2. .
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Contents .
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Team Building ..................................................................................................1
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Purpose .....................................................................................................1
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Introduction ................................................................................................1
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Ideas for Team Building.............................................................................3
Outdoor/indoor pursuits .............................................................................3
Workshops.................................................................................................3
Social events .............................................................................................4
Charitable work..........................................................................................4
Changes to work practices ........................................................................4
Training and Development ........................................................................5
Summary ...................................................................................................5
Team Learning Reviews - Introduction......................................................5
The Learning Organization ........................................................................5
What is Team Learning? ...........................................................................6
Questioning................................................................................................6
Valuing Diversity ........................................................................................8
Communicating........................................................................................10
Learning Review ......................................................................................11
Conclusion ...............................................................................................11
Team Communication -What does it take? .............................................12
Overview..................................................................................................12
Why communication is important & necessary…....................................12
Characteristics of Open Communication.................................................13
Guidelines to Team Communication .......................................................14
Responsibilities of Team Members .........................................................14
Appendix – Definitions & Resources .............................................................20
Resources................................................................................................20
Definitions ................................................................................................21
2
3. Team Building
Week1 – Day 3
Purpose
The purpose of this lecture is to present the importance of teambuilding and
developing a team.
Introduction
Competencies emerged in the 1980s as a response to organisational changes
and to wider changes in society. In 1982 the US academic, Richard Boyatzis
wrote “The competent manager: a model for effective performance”. This book
proved to have considerable influence on the profession and, over the following
two decades, competency frameworks became an increasingly accepted part of
modern HR practice.
The use of competencies was featured as a special area of investigation in our
2007 Learning and development survey.
ARE You An 'Emotionally Intelligent' Leader Or A Dimwit?
Posted by Marianne Kolbasuk McGee, Jul 2, 2008 02:40 PM
Recession or no recession, dot-com boom or bust, bull or bear market, it doesn't seem to
matter. For as long as I've been covering tech career trends (about 15 years,) employers
have complained about shortages of IT professionals who have the right balance of "people
skills" and tech-skills du jour. However, now there's a new skill shortage developing--a
scarcity of "emotionally intelligent" IT leaders. Have you tapped into your emotional intelligence today?
In case you missed it, the term "emotional intelligence" first popped up on book shelves and
newsstands in 1995 with the release of Daniel Goleman's book called, well, Emotional Intelligence
(Bantam Books).
That tome, and a number of follow-up books and articles, outlined how one's ability (or inability) to
identify and understand one's own emotions--and those of others--influences that person's knack for
leading, motivating or alienating others.
4. For instance, like on deadline day when your multi-million dollar IT project is due to go live, and your
team has been working weeks of 18-hour days to fix a big glitch, but then Joe, VP of marketing, walks
by your office asking if you can help him program his new iPhone--do you:
a) Bite your tongue and help Joe
b) Hastily pawn off Joe to one of your frazzled staff
c) Tell Joe to get lost
d) Ask Joe how he's feeling
Even if you haven't read the book (which I admittedly haven't,) you get the idea. Recognizing, for
instance, when you--or others--are about to pop, but knowing how to tap and channel those emotions
for a more productive (and civil) outcome are admirable and useful skills for anyone, but especially
leaders.
Ok, Goleman's book came out 13 years ago. So why is emotional intelligence suddenly so important
(and apparently in shortage) for IT leaders now? Surely, there have always been shortages of
"emotionally intelligent" leaders of all kinds--from executives to politicians, teachers to camp counselors-
-even before the book was published. (How did Noah coax the mules onto that ark, anyhow?)
The problem now, however, is that there's a new melting pot of generation gaps stewing in today's
workplace. You've probably heard that too. Baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Millenials--everyone is trying
to work together like one big, happy, dysfunctional family.
However, you've probably also heard (or maybe even participated in) examples of how grumpy Baby
Boomer managers don't have a clue (or the patience) to motivate coddled Millenials, the 20-somethings
who grew up in the self-esteem-aware era where everyone's a winner.
Those same newbies also have a penchant for making the world greener, balancing life and work, and
are "very goal and metric driven," says Shelly Funderburg, a VP at Right Management, the human
capital consulting services arm of staffing firm Manpower.
So, as a leader, knowing how to tap into what makes those youngsters (as well as the old timers) tick--
and learning how to modify your style to cultivate the very best work out of these people (and retain
those employees), well, that's a big ingredient in the recipe for success for your own career, as well as
your organization, Funderburg says.
Emotional intelligence skills are sort of a next level in "soft-skills," or interpersonal, communication skills,
she says. "It boils down to how the emotion is infused in interpersonal relationships, how do you
communicate when you or others are under stress," she says.
"There's a lot of change happening in the workplace, higher levels of stress," says Funderburg, whose
company offers coaching for leaders to develop emotional intelligence skills.
"Everyone is different, people derail for different reasons," she says. Coaching can help individuals
diagnose what's likely to derail them, and how to develop a "toolkit" to deal with that--as well as
effectively lead and motivate others in challenging, stressful situations.
A recent Right Management survey of 656 HR managers in North America found that only 23% of
organizations provide new leaders (or those individuals who recently advanced to supervising others)
with any sort of coaching to assist their development in that career transition. That's where the potential
shortage of emotionally intelligent IT leaders of the future comes in.
2
5. How's your emotional intelligence coming along?
Ideas for Team Building
There are many different types of team building activities that you can consider
doing in your team, falling into the categories of:
Outdoor/Indoor Pursuits
Workshops
Social Events
Community Service or Charitable Work
Changes to Work Practices
Individual Training/Development
Outdoor/indoor pursuits
There are a wide variety of pursuits available, from conventional ones such as
canoeing or rock climbing, to more unusual ones, such as blind-four-wheel-
driving or sheep-driving. We can't list them all here, because there are so many,
but there is a selection on our outdoor team building activities page. These
pursuits are often expensive (typically starting in excess of �100/person).
If physical activity is a problem for some members of the group, then there are
some outdoor pursuits that are less active, such as:
treasure hunt
making a video
hot air ballooning
cooking
If those are too active, you could then try indoor pursuits, such as:
10-pin bowling
Quasar
Casino games
Workshops
Workshops (preferably offsite) enables a group to focus on a particular topic
without interruption.
In many situations, the most effective type of workshop is one that involves
everyone in forming collective goals or developing strategic or tactical plans. This
engenders ownership amongst all members, and is one of the most powerful
team building activities you can use.
Other types of workshops can help to develop better relationships, mutual
understanding or solve particular business issues:
3
6. Group games and exercises (that have learning points)
Psychometrics or personality questionnaires (to develop better
interpersonal understanding)
Business problem solving, or information exchange
Customer interaction forums (eg: ask customers to provide feedback on
the service, or what they want from you in the future
Technology exchange (invite leading figures from the industry to present
their vision of the future)
Social events
These are often the most cost-effective form of team building activities, because
they are low cost and high impact. It is often important to make sure that people
mixes, especially with larger groups, otherwise people just stick with their friends.
Here are some ideas for social events:
Lunchtime drink
Evening meal/BBQ
Family picnic
Quiz nights
Social events can be organised for very little cost and are like the oil in an
engine: they can help keep the heat down and things running smoothly.
Charitable work
Why not choose to do something that has a benefit to the community? Achieving
something worthwhile can help to unite the group even more, providing it is not
too difficult a task and does not create too much pressure.
Changes to work practices
Having a day offsite or doing something that is fun may have a short term impact,
but to improve communication, co-operation, etc. in the long term, you may need
to introduce new work practices, such as:
Team meetings/Cascade briefings
Job swapping
Team newsletter (for larger teams)
Open door policy
MBWA (Management By Walk About), for all staff, not just management
4
7. Training and Development
It can be beneficial to combine team building activities with individual training.
That is, the group receives training, but does so as a group. This has the dual
benefit of developing the individuals whilst going through the experience
collectively.
Such courses could include:
Communications
Persuasion
Negotiation
Technical training
Summary
Some of the options we have outlined above are very effective and don't cost a
lot of money. Social events are particularly valuable because they can be
arranged to suit most people's diaries/tastes, are relatively cheap, and have a big
impact. However, the best approach is often to have a "mixed portfolio" and do
something in all the above areas.
Team Learning Reviews - Introduction
Many organizations have tried to focus on teams. Self-managed teams offer the
potential for downsizing organizations and the prospect of improving productivity.
How many organizations can claim to have really succeeded in their attempt?
Meeting people from all around the world, I hear the same comment, "Oh, teams,
yes we tried that but it didn't work."
It is not possible to wave a magic wand and create a high-performing, self-
managed team overnight. A self-managed team needs to develop a culture of
lifelong, individual and team learning.
The Learning Organization
A 'buzz' word often talked about is The Learning Organization. This concept is
the synthesis of a number of ideas about managerial learning brought together
and popularized by Peter Senge and others in their books about the Fifth
Discipline. Five disciplines comprise the learning organization concept.
They are:
Systems Thinking
Personal Mastery
Mental Models
Shared Vision
5
8. Team Learning
Many people I talk with are impressed by these five disciplines and want to
introduce them to their organization 'overnight'. The question they always ask me
is, 'Where do I start?'
My answer is, 'Start with Team Learning. It is a process you can commence
tomorrow and it just may help you prevent your self-managed team strategy from
failing.'
What is Team Learning?
Team Learning is an adaptation of action-learning originally proposed in the UK
by Reg Revans many years ago and recently rediscovered by organizational
development consultants in the USA. It focuses on providing solutions to
business problems by developing an open approach to questioning. As Reg
Revans himself once said, "The mark of a leader is not the answers he gives but
the questions he asks." The business world is changing at such a pace that the
solutions to problems are not found in books or journals, nor in the mind of 'the
expert'. They are found by team members themselves, who, through the process
of Team Learning, identify the key questions to be addressed. They then seek to
use their resources to find the answers, often through trial and error.
The concepts of Team Learning can be broken down into four key components:
1. Questioning
2. Valuing Diversity
3. Communicating
4. Learning Review
Questioning
When faced with a problem, a new project or an opportunity, it is a good idea to
focus on the nine key success factors which make the difference between a high-
performing team and a low-performing team. These factors are arranged in a
model of team tasks, known as the Types of Work Wheel.
This Wheel describes nine essential team activities as:
Advising - Gathering and reporting information
Innovating - Creating and experimenting with ideas
Promoting - Exploring and presenting opportunities
Developing - Assessing and testing the applicability of new approaches
Organizing - Establishing and implementing ways of making things work
Producing - Concluding and delivering outputs
Inspecting - Controlling and auditing the working of systems
Maintaining - Upholding and safeguarding standards and processes
Linking - Coordinating and integrating the work of others
These factors form the basis for a methodology of questioning.
6
9. When faced with a difficult problem, the starting point for team discussion is
advising. What information do we need? Why? Where will we get it? Who will get
it? When do we need it? How will we get it? This ensures that all currently
available data is gathered for consideration.
The Innovating sector ensures that the team will spend time discussing ideas
around the problems being faced. Most successful innovating sessions follow a
procedure designed to ensure an open and diverging discussion. Such sessions
should be free from any commitment to make a decision. That comes later.
Promoting has two aspects to it. Each team member needs to learn how to
present ideas and solutions in a way that will influence other team members.
Equally important is a focus on the key stakeholders outside the team. Who
outside the team needs to be persuaded if the idea is to proceed?
Many ideas are impracticable and can never be implemented, due to
organizational and cultural constraints. Developing sessions focus on which
ideas are likely to work and how can they be tested for verification.
Organizing is action-oriented and ensures that the team will implement agreed
solutions and assign accountabilities and responsibilities. It is predictably
coloured red - the colour of action.
Producing addresses the output aspects of any decision. What are we
producing? To what quality levels? To what standards? When? Producing
defines the bottom-line on which many teams are evaluated.
How many ideas fail because the detailed aspects were not thought through?
Unforeseen contractual problems arise, financial difficulties occur, security issues
eventuate, computer errors appear. Many of these Inspecting problems can be
eliminated by focusing discussion on this aqua-blue aspect of work. Blue is the
colour of cool, clear, detailed thinking.
Maintaining the agreed decisions and the team processes will ensure that the
team stays together and learns together. Your car will fail if it doesn't have a
regular 10,000km service. Your team will fail if it is not maintained. Maintenance
involves regularly reviewing mistakes in a non-recriminatory way and establishing
guidelines to prevent them from reoccurring.
Linking is in the middle of the model because it is a shared responsibility of every
team member. Each person working on a team task must undertake to link with
other team members so that everyone is fully informed.
This model should be the basis for any Team Learning processes established in
your organization. It provides a structure and a language to ensure that the
essential activities for excellence in teamwork are continually implemented.
7
10. Many successful learning teams structure their meetings into four basic sessions,
rather than attempting to cover everything in one sitting. Green meetings focus
on information; yellow meetings concentrate on opportunities, red meetings
implement plans and blue meetings check details and review progress.
Valuing Diversity
Diversity of thinking is one of the hallmarks of learning teams. Problems need to
be viewed from different angles if the best solutions are to be generated. If
everyone looks at problems in the same way then group think can occur. If
diversity is allowed and encouraged, then better solutions will result.
However the downside of diversity is conflict. Different viewpoints will inevitably
lead to disagreement and it is only the committed learning team that can use the
diversity of views in a positive way.
Many of the work content issues of diversity can be addressed through a
preference model like the Team Management Wheel. This model highlights the
different ways that team members like to approach work situations. The model is
summarized below:
Reporter-Advisers enjoy gathering information and putting it together in a
way that makes it easily understood. Usually they are patient people who
prefer to have all the information before they take action.
Creator-Innovators enjoy thinking up new ideas and new ways of doing
things. Usually they are very independent and will pursue their ideas
regardless of existing systems and methods.
Explorer-Promoters like to take ideas and promote them to others, both
inside and outside the organization. They are often advocates of change
and are highly energized, active people who like to have several projects
on the go at once.
Assessor-Developers usually display a strong analytical approach and are
at their best where several different possibilities need to be analyzed and
developed. They are often sociable, outgoing people who enjoy looking for
new markets or opportunities.
Thruster-Organizers are people who enjoy making things happen. They
are analytical decision-makers, always doing what is best for the task,
even if their actions sometimes upset others. Their great ability is to get
things done, and for this reason they are often found working in project
management positions.
Concluder-Producers are practical people who can be counted on to carry
things through to the end. Their strength is in setting up plans and
8
11. standard systems so that outputs can be achieved on a regular basis, in
an orderly and controlled fashion.
Controller-Inspectors are quiet, reflective people who enjoy the detailed
side of work, such as dealing with facts and figures. They are usually
careful and meticulous and can spend long periods of time on a particular
task, working quietly on their own.
Upholder-Maintainers are people with strong personal values and
principles which are of prime importance in their decision-making. Usually
they have a high concern for people and will be strongly supportive of
those who share the same ideals and values as they do.
The Linker role is a shared role that is held in conjunction with the other
roles. It comprises key skills focusing on the linking of people, linking of
tasks and leadership linking.
It is immediately obvious that this model is related to the Types of Work Wheel.
Someone with a preference towards being a Reporter-Adviser will most likely
enjoy Advising work and can be assigned responsibility for the information
processes. Someone with a preference to be a Thruster-Organizer will most
likely prefer to work in the sharp end of the team, organizing and making things
happen.
The Wheel highlights the diversity problem in a team. The Explorer-Promoter, for
example, will look at situations totally differently to a Controller-Inspector, which
may cause frustration or conflict.
However, once team members understand their individual work preferences, they
have a language for discussing potential problems that might occur. It helps
everyone understand, for example, why the Thruster-Organizers in the team may
get impatient when too much time is spent in green or yellow meetings.
Team Management Wheel role preferences are measured by the Team
Management Profile Questionnaire - a 60 item profile questionnaire focusing on
Relationships, Information, Decision-Making, and Organization. Feedback is a
4000 word report on individual work patterns.
9
12. Communicating
Communication is the essential process that links a team together. In Senge's
books the authors talk about dialog or skillful discussion. In Team Management
Systems, we prefer to talk about the seven key influencing skills that ensure
team processes are at an optimum.
The Strategic Communication Model can help achieve this.
Pacing, Inquiry and Identifying are shown on the model as Information-Focused
skills while Leading, Proposing and Closure are Solution-Focused skills as they
are commonly used to move discussions towards solutions. Reviewing is in the
middle as it can be used in either situation. Communicating within the team
learning discipline is a dynamic process which constantly moves through all
seven skills.
Pacing is the technique of varying your communication style to match that
of other people. When dealing with a Controller-Inspector, for example,
you may need to focus on the details, slow down your rate of speaking
and make the connections between the past and the future. With an
Explorer-Promoter you need to be future oriented, enthusiastic and full of
ideas. Pacing establishes a rapport with the other person, enabling an
open and honest dialogue to take place.
Inquiry is listening carefully to what people are saying and asking
questions to fill in the gaps. Knowing when to use closed-ended inquiry or
open-ended inquiry and when to focus on the facts or the feelings are the
skills associated with this sector.
A joint Identifying of the root cause of a problem is essential before any
discussion on solutions is attempted. Many a team implements a solution
to the problem they think they have, rather than to the problem they
actually have!
When team discussions are complex and long, everyone will lose track of
the important points. Reviewing is therefore essential to ensure that
everyone has the same understanding.
10
13. Leading is one of the most critical solution-centered skills as it can focus
the conversation on the important issues. It is a process of transmitting
information in a way that leads people to talk about possible solutions
rather than your imposing solutions upon them. Leading can be done
overtly (simple leading) or covertly (complex leading) and can involve
advanced techniques like storytelling.
Proposing involves presenting possible solutions as a choice of options.
The number of choices will often depend upon the various role
preferences of the team.
Closure is where the conversation is brought to an end, or 'closed', with an
agreed action between the two conversing parties.
Learning Review
Learning is an iterative process that takes place through feedback. We are all
used to performance reviews and individual feedback, but rarely do we
experience team feedback.
At the end of each team meeting (or at the start of the next), it is a good idea to
review how the meeting went. Was the questioning process adequate? Did we
value diversity? How well did we communicate?
If conflicts did arise in the meeting everyone should be encouraged to personally
review what went on. A useful technique here is the three position process.
Review how the interaction seemed from your position, replaying the scene with
dialog. Now transpose yourself into the body of the other person, listening and
feeling the interaction from their perspective. Finally 'zoom' out and take a
position outside the group and observe the interaction from a distance. Notice
how it would seem and feel to an observer. These three positions will give you
valuable information on how the discussion should have perhaps gone.
Conclusion
Team Learning is fundamental to the performance of a team. Without it, a team
can never achieve its potential. Team members can attend strategic planning
11
14. sessions, learn techniques of quality assurance or learn how to run a meeting,
but unless the principles of Team Learning are fully implemented, improvements
will be short-lived.
Team Communication -What does it take?
Overview
Why it is important & necessary
Creating Team Communication
Characteristics of Open Communication
Guidelines to Team Communication
Responsibilities of Team Members
Getting Your Message Across
Other issues
Tools
Questions
Why communication is important & necessary…
In a team you are ALL working towards a same goal.
You need to define and ensure that the goal is shared by all the members.
If there are questions/issues about the goal those need to be resolved
quickly in order for the team to move forward.
12
15. When decisions need to be made the team has to be made aware of the
decision that is at hand.
EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE ON BOARD
If communication keeps the team members informed, therefore a team
working towards the same goal can be more effective and efficient.
Information is shared within team.
Team members have knowledge
Knowledge is power
Sense of power gives members sense of belonging and dedication
Dedicated members will contribute more and feel valuable to the team.
Creating team communication
Ensure that goals are clearly defined.
Interaction is aimed at solving problems and achieving team goals.
Ensure team members trust each other by having open communication.
Characteristics of Open Communication
Members are encouraged to solicit input from others.
Disagreement is invited and dealt with as a vital part of making sound
decisions.
Team members share responsibility for communicating effectively.
13
16. Everyone is pro-active to understand team goals.
Guidelines to Team Communication
Be specific: include facts and details to avoid being vague
Be accurate: as much as possible be sure that the information you are
giving is true and reliable.
Be honest: be truthful with those you are communicating with and do not
use questionable information.
Be logical: make sure messages are easy to follow
Be complete: give all needed information in regards to your ideas.
Be concise: be brief- not unnecessarily wordy.
Be relevant: stay on task and give information that is needed.
Ask for feedback: have recipients give comments on information.
Responsibilities of Team Members
Open minded
Listen to what is being said
Give feedback to what is being said
Make sure all team members have a chance to communicate their ideas.
If decisions need to be made discuss pros and cons, and decide best
option for TEAM.
Take ownership for what you say.
Take responsibility for making sure you are heard and understood.
Use terminology and examples that your audience understands.
14
17. Be aware of body language.
Always work to maintain the trust and confidence of those with whom you
are communicating/working.
Getting Your Message Across
State the purpose of your message.
Communicate your message.
Listen to the response of others.
Clear up any misunderstandings.
Summarize and move to action.
Other Issues
Team members who are not participating: Ensure they know goal and are
on board towards working for the same goal
If there are other reasons why team member is not participating then try to
find out before team meets.
If argument is valid then convey message of understanding to team
without breaking confidence.
If message is not valid then try to find help through your peers, or other
people. Try to find ways of motivation for the team and ways team
member will feel motivated to participate.
Poor communication can lead to:
1. Wasted time and/or energy
2. Lack of trust
3. Misunderstandings
4. Deadlines are not met
15
18. 5. Lack of change for the better
Therefore make sure team is exercising good communication.
Tools
Recognize team members strengths and weaknesses
Open discussion
Response cards
Subgroup discussion
Partners
Fishbowl
Team Gutters
Stress exercise (stress demonstration, ice-breaker, and teambuilding)
This is a helpful and non-threatening way to show the effects of stress and
confusion, especially in teams, and by implication the effects of stress on
productivity, organisational performance and healthy working.
Ideally for teams of eight to ten people. Split larger groups into teams of 8-10 and
establish facilitation and review as appropriate, appointing and briefing facilitators
since each team requires facilitation.
You will need for each team about five balls of various sizes, compositions,
weights, shapes, etc., depending on team size and the team's ball-handling skills.
Five balls is probably adequate for most teams of eight people.
Using very different balls makes the exercise work better (for example a tennis
ball, a beach ball, a rugby ball, a ping-pong ball, etc - use your imagination).
Form each team into a circle.
16
19. The aim is to throw and catch the ball (each ball represents a work
task/objective) between team members - any order or direction.
The ball must be kept moving (the facilitator can equate this to the processing of
a task within the work situation).
Allow the team to develop their own methods/pattern for throwing the ball
between members if they find this helpful.
A dropped ball equates to a failed task (which the facilitator can equate to a
specific relevant objective). A held ball equates to a delayed task.
When the team can satisfactorily manage the first ball, the facilitator should then
introduce a second ball to be thrown and caught while the first ball remains in
circulation.
Equate the second ball to an additional task, or a typical work complication, like a
holiday, or an extra customer requirement.
Continue to introduce more balls one by one - not too fast - each time equating
them to work situations and complications.
Obviously before not too long the team is unable to manage all the balls, and
chaos ensues.
Avoid creating chaos too early by introducing too many balls too soon.
Allow the sense of increasing stress and confusion to build, according to the ball-
handling capability of the team. Introducing balls too quickly will not allow the
stress to build.
Points for review:
Relate the experiences of the game to the work situation, especially
effective team working and communications.
What does too much pressure and failure feel like?
Are these feelings the same for everyone?
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20. Do we know how others are feeling and can best deal with stress and
confusion, unless we ask?
How can we anticipate, manage and avoid these effects at work? (Not
easy, especially if the pressure is from above, which often it will be -
nevertheless understanding the causes and effects of stressful confusion is
the first step to resolving them).
What helps us handle these pressures and what makes things worse?
Relate this learning to work situations, and then to possible improvements
and changes.
Picture pieces game (teamwork, departmental/individual inputs towards a
common goal)
This exercise is a simple team-working idea, adaptable for any group size, and
any ages.
Duration is half an hour, or longer if you increase the complexity for big groups,
and/or increase the size of the work.
Choose a well known picture (or diagram or cartoon) - ideally one well-known
and full of detail.
Cut the picture (retaining a copy) into as many pieces - ideally equal squares or
oblongs - as there are participants for the exercise.
Issue each person a piece of the picture.
Instruct people to create a copy of their piece of the picture exactly (for example)
ten times bigger. Magnification level (ten-times, five-times, twenty-times, etc) is
up to you - the more then the longer the activity takes, and the bigger the final
result.
Issue pencils/drawing/colouring equipment and paper and make rulers available
for measuring.
You will probably need to clarify what 'ten-times bigger' actually means, or
different interpretations of this could spoil the result (which is a lesson in itself
about consistency of planning and communications, etc).
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21. Give a time limit (5-20 minutes depending on complexity of the work and the
magnification level you specify).
When all the enlargements are completed ask people to assemble them into a
giant copy of the original picture - on the table, or onto a wall using sticky putty,
(be careful not to use a wall whose surface could be damaged when removing
the sticky putty).
Review points:
How would the group have responded to and met the task if the task
leader simply asked the whole group to 'Create a copy of the picture ten-times
original size'?
If the assembled big version is not right in any area, where did the task fail
and for what reasons?
If anyone has embellished their particular piece (which almost certainly will
happen) how does this augment or threaten the final result, and what does this
teach us about local interpretation and freedom? Does it depend on the task
and the aims (and customer needs) as to whether the result is improved or
weakened? (Probably)
The activity demonstrates divisionalized 'departmental' working - each
person (represents a team or department) working on their own part
(representing specialisms), all of which contribute to an overall group aim and
result. What are the main factors determining success for working like this?
Does each individual person (which represents a team or department)
necessarily need to know what other people are doing, in order for the overall
task to be achieved? (Probably not in detail.)
Does each individual person (which represents a team or department)
necessarily need to know what the end aim is in order to achieve the overall
task? (Not necessarily, but arguably it's helpful if they do.)
What level of mutual understanding and checking (while the task is in
progress) is useful for this sort of 'departmental' or divisionalized working? Is
there a fixed rule for checking in progress, or more likely, does it depend on
the task and the performance of it?
Here are some suggestions of well-known pictures to use for this exercise:
Sunflowers (Van Gogh)
Venus and Mars (Botticelli)
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22. The Hay Wain (Constable)
Bathers at Asnières (Seurat)
London Underground Tube Map
The Bayeux Tapestry (lots of work there..)
These are just examples - choose a picture that appeals to your group, and
which when cut into pieces gives sufficient detail to work on.
Other ideas for pictures: geographical maps and weather maps, biological
diagrams, well-known posters and cartoons.
You can adapt the exercise by altering the 'ten-times' enlargement factor, for
instance five-times would make the task easier and quicker; twenty or a hundred-
times would make it more difficult and longer, (and also more impactful, if you
have time and space, and enough drawing materials...)
The task can be made more complex for large groups by:
splitting the group into teams
issuing each team a piece of the picture
instructing each team to cut its piece of the picture into smaller pieces,
giving one smaller piece to each team member.
The resulting assembled whole picture will indicate how well each team
communicated and managed its own divisionalization of the task.
Appendix – Definitions & Resources
Resources
ACCA - http://www.accaglobal.com/
ICAEW- http://icaew.com
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23. AIA - www.aiaworldwide.com/
Accounting web - http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/
ACAS - http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=837
Definitions
What is teamwork?
Key Points: -
In a general sense people talk of teamwork when they want to emphasise
the virtues of co-operation and the need to make use of the various
strengths of employees
This booklet concentrates on team working which involves organising
employees into teams based on a distinct product, part of a process, or
service - often cutting across existing functional divides
Teams have been around for as long as anyone can remember and there can
be few organisations that have not used the term in one sense or another. It
is common to hear of management teams, production teams, service teams
or even whole organisations being referred to as teams. Employers stress the
importance of employees working as a team and advertise for staff with the
ability to work in such a way. In a general sense people talk of teamwork
when they want to emphasise the virtues of co-operation and the need to
make use of the various strengths of employees.
This booklet concentrates on a more specific use of the term team working
involving a reorganisation of the way work is carried out. This includes
organising employees into teams based on a distinct product, part of a
process, or service - often cutting across existing functional divides. These
teams are given a high degree of responsibility and expected to work with
increased flexibility. Frequently the change to this type of team working is
accompanied by wholesale changes to the management structure and the
role of supervisors and managers.
Companies which have reorganised their workforce into teams in this way
claim substantial improvements in morale, job satisfaction, productivity and
quality. These claims have resulted in interest from other organisations keen
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24. to share in the possible benefits. At the same time there is confusion over
what exactly is meant by team working and concern on the part of managers,
employees and their representatives over the possible drawbacks of
embarking on what may be a radical change in work organisation.
Most research into team working has been carried out in manufacturing and
much of the advice in this booklet is placed in a manufacturing context. Team
working, however, is capable of much wider application and the booklet will
also be relevant to organisations in the service sector. Small firms, too, often
naturally work in teams and will find the advice here can help to improve their
effectiveness.
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