Beware - quality team at work
Featured in the Motivation in Practice training manual
By Eddie Davies
Category: People Management and Motivation
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
This training activity introduces participants to the conditions under which a quality-focused team can flourish, and provide them with an opportunity to use the tools and techniques such a team could use at work. The training activity starts by introducing the Hawthorne Studies (a famous social science project that ran from 1927 to 1932, growing out of preliminary experiments a Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago, which ran from 1924-27). This reported the power of groups to overcome difficult conditions and achieve great results. The teams’ efforts could be totally undermined if the informal culture wasn’t set up for success. This training activity allows participants to identify key characteristics that produce an effective team culture and to identify how to apply these approaches to a current workplace problem.
You begin this training activity by introducing the participants to the findings of the Hawthorne studies, a well known social science project of the 1920’s and 30’s. This revealed the power of motivated groups in overcoming difficult conditions to achieve great results, and that team efforts could be totally undermined if the informal culture wasn’t set up for success. The participants then identify several key characteristics that have produced such a culture in teams of which they were members. These ideas are compared to both the Hawthorne studies and the work of a later theorist, Frederick Herzberg. The participants then work in syndicate groups to identify how close their current teams and organisations are to reproducing this motivational climate. They are given additional time to develop an action plan if there are any shortcoming in their current situation. You next introduce them to a critical review technique based on a questioning approach. Participants then work in syndicate groups to apply this approach to a current workplace problem, process or procedure. This syndicate work is reviewed in a plenary training activity, following which participants commit themselves to an action plan for introducing the key learning from this training activity back at their workplace.
Who is it for: This training resource is intended for use by trainers to introduce participants to the conditions under which a quality-focused team can flourish.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 4 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:10:00 |
| No of Pages: | 17 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training resource is intended for use by trainers as a stand-alone event or as part of any training programme that aims to encourage participants to work in, and with, a quality-focused problem-solving team. It has been used successfully on training programmes such as an introduction to effective management, building and leading a team, improving staff performance, innovation and creative problem solving, leadership skills, motivation, performance appraisal, quality and customer focus, and team working skills.
Download the training activity, Beware - quality team at work as featured in the Fenman training manual; Motivation in Practice