Trainer's Notes for the UNHCR Emergency Management Training

Teamwork Skills

Session at a glance

Content / Approx. Time / Instructional Activity
Opening Discussion and Communications Perception Game / 25 minutes / Plenary Presentation & warm-up exercise
Presentation of Team Skills and Belbin Team type analysis / 60 minutes / Presentation with Q&A and personal exercise
Wrap-up / 5 minutes / Summary and Feedback
Total Time / 90 minutes

Main objectives

After completing this session, participants will be able to:

  • Describe the skills they need to work in a team
  • Discuss the use of basic good communication skills
  • Think about their roles on a team and the type of role they are likely to play by nature

Supplies

  • Flip chart and markers
  • Data or Overhead projector
  • Applicable overheads
  • Belbin test and score sheets

General guidance

This session includes both team theory and communications skills. It may also be a predecessor to the “Meetings” session and if so, you should coordinate them. If this takes place as a debrief from the simulation, be sure to bring in examples from the simulation.

Key Points

Main points and themes in this session include:

  1. There were times in the simulation when participants acted as a team and some where they should have but didn’t.
  2. A team is a group of people acting together toward mutual goals
  3. There are many examples of failures in humanitarian assistance to act as a team either on a small or large scale.
  4. The basic lessons are repeated over and over: coordination requires good communication, and the development of trusting relationships over time.
  5. Much can be learned from corporations, particularly automotive industry in Japan where Kaizen – or constant improvement - and team work made them winners
  6. Good communication takes time and requires many listening and talking skills. People remember only about 25% of what they hear. They think at 800 words a minute but hear only 225 so their brains are moving faster than they can listen.
  7. One of the main barriers to communications is our biases. The ladder of inference demonstrates how we develop our biases that become so ingrained that we cannot distinguish them.
  8. There are two important skills in teamwork – listening and sharing/disclosure.
  9. Active Listening helps to work through the biases and turn off the part of the brain that is not listening.
  10. Teams typically go through four stages of development
  11. There are three levels of team work which must be honored – the team, the task and the individual
  12. The Belbin Analysis is a way of looking at yourself as a team member and predicts how you will act, both negatively and positively.

Supplementary/Additional Reading

Harper, Ann and Bob, Skill Building for Self-Directed Team Members, MW Corporation, 1992.

Senge, Peter, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, Doubleday, 1994.

Session Activities

Opening Discussion and Communications Perception Game

25 minutes
  1. Open the session by asking for the definition of team work. Then ask some questions related to the simulation (this can also be made into a group exercise):
  • When did you act like a team?
  • What prompted the team work – desperation or strategic planning?
  • When should teamwork have taken place but didn’t?
  • What were the constraints to working as a team?
  • Can you see where a team approach might have facilitated the operation?
  • Who was responsible for consolidating a team?
  1. Humanitarians have still to learn how to form teams consistently and coordinate for better results. Give some examples of how corporations have learned to effectively form teams for constant improvement. What motivates them to do so?

Plenary exercise

  1. This exercise serves as an energizer early in the session. Select two - two person teams. One team may be from the same country speaking in a different language than English. Place them at opposite ends of the front of the room with flip charts and pens. One person will draw and the other will instruct. The person that draws cannot look at the overhead screen. The person that instructs cannot use their hands but only their voice to communicate the instructions to make the drawing.
  1. The instructions will appear on the overhead. Then the drawing will appear. Be sure the drawing is timed to appear one part at a time over the space of a few minutes. As soon as the drawing begins to appear, the drawing may begin. The pace of the competition should pick up as the drawing becomes more complicated. Stop the exercise when frustrations begin to rise.
  1. The messages from the exercise are that communication is difficult, requires intense listening and good talking skills, and takes a long time.

Presentation of Team Skills and Individual Exercise

60 minutes
  1. Following the overheads created for this session, continue on with description of the ladder of inference and ensure that everyone understands the implication in communication and the need to draw in different perspectives.
  1. Continue with a discussion of active listening, team stages of development and the important three focuses of teamwork touching on the above key points.
  1. Individual exercise: This exercise is time consuming but really worthwhile. The questions are very thought provoking. You may need to go around the room to be sure that everyone understands the ranking system used. People may need help to interpret some of the harder concepts. At the end of the time, ask how many fell into each category and describe how the results can be used to know your strengths and weaknesses and to perhaps work on your weaker skills.

Conclusion

5 minutes

Conclude the session by summarizing some of the key points and reminding participants to bear their strengths and weaknesses in mind as they work in teams. .

THE BELBIN SELF-PERCEPTION INVENTORY

DIRECTIONS:

For each section distribute a total of ten points among the sentences which you think most accurately describe your behaviour. These points may be distributed in any way amongst the sentences; in extreme cases they might be spread among all the sentences or ten points may be given to a single sentence. Enter the points in the answer sheet provided.

Section IWHAT I BELIEVE I CAN CONTRIBUTE TO A TEAM:

No.

10 / I think I can quickly see and take advantage of new opportunities.
11 / I can work well with a very wide range of people.
12 / Producing ideas is one of my natural assets.
13 / My ability rests in being able to draw people out whenever I detect they have something of value to contribute to group objectives.
14 / I can be relied upon to finish any task I undertake.
15 / My technical knowledge and experience is usually my major asset.
16 / I am prepared to be blunt and outspoken in the cause of making the right things happen.
17 / I can usually tell whether a plan or idea will fit a particular situation.
18 / I can offer a reasoned and unbiased case for alternative courses of action.

Section IIIF I HAVE A POSSIBLE SHORTCOMING IN TEAM WORK, IT COULD BE THAT:

No.

19 / I am not at ease unless meetings are well structured and controlled and generally well conducted.
20 / I am inclined to be too generous towards others who have a valid view point that has not been given a proper airing.
21 / I am reluctant to contribute unless the subject deals with an area I know well.
22 / I have a tendency to talk a lot once the group gets on to a new topic.
23 / My objective outlook makes it difficult for me to join in readily and enthusiastically with colleagues.
24 / I am sometimes seen as forceful and authoritarian when dealing with important issues.
25 / I find it difficult to lead from the front, perhaps because I am over-responsive to group atmosphere.
26 / I am apt to get too caught up in ideas that occur to me and so lose track of what is happening.
27 / I am reluctant to express my opinions on proposals or plans that are incomplete or insufficiently detailed.

Section IIIWHEN INVOLVED IN A PROJECT WITH OTHER PEOPLE:

No.

28 / I have an aptitude for influencing people without pressurising them.
29 / I am generally effective in preventing careless mistakes or omissions from spoiling the success of an operation.
30 / I like to press for action to make sure that the meeting does not waste time or lose sight of the main objective.
31 / I can be counted on to contribute something original.
32 / I am always ready to back a good suggestion in the common interest.
33 / I am quick to see the possibilities in new ideas and developments.
34 / I try to maintain my sense of professionalism.
35 / I believe my capacity for judgement can help to bring about the right decisions.
36 / I can be relied on to bring an organised approach to the demands of the job.

Section IVMY CHARACTERISTIC APPROACH TO GROUP WORK:

No.

37 / I maintain a quiet interest in getting to know colleagues better.
38 / I contribute where I know what I am talking about.
39 / I am not reluctant to challenge the view of others or to hold a minority view myself.
40 / I can usually find a line of argument to refute unsound propositions
41 / I think I have a talent for making things work once a plan has to be put into operation.
42 / I prefer to avoid the obvious and to open up lines that have not been explored.
43 / I bring a touch of perfectionism to any job I undertake.
44 / I like to be the one to make contacts outside the group or the firm.
45 / While I am interested in hearing all views I have no hesitation in making up my mind once a decision has to be made.

Section VI GAIN SATISFACTION IN A JOB BECAUSE:

No.

46 / I enjoy analysing situations and weighing up all the possible choices.
47 / I am interested in finding practical solutions to problems.
48 / I like to feel I am fostering good working relationships.
49 / I can have a strong influence on decisions.
50 / I have a chance of meeting new people with different ideas.
51 / I can get people to agree on priorities and objectives
52 / I feel in my element where I can give a task my full attention.
53 / I can find an opportunity to stretch my imagination.
54 / I feel that I am using my special qualifications and training to advantage.

Section VIIF I AM SUDDENLY GIVEN A DIFFICULT TASK WITH

LIMITED TIME AND UNFAMILIAR PEOPLE:

No.

55 / I like to read us as much as I conveniently can on the subject.
56 / I would feel like devising a solution of my own and then selling it to the group.
57 / I would be ready to work with the person who showed the most positive approach.
58 / I would find some way of reducing the size of the task by establishing how different individuals can best contribute.
59 / My natural sense of urgency would help to ensure that we did not fall behind schedule.
60 / I believe I would keep cool and maintain my capacity to think straight.
61 / In spite of conflicting pressures I would press ahead with whatever needed to be done.
62 / I would take the lead if the group was making no progress.
63 / I would open discussions with a view to stimulating new thoughts and getting something moving.

Section VIIWITH REFERENCE TO THE PROBLEMS I EXPERIENCE WHEN WORKING IN GROUPS:

No.

64 / I am apt to over-react when people hold up progress.
65 / Some people criticise me for being too analytical.
66 / My desire to check that we get the important details right are not always welcome.
67 / I tend to show boredom unless I am actively engaged with stimulating people.
68 / I find it difficult to get started unless the goals are clear.
69 / I am sometimes poor at putting across complex points that occur to me.
70 / I am conscious of demanding from others the things I cannot do myself.
71 / I am inclined to feel I am wasting my time & would do better on my own.
72 / I hesitate to express my personal views in front of difficult or powerful people.

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Trainer's Notes for the UNHCR Emergency Management Training

The Belbin Self Perception Inventory

Answer Sheet

Section I
/ 12 / 10 / 13 / 16 / 17 / 18 / 14 / 11 / 15
Section II / 26 / 22 / 20 / 24 / 19 / 23 / 27 / 25 / 21
Section III / 31 / 33 / 28 / 30 / 36 / 35 / 29 / 32 / 34
Section IV / 42 / 44 / 45 / 39 / 41 / 40 / 43 / 37 / 38
Section V / 53 / 50 / 51 / 49 / 47 / 46 / 52 / 48 / 54
Section VI / 56 / 63 / 58 / 62 / 61 / 60 / 59 / 57 / 55
Section VII / 69 / 67 / 70 / 64 / 68 / 65 / 66 / 72 / 71
Total
PL / RI / CO / SH / IMP / ME / CF / TW / SP

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