MMU Futures

Team Work Essentials

Introduction

These sessions intend to develop my understanding of working effectively within a team. I booked this lecture when I saw it was available as I intend to improve my teamwork skills after my reflection from the One Minute Film project.

Wednesday 3rd February 2016

This session involved the basics of teamwork, recognising different types of team members and exploring ourselves and to recognise our strengths and weaknesses.

We started the session with introductions with the session involving a range of students from different years and courses. We started to discuss times where teams have worked effectively and badly including examples from our pasts. We then discussed how different teams are effective and to recognise the signs of a good and a bad team.

Handouts were then given out with descriptions of different team roles as described by Belbin.

 This sheet showed that different people have these traits when they are part of a team and from these sheets we had to recognise these different members. We did this by watching videos of people working within teams to accomplish a task, these included: I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ and ‘The Apprentice’. Within these videos we clearly saw the different roles that people take within a group and how these roles work together make a team effective or ineffective.

We also had the task of assigning different roles to different development stages of a project. This was through a handout and as a group we discussed which roles would be necessary for each stage of a project.

There were roles which would be needed throughout the project however as a group we decided to choose a single stage where the role would be most needed because we believed that every role would be essential for every stage anyway.

From this I reflected on my past and what my role was within a group. This involved being honest with myself and accepting what role(s) I am.  Reading through the sheet I believe that I am a: Co-Ordinator, Implementer and Completer (Finisher). (In my opinion, I believe these roles change depending on the group and task assigned however I am discussing my role(s) within recent groups.). This is because I like to manage the team and have a clear idea what the final product will become. Recognising that I like to be in-charge and in control of the group and product, I recognised my flaws which would be that I am too controlling of the group. This is true because I reflected upon this in my recent group project: One Minute Film.

From this I learnt that I must acknowledge that I must not be too controlling of the group through communication and trust. This is because I can continue to monitor the progression of the project whilst maintaining a level of trust to allow team members to complete their task their way.

Communication and Influencing Essentials 

Within this session we discussed ways of effective communication as an individual and within a team. Throughout the session we were in small groups and discussed ideas and our experiences in communication be it positive or negative. 
I took notes throughout the session and took pictures of the handouts we were given (notes and handouts are not in the order taken/given):

We discussed about different listeners and how to deal with different situations and how we could improve ourselves as listeners. I feel that I mostly a content and action listener, this is because during work I believe it is important to hear the facts and details about the progression of a given project and what will be done to accomplish those tasks. 
However this is dependent on the context of the situation because this does not necessarily mean  that a person is one type of listener all of the time. 
taking note of my 'work' listener: I need to ensure that I take note of what is being said carefully to consider other peoples ideas and to not reject them too quickly and allow others to share and support their ideas. 

Within the the session I learn that there is so much more to communication than i thought. Even simple communication has many factors that influence the message and how it is received etc. Therefore I now realise the significance of sending a message effectively and that I will be careful in what I say and how I say it. This applies both socially and professionally. 

How to Write Winning CVs

Introduction

Within this lecture we learnt how to create an effective CV and how to stand out from the crowd. We talked about a number of points on what makes a good or a bad CV and thought how we can apply this to our own CVs. I felt that it was important to attend this session because I believe that my CV isn’t as effective as it could be.                

Session

We started the session on how an employer views a CV and that the initial glance lasts only 30 seconds. Therefore first impressions of the CV are vital and that the presentation of the CV is just as important as the content. This is because if the CV is full of information and not laid out effectively, the employer wouldn’t want to read the CV at all. Therefore we looked at other ways to create a CV including video and illustrative CVs. This is a very different and creative approach to creating a CV, therefore I found this very interesting and will use these ideas to influence my own CV.

We discussed what makes up a CV and what information it should contain. This information includes: personal details, education, work experience and any additional headings you’d want to add yourself. The most recent information would be first and then followed by previous work experience/ education.

We were then told about the importance of cover letters for an application. Cover letters act as an introduction for the employer before they are bombarded with information from your CV. The cover letter should include: your name, what your applying for and 3 key points for why you feel suitable for the role.

Language was another important point we discussed, and how it can be used within our CVs. Language can be used in a number of ways to convey different meanings, therefore we thought about how we can change a few words in our sentences to create a more positive delivery of the same information. This would include rather than using words such as ‘did’, replace with ‘can’ which has a significant impact on how an employer reads your CV.

Conclusion

We finally finished on a checklist for key elements we must have in our CVs to make them effective. After attending this session I feel that I have learnt a lot about what makes an effective CV. I feel that after attending this session that my CV needs a lot of improvements because I can now see how I have made my CV generic and boring. Therefore I will apply what I have learnt and more to my CV to make it stand out from the crowd.  

Networking: Building Your Own Digital Brand

Introduction

The next session I attended was networking where we learnt the importance of contacts, how networks are created and how they expand. Networks can refer to both technological ones and connections between people. In this case we explored how we use them and what we can achieve with an effective network for our future careers.

Session 

Within the session we learnt what networks are and we can expand them. This is because everyone already has a network, complex or not. This session is here to help us develop a professional and vast network to increase our chances of being hired by an employer and make us professional individuals. We looked into how complex networks can be and how we can make our own networks effective. This is because if we put more thought into our networks, such as; who is our audience, what information are we displaying and how are the audience viewing my profile?. We looked at social media and how it can use it effectively with established goals that we set out to achieve from what we display and post online.

Networking can also apply to connections between people outside of social media. We discussed how to be an effective communicator in conversations and how to create the best opportunities at social events such as employability fairs and cafes. 

Conclusion

Finally, we summarised what we had learnt in the session by creating a list and thought about how we can apply what we have learnt to our own networks. I feel that I have gained from this session and learnt how to expand and develop my network effectively. I feel that I have gained the most understanding about my digital network and how to make it effective.