Professionalism and Personal Skills

1
Professionalism and Personal Skills

• Lecture 5
• Teamwork
• and
• Project Management

2
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

3
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

4
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

5
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

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Activity 1
Team-development model

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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).

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

22
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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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'.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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Control Loop
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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

48
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

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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

50
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

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Tasks

• At it is simplest, a list of the activities
  needed to ensure the project hits all its targets

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Deliverables

• Products created by the project
• Something tangible
• Interview Notes
• New web interface
• Completed chapter
• Test data

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Summary

• Looked at the Planning of Schedules
• Examined the relevance of choosing Tasks
• Identification of Deliverables
• Understand how Gantt Charts are used to control
  the project