CQIA Team Dynamics 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: During the 'storming' stage of team development, what is the most effective leadership approach?
- Avoid intervening and let the team self-resolve
- Provide strong direction and mediate conflicts constructively (Correct answer)
- Replace conflicting members immediately
- Revert to the forming stage and restart the process
Correct answer: Provide strong direction and mediate conflicts constructively
During storming, leaders must actively mediate conflicts and provide clear direction to help the team move forward productively.
Question 2: A quality improvement team has been unable to reach consensus on a solution after multiple meetings. Which technique is BEST to resolve this stalemate?
- Majority vote to save time
- Multivoting to narrow down options democratically (Correct answer)
- Having the team leader decide unilaterally
- Postponing the decision indefinitely
Correct answer: Multivoting to narrow down options democratically
Multivoting allows the team to reduce a large list of options to a manageable few through successive rounds of voting, building toward consensus.
Question 3: Which team role is MOST responsible for ensuring meetings stay on track and time-boxed?
- Scribe
- Timekeeper (Correct answer)
- Champion
- Process owner
Correct answer: Timekeeper
The timekeeper monitors the clock and alerts the team when allotted time for agenda items is running out.
Question 4: What is the primary purpose of establishing ground rules at the start of a quality improvement team?
- To assign blame when quality targets are missed
- To create shared behavioral expectations that guide team interactions (Correct answer)
- To define the project scope and deliverables
- To document individual performance standards
Correct answer: To create shared behavioral expectations that guide team interactions
Ground rules set mutual behavioral expectations that help the team function cohesively and resolve disputes consistently.
Question 5: In a cross-functional quality team, a member repeatedly misses deadlines, affecting the whole group. The FIRST step the team leader should take is:
- Escalate to the member's supervisor immediately
- Reassign the member's tasks to others
- Have a private, direct conversation with the member to understand the barrier (Correct answer)
- Document the behavior in the team charter
Correct answer: Have a private, direct conversation with the member to understand the barrier
Addressing performance issues privately and directly first respects the individual and often uncovers fixable barriers before escalation is needed.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the role of a team 'champion' in a quality improvement project?
- Facilitates all team meetings and records minutes
- Removes organizational barriers and provides resources for the team (Correct answer)
- Generates the most ideas during brainstorming sessions
- Implements the quality improvement solution on the production floor
Correct answer: Removes organizational barriers and provides resources for the team
A champion is typically a senior leader who sponsors the team, secures resources, and removes organizational obstacles.
Question 7: A team member proposes an idea that the rest of the group dismisses without discussion. This is an example of:
- Healthy debate
- Groupthink in action (Correct answer)
- Effective consensus building
- Appropriate scope management
Correct answer: Groupthink in action
Groupthink occurs when the desire for harmony causes the team to suppress dissenting ideas without proper evaluation.
CQIA Team Dynamics 2
During the 'storming' stage of team development, what is the most effective leadership approach?