Week 5: Effective communication skills for team performance

Introduction

Welcome to Week 5 of the course.

In Week 4, your focus was on the various roles we play in teams. You learnt about the functional roles we might encounter, such as chairperson or note-taker in a team meeting, and explored the work of Meredith Belbin and his 9 behavioural roles, comprising social roles, thinking roles and action/task roles.

This week, you’re going to explore a key skill of huge importance to effective teamwork – communication. You’ll investigate some of the situations where good communication is vital in this environment, such as when giving feedback and decision making, and reflect on how effective these processes have been in teams you have belonged to.

To begin Week 5, first watch the following video in which Lynne Johnson introduces the topic.

Download this video clip.Video player: wdt_1_week_4_lynne_new.mp4

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Transcript

LYNNE:

This week, you'll be revisiting some of the communication skills that were mentioned last week when you were considering what types of actions would help move the group towards the next stage of team development. These will include decision making, how to successfully deal with conflict, and providing feedback effectively. You'll take time to reflect on your own experience of dealing with conflict and reaching decisions in groups and teams you've been part of, and consider what good feedback looks like and how feedback you provide can be improved.

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By the end of this week, you will be able to:

• outline some of the key communication skills needed for teamwork
• consider how effective the communication skills have been in teams you have been part of
• understand how to give feedback effectively
• implement a range of tools used for brainstorming and decision making.