CANDIDATE RESOURCE WITH SIMULATED ONLINE BUSINESS

ENSURE TEAM EFFECTIVENESS CANDIDATE RESOURCE WITH SIMULATED ONLINE BUSINESS ASSESSMENT BSBWOR502A

Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd 9 Koppen Tce, Cairns, QLD, 4870 Email: [email protected] Website: www.precisiongroup.com.au © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd

BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness

ISBN: 978-1-74238-

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Disclaimer Precision Group has made a great effort to ensure that this material is free from error or omissions. However, you should conduct your own enquiries and seek professional advice before relying on any fact, statement or matter contained in this book. Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd is not responsible for any injury, loss or damage as a result of material included or omitted from this material. Information in this course material is current at the time of publication.

Table of Contents 2 3 4 5 7

Legend Qualification Pathways Qualification Rules Introduction BSBWOR502A/01 Establish Team Performance Plan

Key Points

Consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

Develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators and goals for work team

Support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

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‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz

BSBWOR502A/02 Develop and Facilitate Team Cohesion

Key Points

Develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision making and operational aspects for work team

Develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities

Provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

Develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

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BSBWOR502A/03 Facilitate Teamwork

Key Points

Encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

Support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

Ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders

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BSBWOR502A/04 Liaise with Stakeholders

Key Points

Establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

Communicate information from line manager / management to the team

Communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and follow-up with line manager / management and other relevant stakeholders

Evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders

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Summary Bibliography Assessment Pack Candidate Resource BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd

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Use considered risk taking in your ‘grey’ area

...and others will follow you!

Legend This symbol indicates the beginning of new content. The bold title matches the content of the competency and they will help you to find the section to reference for your assessment activities.

Activity: Whenever you see this symbol, there is an activity to carry out which has been designed to help reinforce the learning about the topic and take some action.

This symbol is used at the end of a section to indicate the summary key points of the previous section.

This symbol is used to indicate an answer to the Candidate’s questions or notes to assist the Facilitator.

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Candidate Resource BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd

Qualification Pathways

“There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it’s easy”. Source Unknown

This unit of competency is provided to meet the requirements of BSB07 Business Services Training Package although can be used in a range of different qualifications. The BSB07 Business Services Training Package does not state how a qualification is to be achieved. Rather, Registered Training Organisations are required to use the qualification rules to ensure the needs of the learner and business customer are met. This is to be achieved through the development of effective learning programs delivered in an order which meets the stated needs of nominated candidates and business customers.


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Qualification Rules “You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.” Eldridge Cleaver

Qualification requirements include core and elective units. The unit mix is determined by specific unit of competency requirements which are stated in the qualification description. Registered Training Organisations then work with learners and business customers to select elective units relevant to the work outcome, local industry requirements and the qualification level. All vocational education qualifications must lead to a work outcome. BSB07 Business Services Training Package qualifications allow for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to vary programs to meet: Specific needs of a business or group of businesses. Skill needs of a locality or a particular industry application of business skills. Maximum employability of a group of students or an individual. When packaging a qualification elective units are to be selected from an equivalent level qualification unless otherwise stated.

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Introduction “Whether as an individual, or as part of a group, real progress depends on entering whole-heartedly into the process and being motivated to make you a more deeply satisfied human being.” Source Unknown

This unit of competency is all about being able to facilitate all aspects of teamwork within the organisation. It will help you with the skills you need to demonstrate competency for the unit BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness. This is one of the units that make up the Diplomas in Business. This manual is broken up into four distinct sections. They are:

1. Establish Team Performance Plan: First we will examine what is required of a team to be able to measure their performance.

2. Develop

and Facilitate Team Cohesion: Next we will look at some of the ways of ‘growing’ the group to perform as a team.

3. Facilitate Teamwork: Then the team must be enabled to complete its task; we will look at methods in this section.

4. Liaise with Stakeholders: In the final section we will look at how you can ensure that everyone involved is adequately informed about the work undertaken. At the conclusion of this training you will be asked to complete an Assessment Pack for this unit of competency. The information contained in this resource will assist you to complete this task. Then you will have demonstrated your ability to take a leadership role in the development of team plans, leading and facilitating teamwork and actively engaging with the management of the organisation. Candidate Resource BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd

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6


PART 1:

Establish Team Performance Plan

Key Points Section 1 The first stage in developing a positive working environment involves developing a range of strategies that will assist in establishing productive and positive working relationships. A mission statement is a written organisational statement that states your organisation’s purpose and inspires and motivates your employees. A vision statement takes the mission statement one-step further and looks into your desired future for the organisation. The objectives or goals are a living, breathing document that must be referred to constantly throughout the operation of your team and organisation.


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Part 1: Establish Team Performance Plan

Key Points Section 1 continued It is important that you consult a wide range of individuals within the organisation, not just senior management. Planning and designing jobs for workers is an integral part of the overall process of achieving objectives. The key performance indicators identify the purpose and importance of the actual job functions in achieving the purpose. Staff members’ knowledge and experience are among an organisation’s most important resources. Good working relationships are based on openness, and being open means being willing to share information and opinions with others, no matter what that information is about. Whenever promises or undertakings are made, ensure that an agreed timeframe is set, consider the other work and commitments you have and determine how long the promised work will take. Feedback and advice are both important means of communication, and information transfer. You should draw on the expertise of others in order to enhance your working relationships.

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Where Are We Going? The first stage in developing a positive working environment involves developing a range of strategies that will assist in establishing productive and positive working relationships. One initial strategy is often involving workplace colleagues in the development of goals and objectives for the organisation as a whole. This will involve the Mission and Vision Statements because these set the concepts for the strategies.

Mission Statement A mission statement is a written organisational statement that states your organisation’s purpose and inspires and motivates your employees. Some points that should be considered when writing a mission statement include: Express your organisation’s purpose in a way that inspires support and ongoing commitment. Motivate those who are connected to the organisation. Be articulate in a way that is convincing and easy to grasp. Use proactive verbs to describe what you do. Be free of jargon. Be short enough so that anyone connected to the organisation can readily repeat it. For example a mission statement for a major courier firm may read: “XXX is committed to our People-Service-Profit Philosophy. We will produce outstanding financial returns by providing totally reliable, competitively superior, global, air-ground transportation of high-priority goods and documents that require rapid, time-certain delivery”.

Vision Statement A vision statement takes the mission statement one step further and looks into your desired future for the organisation. It is a formal statement that expresses the aspirations and goals of a company or organisation. For example a vision statement for a major hotel firm year after year: “XXX and its people will be regarded as the best and most sought after hotel and resort management group in Australia.” A major point with these statements is that they should be developed with contributions from the members of your organisation. In a small organisation this may be easy to achieve, you can simply all sit down and discuss the values, principles and mission of your organisation. In larger organisations you may try to involve your employees by having departmental meetings, or using just supervisors of departments to gather information and then collate that together. But by involving staff in the development of the organisation’s goals and objectives you can help motivate them to make the organisation the best it can be.


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The overall direction of your organisation is established through objectives. Essentially objectives are a statement of desired performance. They state where you want to head, and exactly what level of performance you wish to achieve. To be most effective, objectives must meet a number of criteria that will ensure that they are useable in a given situation, and allow them to be used to assist in developing work plans, and monitoring. If your objectives do not meet these criteria, you may find that while you have objectives to work towards, you will never know for sure if they have been reached.

Objectives or Goals The objectives or goals are not something that is going to be written, and then simply left to gather dust. They are a living, breathing document that must be referred to constantly throughout the operation of your team and organisation. Because of this, it is important that you ensure the objectives are documented in the correct place, so that they are able to be referred to whenever required by the organisation’s staff. The most likely place for objectives to be documented is in policy and procedure manuals. Specialised objectives may also be found within the health and safety manual and the quality manual. These locations contain the general policies of the organisation (which include the overall objectives for various processes of the organisation itself ) as well as the procedures to carry out the policy and thus meet the objectives. You should format the document in the manner specified by your organisation. In the main, all organisations structure their policy manual in a different way, so you should check with management as to the most appropriate means of formatting the objectives to remain consistent with the rest of the manual.

“The man who starts out going nowhere generally gets there.” Dale Carnegie

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Objectives Must Be Clear

Clarity of expression makes the objectives simple for everybody to understand. If you think about it, clarity is one of the most important components of any piece of written communication - after all if someone cannot understand what is being said, how can they possibly be required to follow or reach it? Clarity comes about by ensuring that you use simple language that is unambiguous in its intent. What this means is that you should avoid using jargon, and any terms that are complicated or may require further explanation. There are simpler terms for just about every complicated term, so think carefully about what you are writing, and try to think of alternative terms that could be used. Double negatives are also another common barrier to clarity. When you use a double negative, the reader has to stop, and think about what you are trying to say; avoid these statements at all costs!

Concise

If you are being concise it generally means that you are being clear. The less words you use, the less chance there is for confusion, therefore it is important to try and write an objective in as few words as possible (while still retaining meaning).

Measurable

For any objective to be effective, it must be measurable. If it is not, there is no way that you, as a manager, can attempt to actually measure performance. Without measurement, it is impossible to know whether or not you have actually met the objectives. So think about numbers that are required to meet an objective. For example, saying “an improvement in sales” is not as concise as “a 15% increase in net sales”; “a decrease in production defects” will not be as clear as “a 25% decrease in production defects”.

Actions

State the actions that are required, what do you require to happen, and who should do it? By explicitly stating this information, it is easier to develop plans to meet the objectives.

In a Set Timeframe

Improvements can not just happen overnight, but you should set timeframes for their achievement. For instance, in our example above about reducing defects by 25%, this is a significant decrease in defects and will not be achieved in a matter of days. Therefore it is useful to add a timeframe to state when this type of objective should be met. By doing this you have also set yourself a timeframe for monitoring the situation.

Set with Responsibility

Ensure that the objectives you write are related to your actual area of responsibility within an organisation. It is not appropriate to write objectives for areas outside your responsibility. Therefore, go back and check that the objectives you write are appropriate and within your area of responsibility. If they are not, you should hand the responsibility for writing them on to the appropriate person within the organisation.


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It is important that you consult a wide range of individuals within the organisation, not just senior management. Consult equally with those involved in the day-to-day operation of the business. Consultation is important as it can encourage staff members to recognise that they are a part of the process. If they feel involved, it is more likely that they will embrace the changes and be willing to actually make them. They will have ‘ownership’ and more readily accept responsibility. Consultation can be established through meetings, interviews, brainstorming sessions, via email / internet communication or newsletters. Use of various methods will ensure that all employees have the opportunity to contribute to the team and individual performance plans. Finally, timeliness is vital. It is not useful to obtain information from staff when it is too late to actually put it into practice. You need to obtain information early enough to be able to make a quick response and application. Therefore, consultation should take place as early as possible to allow for ideas to be incorporated into the overall strategy and objectives of the company.

Making Plans Planning and designing jobs for workers is an integral part of the overall process of achieving objectives. Without a well-defined and planned job, workers are at a loss to know exactly what they should be doing. The design for jobs that you develop should include job descriptions, key performance indicators, specifications, as well as the various procedures that they will have to adopt as a part of their job. The task begins by identifying the essential functions of the job. In identifying essential functions, be sure to consider whether employees in the position are actually required to perform the function, and whether removing that function would fundamentally change the job.

Key Performance Indicators Key performance indicators are used in modern business to identify those areas where a specific level of performance is critical to the success of a given position. They also allow you to ascertain areas of importance within a given position. Importance is a function of the number of times the specific task is undertaken along with the amount of time spent completing a task, and whether the function is actually critical to other things being achieved within the organisation. Think through what would happen if a given function was not performed within the organisation. What would the consequences of this be? Then you are able to develop key performance indicators and develop measures to ensure that the expected standards are being met and can be developed for the process, goals or objectives. These standards are used for monitoring and evaluating efficiency or effectiveness. They provide targets for productivity improvements such as reduced downtime, higher production levels or decreases in absenteeism. Clearly stated and regularly emphasised outcomes or key performance indicators can result in improved individual and team performance and participation as well as improvements to systems and operations through changes in work roles and responsibilities.

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“Second place is the first loser.” Mance Bowden

Clearly stated and regularly emphasised outcomes or key performance indicators can result in improved individual and team performance and participation as well as improvements to systems and operations through changes in work roles and responsibilities. Quality standards and expectations often form the initial key performance indicators for an organisation. As a result, targets for training and development will become apparent. This all contributes to the development and growth of the team. Candidate Resource BSBWOR502A Ensure Team Effectiveness © Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd

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Supporting the Team As corny as it sounds, your people are your most important resource. Their skills, knowledge and experience are among the most important factors that need to be considered when you are developing an effective team. Those staff members who undertake a specific work task most often are the best people to consult when developing a team, as they are the ones who are charged with doing specific roles most often and so know the function the best. They are familiar with what can go wrong, what difficulties there can be and what needs to be done to get things right. Improvements can be made most easily when you are bringing together experts who know the process well and allowing them to work on those areas freely. Staff must be given the authority to work on these areas, and make changes that they feel will improve the service best. Staff members who are involved and who participate in decision-making and improvement processes feel most committed to making the changes work. Staff within an organisation will appreciate the opportunity to discuss their working environment and even personal issues such as their relationship with a fellow colleague or manager. Talking an issue through can help diffuse a negative situation before it gets out of hand. So you should devise strategies that will encourage this type of open communication among your staff members. This philosophy in your workplace should come from the top. There should be a commitment from upper management to encourage open communication and discussion. By showing that management are willing to listen and make changes on the basis of what staff have discussed, you will encourage staff to be more open. Regular personal contact between staff and supervisors will assist in encouraging this type of communication. As a leader you will have responsibility for ensuring the team has the physical resources that they require to complete their tasks and meet their goals, key performance indicators and objectives. They also need to build relationships with the teams within their workplace. Establishing good relationships and maintaining those relationships in order to achieve the desired goals and objectives is achieved in a very similar way to establishing and maintaining personal relationships. Business relationships are built through being open, honest, co-operative and productive. You will find that the people you must establish relationships with are set out by the tasks that you will be asked to perform. There is, in most cases, no ability to form relationships with those whom you work with because you will find yourself having to work with people who you normally would not choose as friends or those who are very different to you. This can cause difficulties, but creating relationships with the following four attributes will result in effective working relationships: Openness: Being open means that you are willing to provide all the information that is required to make a successful and effective decision. For example, if you are working with someone, but you do not provide him or her with all the information they need, they will most likely make a poor decision. In order to build a strong working relationship, all parties need to know that there is openness to share information and an openness to provide opinions without fearing retribution if those opinions are different to those held by other parties. Honesty: As in all your personal relationships, without honesty it is extremely difficult to trust someone. You need to know that you can trust those you work with, and much of trust comes about from knowing that you are being told the truth. Therefore it is important to be sincere, and show that you are being honest with everything you are saying. Openness and honesty go hand-in-hand, and help to build a long lasting working relationship.

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Productivity: In order for a working relationship to be effective, there must be a productive result. Achieving results and increasing the productivity can enhance a working relationship. For example a strong working relationship will actually achieve its aims. A weaker working relationship will most likely not achieve everything that was set out for it. Therefore it is important that you become accountable and cooperate in order to achieve these aims and objectives. Co-operation: Finally, the working relationships you have can be enhanced through increased levels of cooperation. Cooperation is essentially the willingness to help out if required, to cooperate and do what is required in order to get the job done. Co-operation can be shown by being willing to help out, and showing the other parties that you will do anything you need to do to help make the job easier.

Sharing Information Good working relationships are based on openness, and being open means being willing to share information and opinions with others, no matter what that information is about. Even though you may be providing information or an opinion that the other party may not necessarily want to hear, it is important to show openness by providing all information that is required of you. If a work colleague asked your opinion is it better to be open and tell them you do not believe their idea will work well or is it better to lie? In all cases it is much better to tell the truth rather than lie. Think about how you would feel if you were lied to. In order to provide the right information and opinions, the information must be: Clear: Information is only useful if the other party can understand it. If what you write is not easily understood then your opinions or the information that you have provided are essentially useless. Clarity can come about through selecting easily understood words, being concise and most importantly understanding that even though you may understand what you write, the other party may not. Therefore always read back what you write, and think carefully about what you say. Unclear information may even be misleading and not give the intended message; it may even give an entirely different message that you did not intend to give. Complete: As well as being clear, information or opinions you give also need to be complete. Be open and provide full information – do not hold information or your opinions back simply because you believe the end user does not want to hear it. It is important that the information that you provide to the end user is complete and does not omit anything, as the omitted information may be the information that is most crucial in making a decision. Take into account the end user: While you may find that the information that you are providing is not really what the end user does want to hear, it is important to ensure that you take into account the way the end user will feel about the information as you provide the information. If it is not good information, be sensitive and attempt to make the information or your opinion easier for them to read, given their involvement in the task or project. If you believe their ideas are not good, give a negative opinion, but attempt to justify what you are saying by giving reasons, don’t just say yes or no, as this is incomplete information.


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Promises Made, Promises Broken This may seem like common sense, but it is always important to ensure that any commitments, agreements, promises or undertakings that you make with other parties within the workplace are always kept. A broken agreement or promise can destroy an effective working relationship. If you were to promise to get something done by a certain date, and do not – how can the other party trust you? It is extremely important that all undertakings are followed through. Whenever promises or undertakings are made, ensure that an agreed timeframe is set, consider the other work and commitments you have and determine how long the promised work will take. Then you are in a position to be able to agree on a timeframe for delivery. Once you have established a timeframe, keep this timeframe in mind, and always ensure you deliver at the specified time. If you do not, the working relationship is likely to suffer.

Feedback Feedback and advice are both important means of communication, and information transfer. You must ensure that all communication is positive, so that employees are encouraged to communicate with managers more frequently. Negative communication often discourages staff from letting management know what is happening on the work floor. Most employees want to know how they are doing and what they can do to improve. Employees also appreciate it when you notice good work and effort. Here are some ideas on giving positive feedback: Feedback must always be helpful and meaningful to the end user. Try to ensure that all feedback that you provide is aimed at the actual job performance of the individual concerned. Always look for ways in which to give people positive feedback. Do not reserve this simply for once a year. People need to know they are doing a good job as well as areas where they could improve. Feedback that could be construed as being negative should always be framed as being constructive. Do this in private and in a very timely fashion. For change to occur people need to understand what they did that needs improvement. Allow the staff member concerned an opportunity to talk with you about their performance and provide feedback on where they feel they are doing well and where they feel improvement is needed. Keep it professional. Feedback does not need to concern issues with regards to personality or any other aspect that is outside of work.

Others are Experts Too Just because you are a leader, does not mean that you have to do everything. You should draw on the expertise of others in order to enhance your working relationships. In order to achieve this you need to begin by identifying the expertise that the other parties hold. What are they good at? What special skills do they have? What experiences have they had which you have not?

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Once you have identified the skills, recognise them by letting them know that you would like to be able to use their expertise. You may be able to use their skills to plan certain work activities, or to provide you with support and further information in certain areas. Whatever the case, ask whether they are interested and state that you believe their skills, experience and / or qualifications are suited to the task.

Feedback is a valuable tool when used correctly to improve performance.


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Activity One Examine your workplace, team or section, and think of a performance plan that relates to your team. Discuss its value with the group and consider improvements that could be implemented. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. ..............................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................. ..............................................................................................................

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Section 1 - ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz Please tick

True

False

You should draw on the expertise of others in order to enhance your working relationships. Staff must be given objectives that are impossible to meet to develop opportunities to provide constructive feedback. A vision statement takes the mission statement one-step further and looks into your desired future for the organisation.

Because you are a leader means that you have to do everything.

Key performance indicators are measures taken to ensure that the expected standards are being met. Give positive feedback frequently. Some people prefer to receive praise in private. Planning and designing jobs for workers are integral parts of the overall process of achieving objectives. A mission statement is a written organisational statement that states your organisation’s purpose and inspires and motivates your employees. If you are providing information or an opinion that the other party may not necessarily want to hear, it is important to give only a little of the information that is required of you. You will find that the people you must establish relationships with are not set out by the tasks that you will be asked to perform.


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