Post on 18-Dec-2015
Communication Skills 2 EG2157
Topics
Team Dynamics
Report Writing Skills
Team Presentation Skills
Communication Relationships & Strategies
Interpersonal Conflicts
Conflict Management
Negotiation Skills
Assignments
ASSIGNMENTS Week ICA No. Unit Marks 3 ICA 1 Team Dynamics 20 7 ICA 2 Team Presentation Skills 30
13 ICA 3 *eAssessment: Comm R/S + Interp Conflict + Conflict Mgt 10 14 ICA 4 Conflict Management 20 2-16 Class Participation 20
I’ve posted some things for you online. Please go to: http://eg2157.wikispaces.com/
WORKING SMART THROUGH TEAMWORK
All of us know in our hearts that the ideal individual for a given job cannot be found. He cannot be found because he cannot exist.
This is why it is not the individual but the team that is key to the success of any enterprise.
Definition Of A Team
A ‘team’ is defined as a group of members who must rely on group work to achieve success.
Members in team are organised around a common set of objectives and their work is mutually dependant.
When To Form A Team
Conditions needed for a successful team : 1. A specified, measurable objective that
can be best achieved by a team effort. 2. Knowledge and use of various
problem-solving techniques. 3. An organisational culture that
supports the team concept. 4. Sufficient time for adequate training,
debating, and discussion
Key Areas Of Resistance to Teams In Organisations
Organisational Structure
Management and Supervision
Individual Workers
Reasons why workers resist being in a team:
1. Fear losing individual rewards and recognition
2. Fear losing individuality 3. Fear that teams will create more work
4. Fear assuming responsibility 5. Fear conflict
Characteristics Of An Effective Team
1. Common commitment and identity2. Specific team purpose and goals3. Size of teams4. Skills mix5. Team roles6. Mutual accountability
Size of Teams
For a team to be effective, there should be between 2 to 25 members
With the majority of them having less than 10 members.
Size of Teams
• large group of more than 10 would have trouble interacting and communicating constructively.
• harder it is to manage.
• subgroups will emerge
• dominated by a few talkative and aggressive members.
• group of 4 to 8 allows everyone to say something
• Yet it is big enough for a range of specialized skills
Skills Mix
1. Technical and functional expertise
2. Problem-solving and decision-making skills
3. Interpersonal skills
Team Roles + Mutual Accountability
Every member of a successful team does equivalent amount of real work; all members, including the team leader, contribute in concrete ways to the team’s work product.
Team accountability is about the promises members make to themselves and others, promises that underpin two critical aspects of effective teams: commitment and trust.
ROLES WITHIN A TEAM
A role is a set of expected behaviours associated with a position. Work teams have a set of expectations about how members in the team should behave in the team.
Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis
▪Task-related roles▪Maintenance-related roles▪Defensive roles▪Dysfunctional roles
Tas roles (Get job done)
Initiator – suggests new ideas, ways of doing things.
Information giver – offers relevant facts, information
Co-ordinator – brings together ideas, suggestions
Evaluator- measures progress, acts as time
Maintenance-related roles (Morale)
Encourager – praises and supports contributions of others.
Gate keeper – opens channel of communication, ensuring that quiet members who want to contribute can do so and close-down over-talkative members.
Harmoniser - helps to maintain the relationships between members by working to avoid conflict and reduce tension.
Group Co-ordinator – calls attention to group processes and offers suggestions about problems the group may have in functioning.
Task or Maintenance? Task 6
1. “That’s a good idea, Jenny.” 2. “Tom, I think Marion would like to make a
point.” 3. “Are we agreed on the proposal?” 4. “Let’s move on then.” 5. “Are you saying that storage is a
problem?” 6. “Should we discuss the production issue
first?” 7. “You sound disappointed with the
suggestion.”
Defensive Roles
Defensive roles are behaviours intended to protect the group from anxiety. Scapegoat - a member who tries to deflect
the group’s feelings of failure or incompetency from the group to himself.
Tension reliever - jokes, fills long silences with chatter or suggests breaks. Such a role helps the team when the tension is increasing and needs to be broken.
Dysfunctional Roles
Dysfunctional roles are behaviours intended to distract the team from its purpose or to inhibit the team’s progress towards its goals. Examples:
1. Blocker – raises irrelevancies or argues a point for too long.
2. Pessimist – negative about task and/or group; gloomy.3. Aggressor - criticises or blames others in a hostile
manner.4. Rebel - breaks team norms and attacks authority. 5. Show-off -draws attention away from the team’s purpose.6. Lobbyist- puts personal goals ahead of team’s goals7. Recognition seeker - themselves ahead of needs of team.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory IMPLEMENTER Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas
into practical actions. Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.
CO-ORDINATOR Mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals,
promotes decision-making, delegates well. Can often be seen as manipulative. Off loads personal work.
SPECIALIST Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge
and skills in rare supply. Contributes only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory
SHAPER Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. The drive and
courage to overcome obstacles. Prone to provocation. Offends people's feelings.
PLANT Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied to communicate
effectively.
RESOURCE INVESTIGATOR Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores
opportunities. Develops contacts. Over-optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has
passed.
Belbin’s Team Role Theory
MONITOR EVALUATOR Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges
accurately. Lacks drive and ability to inspire others. COMPLETER FINISHER Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors
and omissions. Delivers on time. Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate. TEAMWORKER Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens,
builds, averts friction. Indecisive in crunch situations.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN TEAMS
Speaking Skills Supportive Communication
An open supportive team encourages people to offer suggestions and solutions and to be part of the team process.
Supportive communication is genuine, spontaneous and non-evaluative.
Supportive communication creates a climate of trust, respect and cohesiveness within the team.
Group Decision-Making Methods
Majority rule
Compromise
Consensus
Outcomes:
a. Majority rule:Outcome:Win-lose
b. Compromise:Outcome:
Lose-lose c. Consensus: Outcome:
Win-Win
ACTIVITIES AND QUESTIONS
ICA 1.
ICA 1
ICA 1: TEAM DYNAMICS (20 MARKS) Objectives: To encourage cooperation among classmates and help you come
together as a team, You can gather together concepts on ‘Team Dynamics’ into a practical experience and it is also hoped that you will become more comfortable with the idea of introducing, leading and presenting an activity in class.
Description: Your tutor will divide the class into 4 teams. You should give
yourselves opportunities to work with different people for different assignments throughout this semester. Each member in your team should have a role to play and must take up a ‘position’ which gives him sufficient speaking and presentation opportunities.
ICA 1
Part 1: Team-building activity
In your team, run a team-building activity in class (or other suitable areas in campus) to achieve at least one of the following objectives:-
-to encourage cooperation among students/ help them come together as a team
-to show that everyone contributes to the team’s success
-to show that skills in speaking, questioning, listening are important to team performance
-others, please specify Make sure that each team in the class presents a
different activity.
ICA 1
Part 2: Debrief Before you run the activity, you need to present and give clear instructions on
how the class can participate. After the activity, give a debrief. Your debrief should cover objective(s) achieved and learning points and concepts shown by your activity.
You are given 20 minutes to run the team-building activity and give the debrief.
You should allocate sufficient time (at least 5 minutes) for the debrief. Part 3: Reflection/ Evaluation (via email to your tutor before
the next lesson) Reflect on and evaluate your learning experience when you ran the
team-building activity or participated in other team-building activities by other groups. Reflections or feedback should be meaningful and specific – describe specific things that you did, saw or heard which had an impact on you. If you are giving feedback on other activities, remember to be constructive.