Please prepare the lesson before talking with your tutor
Warm–up!
A number of factors encourage good teamwork.
Discuss the ideas below with your tutor and put them in order of importance:
- Listening — it is important to listen to other people's ideas. When people are allowed to express their ideas freely, these initial ideas will produce other ideas.
- Questioning — it is important to ask questions, interact, and discuss the objectives of the team.
- Persuading — individuals are encouraged to exchange, defend, and then, ultimately, to rethink their ideas.
- Respecting — it is important to treat others with respect and to support their ideas.
- Helping — it is crucial to help one's co-workers, which is the general idea of teamwork.
- Sharing — it is important to share your ideas with the team to create an environment of teamwork.
- Participating — all members of the team are encouraged to participate in the team.
- Communication — for a team to work effectively it is essential that team members acquire good communication skills and use effective communication channels between one another e.g. using e-mail, viral communication, group meetings and so on.
- Members of a team should co-operate with one another. Teamwork is not about competition.
Main Activity
Read the introduction then discuss how you would build a team
Role Play – Building the Team
In many organisations work is done in teams, usually with a team leader and a variety of team members with different skills. We commonly speak of someone being a team player, meaning that he/she works well with other people.
You and your tutor work for PGT Consulting, a company which specialises in troubleshooting and setting up monitoring and evaluation systems in the ‘social services’ sector, including NGO’s. You have been asked to set up a monitoring and evaluation system for Involve, an NGO which works with elderly people. You want a team of five people to undertake this.
Read the following profiles of different types of team members. Decide which of these types of people you want on your team. Remember you can only choose five!
A) Plant: Positive qualities: creative, imaginative, unorthodox, solves difficult problems.
Negative qualities: weak in communicating with and managing ordinary people.
B) Resource Investigator: Positive qualities: extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities, develops contacts.
Negative qualities: loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.
C) Co-ordinator: Positive qualities: mature, confident and trusting. A good chair. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making.
D) Shaper: Positive qualities: dynamic, outgoing, highly strung. Challenges, pressurises, finds ways round obstacles.
Negative qualities: prone to provocation and short-lived bursts of temper.
E) Monitor/Evaluator: Positive qualities: sober, strategic and discerning, sees all options. Judges accurately.
Negative qualities: lacks drive and ability to inspire others.
F) Team worker: Positive qualities: social, mild, perceptive and accommodating. Listens, builds, averts friction.
Negative qualities: indecisive in crunch situations.
G) Implementer: Positive qualities: disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.
Negative qualities: somewhat inflexible, slow to respond to new possibilities.
H) Completer: Positive qualities: painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions.
Negative qualities: inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate.
I) Specialist: Single-minded, self-starter, dedicated. Provides knowledge or technical skills in rare supply.
Negative qualities: contributes on only a narrow front.
At a Conference
1. Let’s Get Started
Read the following statements. To what extent do you agree/disagree with them?
- I never ask for directions or information if I can help it. I like to work things out on my own.
- When traveling or attending an event, I like to have as much information available as possible – guidebooks – maps – recommendations – leaflets etc.
- I think it would be fun to organize a conference.
2. Target Language
What time does … begin/finish/close?
How long does … last?
Where do I have to go to …?
Is there a … near here?
Where/When is … being served?
Do you happen to know …?
Do you know where the … is taking place?
What’s happening at … o’clock/after the speech?
Who’s the speaker?
How do I get to …?
Can you tell me how to …?
Which … are you planning to attend?
3. Let’s Practice
Review the questions above and adapt them to make questions that could be asked about a conference venue, schedule or facilities by inserting key conference vocabulary into the gaps.
4. Let’s Speak
You are a delegate at a technology conference. Unfortunately, your conference programme has a lot of information missing and you have not been given a map. Go to the information desk and ask a conference host/hostess (your trainer) lots of questions to provide you with the missing information.
Conference: Lincoln, UK.
If you have time, swap roles and play the part of the conference host/hostess.
Follow-up discussion
- Have you ever been to a conference? What was the venue like? Was it easy to find your way around?
- If you’ve never been to a conference, think of another event you have attended in your professional or personal life. What was the venue like? Was it easy to find your way around?
Plenary
- What have you learnt this lesson?
- What do you need to improve on before the next?
- What do you think would be useful to do next lesson for you to progress further?