pm on June 9). Failure to submit an assignment or being frequently late may result in an incomplete grade for the course. If you are more than 7 days late, the assignment will be marked as incomplete. Please remember to keep multiple copies and backups. The dog, google, dropbox ate it/crashed, are not acceptable reasons for being late.

All assignments will be submitted to the Canvas website, where submission time is recorded. If the canvas site is down, the assignment must be submitted by email to the instructor no later than the set deadline and you will need to upload to canvas when the site is active again.

Not completing the SDI assessment will result in an “N” grade for the course.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Strengths Deployment Inventory (SDI)  https://corestrengths.com/

Cost: approximately $70 CAD + payment processing fee if applicable. Instructor will provide link in first class to purchase and complete. This mandatory purchase is for an online assessment tool that will be used extensively throughout the course. FASS is providing students with access at a cost recovery basis. Students receive access to the program once the course starts and the instructor sends out an email invitation (servers are located in Canada). Matt Martell is a certified facilitator in using this assessment tool and there is no open or publicly available method for purchasing this required item.

Equipment

Students must have access to the internet as well as a computer and/other device that permits word processing and the use of other standard computer applications.

REQUIRED READING:

All reading material will be available online through the SFU Library or on Canvas as PDFs. Course readings include, and are not limited to, the following or excerpts from the following:

Teams That Work: The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness (selected chapters), Tannenbaum, Scott; Salas, Eduardo

Better Collaboration? Watch out for the Team Tyrants, Diamond, Julie

Radical Collaboration (Chapter 3), Tamm & Luyet

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the semester are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.