TEAM WORK SKILL

STARTING POINT:

• Get people together and just start thinking
• Ask yourselves "what do we stand for?" "what is it we're trying to do?"
• Lets name ourselves
• Create a statement that outlines your group's mission, its values, and its guiding principles.

LISTENING SKILLS:

• Be Present:

1. Our 'little voice' is one of the biggest barriers to active listening. Choose to be present.
2. Focus on the speaker and the message.

• Learn to want to listen

1. We must be willing to focus on the others when they are speaking.
2. Learn to develop an interest in either the person and/or the topic.
3. Practice concentrating on the speaker-words and feelings.
4. Practice shutting distractions out, not allowing them to interfere with your effective listening.

• Become a "whole body" listener

1. To be active listeners, we must involve our whole body. Not only our ears tuned in, but so are our eyes, our intellect, our bodies.
2. Good listeners give nonverbal and verbal signs that they are listening.
3. They sit in an attentive posture; nod in acknowledgement; make good eye contact; convey a positive, encouraging attitude, give feedback.

• Control your emotional "hot buttons"

1. Words, issues, situations, prsonalities can be emotional triggers for us.
2. When these issues trigger out "hot bottons", we tent to distort, positively or negatively, the message we are hearing. We may tune out or pre-judge the message and/or the speaker.

UNDERSTANDING TERM OF "TEAM WORK"

WHAT DOES GOOD TEAM WORK LOOK LIKE?

1. Seeking out other's opinions and involvemet in metter that concern them before making decisions or plans final.
2. Trusting the team to develop a consensus on an issue, even if it takes a little more time.
3. Voluntarily offering your own relevant experiences, ideas and findings to colleagues who could use them.
4. Acknowledging a colleague's contribution
5. sharing the credit
6. Being non defensive and receptive to the suggestions, ideas, opinions and needs of colleagues.
7. Making the effort to understand before criticising.
8. Considering impact of your plans on others.
9. Being unwilling to criticise a third party who isn't present, not gossiping.
10. Coming prepared to present or participate when you have a role in meetings.
11. Expressing appreciation for teamwork extended to you that was helpful.
12. Identifying and helping pick up loose ends even though they may not be your responsibility.
13. Keeping people advised of changes, developments and new information on a task or project.
14. Being supportive of the team's objectives once they are set.



TEAMWORK

The combined action of a group, especially when effective and efficient. A group consists of more than ane person, each of whom typically has different responsibilities. Teamwork actions is perform by a team towards a common goal.

A team can be defined as a group of people:

• with different skills
• often with different tasks
• who work together towards a common project
• with a meshing of functions
• and with mutual support

A team also includes seven (7) common elements:

1. Common purpose
2. Interdependence
3. Clarity or roles and contribution
4. Satisfaction from mutual working
5. Mutual and individual accountability
6. Realisation of synergies
7. Empowerment

It is important to a teamwork to have:
Purpose:
Members support the purposes and take direction from it for their work. Lack of clear purpose is one of the most frequent difficulties groups encounter. Members are often suprised that the group's purpose isn't as clear to others as it is to themselves.

Communication:
Open and direct enough to be able to honestly discuss any problem it faces. Including its own performance and problems related to performance.

Leadership:
Sufficient leadership within the group. Including designated leader/managers for relevant tasks.

Review:
Group regularly reviews how it's going in several vital areas:

• Relevance of work to what is required.
• Quality of work as compared to client expectations.
• Progress of work as compared to require timelines.

Structure:
Group has appropriate organizational structure.

Resources:
Adequate resources exist for group to perform its functions well:

• Member skills
• Tools
• Systems
• Facilities
• Budgets

Synergy:
Quality which makes a group greater than the sum of its parts. It rests on the tangible support given by one team member to another.

• Esprit de corps
• Enhanced creativity
• Collective wisdom
• Deeper commitment
• Greater resourcefulness
• Thougher resilience