INTRODUCTION 4th September 2018

A little about me…

Neil Arnott

30 years experience in management, accounting

and education

Written 18 text books

Co-owner of Escape Room Scarborough since

January 2018

SESSION ONE “What’s My Role?”

Session One –

“What’s My Role?”

We all work in teams – but how do we fit in?

What elements link the most successful teams?

How can I understand my role (and that of

others) in creating a successful team?

What is a Team?

“A group of people working together to achieve defined objectives”

Teams are created by management

‘Long-term’ teams – eg normal working team

‘Special’ teams – eg for a one off project

Aim – the perfectly performing team

Benefits of Teamwork

Pooling of skills and abilities

Creative thinking

Motivation

Help and support

Move to Mission

Creating New Teams

May be a new team, or changes to an established

team

Change causes stress

Resistance to change

Fear of the unknown – new job roles, new

people

Changing team dynamics need to be managed

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing

Bruce Tuckman

Identified 4 ‘stages’ of team development

Four stages of a team

1.Forming – the team is created.

Individuals are generally polite but

wary. High dependence on leaders

for guidance and direction – there

is uncertainty about roles and

responsibilities and leaders need to

direct

Four stages of a team

2. Storming – team members

compete for position, cliques form,

power struggles and dissent.

Compromises may be needed and

leaders need to coach

Four stages of a team

3. Norming – agreement and

consensus about roles and

responsibilities; big decisions made

by group agreement but smaller

decisions can be delegated. Growing

respect for each other and the

leader. May be fun or social

activities. Leader needs to facilitate

and enable

Four stages of a team

4. Performing – team is strategically

aware, has shared vision and can

operate on its own – there is a high

degree of autonomy and any

disagreements are easily resolved.

Team requires no instruction and the

leader delegates and oversees

Second questionnaire

Team Members

All people are different…they have different

skills, knowledge and personalities

A team’s effectiveness will depend upon the

combination of team members having the right

skills and personalities to work well together

Each member should ‘know their role’

Team Members

TIGGERS are full of energy and love

nothing better than to bounce

around…”Cos that’s what Tiggers do

best”

Tiggers will take on new projects with

great enthusiasm and are brilliant at

motivating everybody else in the early

stages. However, they quickly lose

enthusiasm and get bored, and want

to be off trying new things before

finishing off what they started

Tiggers can also rub some people up

the wrong way with their unending

energy and enthusiasm

KANGA is a ‘mother figure’. Kanga is

mother not only to Baby Roo, but to

all the other characters. She is kind,

thoughtful and caring.

Kangas are good at lifting people’s

spirits when they are low; they

provide solid, sensible advice and

always seem to know the right thing

to say in any difficult situation.

Kangas are not really ‘action-driven’ –

they may seem a little slow to react

to new opportunities and lacking in

‘killer instinct’

EEYORES are generally seen as

somewhat dull, boring, negative, slow

and lacking in energy

Eeyores are generally pessimistic

about change, but once involved they

are loyal and hardworking. They act

as a calming influence to Tiggers,

slowing them down and ensuring rash

decisions are not taken.

OWLS are generally know-it-alls. They

love to use long words and waffle on

and on. They are generally wise, but

are also often full of their own self-

importance.

Owls genuinely want to give the best

advice, and believe they are doing so.

However, their advice will sometimes

backfire. They often love to direct

others but are not prepared to get

their own hands dirty. Others respect

them, however, because of their

perceived wisdom, knowledge,

experience or professionalism

RABBITS are organisers… can be

thought of as ‘Captain Rabbit’. They

run around issuing orders to others,

keeping the team in order. They have

energy, but this is often wasted

running around rather than acting.

Rabbits can often seem bossy and

self-important; however, in a crisis a

rabbit can be useful because they get

people organised and into action

PIGLETS are worriers. They are

frightened of change, of new things.

They are happiest ‘tagging along’ with

others, but they are hard workers,

and tremendously loyal.

Piglets are often guilty of under-

estimating their own abilities; they

often have lots to offer a team but

are not prepared to volunteer

themselves. Their contribution and

potential can often be ignored. It

needs an effective manager – or

sometimes a crisis – to see the true

strength of a piglet

POOH is a happy-go-lucky, friendly

character. Not particularly bright or

academic, not always the hardest-

working or most ambitious, Pooh is

the ‘glue’ that holds the team

together.

Pooh enjoys the simple things in life.

He is gifted with an uncommon, clear-

eyed wisdom – things just seem to

‘happen’ (such as his invention of

Pooh Sticks).

What is most important for Pooh is

the well being, happiness and feelings

of his friends, and he is often the first

character that others turn to in a

crisis, or for support or help.

Capt. Mainwaring

Sgt Wilson

Cpl Jones

Private Pike

Private Fraser

Private Godfrey

Pompous, self-appointed leader

Diffident, self-effacing. Offers

sound advice

Easily excitable, boyish enthusiasm

Happy-go-lucky, untroubled

Dour, blunt, gloomy outlook

Quiet, amiable, vague, frail

Capt. Mainwaring

Sgt Wilson

Cpl Jones

Private Pike

Private Fraser

Private Godfrey

Pompous, self-appointed leader

Diffident, self-effacing. Offers

sound advice

Easily excitable, boyish enthusiasm

Happy-go-lucky, untroubled

Dour, blunt, gloomy outlook

Quiet, amiable, vague, frail

RABBIT / OWL

KANGA

TIGGER

POOH

EEYORE

PIGLET

Personality Assessment

Meredith Belbin

Identified Team ‘Roles’

Said a successful team needs a balance of different skills and personalities

Everybody is made up of a mix of these personalities

Identified different (but over-lapping) role types

So which are you?

Identify two highest scoring categories – these are likely to be your key roles

Identify lowest scoring categories – these are likely to be your least favourite roles

Implementers (IMP)

Strengths

Practical common sense

Self-controlled

Makes things happen

Disciplined

Loyal to organisation

Reliable

Allowable Weaknesses

Lack spontaneity

May be ‘rigid’ or

‘inflexible’

Maybe slow to respond

to new opportunities

Co-Ordinators (CO)

Strengths

Mature

Confident

Delegates and organises

Good chairperson

Clarifies goals and objectives

Allowable Weaknesses

My be seen as

manipulating others

Off loads own work to

others

Shaper (SH)

Strengths

Motivated

Competitive

Drives the team forward

Headstrong

Generates action

Imposes own ‘shape’ on

the group

Allowable Weaknesses

Push others into action

Emotional

Does not respond well to

weakness or failure

Frustration

May lack interpersonal

skills

Plant (PL)

Strengths

Creative

Imaginative

Thinks outside the box

Solves difficult problems

‘Ideas Person’

Allowable Weaknesses

Ignores detail

Doesn’t always

communicate ideas well

Resource Investigator (RI)

Strengths

Extrovert

Enthusiastic

Communicative

Explores opportunities

Develops Contacts

Allowable Weaknesses

Over-optimistic

May lose interest after

initial enthusiasm

Monitor Evaluator (ME)

Strategic

Discerning

Maybe good at analysing

options

A good judge

Allowable Weaknesses

Lacks drive

Doesn’t engage or

inspire others easily

Completer Finisher (CF)

Strengths

Painstaking

Conscientious

Anxious

Finds errors or omissions

Hits deadlines

Allowable Weaknesses

Can be a worrier

Doesn’t see big picture

Won’t delegate

Team Worker (TW)

Strengths

Co-operative

Mild

Perceptive to people

Diplomatic

Good Listener

Averts friction

The ‘glue’

Allowable Weaknesses

Indecisive

Avoids conflict

Specialist

Belbin subsequently introduced an extra role – the

Specialist – who brings expert knowledge to the

team

Session Two Things Ain’t What They Seem

So…did you see it?

Over 50% of people do not see the gorilla

I did not the see the gorilla!

However, in tests a far higher proportion of

people said they believed they would see it

Session Two

“Things Ain’t What They Seem”

Everybody perceives the world differently

How does this affect the way we think, act and

work?

How fallible are we – and what impact does this

have on us?

Some Amazing Brain Facts

The typical brain comprises about 2% of the body’s

total weight

Your brain is 73% water and weighs about three pounds.

The latest estimate is that our brains contain roughly 86 billion brain cells.

Each neuron can transmit 1,000 nerve impulses per second and makes as many as tens of thousands of synaptic contacts with other neurons.

A piece of brain tissue the size of a grain of sand contains 100,000 neurons and 1 billion synapses, all communicating with each other.

But despite all that…

The human brain is incredibly fallible

We make mistakes all the time

We forget things

We can generally only focus on one thing at a

time

Inattentional Blindness

We believe we would be good at spotting things

out of the ordinary

BUT WE ARE NOT!

The Impact of Inattentional Blindness

We are fallible – but we don’t believe we are!

We believe we will see more than we do, react

quicker than we do and overestimate our ability

to multi-task

Normally this does not create problems but…

The Impact of Inattentional Blindness

Causes

Overload – engaging attention on a high load has a

strong effect on the brain’s response to the rest

of the world

The visual cortex ceases to respond to unattended

information

Neurons in the brain respond more weakly and

their orientation is less specific, less precise and

more ‘noisy’

Contributory Factors

The greater the demands on our attention, the less likely we will see something unexpected

The more like the ‘ignored’ elements of a scene something is, the less likely we are to spot it

The more distracted we are, the less likely we are to see something

The more tired we are, the less likely we are to see something

Overload of stimuli

Probable Effects of Inattentional

Blindness

Accidents

Errors

Misjudgements

Inaccurate testimony

Do you remember earlier?

The ‘visitor’ to the session?

Could you describe him?

What clothes was he wearing – top, trousers, shoes, hat?

What hairstyle and facial hair did he have?

Was he wearing glasses?

Can you describe the car?

The fallibility of eye-witnesses

Most studies show that eye witness accuracy is

low

Eye witnesses who claim to be confident in their

statement are only very slightly more likely to

actually be accurate

Jurors place great emphasis on eye witness

statements

Selective Attention

Paying attention only to part of the evidence, and

disregarding the rest – consciously or sub-

consciously

We miss information that could help

disprove our belief

We take in only a biased selection of the

evidence, leading to biased interpretations

and biased memories

Applying this to the workplace

Particular concern in healthcare

Dealing with patients

Diagnoses

Complaints

Disputes within the team

What are the implications?

There is little we can do to improve – but it helps to be aware of our failings

Understand how overload and other factors can affect observation and judgement

Recognise our intuitions may be wrong more often that you would think

Maximise attention by minimising distractions

Pay attention to what others might not notice – don’t assume everybody will see everything

Importance of contemporaneous record keeping

One last try…

THANK YOU!