Today's class exercise was interesting and full of fun. The Lunar Survival exercise is a team building exercise that involves collaboration, problem solving and creative teamwork.
The Challenge
As per the brief, we were to think of ourselves as members of a space crew originally scheduled to land on the moon but due to mechanical difficulties, our space ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles from the intended point.
During reentry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged and, since survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile trip.
Below are listed the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Our task is to rank order them in terms of their importance for our crew in allowing them to reach the rendezvous point. To rank them in order, we have to place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important, and so on through number 15 for the least important.
Lunar Survival Items
Box of matches
Food concentrate
50 feet of nylon rope
Parachute silk
Portable heating unit
Two .45 caliber pistols
One case of dehydrated milk
Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen
Stellar map
Self-inflating life raft
Magnetic compass
20 liters of water
Signal flares
First aid kit, including injection needle
Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter
The Purpose
The Lunar Survival challenge is a team building that involves collaboration, problem solving, and creative teamwork.
Working alone, we need to individually identify the ranking of the resources on our own for 10/15 minutes, then in a small group, we need to think and pair share in a small group for another 15 minutes. Then we will share our experiences.
Commentary
The survival exercise requires individual to prioritise the lunar survival items in rank order, once we have done this and record our individual votes on the the score-sheet, we then formed a group of comprising Gavin, Robert, Jo'Art, Ahmad and Myself to discuss our answers together to learn from the collective wisdom of the group in the room.
We discussed as a group to figure out how to reach decision about the ranking, we had differences in ranking order initially but we resolved differences through a collective vote and discussion , huge contribution from Gavin and Robert.
Afterwards, each participant in the group compute the individual and group scores on the score-sheet
and then compare it with the expert answer.
Scoring:
To calculate our score, for each item, mark the number of points that we score differs from the
expert ranking, then add up all the points. Disregard plus or minus differences. The lower the total, the better your score.
0 - 25 excellent
26 - 32 good
33 - 45 average
46 - 55 fair
56 - 70 poor -- suggests use of Earth-bound logic
71 - 112 very poor – you’re one of the casualties of the space program! Ha ha ha ha!!!
Learning Outcome
What did you think about the exercise?
The activity is a good example on the importance of decision making in a critical situation and how synergy in a team aids the process. It activity really emphasis the essence of creativity, problem solving, decision making, leadership, team work where a priority is very essential..
How did you work as a team? What happened ?
My team comprised of Gavin, Robert, Jo'Art, Ahmad and Myself.
Individual in the team first have to prioritise the lunar survival items in rank order, once we have done this and we recorded our individual votes on the the score-sheet, we then discussed our answers together to learn from the collective wisdom of the team.
We had few differences in ranking order initially but we resolved differences through a collective vote and further discussion, huge contribution from Gavin and Robert.
Afterwards, the group compare the individual and the team scores on the score-sheet against the NASA expert score the teacher provided on the board and we have the team filled these in.
Later on, we have each member of the team compute individual and the team scores on the score-sheet and finally all the gains and looses in score ranking and we can see how the collective wisdom of the team improved the scores for us.
Did your answers change when you consulted as a group and why?
Yes, we had a bit of reflection of our choices in the ranking as were a bit divided over the rank allocation for signal flares, solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter and Self-inflating life raft. We had further discussion to reach a consensus.
What would you do differently if you were to repeat the exercise?
If I had the opportunity again, I would first plan and map out my plan, have a draft of the plan, reflect on it before actually making final decision
What did you learn about team work
It can be more creative while working in a team, the synergy that is built for problem solving is great, decision making and consultation can improve team performance, leadership qualities that can developed in a team work environment cannot be under estimated. You really don't know until when you are really involved in some projects, then the qualities shines.
This week we are looking into creativity and innovation, lateral thinking, thinking out of the box. How do you develop new ideas, new products, new services, new business models?
Organisations need creative team to create innovative projects. This require creative thinking skills and collaborative team process. The creative thinking process is characterised by the conception of divergent ideas.
Simple Definition
How does this develop? In simple terms, creativity may be defined as idea generation while being creative is to be able to generate or to come up with ideas. For a team to be creative, it must have
a thinking process that is geared toward new generating new ideas.
Innovation on the other hand can be described as 'creativity implemented', therefore, we may say a team or organisation is innovative if the conceived idea(s) is being put into practice.
If creativity is a thinking process
Innovation is a productive process
Academic definition of creativity as discussed in the class:
“The process of sensing difficulties, problems, gaps in information, missing elements, something askew; making guesses and formulating hypotheses about these deficiencies; evaluating and testing these guesses and hypotheses; possibly revising and retesting them; and finally communicating the results.”
- E. Paul Torrence
The Importance of Innovation
Conceptual changes need conceptually different creative processes. When a company fails to innovate and change as needed, its customers, employees and the community at large can all suffer. The ability to manage innovation and change is an essential part of a manager’s competencies. Organisations need to have a collaborative teams with creative process e.g research and development team. Continuous improvement on products and services can flow from the old models.
What is Innovation?
Innovation is the process of creating and implementing a new idea. It is the process of taking useful ideas and converting them into useful products; services or processes or methods of operation. These useful ideas are the result of creativity, which is the prerequisite for innovation.
Further in the class discussion we examined the role of divergent and convergent thinking in innovation. Our lecturer affirm that innovation is the combination of divergent thinking and convergent thinking.
Divergent and Convergent Thinking
Apparently divergent and convergent thinking describe the two stages within the creative thinking process. "Divergent thinking involves the creation of a diversity of new ideas; it is a method or thought process used to experiment and explore many new possible solutions. Convergent thinking is the opposite process whereby we start with a variety of previously generated ideas and try to filter, integrate, condense or select a subset of those as the finished product." (culled from Article on System Innovation.io)
Convergent and divergent thinking are two poles on a spectrum of cognitive approaches to problems and questions (Duck 1981). On the divergent end, thinking seeks multiple perspectives and multiple possible answers to questions and problems. On the other end of the spectrum, convergent thinking assumes that a question has one right answer and that a problem has a single solution (Kneller 1971).
Divergent thinking generally resists the accepted ways of doing things and seeks alternatives. Convergent thinking, the bias of which is to assume that there is a correct way to do things, is inherently conservative; it begins by assuming that the way things have been done is the right way. Divergent thinkers are better at finding additional ideas, whereas convergent thinkers have a more difficult time finding additional ideas. Convergent thinkers run out of ideas before divergent thinkers. However, convergent thinking strengthens the ability to bring closure and to conclude problems.
Bowl Exercise
Uses for a Bowl
Working Alone, I listed the following as some of the uses for a bowl that came to mind
Cereal
Soup
Popcorn
Mixing
Fruit bowl
Egg Noodles
Water
Salads
Group Brain Storming
Participants in the group exercise were Gavin, Robert, Jo'Art, Ahmad and Myself
Fluency – How many ideas? - Together in the group we came up with 21 ideas.
Flexibility – How many types of ideas? All of us came up with 8 similar ideas
Originality – Unusual or unique? 8 Unusual ideas and 2 unique ideas came from the group.
Reflection: On the contrary, I am of the opinion that working in teams increases collaboration and allows brainstorming. As a result, more ideas are developed and productivity improves as it was the case on this exercise. Two or more people are always better than one for solving problems, finishing off difficult tasks and increasing creativity.
Characteristics of Creative People
Knowledgeable
Display a great deal of curiosity about many things; are constantly asking questions about anything and everything; may have broad interests in many unrelated areas. May devise collections based on unusual things and interests.
Intrinsically Motivated
Comfortable with Ambiguity
Are often uninhibited in expressions of opinion; are sometimes radical and spirited in disagreement; are unusually tenacious or persistent — fixating on an idea or project.
Willing to Take Risks
Are willing to take risks, are often people who are described as a “high risk taker, or adventurous, or speculative.”
Discovery Orientation
Exhibit a good deal of intellectual playfulness; may frequently be caught fantasising, daydreaming or imagining. Often wonder out loud and might be heard saying, “I wonder what would happen if. . .”; or “What if we change . . ..” Can manipulate ideas by easily changing, elaborating, adapting, improving, or modifying the original idea or the ideas of others.” Are often
concerned with improving the conceptual frameworks of institutions, objects, and systems.
Social Context of Creativity
Family& School: Family, just as much as school, is a critical and essential context in the development of gifted children. Family environments can be influential in the development of young children's creativity. with regards to environment, the values and attitudes of parents are also causally related to creative development of children as well as acceptance and encouragement of such characteristics were crucial for creativity to flourish.
Globalisation has brought together peoples and organisations of all backgrounds and cultures. Especially in the context of increased global economic competition, companies are trying to generate, improve, and market new products and services. Perhaps as a result of this, there has been considerable academic focus and managerial effort regarding shaping organisational cultures to maximise creativity and innovation (George & Zhou, 2002; Hurst, Rush, & White, 1996).
Research recognises that creativity occurs within a cultural and institutional context, and that the context-dependent nature of creative behaviour has shaped the structure of many innovative organisations (e.g., IBM, 3M, Toyota). Specifically, research has shown that organisational norms seem to influence creative behaviour (Goncalo & Staw, 2006; Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993), and are, themselves, dynamic and reactive to cultural pressures (Balthazard, Cooke, & Potter, 2006; Cooke & Szurnal, 2000).
How social context affects creativity | Dan Newbie | TEDxUniversity Of Central Arkansas
Tech entrepreneur Dan Ndombe, also know as “Dan Newbie, The Wine Glass Musician,” discusses the importance of social context as a factor of creativity, and tells the story of the war in his native Congo as a means to discovering his creative side.
CASE STUDY ANALYSIS: IDEO
Case study analysis involved the transformation of the company by innovation and creativity where design and engineering work together to produce aesthetically pleasing products that are also highly functional.
IDEO is an international design and consulting firm originally. The business model for IDEO began as an open-minded place to design, develop and manufacture new products.
IDEO became a workplace for innovation where creative thinkers, inspiration, conception and evaluation meets.
The company attracted creative, educated, highly innovative people who are willing and motivated to work in team settings. The collaborative approach and flexible team structure allows the company to develop solutions that other companies with more resources are unable to attain.
The company leaders took effort to keep the culture of innovation, creativity and teamwork alive throughout the company by communication and regularly scheduled meetings to connect people and ideas and provide guidelines for making decisions on new projects and review the current status on current projects to keep people connected and supportive of the helping culture.
IDEO leadership values how it does business and therefore reinforce the core ideas of the company across the current distributed system of this multinational organization.
Date: (Week 2)
Venue: BFEI | Room 108
Class: WDM
Topic: Introduction to Teams
Introductory Exercise in Building Trust
The class started today with an exercise in building trust in team. The exercise involved forming a group of three or four to discuss the following questions:
·What is trust?
·Can you describe a trusting relationship in your life?
·What does it take to form a trusting relationship?
·How do trusting relationships differ from relationships that may lack
trust?
Participants in my group consisted of Gavin, Tetyana and Myself. As matured adults we were to discuss the questions from our personal experiences.
Trust as defined by:
Ade: believe in the reliability, integrity, or ability of someone. Gavin: Trusting someone means that you think they are reliable, you have confidence in them and you feel safe with them physically and emotionally. Tetyana: Trust is something that two people in a relationship can build together when they decide to trust each other.
What is Trust?
Our definition of trust differs in wording but we settle for the dictionary definition of trust for the purpose of the exercise.
"Trust can be defined as the act of placing confidence in someone or something else or alternatively a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something."
- Online Dictionary
Contributors in a group of three as we discussed the following questions
Can you describe a trusting relationship in your life?
Personally, an example of a trusting relationship in my life is my marriage which can be described as a feeling of confidence and security that my partner cares and is dependable.
This mental attitude in both of us allow us to behave and acts in certain ways that makes us depends on each other. It is more like a belief system in us that we will behave in certain ways. This is evident in the way we treat each other in our verbal expression and attitude towards each other.
"I Trust you" is better than "I love you" because you may not always trust the person you love but you can always love the person you trust.
In relationship, trust is more important that love, it enhances love
What does it take to form a trusting relationship?
It simply takes TRUSTING each other.
T for Truth - never lie to your partner, say what you mean and mean what you say R for Respect - never treat your partner in a way that demeans him or her or in a way that violate the dignity and respect of the individual. U for Understanding - in difficulties show you have a sympathetic awareness of his or her feelings and be tolerant and forgiving. S for Safety - protect your partner, let her secret be safe and create a safe environment T for Transparency - be open and honest with your feelings and emotions I for Invest Time and emotions - spend time together N for Niceness - treat each other nice G for Genuineness - have the the quality of truly being what something is said to be, be authentic.
How do trusting relationships differ from relationships that may lack trust?
Insecurity
In a trusting relationship, there's no fear, partners trust each other and have no fear to disclose the truth to each other you don't even have to check your partner's phone however, in a relationship that lack trust insecurity make people to check their partner's phone. When there's a trouble trusting someone, we monitor what he or she does and with whom. We get territorial and feel threatened by everyone.
Suspicion & Cheating
In a relationship that's fully trusting of each other, trust involves knowing that a partner has your best interest at heart. It is not hard to feel safe and secure when you are involved with someone who would not betray your trust however, in a relationship that lacks trust, mistrust can manifest in many ways e.g suspicion. Sometimes, people cheat when a relationship is failing and they don’t trust themselves anymore.
Lying & Deception
Lack of trust in a relationship influences deceptive behaviour like lying. People in such relationship are less inclined to tell the truth when trust is missing. On the other hand, in a loving, trusting relationship, truth is disclosed without any fear or doubt. Partners hold each other to be trustworthy.
Fear & Anxiety
In a relationship that lack trust, a feeling of apprehension or uneasiness is often manifested physically. Partners often experience nervousness, a rapid heartbeat, anger, a knotted stomach, or even disgust and this usually rise to a point where they are afraid of each other as a result of distrust.
On the other hand, a trusting relationship where there's love there's no fear or anxiety.
Withdrawal
Finally, with all the above, a relationship that lacks trust partners often become reserved in sharing personal information, safety has been removed, loneliness set in, frozen love and dead feeling becomes the characteristic of the relationship, however a trusting relationship is strengthened in their bond.
After the exercise, we delved into the topic of discussion for the day proper, "Introduction to Teams" and we covered the following:
What is a Team?
Common Team Problems
Conditions for Team Success
Ideal Team Climate
Stages of Group Development
Now, team-working is seen by many organisations as an effective strategy for organising work. In this blog, I am going to share the details of all the important aspect of the topic of the day with you.
The lecturer gave us academic definition of team according to Bell and Kozlowski's (2003) research and theory development work which focused on team effectiveness and contextual characteristics of a team, which defined team as
... as a group or groups of people “who exist to perform organisationally relevant
tasks, share one or more common goals, interact socially, exhibit
task inter-dependencies, maintain and manage boundaries, and
are embedded in an organisational context that sets
boundaries, constrains the team, and influences exchanges with
other units in the broader entity.”
(Kozlowski & Bell, 2003, p. 334)
Reflection on the definition (including my own reading on the theories and examples of real life application of the principles)
On reflection, it is very important to clarify this definition especially with the keep word - "group" it is necessary to be able to differentiate between a team and a group.
A team is a type of a group...further research shows that
“...a group consists of people who work together but can do their jobs without one another. A team is a group of people who cannot do their jobs, at least not effectively, without the other members of their team” (Spector, 2012, p. 303).
For us to properly understand how a team is different to a group, it is also necessary to examine the characteristic of a team. In a scholarly article posted online titled "Teams: The challenges of cooperative work" (Unsworth & West, 2000), the writer examined the research evidence which shows the important characteristics that differentiate a team from a group.
Characteristic of a Team
We also discussed the characteristics of a team, below are the main points on the discussion on characteristics a team:
Team members have shared goals in relation to their work.
Team members interact with each other in order to achieve shared objectives.
Team members have well-defined and interdependent roles.
Team members have an organisational identity as a team with a defined organisational function.
Common Team Problems are
Further in our class discussion on team, we also discussed some of the common problems encounter in teamworking. Despite the fact that it's a good strategy to arrange workers into teams so groups of workers with related skills can collaborate and solve problems more efficiently it can sometimes be a great challenge. Perhaps this problem is partly to blame for:
A lack of team purpose and tasks
A lack of freedom and responsibility.
Too many members or the wrong members.
But it can also be as a result of problems of trust and leadership which can easily erode the effectiveness of a team and affects its performance.
A read of Harvard Business Review’s Answer Exchange listsEIGHT problems that teams encounter:
Members may not feel mutually accountable to one another for the team's objectives. There may be a lack of commitment and effort, conflict.
Absence of team identity. Members may not feel mutually accountable to one another for the team’s objectives. There may be a lack of commitment and effort, conflict between team goals and members’ personal goals, or poor collaboration.
Difficulty making decisions. Team members may be rigidly adhering to their positions during decision making or making repeated arguments rather than introducing new information.
Poor communication. Team members may interrupt or talk over one another. There may be consistent silence from some members during meetings, allusions to problems but failure to formally address them, or false consensus (everyone nods in agreement without truly agreeing).
Inability to resolve conflicts. Conflicts can not be resolved when there are heightened tensions and team members make personal attacks or aggressive gestures.
Lack of participation. Team members fail to complete assignments. There may be poor attendance at team meetings or low energy during meetings.
Lack of creativity. The team is unable to generate fresh ideas and perspectives and doesn’t turn unexpected events into opportunities.
Ineffective leadership. Leaders can fail teams by not defining a compelling vision for the team, not delegating, or not representing multiple constituencies.
Reference
Originally posted on HBR Answer Exchange (now defunct); Adapted from the book Leading Teams: Pocket Mentor Series, Harvard Business Press
Conditions for Team Success
Successful projects, successful companies depend on how well the team works together.
So another critical part of the class discussion is the condition for team success, it is obvious there are a number of factors that must be in place for a team to be successful, some of the conditions discussed for team success includes but limited to:
Clear purpose: The first condition for effective teamwork is to get the purpose clear. If you don’t know what the purpose of the teams work is, how will you know if it is achieved?
Right people: No team will ever be effective unless it has the right people with the right skills on it. Team selection is challenging but important. Sadly in my experience it’s one of those areas where there is insufficient focus when it comes to recruiting staff.
Dependency: For a team to exist and achieve there needs to be dependency. By dependency, I mean that the performance of one part of the organisation needs to be dependent on one or more other areas to achieve results.
Team accountability: Team members need to be committed to delivering on their there needs to be accountability to the team and the team results.
Diversity: One of the real advantages of teams is that there is access to a greater range of skills, experience, knowledge and personal attributes than there would be in one individual.
4 Stages of Team Development
We also discussed 'Team Development Stages', we explored the essential principle of Forming,Storming,Normingand Performing...
Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing: Bruce Tuckman's Team Stages Model Explained - Understanding the Stages of Team Formation
Teams move through a series of four phases—from when they are formed to when their work is complete.
During the forming stage, a the team discusses it purpose, defines and assigns tasks, establishes timelines, and begins forming personal relationships.
The often-contentious storming stage is the period when team members clarify their goals and the strategy for achieving them.
The norming stage is when the team establishes its values for how individuals will interact and collaborate.
Performing is the stage of team development when team members have productive relationships and are able to communicate and coordinate effectively and efficiently.
This video analysed Richard Tuckman’s theory of group development states that all teams must go through five phases during their natural life cycles: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Clever rhyming scheme aside, this is a great way to assess group dynamics happening in your team. Learn about the five phases here, nerdily, by watching how the Fellowship of the Ring gets together.
What Kind of Team Member Are You?
Here are some few tips on how to be a better team member ...
Be accountable to your teammates: follow through with your work!
Keep a positive attitude about teamwork
Assume positive intent of your teammates' actions
Be prepared to lead some times, follow other times
Take responsibility for your own work
Take responsibility for your team's work
Distribute effort and responsibility equally
Are you a better team member?
Take this quiz to see what strengths and skills you bring to your team in the workplace and likely in life too)! QUIZ
Welcome to my teamwork blog post. In my blog I will be discussing the class content and the teamwork exercise that was completed in the class every week This discussion will covers theories, personal perspectives on the topic of the day and how we engage with topic including a blend of class reaction, what we learn from the topic, how we worked together on the exercises and my own reading on the theories and examples of real life application of the principle discussed and where available I will also post group picture and images of activities done in the class. You are welcome to post a comment and reaction or even discuss new concept that might be related to subject of discussion.
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