Teamwork Step 7

Outcomes

To achieve Step 7, learners will show that they can contribute to group decision making, whilst recognising the value of others’ ideas. 

The previous step changed the focus of Teamwork to how to contribute to group decision making. This step builds on this, thinking not just about how to add your ideas, but how to think about others’ contributions too.

Learners need to be able to:

• Understand why sharing your ideas is not enough

• Understand when group decision making goes wrong

• Recognise the value of others' ideas

• Open your mind to other people's ideas

Introduction

• In the previous step, the focus was on how to contribute to a group decision-making process. However, that is only part of being an effective part of group decision making.

• Group decision making doesn't work when people are unwilling to share their ideas. 

• A team needs to be collaborators rather than competitors. We need to be able to recognise the value of other people's ideas.

• Listening is also important to make sure that we are making helpful additional contributions, rather than repeating points that have already been made.

Teach & Apply

• One of the great opportunities of group decision making is the chance to learn from a range of different views and make the best possible decision for the team.

• These different perspectives might come from: holding different values; having different knowledge and skills; having had different ideas.

•  There are several things that we can do to be more open to valuing other people’s ideas:

  • Always explain your perspective – this will encourage others to explain theirs and will help you to see the thinking behind their ideas.

  • Actively try to understand why someone has a different view to you.

  • Check that you are not biased against someone else’s perspective.

  • Ask questions to expand your understanding.

  • See changing your mind as a strength. 

Reflection & Assessment

Embed these strategies across your teaching and coaching to help learners apply what they’ve learnt.

• Model recognising the value of other people’s ideas by explicitly referencing when you are doing the activity.

Use these ideas for ways of assessing this skill step to help you check learners’ understanding and confidence.

• Ask each learner to come up with one reason why it’s important to have lots of ideas when working on a team. 

• Ask these reflective questions:

  • Why is it not enough just to focus on sharing your own ideas?

  • Why do different people have different ideas?

  • How can you ensure that you think about others’ ideas and recognise the value in them?