Professionalism and Personal Skills

Professionalism and Personal Skills Lecture 5: Teamwork and Project Management

Objectives • Introduction to Project Management • Introduction to team development and group roles • Understand relevance of Task Identification and allocation • Planning Schedules and identifying Deliverables • Understanding Gantt Charts • Summary

Introduction • What is ‘Teamwork’? • What is the difference between a ‘Team’ and a ‘Group’? • They are both a collection of people • A Team has a common goal or objective that they work together to achieve

Introduction • But why have a Team? • Too much work for one person to achieve in the time available • To bring together different skills and abilities • To learn from each other - • Social Skills • Organisational Skills • Technical Skills • “SYNERGY”

Introduction • So what do Teams do? • One possibility is work on a “PROJECT” • What do we mean by a “Project”? • Characteristics of a Project are: • It has a recognisable deliverable • There is an element of risk which needs to be controlled • It is new or one-off rather than a well-defined, regular set of operations

Team-development model Activity 1 • Dr, Bruce Tuckman's published in 1965 his Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development model • He added a fifth stage, Adjourning, in the 1970s.

Forming - stage 1 • High dependence on leader for guidance and direction. • Little agreement on team aims other than received from leader. • Individual roles and responsibilities are unclear. • Leader must be prepared to answer lots of questions about the team's purpose, objectives and external relationships. • Processes are often ignored. • Members test tolerance of system and leader. • Leader directs.

Storming - stage 2 • Decisions don't come easily within group. • Team members vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members and the leader, who might receive challenges from team members. • Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties persist. • Cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles. • The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues. • Compromises may be required to enable progress. • Leader coaches.

Norming - stage 3 • Agreement and consensus is largely forms among team, who respond well to facilitation by leader. • Roles and responsibilities are clear and accepted. • Big decisions are made by group agreement. • Smaller decisions may be delegated to individuals or small teams within group. • Commitment and unity is strong. • The team may engage in fun and social activities. • The team discusses and develops its processes and working style. • There is general respect for the leader and some of leadership is more shared by the team. • Leader facilitates and enables

Performing - stage 4 • The team is more strategically aware; the team knows clearly why it is doing what it is doing. • The team has a shared vision and is able to stand on its own feet with no interference or participation from the leader. • There is a focus on over-achieving goals, and the team makes most of the decisions against criteria agreed with the leader. • The team has a high degree of autonomy. • Disagreements occur but now they are resolved within the team positively and necessary changes to processes and structure are made by the team. • The team is able to work towards achieving the goal, and also to attend to relationship, style and process issues along the way. team members look after each other. • The team requires delegated tasks and projects from the leader. • The team does not need to be instructed or assisted. • Team members might ask for assistance from the leader with personal and interpersonal development. Leader delegates and oversees

Adjourning - stage 5 • Tuckman's fifth stage, Adjourning, is the break-up of the group, hopefully when the task is completed successfully, its purpose fulfilled; everyone can move on to new things, feeling good about what's been achieved. • From an organizational perspective, recognition of and sensitivity to people's vulnerabilities in Tuckman's fifth stage is helpful, particularly if members of the group have been closely bonded and feel a sense of insecurity or threat from this change. • Feelings of insecurity would be natural for people with high 'steadiness' attributes (as regards the 'four temperaments' or DISC model) and with strong routine and empathy style (as regards the Benziger thinking styles model, right and left basal brain dominance).

Adjourning - stage 5 • Tuckman's fifth stage - Adjourning • Bruce Tuckman refined his theory around 1975 and added a fifth stage to the Forming Storming Norming Performing model - he called it Adjourning, which is also referred to as Deforming and Mourning. • Adjourning is arguably more of an adjunct to the original four stage model rather than an extension - it views the group from a perspective beyond the purpose of the first four stages. • The Adjourning phase is certainly very relevant to the people in the group and their well-being, but not to the main task of managing and developing a team, which is clearly central to the original four stages. • Alan Chapman 1995-2005 review and code and reference is made to the www.businessballs.com website.

The Belbin Team Roles • The personal skill inventory identifies eight team roles. • There is also another team role called the Specialist which is not identified in the questionnaire.

Shaper • SH Shaper • Characteristics • Highly strung, outgoing, dynamic. • Shapers are highly motivated people with a lot of nervous energy and a great need for achievement. Of ten they seem to be aggressive extroverts with strong drive. Shapers like to challenge, to lead and to push others into action ‑ and to win. If obstacles arise, they will find a way round ‑ but can be headstrong and emotional in response to any form of disappointment or frustration. • Shapers can handle and even thrive on confrontation.

Shaper • Function • Shapers generally make good managers because they generate action and thrive on pressure. They are excellent at sparking life into a team and are very useful in groups where political complications are apt to slow things down. Shapers are inclined to rise above problems of this kind and forge ahead regardless. They like making necessary changes and do not mind taking unpopular decisions. As the name implies, they try to impose some shape and pattern on group discussion or activities. They are probably the most effective members of a team in guaranteeing positive action.

Shaper • Strengths • Drive and a readiness to challenge inertia, ineffectiveness, complacency or selfdeception. • Allowable Weaknesses • Prone to provocation, irritation and impatience, and a tendency to offend others.

Co‑ordinator • Characteristics • Calm, self‑confident, controlled. • The distinguishing feature of Co‑ordinators is their ability to cause others to work to shared goals. Mature, trusting and confident, they delegate readily. In interpersonal relations they are quick to spot individual talents and to use them to pursue group objectives. While Co‑ordinators are not necessarily the cleverest members of a team, they have a broad and worldly outlook and generally command respect.

Co‑ordinator • Function • Co‑ordinators are useful people to have in charge of a team with diverse skills and personal characteristics. They perform better in dealing with colleagues of near or equal rank than in directing junior subordinates. Their motto might well be 'consultation with control' and they usually believe in tackling problems calmly. In some organizations, Co‑ordinators are inclined to clash with Shapers due to their contrasting management styles.

Co‑ordinator • Strengths • Welcome all potential contributors on their merits and without prejudice, but without ever losing sight of the main objective. • Allowable Weaknesses • No pretensions as regards intellectual or creative ability.

Plant • Characteristics • Individualistic, serious‑minded, unorthodox. • Strengths • Genius, imagination, intellect, knowledge. • Plants are innovators and inventors and can be highly creative. They provide the seeds and ideas from which major developments spring. Usually they prefer to operate by themselves at some distance from the other members of the team, using their imagination and often working in an unorthodox way. They tend to be introverted and react strongly to criticism and praise. Their ideas may often be radical and may lack practical constraint. • They are independent, clever and original and may be weal in communicating with other people on a different wave‑length.

Plant • Function • The main use of a Plant is to generate new proposals and to solve complex problems. Plants are often needed in the initial stages of a project or when a project is failing to progress. Plants have often made their marks as founders of companies or as originators of new products. • Too many Plants in one organisation, however, may be counter‑productive as they tend to spend their time reinforcing their own ideas and engaging each other i combat. • Allowable Weaknesses • Up in the clouds, inclined to disregard practical details or protocol.

Resource Investigator • Characteristics • Extroverted, enthusiastic, curious, communicative. • Resource Investigators are good communicators both inside and outside the organisation, They are natural negotiators, adept at exploring new opportunities and developing contacts. Although not necessarily a great source of original ideas, they are quick to pick up other people's ideas and build on them. They are skilled at finding out what is available and what can be done, and usually get a warm welcome because of their outgoing nature. • Resource Investigators have relaxed personalities with a strong inquisitive sense and a readiness to see the possibilities of anything new. However, unless they remain stimulated by others, their enthusiasm rapidly fades.

Resource Investigator • Function • Resource Investigators are quick to open up and exploit opportunities. They have an ability to think on their feet and to probe other for information. They are the best people to set up external contacts, to search for resources outside the group, and to carry out any negotiations that may be involved. • Strengths • A capacity for finding useful people and promising ideas or opportunities, and a general source of vitality. • Allowable Weaknesses • Liable to lose interest once the initial fascination has passed.

Monitor Evaluator • Characteristics • Sober, unemotional, prudent. • Monitor Evaluators are serious‑minded, prudent individuals with a built‑in immunity from being over‑enthusiastic. They are slow deciders who prefer to think things over usually with a high critical thinking ability. Good Monitor Evaluators have a capacity for shrewd judgements that take all factors into account and seldom give bad advice.

Monitor Evaluator • Function • Monitor Evaluators are at home when analysing problems and evaluating ideas and suggestions. they are very good at weighing up the pro's and con's of options and to outsiders seem dry, boring or even over‑critical. Some people are surprised that they become managers. Nevertheless, many Monitor Evaluators occupy key planning and strategic posts and thrive in high‑level appointments where a relatively small number of decisions carry major consequences. • Strengths • Judgement, discretion, hard‑headedness. • Allowable Weaknesses • Lack of inspiration or the ability to motivate others.

Implementer • Characteristics • Implementers are well organised,enjoy routine, and have a practical common‑sense and self discipline. They favour hard work and tackle problems in a systematic fashion. On a wider front they hold unswerving loyalty to the organisation, and are less concerned with the pursuit of self‑interest. • However, Implementers may find difficulty in coping with new situations.

Implementer • Function • Implementers are useful because of their reliability and capacity for application. They succeed because they have a sense of what is feasible and relevant. It is said that many executives only do the jobs they wish to do and neglect those tasks which they find distasteful. By contrast, an Implementer will do what needs to be done. Good Implementers often progress to high management positions by virtue of good organisational skills and efficiency in dealing with all necessary work. • Strengths • Organising ability, practical common sense, hard working, self discipline. • Allowable Weaknesses • Lack of flexibility, resistance to unproven ideas.

Team Worker • Characteristics • Socially oriented, rather mild and sensitive. • Team Workers are the most supportive members of a team. They are mild, sociable and concerned about others with a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. Team Workers are perceptive and diplomatic. They are good listeners and are generally popular members of a group. They cope less well with pressure or situations involving the need for confrontation.

Team Worker • Function • The role of the Team Worker is to prevent interpersonal problems within a team and allow everyone to contribute effectively. Since they don't like fiction, they will go to great lengths to avoid it. The diplomatic and perceptive skills of a Team Worker become real assets, especially under a managerial regime where conflicts are liable to arise or to be artificially suppressed. Team‑ Worker managers are seen as a threat to no one and therefore can be elected as the most accepted and favoured people to serve under. Team Workers have a lubricating effect on teams. Morale is better and people seem to co‑operate better when they are around.

Team Worker • Strengths • Ability to respond to people and situations and to promote team spirit. • Allowable Weaknesses • Indecision at moments of crisis and some failure to provide a clear lead to others.

Completer‑Finisher • Characteristics • Painstaking, orderly, conscientious, anxious. • Completers, or Completer‑Finishers, have a great capacity for follow‑through and attention to detail, and seldom start what they cannot finish. They are motivated by internal anxiety, although outwardly they may appear unruffled. Typically they are introverts who don't need much external stimulus or incentive. Completer‑Finishers dislike carelessness and are intolerant of those with a casual disposition. Reluctant to delegate, they prefer to tackle all tasks themselves.

Completer‑Finisher • Function • Completer‑Finishers are invaluable where tasks demand close concentration and a high degree of accuracy. They foster a sense of urgency within a team and are good at meeting schedules. In management they excel by the high standards to which they aspire, and by their concern for precision, attention to detail and follow‑through. • Strengths • A capacity for fulfilling their promises and working to the highest standards. • Allowable Weaknesses • A tendency to worry about small things, a reluctance to 'let go'.

Specialist • Characteristics • Professional, self‑starting, dedicated. • Specialists are dedicated individuals who pride themselves on acquiring technical skills and specialised knowledge. Their priorities are to maintain professional standards and advance their own subject. While they show great pride in their own work they usually lack interest in other people's work and even in other people themselves. Eventually, the Specialist becomes the expert by sheer commitment along a narrow front. Few possess the single‑mindedness, dedication and aptitude to become a firstclass Specialist.

Specialist • Function • Specialists play an indispensable part in some teams, for they provide the rare skill upon which the organisation's service or product is based. As managers, they command support because they know more about their subject than anyone else and can usually be called upon to make decisions based on in‑depth experience. • Strengths • Provide knowledge or technical skills in rare supply. • Allowable Weaknesses • Contribute only on a narrow front.

Decide Who you would like it to be • There are implicit ground rules in every social situation: for example about how polite you should be, whether it is OK to swear, whether personal questions can be asked, and so on. In a new team these ground rules are very fluid at the start ‑ people will bring with them all sorts of assumptions about how things should be. It can be helpful to set up the ground rules that you want, and that will make your group pleasant to be in and to work effectively. The following examples illustrate the kinds of ground rules you might want to operate:

Decide how you would like it to be • Sexist and racist remarks are not acceptable. • Decisions should be made democratically ‑ in the absence of a clear consensus there should be a vote. • Aggressive and dominating behaviour is not acceptable. • All members should turn up to all meetings unless it has been agreed beforehand or unless there are unavoidable circumstances such as illness. • Meetings will start five minutes after the agreed start time and everyone should be there by then. • Work should be shared around fairly and be seen to be shared fairly.

Decide how you would like it to be • Tasks which individuals agree to undertake should be completed to the agreed deadline. If it looks as though there will be a problem meeting a deadline the individual concerned will seek help from other members of the team in time to avoid a delay. • Members should try to encourage contributions from everyone ‑ to discussions and to decisions ‑and to accept the value of all contributions. • Roles such as chair of a meeting and note‑taker should be clearly allocated and should rotate round the team so that responsibilities and leadership are shared. • Each person has the right to point out when these rules are being broken.

Decide how you would like it to be • Draw up your own list of ground rules and copy it out so that everyone has a copy. Every so often go back to your list and see if you are keeping to it or if you need new or different ground rules to make your team work well • Discuss how it is going • All teams have problems and it isn't always easy to discuss them and sort them out. But if you don't tackle them they won't go away. The checklist below can help you to raise and discuss issues in your team. Go through it on your own, first, ticking the items which describe what is happening in your team and add one observation of your own. Then sit down with the others in your team and see if you have ticked the same things. Once you have accepted that you have some problems it is easier to discuss what to do about them.

Decide how you would like it to be • We don't listen to each other • We keep repeating arguments instead of moving on. • We constantly interrupt each other • We just push our own views instead of developing and encouraging others' ideas • We allow dominant members to dominate • Some of us don't contribute • We don't compromise enough • We concentrate on making impressions rather than on getting the jobs done • We don't have clear tasks or objectives • We are not clear about what has been decided • We don't make it clear who is to take action on decisions • We put each other down • We don't recognise that others have feelings about what is happening in the team

Control Loop

Steps in Planning a Project • Define the TASKS • What are they? • How long should each take? • What order do they have to be done in? • Draw the “Plan” e.g. Gantt Chart • Resource the Plan • Define who/what is to be used • Allocate to appropriate Task(s) • Remove any ‘overloads’

What Are Tasks? • How do we decide how to divide a project into tasks? • Some points are worthy of note. The first is that a ‘task’ must have a deliverable, that is, at the end of the task there is a defined, observable change which is a required outcome. E.g. “The fence is now painted”. • As well as having a deliverable, a task should have a single, well-defined operation to achieve the outcome.

Tasks • How long should a task take? • This depends on the nature of the project – a project can span a number of days to a number of years.

Tasks • One reason is to ensure that the work is done in a sensible sequence (e.g. we build the walls before putting on the roof), and a second is we need to control the project by measuring progress at suitable points and taking corrective action if needed.

How often should we measure progress? • If we said weekly and our project comprises tasks which take a few hours each and the whole project lasts a week, then we may only have one opportunity to take corrective action if things are going wrong! There is obviously at relation between the length of the project and the interval for measuring progress.

Practical Exercise • “Your Team is to organise a visit to HMS Tyneside on the River Tyne by a group of Boy Scouts from Bristol on Saturday January 8th 2005” • Draw up a list of tasks required to prepare for the visit • Estimate how long each task will take • Draw a plan (Gantt Chart) • Allocate resources to tasks • Question. When do you have to start to finish by January 8th?

Practical Exercise - How? • Work in your team • Decide key “roles” for your team members • Produce your ‘Day Out’ plan via a list of tasks and a Gantt Chart for next week

Worth noting…… • You have to use the plan (and modify it) to control the project • You can use project management in a team • BUT you can also use it to control your own individual work

Schedules • A Key Project Planning Technique • Effective Scheduling Requires: • An Unambiguous definition of requirements • A careful breakdown of work • Coherent and consistent list of tasks which shows when activities will start and end • Careful monitoring of progress against the schedule

Professionalism and Personal Skills