Teamwork

Talking about Warwick Skills Certificate Session 4

There's no doubt in my mind about the usefulness of team working skills and the session did provide a good introduction. When I was an proper undergraduate, 30 years ago, there was no formal attempts at building team-working skills and the results were dire.

Of course just because there is a course on something doesn't mean that people learn too much about it. You only become proficient in a skill by actually practicing it. Education is really just an introduction to practice, a way of shortening the time you must spend as an apprentice. It's a way of learning from other people's insights and experiences to cut the time it takes to reach proficiency.

On return from the session I attempted a fragment of teamwork. No more than a partial success at best, which I put it down to using the telephone. It's not much use except for the simplest of messages. Using the telephone for anything complicated usually leads to chaos. Anything agreed orally is just not worth the paper it's not written down on.

I shouldn't be surprised that the Adair's test shows me as a Doer/Achiever first and a Thinker second. I need to be aware of my weaknesses when it comes to Leadership, let alone Caring.

: 11 Nov 2005 10:12 |  Tags: PDP |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem