Continuing Professional Development Team building

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programme or portfolio — dominate the construction industry. It’s not uncommon for people to have worked in teams where the personalities of certain members simply clash, or where team performance is diminished through a difference in personality, trait or behaviour. Understanding each other is therefore a great first step in forming better teams. There are five core factors of personality with associated traits, which can be easily remembered using the mnemonic OCEAN, which stands for: Openness to experience: fantasy, aesthetics, feelings, actions, ideas, and values Conscientiousness: competence, order, dutifulness, achievement striving, self- discipline, and deliberation Extroversion: warmth, gregariousness, assertiveness, activity, excitement seeking, and positive emotions Agreeableness: trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender- mindedness Neuroticism (or Emotional Stability): worry, anger, discouragement, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, and vulnerability Openness runs on a continuum from

“explorer” to “preserver”. Explorer (O+) traits are useful for entrepreneurs, architects, change agents, artists and theoretical scientists. Preserver (O-) traits are useful for finance managers (including QSs), project managers, stage performers and applied scientists. Those in the middle (O) are labelled “moderates” and are interested in novelty when necessity demands, but not for too long. Conscientiousness runs from

“focused” to “flexible”. Focused (C+) traits

Those in the middle (A) are “negotiators”, who move from leadership to a follower position as the situation requires. Finally, neuroticism runs from

“reactive” to “resilient”. Reactive emotional traits (N+) are useful for social scientists, academics and client- relationship managers. Resilient (N-) traits are useful for air-traffic controllers, airline pilots, military snipers, finance managers and engineers. Those in the middle of this spectrum (N) are “responsives” who are able to use levels of emotionality appropriate to the circumstances. Many organisations, through the

are for leaders, senior executives and other high-achievers. Flexible (C-) traits are useful for researchers, detectives and management consultants. Those in the middle (C) are “balanced” and find it easy to move from focus to flexible, from production to research. Extroversion runs from “extrovert”

to “introvert”. Extrovert (E+) traits are useful in sales, politics and the arts. Introvert (E-) traits are useful for production management and in the physical and natural sciences. Those in the middle of this spectrum (E) are “ambiverts” who move easily from isolation to social settings. Agreeableness runs from “adapter” to “challenger”. Adapter (A+) traits are useful for teaching, social work and psychology. Challenger (A-) traits are useful in military leadership, advertising and management.

Table 1: Quick assessment of team performance Eight criteria for successful teams

● My team coordinates tasks efficiently and effectively

● All team members are motivated to perform as a team

● My team is made up of the correct members ● My team has clear goals

and a compelling direction ● My team has clear boundaries

● My team has fewer than 10 members ● My team has a very stable set of members ● Organisations (or the project) reward us as a

team rather than as individuals

Scores can range from 8 to 32. If your team scores closer to eight, that team is likely to be facing considerable issues with members and how they work together. Consequently, the performance of that team will be suffering and is likely to be detrimental to either your project or your organisation.

48 | SEPTEMBER 2012 | CONSTRUCTION MANAGER

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2 2 2 2

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2 2

3 3

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Strongly Disagree 1

1

Somewhat Disagree 2

2 3

There is much construction can borrow from Team Sky’s approach to team building

recruitment process, will use psychometric assessments to understand the personality traits of potential candidates. Subsequent training and development programmes will also build on this understanding through the training and development of those individuals. If this data is to hand, why not share this in your team? Companies and individuals are often reluctant to discuss this data openly, but there is a strong case for making it available to teams and team leaders, as part of an overall culture of collaboration and transparency. By understanding individuals, team members can be assessed, managed and coached to develop higher performance, or teams can be pre-designed, aligned to the ultimate outcomes the team is looking to deliver. Table 1 is a quick assessment that can

help to assess how well your team is performing. Circle the rating against each criteria and then add up your total score.

Somewhat Agree 3

Strongly Agree 4

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Getting the best from teams Collaboration is a process that can develop when groups or teams work together purposively to solve a problem, make a decision or achieve a common goal, and members take ownership of and responsibility for the work of the group. In order to increase collaboration, it is necessary to: improve team cohesion; have groups and teams working on tasks where there is an independent goal; provide the group or team with regular feedback; give the group or team information about its performance. Clearly, the task on which a group or team is working as well as its goal, is important in guiding individual team member behaviour. The task must be one that requires at least some level of

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