2. Working Effectively in Teams
Melissa Connor
Graduate Skills Development Coordinator

3. Session overview: Who We Are Team Work & Your Career Team Essentials
Effective Teams
Communicating & Contributing as a Team
Negotiating & Discussing Issues
Team Roles
Team Development Process
Team Activity

4. Careers & Employer Liaison Centre
Where: Top Floor Student Centre
Tel: (08)
Web:
Open 9am to 5pm Monday-Friday
(including throughout the breaks)

5. Our mission:
“To provide all students an effective, sustainable service enabling the opportunity to develop skill sets and experiences that can be articulated across all career aspirations”.

6. Exercise

8. The importance of ‘soft skills’ “The world of work is very much based on relationships …we all have to deal with other people … [graduates] have to be able to communicate in different ways … be able to negotiate and be able to interpret and listen. Expectations among employers have grown … while candidates have the academic ability, they didn’t have the communication and soft employability skills so weren’t getting through [interview] …” from Carl Gilleard, CEO, Association of Graduate Recruiters

9. Team Work: What is team work? … a group of two or more people
who work together to accomplish a task /
work together towards a common goal …

11. What employers are looking for: Employers are looking for people who can work effectively in teams which may be: - multi-skilled - multi-aged - multi-regional

12. What are some of the advantages you see to working in a team on a project that you couldn’t get by working on your own?

13. Pro’s & Con’s of Team Work
Disadvantages …
Members have to learn to work with other types of personalities
Can take time to reach group decisions & implement them
More opportunities for conflict
Managing allocation of responsibility
Internal team dynamics can collapse
but …

14. Advantages …
Output from team is greater than sum of individual efforts of members
More options, ideas & creativity
Sense of involvement & morale
Increased work quality
Improved internal communication
Members’ strengths & weaknesses balance out.

15. Team composition

16. Team composition: The more similar the people on a team:
Sooner the team understands one another … More likely to make errors - inadequate representation of all viewpoints

17. Team composition: The more diverse the people on a team:
Slower the understanding …Better decisions because more viewpoints are covered

18. What is your preference? Talking it through; or thinking it through
Extroverted
Introverted

19. What is your preference? Order & routine; or ideas & options?

20. What is your preference? Analysis & fact, or feelings for all
Thinking

21. What is your working style? Scheduled; or “winging it”?
Judging
Perceiving

22. Team work skills: To achieve team results, you will need: Commitment
Participation skills
Constructive negotiation/conflict management skills
Interpersonal communication skills

23. Exercise

24. Exercise: In teams I tend to… In teams I tend to avoid…
I like teams where…
I don’t like teams where…
Gibbs, G, 1994, Learning in Teams: A Student Manual, Oxford Centre for Staff Development

25. How do teams work?

26. Team roles:
Leader (not a manager)
Motivator
Coordinator/Facilitator
Evaluator
Spokesperson
Clarify who is doing what before you begin working on the task

27. Team Development

28. Stages of team development:
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning

29. 1. Forming Orientation to task Testing interpersonal behaviours
Discovering ground rules

30. 2. Storming Resistance to task demands Interpersonal conflicts
Exploring areas of disagreement
Struggle for group leadership

31. 3. Norming Building cohesiveness Developing consensus about norms
Clarifying roles
Informal leader may emerge

32. 4. Performing Channeling energy to task Roles clear and functional
Norms support teamwork
Emerging problem solutions

33. 5. Adjourning Goals accomplished Preparing for disengagement
Some regret at disbanding
Termination of group

34. Putting it into practice

35. Evaluation

36. Evaluation: What went well? What didn’t go well – why?
What would you do next time?
OK – “We should have prioritised more effectively”
Not OK – “If it wasn’t for John we’d have finished on time”

37. In summary: Team function cohesively when all members understand
the purpose and relationship
of the team’s primary aim
Collaborate - Communicate - Cooperate

38. Top Floor, Student Centre building (adjacent the Sports Hall)
Certificates are available two weeks after a session from the Careers & Employers Liaison Centre
Top Floor, Student Centre building
(adjacent the Sports Hall)
Slides and resources for all DegreePlus sessions are at:
>Professional Development
>Publications & Audio Files

39. Questions?