Teamwork Skills and Critical Appraisal of Presentation - Essay Example

?Teamwork Skills and Critical Appraisal of Presentation Introduction This paper shall serve as a reflective report of everything that our team has encountered while working on the Eden project in Southern England. Our team, composed of business school students travelled to Cornwall on February 28 2011 and here, we were able to gain valuable information about the environment and its influence towards society. We were amazed at the idea of this educational charity project, which transformed a clay mine into a garden where students and non-students alike can learn more about the environment. The gardens for instance, consisted of various plants that are found in various parts of the world, and are usually grown in different climates, but could still survive under England’s climate conditions. At the same time, the people behind the project also made sure that the experience was enjoyable, by incorporating culture, music and theatre arts in their education programme. Indeed, the Eden project is in itself, an excellent mix of science, technology, the arts, culture, horticulture and architecture. We found it particularly inspiring how the project also aims to reach out to various members of society- such as prisoners from the prisons in the South Western part of the country, wherein these prisoners are taught skills such as planting fruits and vegetables, marketing, sales, distribution and even construction and maintenance, so they can continue to develop and improve their abilities, and create employment opportunities for themselves in the future. The following pages of this report shall discuss what my team did during the whole trip, and the skills that we found to be useful in accomplishing our tasks. The Belbin Teamwork Framework Belbin (1983) established his teamwork framework in 1981, and since then, his framework is one of the most popular when it comes to developing and assessing team development. When it comes to achieving optimum performance for any organisation, Belbin believes that one of the first things to consider would be the composition of the team itself. In other words, it is crucial to take into account the roles that different members of the team play, and how each member interacts with the other members of the team. In an organisation, or a team, Belbin believes that there should be individuals who take on one of nine roles, or at least some of his nine roles. These nine roles are: 1) the shaper, 2) the implementer, 3) the completer-finisher, 4) the coordinator, 5) the team worker, 6) the resource investigator, 7) the plant, 8) the monitor-evaluator and 9) the specialist. All these roles are also supported by corresponding individual characteristics. For instance, the ‘shaper’ is one who is focused on the task, is highly motivated and is determined to achieve goals. His role is ‘shaping’ the other members of the team to fulfil this purpose. The ‘coordinator,’ on the other hand, is more interactive with the other members of the team. He/she is the one most likely to trust that the other members of the team can and will carry out their respective tasks. For the most part, coordinators are optimists, who are tolerant of the mistakes of others. At the same time, he/she may also be strict with rules. The ‘resource investigator’ is the one who is constantly on the lookout for information and thus may never be able to be found in one place. He/she may have the characteristics of a negotiator, and he/she is the one who actively takes on the task of exploring opportunities and meeting new people. The resource investigator is also likely to be the curious one of the team- always asking questions from others and adopting and modifying other ideas picked up from other individuals. The ‘implementer’ on the other hand, is characterised as a practical individual, who trusts easily and is respectful of traditions. They are more realistic and may also be conservative. They may not take too well to changes within the organisation. The ‘monitor evaluator’ is an intelligent individual but may be less ambitious compared to the other members of the team. They are the ones who are likely to contribute during the most crucial stages when decision-making. The reason for this is because they lack the capability of assessing proposals, analyzing them and developing them. They are the serious kind, and may be slow decision-makers because of their need to really think things through. The ‘plant’ is one who has a high IQ, but may tend to be introvert. They are the ones who are likely to take unconventional approaches when it comes to finishing up a task. They are also more concerned with issues that need to be tackled immediately, as compared to details. The lack of attention paid to details, however, may prove to be a weakness for the ‘plant.’ The ‘team worker’ is the one who is responsible for keeping the team spirit alive by being helpful during any conflicts. They are the ones considered to be ‘diplomatic’ and may also have a good sense of humor, which is an asset. However, they may tend to be simply followers, tending to veer away from acts or words that may hurt the other members of the team. The ‘specialist’ is the one who provides relevant information and other skills when accomplishing a task. While the other members may be able to offer the same, the ‘specialist’ offers his knowledge and skills at a time when the team needs it the most. They are the ones who are dedicated and have the initiative to finish their tasks to the end. However, they may think of themselves more than the others, and may have a lack interest in other subjects that they feel is not important at all. The ‘completer-finishers’ on the other hand, are the individuals who make sure that they pay attention to the tiniest detail. They are consistent and tend to be thorough with what they do, making sure that the task is complete. However, they may tend to be “over anxious” and may have a hard time assigning work to others (West, 1994). Belbin (1993) narrowed these nine roles into three role categories. The first category refers to the position of the team member in the organisation and his/her corresponding responsibilities and scope of authority. This is the ‘action-oriented role.’ The second role category refers to the team member’s function in the organisation. In other words, his/her function may depend on his/her expertise and experience with regards to a task at hand. This is the ‘people-oriented role.’ Finally, the last category, the ‘thought-oriented role’ refers to various factors that contribute to one’s behaviour. According to Belbin (1981), one’s behaviour is influenced by his/her cognitive capabilities, his/her values and also what motivates him/her. One’s experience and culture may also influence future behaviour, as well as an individual’s learning abilities. Belbin (1993) has also suggested that one’s own knowledge, attitude and skills, have a direct effect on his/her own performance, in the same way that the different personalities and characteristics of the team members do. However, one of the obstacles to successful performance may heavily depend on one’s personality, since there may be some team members who may have a ‘resistant’ personality. Furthermore, Belbin (1993) stresses how important team composition is because, depending on the combination of personalities and individual characteristics, team performance may either produce a negative or a positive outcome. In other words, there may be some combinations that may produce poor performances. Just like Belbin, other researchers have also acknowledged the value of team composition, with researchers like Roosevelt (2000) and Katzenbach and Smith (1993) placing value in diversity. According to these researchers, the more diverse a team is, the more likely would positive results accrue. To be precise, an increase in diversity levels leads to increased levels of satisfaction and motivation as well. This, in turn, leads to favourable output from the team. The rationale behind this is simple. The researchers believe that diversity provides opportunities for the members of the team to contribute something new. If it were the opposite, and the team itself was not diverse in its composition, then it would be likely that the members would be limited with regards to what they could contribute. In turn, this may lead to less motivation or no motivation at all, and likewise, no increases in satisfaction levels. The Adair Model On the other hand, the Adair team model focuses on ‘action-centered leadership,’ and the output of the team depends heavily on one’s characteristics as a leader. Under this model, the manner in which teams act on a certain task depends on a variety of situations. As a leader, one has to ask himself/herself whether the other team members are interested in fulfilling the task at hand, whether there may be some factors that may prevent them from accomplishing the task or whether there are any other obstacles that may come in the way of accomplishing the task. Adair points out a number of functions of an effective leader. These are 1) planning- the leader has to seek out information, determine the task at hand and set out the objectives and aims. The leader is also in charge of briefing the other members of the group, allocating to each member their specific task and even setting rules or standards as to how to go about achieving goals, 2) controlling- the leader is expected to make sure that the activity is progressing, and that everything set out in the planning stage is maintained. At this point, the leader is also expected to make the appropriate decisions in order to attain the set objectives, 3) supporting- the leader has to encourage the other members of the team to give their best when accomplishing the task. He/she should be responsive to the contributions of each team member, possibly giving constructive feedback when needed, 4) informing- the leader should make himself/herself available to answer any questions that may come up during the course of accomplishing a task, and he/she is also expected to update the members with regards to any information that may be helpful, 5) evaluating- the leader should assess the output of all the team members, including himself/herself. Basically, Adair believes that fifty percent of the motivation of an individual stems from himself/herself, while the other fifty percent depends on the leader and whether he possesses effective leadership skills or not. Compared to the Belbim framework, the Adair model does not just focus on the individual characteristics of the team members, but focuses on a particular member of the team- the leader. The Report For the purposes of this paper, this writer shall focus on the Belbin framework, which seems to be the most appropriate one to use for this reflective report. During the course of the Eden project, my team mates and I were tasked to do a variety of activities. We were tasked to examine the Eden project itself in its entirety and make a presentation afterwards. When it came to accomplishing our tasks, I found that there were some team members who were more excited to do further activities, as compared to the others. Indeed, this is reflective of the Belbin framework, with regards to the different personalities of people and their different interests. Naturally, those who were interested in nature, were more active and inquisitive. In our team, there were three members who played the role of the ‘resource investigator,’ always asking questions from the facilitators. They were the ones, who, in my opinion, were very social. They did not leave Cornwall without making sure that they made a handful of friends or acquaintances along the way. They were also very helpful when it came to our team assignment and presentation, since they were the ones who provided new ideas that we could work with. In our team, we also had an ‘implementer’ who made sure that our presentation was one that would not offend the other teams with regards to its content. He also made sure that our presentation was in such a way that it would give us a good image among the other teams. I noticed that he was also very keen on disciplining the other members of the team when they would become too unfocused. We also had two members of our team who I would consider as ‘completer-finishers.’ They really paid attention to detail and made sure that our presentation was designed in such a way as to show the other teams that we really put an effort to our work. Other team members played the role of ‘team worker,’ myself included. We tend to not take things to seriously, and we are the ones who bring in some humor to the team. I agree with Belbin when he stated that such characteristics are assets. I personally think that our different personalities and our contributions to the team helped in making sure that all the tasks were easily accomplished at the end of the trip. We were able to encourage the other members to carry out the tasks through to the end without being too stressed during the process. References Belbin, R.M 1981. Management teams: why they succeed or fail, Heinemann, London. Belbin, R.M. 1993. Team roles at work, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K. (1993) The wisdom of teams: creating the high-performance organization, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA. Roosevelt, T. 2001. Management of diversity, Gabler, Wiesbaden. West, M. 1994. Effective teamwork, The British Psychology Society. Read More