Use These Steps to Develop Norms for Your Group

Use These Steps to Develop Norms for Your GroupUse These Steps to Develop Norms for Your GroupGroup norms governing how gruppe members interact with each other and the teams mission help teams be mora effective. Rather than let norms naturally develop, consciously determine the kinds of rules, guidelines, and norms for team members to follow. How to Develop Team Norms The group members collectively establish team norms through a process of brainstorming and refining the ideas. Form and charter a team with a project, process improvement, or product development task, or pull together an existing workgroup.Have all members learn about the group and team norms to understand the concept. Start with reading a worksheet on how to create team norms prior to the meeting.Schedule and hold a meeting to establish and adopt group relationship guidelines or group norms. All members of the team or workgroup must be present at the meeting so that all group members own the resultant group norms. With an external facilitator leading, ask all group members to brainstorm a list of guidelines that will help create an effective team. If a facilitator is not available, ask a member of the group to lead the session.Remember that in a true brainstorming session, the more ideas generated the better. Do not comment on or critique the ideas. Simply ask a group member to record them on a flip chart or whiteboard where the whole group can see them.Once the group generates the list of group norms, cross off redundant ideas. You can decide to keep all of the group norms generated, or through discussion, you can determine the group norms you wish to keep and support as a group.There is no recommended number of group norms, and you can add new group norms over time if the group experiences the need for more guidelines.Keep in mind that all group behavior cannot, and should not, be legislated. Focus attention on the most important areas of interaction, such as effective conflict resolution m ethods, open communication, and all members participating, keeping commitments, and taking responsibility.It is also useful to determine how the team will communicate with people who are not members of the group. Respect and integrity are also essential elements in group norms. Each member of the group commits to living the guidelines. They also commit to telling each other if they believe that a group member is violating an agreed-upon group norm. They agree to be upfront with the involved party and not to gossip or complain behind her back.Following the meeting, distribute the group norms to all team members. Post the group norms in the teams meeting room. Make sure that every member has a copy.Periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the group in achieving its business goals as well as its members relationship goals. Additional Tips for Developing Norms Team norms should be in writing and regularly reviewed. All members of a workgroup must be present. if they are not, post pone the session.Record the agreed-upon group norms.Evaluate, at least monthly, whether the group is following the norms.Periodically determine whether the group needs additional guidelines to make their work together even more effective. Are they experiencing problems they need to discuss and agree upon?Keep in mind that every group develops norms over time. Your goal is to make sure that the norms your group has are the ones it needs for success.

Growing Human Organs in Space

Growing Human Organs in Space Growing Human Organs in Space As part of its Centennial Challenges program, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), partnering with the nonprofit Methuselah Foundation, is encouraging advancements in bioengineering, specifically in organ and tissue preservation, both to benefit human disease research and NASAs journey to Mars.The Vascular Tissue Challenge, announced in June, includes a $500,000 prize to be divided among the first three teams to create vascularized tissue that is mora than .39 inches (1 centimeter) in thickness and maintains more than 85 percent survival of required cells throughout 30-day trial periods. Teams are also required to prepare a proposal about how they could advance their work through a microgravity experiment. The competition is being administered by Methuselahs New Organ Alliance (NOA), a nonprofit focused on regenerative medicine research and development.The hope is that vascularized tissue created can be used to study deep space environmental effects, such as radiation, and to lead to solutions to minimize damage to healthy cells without exposing humans. Thats in addition to having tissue to help develop organ models for research and other therapeutic applications on Earth.Part of the challenge is based on the hypothesis that growing tissue of major organs will be easier in microgravity in deep space because on Earth, gravity compresses the tissue and vessels, explains Monsi C. Roman, Challenge program manager. If true, This is the dreaming stage about the future, she adds. The idea is that growing and testing engineered tissue could become big business conducted in deep space for private industry.A 3D bioprinter. Image Methuselah FoundationTissue EngineeringOne team, which has submitted an intent to compete form is from Rice University, where Jordan Miller, assistant professor of bioengineering, will lead the team. He has been working on lung tissue engineering for a couple of year s.One reason we are excited about the challenge is because we share a lot of the vision that the challenge has elaborated, Miller says. Just the fact that more people will be working in this area...is going to lead to some major advances.He notes that compared to work with tissue that doesnt havevasculature, such as cartilage and the cornea, the complicated architectures of vascular networks of the lungs, liver, and kidneys are very hard to make. Although all kinds of branched networks are common in nature, scientists and the engineering community lack the tools to efficiently engineer highly branched, complex networks, he says.His team thus far has been focusing on the topology of the lung that can be described as two complex independent branched networks of airways and blood vessels next to each other. They are never connected directly in order to prevent blood from entering the airways and, likewise, air into the bloodstream. You just need to get oxygen across the gap between the m, says Miller. Our central goal is to engineer multiple vessel networks, one for air and one for blood, in a fixed volume and try to get the distance between them small enough that we can get oxygenation of the blood by air in the other network.The plan is to make engineered tissues in the lab out of huge numbers of cells, potentially in the billions of cells per tissue, way beyond the scale of human organs. From an engineering perspective, we can expect this will increase the complexity of the vasculature and improve the wertmiger zuwachs of the tissue, but that remains to be tested, he says.Printing a lattice of would-be blood vessels with an open-source 3D printer. Image Rice University3D Printing TissuesWhile the team is looking at 3D stereolithography to fabricate the tissue and is building its own printers, Miller noted that the scaffolding fabricated would also need to incorporate functioning organ cells because We dont know how to make a plastic or metal that can for the li ver, for example metabolize nutrients and toxins like the liver can.While the challenges may seem daunting, he expects some of the biggest are not even known yet. We are definitely dealing with unknown unknowns in regenerative medicine for some of unterstellung very complicated organs, Miller says.Some of the issues already realized include how much of the structure can be packed into as small a volume as possible. The surface area of the airway is extremely large. We estimate it as big as a football field in your chest, says Miller. Another is that processes and tools need to be re-developed to get accurate readouts of engineered tissue, and then theres the issue of compatibility of blood with various chemicals and materials so that the blood doesnt clot.NASAs challenge is part of a much broader initiative aimed at improving outcomes for individuals waiting for organ transplants. At a White House Organ Summit earlier this year, it was announced that almost $200 million was being in vested by government, private industry and non-profits to facilitate breakthrough research and development. Among others announced was a related prize by the government-funded Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, which manages the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory. This competition offers one challenge entrant the opportunity to conduct research in microgravity conditions. The prize is up to $200,000 in flight integration support costs, along with transportation to the Space Station Lab, support on the station and return of experimental samples to Earth.The challenge program, started in 2005, involves project-specific competitions for monetary prizes to induce non-government funded advancements in technology development. Our charge is to help contribute to our journey to Mars. Its about inviting everybody who has something to contribute, says Roman.Nancy S. Giges is an independent writer. We are definitely dealing with unknown unknowns in regenerative m edicine for some of these very complicated organs.Prof. Jordan Miller, Rice University

Tips for Employers About Alcohol at Company Events

Tips for Employers About Alcohol at Company EventsTips for Employers About Alcohol at Company EventsDo you provide alcohol beer, wine, or spirits, for employees to drink at work-related darbietungs? If so, youve probably spent time thinking about whether this is a good practice. You want your employees to enjoy their work-related events and parties, but you also want to keep your employees safe. Be Responsible You need to minimize the legal liability of your organization yet leid let legal worries dictate your relationship with your employees. A holiday party is not the only event where an employee may face the question of decidingwhether to drink or not at business events employers plan all sorts of events that serve alcohol. The bottom line is making the decision about what and how much before arriving at the party. Whether your event is a company milestone or birthday, an employees retirement party, or a holiday event, use these tips to plan an alcohol safe event. Emphasize Company Culture Talk about your company culture with employees emphasizing that drinking to excess is unacceptable during company events. Include alcohol usage guidance in your company code of conduct. For instance, it should never be OK for employees and applicants to drink alcohol during a job interview. Drinking at lunch job interviews should also be discouraged. You need to assess the applicants fit with your organization without the influence of alcohol. And, if youre considering drinking with a client or customer, drink only if the client is drinking, and the recommended limit in a client or customer meeting is one glass of wine or a beer. Dont Make Alcohol the Focus of Work Events Offer a variety of interesting, non-alcoholic beverages, to remove the emphasis from alcohol. And never make drinking, or eating, for that matter, the main focus of any event. Always make entertainment, speeches, presentations, company logo items to purchase with points earned, games, dancing and/or activities for employees to participate in, the main focus of any company team building events. Consider serving just beer and wine, and no liquor. Avoid serving drinks such as fruit punch that limit an employees ability to assess how much alcohol they are drinking. Put Restrictions on How Much Is Available Limit the number of drinks the company provides by using drink tickets or another informal method of tracking the amount of alcohol served. If you want to limit alcohol consumption, consider stamping an employees hand in exchange for each drink you will want to limit the number of stamps an employee can receive. Limit the number of hours that the bar is open. Close the bar during dinner and at a reasonable time to signal the drawing to a close and ending of the event. You might also consider holding the event directly after work so employees party from 5 p.m. - 9 p.m. for example. Use trained bartenders to serve alcohol never allow employees to serve coworkers or thems elves. Never provide a help-yourself beverage bar that includes alcohol. Make sure your bartenders are clear that they are not to serve alcohol to any person who appears to be inebriated. Bartenders must card these employees just as if they were attempting to order booze in a local tavern. Pay for the event, the food, non-alcoholic drinks, and entertainment, but provide a cash bar for employees. When employees have to purchase their own drinks, they drink less. Hold Alcohol-Free Work Events Nix alcohol except for beer and wine at company events that include children. For example, one company stopped serving liquor at work events that included families when several irresponsible employees started drinking shots in front of other employees children. It was the last straw. Provide a late night snack buffet before employees hit the road to end a company event. It doesnt have to be elaborate tacos, sloppy joes, hot dogs, popcorn, cold cuts, cheese and crackers, coffee, and soft drink s provide a focus for employees other than alcoholic beverages. Prepare for (Some) Overindulgence Recruit your managers and event planning committee members, in advance, to keep their eyes open for employees who may be overindulging. Offer the employee a ride home, call a cab, or make certain that a designated non-drinking driver takes the wheel. Pay for cabs to sit outside your event in case an employee is advised or decides that he or she cannot drive safely. Or schedule the event at a location that offers easy access to public transportation. Be Sure Youre Covered Legally Take a look at your company insurances to determine whether you have the appropriate coverage that allows you to serve alcohol at company events You may also want to consider asking employees to review and sign a document that provides company alcoholic beverage guidelines, and that informs employees they are liable for their behavior at company-sponsored events. Make the document clear that employees ca n expect punishment for over-imbibing or poor interpersonal behavior up to and including employment termination. You can do this as employees RSVP for the work event. Alcohol can be a festive addition to a company event, but at company events, as in your workplace, employee safety is your top concern.