presentations

Some confusion over who the presentation is aimed towards. Keep the presentation as real as possible. The presentation should be telling an external audience what actually happened on your assignment. A framework for the presentation could be:

• background - describe the problem to be solved
  
• what you attempted to do
• some of the issues that came out of the attempt
• what was the conclusion
• what are the next steps, if any
• what have I learned from doing the assignment

5 - 7 or at a maximum 6 - 8 slides will easily use up 10 minutes...

Core assessment criteria:

• clarity
• content
• check understanding

Making effective presentations - preparation


Developing objectives - the core message of the presentation (set the scene)

• Tell / Inform => to achieve => understanding
  Bare in mind the complexity of the information and understand the limitations and how much information can be taken from your presentation. Decide the core information you want to impart.
• Sell/influence => Buy in
  The core of selling is to promote the 'what's in it for me' aspect
• Impel/Direct/Motive => action
  Going against the tide, inspire to take action
• Entertain => Enjoyment

Assess the audience

• consider the 'language' to use
• don't make presumptions about what people already understand about the situation
  

identify key/sub points

• Mind map - brainstorm all the points then group them into key subject areas
• Put the key points into an order

Prepare the script/outline

• Do you want to use a script?

prepare visual aides, handouts, notes

• The presenter is the important focus the visual aids are secondary
• 3 - 4 bullet points max per slide
• Too much information is boring but too little info makes no sense to your audience afterwards
• Use consistent design - font, colour, size
  
• Graphics - a picture paints a thousand words.
  

practice
"The human brain starts working the moment you are born and doesn't stop until the moment you stand up to speak in public" - George Jessel

• Accept that you are going to be anxious, it's normal, you need the adrenaline
• Be organised
• Presentation should be personal and in plain language - be yourself
• Breathe deeply
• Watch your posture
• Maintain good eye contact with the audience
• Maintain a clear voice
  

Presentations
We all designed and delivered a presentation and evaluated each other - and got quite serious and a bit nervous but in the end had quite a bit of fun.

My presentation was about wikis

Leading your team

This is nice. I'm sat in the grounds of Cliffe House, waiting for my lift to arrive typing up this blog post in the sunshine. A great session today with lots of practical demonstrations to stimulate thought about the attributes of a good team and good leadership. And - as usual - a good dinner.

I also had a long chat with the caretaker over lunch who told me some of the history and struggles they have had at Cliffe House. The stories of passionate, caring employees with a strong belief in the value of Cliffe House would serve as a great example to many about staff motivation.

Leaders

Difference between a leader and a manager

Leader	Manager
See slide

References

F.W. Taylor – scientific management? Work measurement, systems of methods etc – time & motion studies…

Colt guns – break products down into constituent parts and build assembly lines. Management was about looking at the worker as another piece of equipment. Since the second world war people started to consider the well being of the staff as being important to production. This lead to motivational theories etc. Out of this grew the concept of the Leader as a person to inspire and influence teams.

Leadership and Management are two sides to the same coin. A good leader/manager should be able to switch between the two.

Theory

Tannenbaum and Schmidt continuum (slide) – demonstrates the spectrum of management styles.

Hersey and Blanchard (slide) – model for introducing a new starter or introducing someone to a new task for example.

Within organisations it is getting harder for a select few to know the details and run the whole organisation. Orchestra??

Break

Exercise: split into groups to discuss the pros and cons of different management styles.

Tell

Sell

Consult

Share

Responsibility can be delegated accountability can not

Authority is given power comes from a whole range of sources: a network of friends, connections, expertise (real or perceived), can come from authority, personal characteristics.

Theory E (empowerment theorists)

• Authority to make decisions
• Emphasis on team work
• Information sharing
• Clear boundaries
• Encouragement and recognition.

Self managed team/empowered teams

• Project based
• Clearly defined objectives, delegation of responsibility and authority limits (budget etc)
• No appointed leader – leadership may vary based on the task
• Team agrees roles, process and possibly related issues

Commitment, less staff turnover, engagement, reduced absenteeism, creativity, motivation

Sunflower exercise to discover the characteristics of effective teams.

Launching a new organisation.

One of those memorable and fun exercises in which we had to develop a new organisation and product and produce a logo and tv commercial. We all seemed naturally to understood the roles that were required and people seem to take on those roles individually but working to a common team goal. A self managed team emerged and worked very well together to complete the task.

   

 

Team roles analysis questionnaire Francis & Young.

This displayed our preferred roles but we must bare in mind that wd can step into the other areas when necessary to do so. Ideally a team should have a good spread of these attributes.

communication in the workplace

To understand the principles of effective communication processes in the workplace

What is it?

• The exchange of information
• A transfer of information resulting in action (in the workplace)

Communication process

Idea > encode > transmit > receive > decode > take action

Failure is most likely between transmit and receive and also in the decoding.

Components of communication

• Sender
• Message
• Receiver
• Feedback
• Results of receiving message
• Visual feedback – body language

ABC of Communication

In order to achieve results communication needs to be:

• Accurate
• Brief
• Clear

Be aware of the human element: when giving instructions people have a tendency to say that they understand the instruction when they might not. This can lead to mistakes being made.

Develop ways to make sure that people understand exactly what it is you want.

Develop relationships with people where they are not afraid to say that they don’t understand.

Encourage an atmosphere where good feedback is the norm.

Challenge any language being used that you don’t understand.

Always bear emotional intelligence in mind when communicating – especially when by email, phone etc.

Exercise: Methods of communication

In groups we discussed various methods of communication. These all fitted into the following catergories:

• Oral
• Visual
• Written
• Internal
• External

Advantages and Disadvantages of the different methods of communication – [hand out]

Listening skills

Active listening

If you want good relationships with colleagues and staff active listening is a very important skill to develop. Be aware of and use both body language and verbal affirmation to show the person talking to you that you are listening.

Barriers to active listening. Think about the environment in which you are communicating does it put up barriers eg Physical – furniture – boss behind big desk etc

Questioning skills

Open questions

Obtain information eg. 'Tell me about the main duties in your last job’

'Tell me about a time when…'

Where, when, who, how, and why

Closed Question

Confirm details eg ‘You worked there for 2 years?’

Probing Questions

Clarify an issue

Help you get a fuller picture

Eg ‘How did you…?

Questions to avoid

• Double headed questions, 2 part questions Eg 'what skills did you are need in your last job and why?’
• Multiple choice
  
• Leading Questions: Giving the person the answer you’re looking for eg 'Do you work well under pressure?'

The funnel technique 

Broad, open ended

Probe

Narrow down

Close

Summarise

http://www.faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/appraisal/skilful-questioning-and-active-listening

Cross Cultural Communication

A very lively car crash scenario was acted out with true Shakespearean prowess by Tom and Michelle to rapturous applause. The demonstration of victims in a car crash was to show how subtle behavioural traits caused by differences in culture can influence communication.

Communication styles

• Assertive
• You’re OK I’m OK
• Passive
• You’re OK I’m not OK
• Aggressive
• I’m OK you’re not OK

Transactional Analysis

Conversations are a transaction

Ego states

Everyone has a number of parts to their personality called ego states Parent, Adult, Child

• Parent
• Nurturing
• Critical
• Adult
• Rational
• Deals with facts
• Collects information
• Evaluates alternatives
• Thinks before acting
• Behaves logically
• Child
• Natural
• Rebellious
• Compliant

Adult isn’t always the most natural reaction

Adult to adult is often the most effective

Adult can be cold and unfeeling – not always the most appropriate

Nurturing Parent and Natural Child can be effective

Other states very rarely effective – but Critical Parent very common in managers

Crossed transaction lines mean potential conflict

I might just not be getting this but a) I’m not comfortable in the analytical labelling of people and b) I don’t like the labels as describing the behaviour of Adults as being [n]Child seems to carry negative connotations.

Things you can do to improve communications in your workplace

kernackered

I have learned during this course that dominance and bossyness <> team leader.

I'm happy with that.

This takes ages. I would appreciate all comments.

dealing with change in the workplace (conflict)

Conflict

Vic and Bob exercise

To demonstrate the complexities involved in dealing with conflict. These are varied and many, the overall answer seeming to be: 'It Depends'

Martin’s dream. Get them into a room and ask them to draw up a list of 10 things that are good about the other person. Recognise the positives and recognise the value in each other.

Recognise that the causes of conflict are many and varied.

Esprit d’escaliera

Slides – expected standards of performance

Accept that the standard you set originally is the one you should keep – Don’t raise the standard because a person constantly performs higher than the standard you have set. The same is also true regarding lowering standards.

• Identify the gap
• Explore the reasons for it
• Take corrective action
• Don’t assume an instant result
• Has the person got the correct resources to do their job
• Training and development – do they know what they are supposed to do
• Change the nature of the work they are doing – let them play to their strengths
• Closer supervision – spend some time with them, do some joint work with them
• Final resort one of the 3 Ds
• Discipline
• Demotion
• Dismissal
• Review progress

Exercise

Building lego house with a subversive in the group  This ranged from destruction to lack of input.

Too focused on the task (again) though I did try - successfully - to draw the group away from the task and deal with the person causing the conflict.

Be mindful that mistakes can be made in identifying the person creating the conflict.

We noticed a discrepancy within the interpretation of the task. Once we had identified the source of the conflict we tried several methods for dealing with it. None of these worked and it resulted in the dismissal of the perpetrator. Even after we had discovered the ‘set up’ it was very difficult to deal with the conflict.

motivating the work team to perform day 2

Remember: If new ways of working can take up to 2 months before the results begin to appear. Too much concentration on the launch and lack of focus on follow up is a common mistake.

Plan for wba – important to have objective

Motivating the team to perform.

What gets you started and keeps you moving.

“Spare time”

Usually a reason for doing the things we do. All motivation theories revolve around:

• Reward
• Enjoyment
• Risk of consequences
• Curiosity
• Needs
• Commitment
• Just felt like it…

We all have our own drivers when making these choices but to a large degree they are our choices. The situation is different when at work.

Exercise comparing our key motivators and how they compare to what we think our managers think motivate us.

The post industrial revolution era brought about an emphasis on efficiency and production line mentality. It wasn't until the 1930/40s that the thought of how workers felt might also increase efficiency.

Old school - Purely a business relationship/contract between manager and workers

New theory –

Maslow: Hierarchy of needs.

(nnn) how these relate to the workplace

• Physiological needs - Hunger, thirst, sleep (money)
• Safety (physical / emotional) - Shelter, police, pension (Job security)
• Social Needs - Belonging to a group, social activities, love, friendship (Team)
• Esteem Needs - Self respect, status, recognition (Praise)
• Self actualisation - Growth, personal development, success (Development)

Herzberg

Hygiene	Motivators
If exists	If
Pay – short term Working conditions Pension funds Dignity at work policy A lack of any of these factors may cause job dissatisfaction	Are related to the content of the work and can cause job satisfaction Responsibility Sense of achievement Challenge Self improvement recognitions

McGregor

2 types of managers: theory X and Y

X – the old style believe that workers are lazy, lack ambition, resist change and not very bright and need to be organised, controlled, rewarded or punished.

Y – Active, ambitious, able to accept change, resourceful. And need to be organised, encouraged, to be given objectives.

Ouchi

• Z – share decision making
• No artificial barriers between staff and management
• Better comms
• Individual responsibility
• Encouragement and recognition

E – Empowerment theorists.

• Give people the authority to make decisions
• Emphasis on team work
• Information sharing
• Clear boundaries – removal of boundaries
• Encouragement and recognition

Wikepedia

Under performance – performance discrepancy

Formal approaches – the policy and HR route

The difference between what we expect and what we get. = performance gap

Why does it happen?

Exercise – airport leaflet not being delivered to customers. To identify possible reasons. All reasons fall into 3 categories:

• Lack in knowledge, information or skills
• Too busy
• Staff not informed
• Staff turnover
• Attitude
• Too busy
• Appropriate / important
• complacency
• Environment
• No leaflets
• Too busy
• Self check in
• Customers don’t understand
• Staff turnover
• Monitoring fail
• Customer refusing to taking leaflet

Solutions

L: Training, coaching

A: Coaching, motivating, discipline (all dependant on individual – can not insist on staff changing attitude but we can insist upon change in behaviour)

E: Change the environment to address the issues.

Exercise to recognise the complexities of situations where under performance is occurring: Scenario – Jo, an admin worker with problems completing assignments.

motivating the work team to perform

David brought in some big green bags full of big mechano. 

In this task we were split inot 2 teams each of which recieved instructions to build a hoist to certain specifications which had to lift a 'bomb' in a prescribed manner. After doing this we had to dismantle the hoist and instruct the other team how to reconstruct it successfully.

Of course forgetting that we were not there to learn how to play with giant mechano, we fell into the trap of becoming completely task focused omitting to put into practice the theories we had been learning.

Upon completion of the task we discussed what happened.

Feelings

• Some people needed help visualising the end product
• Left out
• Feelings of being ignored
• Energetic
• Felt pressures of time limit and focused on the task not the team
• Frustration caused by a lack of coordination
  

 What happened

• Initially enthusiastic / subsequent frustration
• People diving in / lack of coordination
• Stronger personalities took over
• Not playing to or assessing strengths
• Signs of frustration – detachment
• Lots of role swapping
• Suggestions ignored / domineering personalities
• Teams broke down into groups
• Conflict of time v quality panic
• Swapped team leader

Competitive

• Too many leaders / noise
  

Did you have a clearer idea of the taks the first or second time round?

Most people felt the first instructions were better though in theory the 2^nd  time of building the hoist should have been easier as the teams had already had the experience and vision from the first time.

What were our objectives what do we want to achieve? Did we want to win the competition or build something fit for purpose? No right answer but is something that needs to be clarified at the start.

Looking back at the theory that we had discussed before the practical application, we all said we would have a team meeting, consultation, get feedback analysise skills etc. We all forgot this when the big mechano came out.

Team leading isn’t always about being the engineer or the one with ideas but the one who facilitates and makes sure everybody contributes and adds value.

We didn’t implement our theory into the practice. The excersise demonstrated well these issues. Doing the practical exercise was a 'step back into reality' after all the theory.

We could all be better planners and keeping your nerve when you need to spend a little time to save a lot later can reap rewards.

Monitoring the Team’s work

Keep control of what’s going on but don’t be overbearing.

Why should you?

Hersey and Blanshard

Directive and Support behaviour

How

Observation, discussion, checking outputs

Which areas of work should you monitor?

Pick out the key areas of the role – customer related aspects, risks, complaints, key performance problems, hidden areas

What to measure against

PIs, targets, standards

What do you do with the results

Feedback to individual, keep in your own records, escalate up to your boss.

Monitor to develop individual and  to cover your arse.

planning & monitoring work

Organisational Skills > creativity(brainstorming – mind mapping) > analytical (listing)

• Planning & monitoring
• Deadlines
• Timescales
• Priorities
• Resources

 Good Plan

• Listing activities
• Realistic
• Flexible
• Achievable
• Who does what – make sure there is no duplication and make sure people are working to their strengths
• Build in contingency
• Assess risks
• Contains some form on consultation with all key parties
• SMART

If staff don’t know what is expected of them how can they achieve anything?

Issuing tasks – who does what and why?

Priority / importance of task may influence who you give the task to but you shouldn’t make a habit of always giving the important work to the same person. This can lead to negative effects eg. overloading or feelings of favouritism in other team members leading to resentment and maybe conflict.

Try to make sure that a team has the right mix of skills to give it the flexibility to cover a range of tasks efficiently. The right skills mix can be achieved through focused recruitment, training & development. Using a skills audit matrix can help you to analyse the skills mix of a team and identify where possible areas of development may exists. 

[pic of skills matrix]

Action plan

An action plan should have: Clear objective, Clear objective, Clear objective

Try to think what your objectives are for each component of your plan. For example if you need a meeting with your manager be clear what it is you want from that meeting? Focus on the ultimate objective. 

WBA

Break projects down – micro manage every aspect for work based assignment. First few points put in points about consultation with manager/team and at the end commit to some sort of evaluation (organise meeting/ get team together, research figures, analyse results and research if project is achieving what it set out to achieve. Step back and review and monitor

Team Leader application task

After the coffee break we to part in a group exercise where we considered a scenario in which we were being applying for the role of a Team Leader in charge on floundering project - (home access to council services via TV). We had to consider the situation and present a plan as to how we would solve the issues. Plans involved: 

• Consulting existing staff
• Identifying problems
• Establishing solutions
• Creating a vision
• Training staff
• Allotting tasks
• Reviewing

Lunch

Presentations from scenario exercise.

what's a blog steve?

Apologies for assuming y'all knew what a blog was. Instead of another long winded description from me I've found a really nice video which explains blogs in plain english for you to take a look at.

Day 5 dealing with change in the workplace

Keep it in you pocket or bag preferably in a purse to aid ease of finding.

Work based assignment – managing change and solving problems

Attitudes to change

Relating back to diversity from the previous day, we started off exploring the different ways in which people view and react to change and how this could be managed to improve the transition. Four general types of behaviour were identified:

• Follower – communicate goals and vision – make sure they follow you
  
• Sleeper – focus pair them with??
  
• Blocker – give responsibility and challenges
  
• Activator – need managing so they do not run away on a whim, challenge, carefronting
  

It is not advisable to ignore any of these traits and you must be aware that people may jump from one to another depending on the circumstances.

Is your mind set?

People are generally change averse – but, interestingly not one of us is. Well not today anyway. 

Established technology of the day – Frankllin Knight presentation.

A short history lesson about the Battle of Crecy 1346 was used to demonstrate how flexibility and a positive attitude to change led to a different mindset and the invention of new technologies – specifically the long bow - which won the battle. I’ve written ‘Battle of Poitier’ in my notes here and I’m not entirely sure why. 

Flip-flop

Cool, I seem to remember David Cameron accusing Gordon Brown of this.

Turning a situation on it’s head is a useful technique which can help to change mindsets and help to  foster creative thinking.

• If big – think small
  
• If small – consider big
  
• If 9 - 5 – why not try 24/7
  
• If striped – go check
  
• If fast – try slow
  

Some points to help recognise mind sets

• Believe in our own rhetoric
  
• Self important and congratulatory
  
• Dismiss new ideas without thinking
  
• Blame others
  
• Over manage
  
• You are on a treadmill – Groundhog day
  

Identify mindsets and and practice the flip-flop technique. Eg why change? – engage with the team and get them to tell you what the advantages are.

A small aside – Martin told us that he was replacing the ILM course at the next intake with a similar course run by the Chartered Management Institute.

Change de-skills people (extreme) danger of.. (need more here)

Teaching the elephant to dance – slides

Top Tip Get a team to identify where change is needed and come up with a solution rather than tell them. Martin suggested it might also be useful for you to oppose the team in this excersise.

Lunch

After stuffing ourselves with pies

Change Drivers - what prompts change?

Efficiencies	Media (baby P, shannon m)
monitoring	Customers
Ideas from new people	Economy
People leaving	Suppliers
Training	Technology
Realidsation	Ecology / environment
Flip-flop	Social environment and developments

We need 2 drivers with detailed background (story/explanation) for our worked based assingment...

Not strictly neccersary but finding internal/external drivers is a good mix

We broke into groups to identify and discuss changes that went well and change that didn't go well and the differences between the two. Why did one succeeded and one fail? What helped and what hindered the change? This helped us to identify good and bad practice when managing change.

Good Practice	Bad Practice
Clear Vision	Knee jerk reactions
Consultation	Unfairness
Collaboration	Surprise
Planning Team - Don't treat everyone the same visible - Misinformation editable	No obvious benefit demostrated

• Testing/Piloting
• Timing
• Training
• Engaging
• Reviewing
  • what went well?
  • what went wrong?
  • check whether everyone has come through the change ok.

Identify a strategy for informating people. You may need to get certain people onboard before others. 

Start with the problem NOT a solution

Four Main ingredients for Managed Change (presentation - shared folder)

Pressure for change

Vision and Purpose

Capacity for change (resources, training, people, building, customers)

Next Steps (plan - how are you going to get there)

What if one is missing?

No pressure (no flames and smoke) = No change and resistance and drift

No Vission (purpose) = Resistance (I don't know where I'm going), cynicism

No Capacity = Disengagement, Frustration, staff turnover, Disputes

No Next Steps (plan) = No planned change, Cynicism

What to do - drivers....

Pressure - scan the environment. what are the issues now that will have an effect later. Media, trends etc.

Vision & Purpose - Engage and involve staff and have a vision

Capacity for change - create enablers and reduce blocks (acitvators could take some of the effort)

Next steps - Plan - get organised - learn

Change - Evaluate, Review (go back to the beginning again and check)

Each group then did an excersise where we looked at different scenarios. In the scenario we had to identify what the issues were and how we would deal with them and how we would take a team along with us.

Day 4 diversity in the workplace

The term 'political correctness' carries negative connotations. This negativity has been generated mainly by media coverage and is mainly due to tensions between political opinions. But does that mean that we should do nothing?

We moved on to do an activity which demonstrated the differences between people. This consisted of a set of questions which started off being quite general and gradually became more specific. As the questions got more specific the differences became apparent. This lead to an exchange of anecdotes about how we have all pre-judged people from time to time and what the consequences were.

Tom then talked about how a Social Model (or self identification/classification) was taking over from a Medical Model: People are disabled by the way a society is designed rather than their differences. For example: If a wheelchair user is unable to get on a bus or access a building, that person has been disabled by society - the design of the bus or the building which hasn't taken into consideration the needs of a diverse spectrum of people.

The difference between Equal Opportunities and Diversity were discussed. This brought to light something that I have often pondered; the fact that a society struggles to deliver equal opportunities to a population with unequal needs and preferences. This was summarised with a fantastic analogy:

• Equal Opportunities = Melting Pot
• Diversity = Stir Fry

Translated as Equal Opps attempts to take the differences which exist between every individual and boil them down to the lowest common denominator, whilst Diversity recognises those differences and tries to use them to adapt.

Slides

Diversity makes the most of what individual differences bring to the organisation - always a compromise between the needs of the majority balanced against the individual.

Equality: when we treat people equal but ignore the differences

Equity: recognise difference

Drivers for change for diversity include: legal, customer, community focus, reputation and public profile, contribution to a fair society and demographics.

We went on to look at a brief history of modern equality legislation which, amongst other things highlighted just how recently societies were extremely unfair.

• 1975 Sex Discrimination Act
• 1976 Race Relations Act
• 1995 Disability Discrimination Act
• 2000 Race Relations (Amendment) Act
• 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation and Religious Belief)
• 2006 Employment Equality (Age Discrimination)

Jane Elliott and the Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes Exercise

We watched this video and though I've seen it before still found it incredible. I won't got into a long winded discussion about it when I can link to a summary on the bbc

Two things struck me about what the kids did in this video. One was that the perception of superiority made the kids perform better (so not a good argument for equality??) and the other was how encouragement and positivity increased performance.

We all hold values (some quite strongly)

We all make assumptions about people and situations

We talk briefly about how media effects prejudice but not taking any notes on this bit I'm a bit vague on the details. I could go on a rant about media, advertising and manipulation but it probably wouldn't be healthy for me :-)

Categorising and dealing with prejudice

What do you do?

What can you do?

Deciding to challenge:

Anylise the behaviour against criteria which includes: 

• Does the behaviour fit in with law or KMC policy/expectation?
• How would the behaviour be viewed at a tribunal?
• How would the behaviour be viewed by a senior manager?
• Is it respectful and dignified?
• Is there any stereotyping?
• Could you justify not challenging the behaviour if someone else did?
• Could the behaviour cause offense?

We looked at the pros and cons of different ways of challenging prejudicial behaviour.

Challenging without confronting - public

Pros

witnessed, seen by victim and all present

Cons

Can cause embarassment, can be viewed as negative, may be dismissed by the group if they support the perpertrator

Challenging without confronting - private

Pros

Confidential,  minimise embarassment, opportunity to discuss, no support of perpertrator from peers.

Cons

Not public, victim may not know about the challenge, you may be thought to support the perpertrator

Intent V. Effect

Then intent of the behaviour is irrelevant if it causes offence or discomfort

The justification that nobody minds is doesn't hold water as people may not be comfortable speaking up in protest of the behaviour

It doesn't matter if the victim is present or not, the behaviour is still prejudice and intollerable.

Challenging without confronting

• Monitor the behaviour of the people involved
• Restate the expected standards of behaviour
• Re-educate what and why the behaviour is unacceptable
• Make the potential consequences of the behaviour clear

A very enlightening day. Took too many notes and left it too long before I typed them up but here they are. Please comment, critisize, and add your own interpretation of the day, which I'm sure, and certainly hope are different from mine.

preparatory jottings

What makes an effective leader

Management is about controlling and problem solving.
Leading is about motivating and inspiring a team.

It is the leader's job to create the vision (doesn't have to be grand) and direction for their team/department:

• where are we going
• how will we get there
• how does this fit into to organisation's overall strategy

The vision is a leader's most important motivational tool which helps to align resources and keeps team members focused on tasks.

Vision
A vision is a description of an altered and improved future and has 3 important purposes:

1. Clarifies the general direction for the future - knowing the direction helps people make decisions and move forward more confidently
   
2. Motivates people to take action in the right direction
3. Helps coordinate the actions of different people efficiently - helps people work out what to do by themselves.
   

skin of my teeth

Just got my reflective review and short answer course work submitted on time but not with enough time to make the changes suggested by the excellent feedback from Martin.

Note to self. Get it done sooner next time as you never know what's around the corner.

CTL10 Learning Set Meeting

3rd December 2008
10:00am to 12:00pm
Waverley Chambers

Attendees:
Amanda Kitchen (minutes), Debbie Hall (Chair), Andrew Gardner, Carol Tompkin, Karen Fletcher, Kathy Birkby, Marie-Claire Micuta, Martin Richardson, Steven Tuck

1. Apologies & Minutes (DH)
2. Ice-breaker (MCM)
3. Feedback on Previous Workshop (All)
4. Team Leader/Manager Experiences (All)
5. Discussions on assignment (All)
6. AOB (All)
7. Next Meeting (All)
   

Day 3 Managing yourself

Firstly: hurray, I managed to pick up the books I've been waiting for! I called at Slaithwaite sorting office to collect Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky, and Everything is Miscellaneous - The power of the new digital disorder by David Weinberger, before setting off for Cliffe House. A very pleasant autumnal morning drive this morning.

Tom started off by identifying some points for guidance:

• What am I supposed to do?
• How do I plan it?
• How well am I doing it?
• What do I do if things change?
• Have SMART objectives
• Time & Priority management
• Monitoring
• Flexibility

We discussed setting objectives in an organised way using the SMART model:
1. Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve.
2. Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.
3. Achievable - Are the objectives you set achievable and attainable?
4. Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
5. Timely – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

We discussed the question "How can we make this a better tree?" which demonstrated that we needed to define the terms (eg what is meant by 'better') to clarify the objective. After this we thought about our individual roles and how we could apply SMART objectives to them.

Note: On large projects, build in milestones - each milestone is an objective.

Time Wasters
We discussed issues that may affect productivity such as process issues (are they engineered to be efficient?) and personal time wasters (including tiredness, lack of focus, fatigue). Developing self awareness can guide to the development of a personal strategy to aid efficiency and job satisfaction.

Moving on to the difference between urgent and important, Tom introduced us to a chart on which to plot tasks; I remembered this from when I did the Time & Priority Management course with Martin. (I turned up late to the first day of this course, and had to postpone the second day!).

Some of the qualities of a good team leader/manager were identified as:
organised, motivated, enthusiastic, decisive, supportive, approachable, communicative, consistent, understanding and able to get equal input from all members of staff (e.g. in team meetings). We were told to bear in mind that some people were naturally quiet and do not have a lot to say.

We moved on to do an interesting practical excercise in the analysis of a problem from a member of staff. This involved listening to an actual problem and separating the facts from emotion and discovering what the intentions of the person making the complaint were likely to be. A tricky process which will require some practice, I think.

Broke for lunch, had a stroll around the grounds and a read of Clay Shirky.

The afternoon was all about stress and its effects on the individual and some techniques for dealing with stress. I'm not going to write much more that this about it here as I'm trying to keep this short. An important thing to bear in mind when dealing with a member of staff who has 'lost it' is to remember that you will not always be in possession of all the facts that have lead up to the incident. This was demonstrated through the story of Candida's unfortunate run of accidents resulting in her 'exploding' at a paramedic.

Day 2 Developing yourself as a team leader and Leading your work team

A less stressful journey this morning as I had petrol in the car.

Started the day with what Martin called an FOE exercise (focus, openness, energy). This brought our attention to our current state of mind and behaviour and whether we needed to change them in order to get the most out of the day.

Is it important to know the outcomes in advance of a task?

Forming Shapes
We were split into 3 groups and instructed to form various shapes of increasing complexity. As the shapes got more complex more communication and leadership was required. It was interesting to note that in each case the person with a vision of the shape lead the rest of the group into forming the shape. We discussed what people's perception of the exercise was, and what emotional responses they felt during the exercise; these ranged from enjoyment to anxiety. Would we do the task differently if we had to do it again?

This was a nice lead-in to The Kolb Learning Circle.

The Kolb Learning Circle demonstrates the learning process using a 4 step cycle: Doing (experience); Review (reflection); Theorise; and Plan (how to use this knowledge in future situations). Following this cycle/spiral maximises the learning to be gained from a situation.

For me, the highlight of the day was the Hollow Square exercise. We were split into 2 groups of staff and two groups of supervisors. The staff were sent to other rooms to await instructions from their supervisors. The supervisors were given a complex jigsaw which - when put together correctly - formed a square with a small square hole in the middle. The supervisors had to verbalise the construction of the shape to their staff who had to replicate it with their jigsaw pieces.

The first mistake we made was to leave our staff sitting alone in a room with no idea what was going on. This lead to them feeling alienated and frustrated that nobody was looking after their welfare, and it also wasted time. We should have had a supervisor with them explaining in advance what the task was going to be and forming them into teams.

We also failed to identify and divide the tasks up amongst the supervisors (though we did remember to keep track of the time). By the time we went to the room containing our alienated and aggrieved staff they were probably not in a co-operative mood.

Our plan to commit the solution to the puzzle to memory soon began to fail. I began to feel frustrated and anxious and was at a complete loss at what to do to help. After a fairly agonising start I realised that our tactic only utilised 1 member of staff and 1 supervisor. Everybody else was standing around watching in frustration. The light went on and I suggested to the team of supervisors that we split the task up and each take a section each. We could then convey our 'product' to separate groups of staff then bring the parts together to form the whole. Straight away, everybody in both teams had a job to do and attitudes changed instantly. There was now a buzz of excitement about the task and people became more engaged and co-operative. The task was completed successfully within the time limit to a great sense of achievement.

What did we do wrong? We failed to organise either group and, forgetting John Adair's plate spinner (task, group, individual) - which we were introduced to only yesterday - we focused entirely on the task.

I don't think I'll ever forget this exercise. It was a powerful demonstration of the complexities and difficulties in organising and leading a team. I feel the utmost sympathy for anybody that has ever had to manage me.

Trust...

Nudged a fantastic drop of fish down for my lunch before conducting a tour of the Web Development Memorial Fence.

After lunch we learnt about the Leadership Spectrum and applying appropriate leadership styles in different situations.

Giving and recieving feedback

Reflective review to be submitted by 3.00pm 5th January 2009 (don't forget your draft)

Late, headache, already written more than I intended; hopefully add the rest later.

Induction day

The day started off with a few ice breakers and the usual round of introductions. There was a general feeling of excitement and curiosity in the room. I don't think any of us quite knew what to expect.

In teams we launched into a quiz designed to familiarise us with the outline of the course. The last part of the quiz required us to write a brief summary of the course objectives. After much Pop Idols style deliberation by the training team our answer:
"To equip people with the skills to effectively manage teams in the fullfilment of efficient and effective service delivery."
was chosen and just about nudged us into the lead.

The point of the quiz, of course, was not to see who could score the most points but to demonstrate the need for leadership and predictably we all fell into the traps. Nobody monitored the time being taken (we were given 10 minutes - it actually took 16) and we failed to take a review of the task and share the work between team members for efficiency eg divide the questions up or appoint a scribe. This lead to over running the time limit and the production of too many answer sheets. This proved to be a very effective demonstration.

Communication and collaboration are to be assisted by the use of shared folders in Groupwise; one for the whole group and one for each of the learning sets which we were going to be put into.

We were advised to always submit a draft of any written assignments by 12.00 on the Thursday before the deadline. All assignments need to be in electonic format and submitted to the given email address.

We broke for the usual high quality Cliffe House lunch.

After lunch we were put into to learning sets. Each learning set consists of 8 people and acts as a support and collaboration network. We agreed the agenda, venue and date of first meeting with difficulty as people with digital diaries could not access them.

An excercise to discover the qualities of good leadership led me to think about Joel Leach, a lecturer of mine whilst studying music at Northridge University in Los Angeles. What I remember most about Joel is that his inspiration, drive and enthusiasm always left you feeling empowered, motivated and valued. Must look Joel up on t'interweb.

Limits of Authority
Introduced to John Adair and his book Action Centred Leadership in which he describes a supervisor/manager role through a 3 part model: task needs, group needs and individual needs. The analogy used was that of a circus plate spinner.

In our groups we discussed various scenarios which required some leadership. Our group discussed Staff Interruptions. This lead us to a discussion about what factors would limit the free reign of a team leader:

• Union agreement
• Policies and procedures
• Expenditure
• Procurement
• HR
• Emas
• Difficulty of the work, grievance/disciplinary
• Child protection
• Legislation
• Data protection
• FOI
• DDA

We also discussed the limitations of specific projects.

• Use of equipment
• Resources
• Time scales
• Capacity
• Professional standards

We ended the day with a video called The Boss. This followed Brian and Lee - one the boss of a traditional manufacturing company and the other of a modern media company - as they swapped positions and ran each other's companies for 2 weeks. The two of them had very different managerial styles and it soon became clear that the one with the greatest involvement with the needs of customer, company and staff was going to be the most successful. Must look out for this on YouTube.

Preparation

Embarking on a training in a whole new area - ILM Level 2 Certificate in Team Leading - this should be fun. Started off by looking for ILM website. Found it and sure enough it there's a link to study resources.

Had to fill in a mind numbingly lengthy registration form for some reason and now waiting for activation email.....

which has given me an esoteric user name to remember. It may be that I have been misled. The web site now seems not to offer any study advice for my course and is recomending a course that is suitable for my level of experience based on the information I entered in the mind numbingly lengthy registration process. Funnily enough the course the web site is recomending is the same one that I entered in the mind numbingly lenghty.....!

Found it now. Brilliant! chock full of resources. It looks like I'm going to enjoy this. May have to back off on the soc med research slightly to accomodate the reading list but must be careful not to lose the current momentum.