Many hands make light work
Featured in the Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers training manual
By Eddie Davies
Category: Communication Skills
Credit price: 4 download credits (Single user)
People are drawn into groups and teams in most working environments. The complex and specialist nature of most people’s work will invariably involve them in working alongside others as specialists, team colleagues or team leaders. In order to achieve the best outcomes in these circumstances, individuals need an appreciation of how teams function and what interpersonal skills they need to develop to ensure the positive benefits of teamwork are achieved and the negative aspects avoided. This training activity introduces participants to the core interpersonal team-working skills and gives them an opportunity to review and develop those skills.
You begin this training activity with a review of the importance of team working in the workplace and agree a definition of a team with the participants. You then describe the environment to which teamwork is best suited, and the participants engage in a group exercise in which they consider the advantages and disadvantages of team working and then discuss the essential ingredients of an effective team. Next, the participants focus on what happens during a typical team meeting or discussion. You look at the key steps the team leader can take to prepare for a discussion to ensure it will be focused and effective. Two styles of intervention are explored and discussed in more detail, and the skills the team leader needs to keep the discussion on target while involving the whole team are established. This is followed by a review of how the team members can contribute to a discussion to ensure a positive outcome. The participants then have an opportunity to put the theory they have discussed into practise by taking part in a consolidation exercise which uses a training technique known as the ‘Fishbowl’. This involves half the group actively participating in a discussion to achieve an agreement via consensus. The other half observes, and at the end of the discussion, each observer gives individual feedback to a specific participant. The training activity concludes with a plenary review of the learning points that emerge from the consolidation exercise. The participants draft an action plan, detailing how they can use what they have learned when they return to work.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to look, with the participants, into the key interpersonal skills needed to help teams function effectively.
- Themes:
- Assertiveness,
- Coaching,
- Communication,
- Counselling skills,
- Customer care,
- Influencing skills,
- Interpersonal skills,
- Interviewing skills,
- Introduction to effective management,
- Life and career planning,
- Managing meetings,
- Negotiating skills,
- Performance management,
- Project management,
- Sales training,
- Self-assessment,
- Self-development,
- Stress management,
- Supervisory skills,
- Team-building skills,
- Team development,
- Time management,
- Trainer development,
- Women into management,
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 03:20:00 |
| No of Pages: | 45 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as a stand-alone session and can be delivered independently of any other training event. It can also with participants who are interested in developing effective interpersonal skills in a team-working environment. As such, it can provide a useful foundation course on longer training events designed to explore and improve skills in a team setting. It has been used in this context on such training events as an introduction to management, team skills, leadership skills, and team away-days. It can also be easily adapted for use on training the trainer events, as training and development professionals spend much of their time facilitating and working in small-group settings.
Download the training activity, Many hands make light work as featured in the Fenman training manual; Essential Interpersonal Skills for Outstanding Managers