Appendix 2: team work, problems and suggestions

Sometimes the co-operation in a team may come to a halt. There are various causes:

• the team has not laid down any firm rules and/or does not observe these;

• because everything is quite new, no one dares to take the initiative;

• signals indicating problems are picked up when it is too late, which results in communication going haywire: the team members ignore each other, make unpleasant remarks or discuss non-issues;

• although the team gets on quite well, they cannot make decisions. This may be caused by a fight for power between two or more students with different ‘roles’, for example: the ’specialist’ overrules the ‘chairman’, which may result in a very one-sided approach to the problem. The team members do not intervene, which results in a ‘wait and see’ attitude;

• team members are excluded or, out of protest, exclude themselves from the group;

• there is a lazy atmosphere. Everyone appears to be quite happy in his role, but the team is not critical or active.

Suggestions:

1. Make a common start, for instance by discussing certain points in this manual or laying down rules and agreements. Make absolutely sure everybody understands AND AGREES;

2. Make the meetings and discussions formal. YOU ARE REQUIRED to ALWAYS use an agenda and to make minutes, not only during the weekly progress discussions, but also during interim discussions. If you do not record things that happen, you cannot make the necessary decisions (e.g. to kick someone out of the team!);

3. Minute not only the decisions, but also the arguments. Use your project file: it should contain the minutes of the weekly meetings, notes, work sheets, brief reports etc.;

4. Discuss the rules regularly and amend them if necessary if you want everyone to observe them. Failure to meet obligations must be discussed and appropriate action taken! Do not hesitate to call people to account. If you are unable to keep an appointment, make sure you cancel in time or apologise;

5. Give timely and correct feedback. This is give in terms of concrete behaviour and the effect this behaviour has. A good form of feedback is: ‘I noticed that you kept talking while I was chairman last week. I was therefore unable to concentrate, and I didn’t like that’. You describe the behaviour as you experienced it (“I”-message). The thing is to do this on a basis of respect and at the appropriate moment; a private word is the best solution. Do not point an accusing finger, for example: ‘I think you are an irritating bore, is that your normal behaviour?’ You can both give and receive feedback. Bear in mind that you must not see someone’s remarks as a personal attack, but as a comment which you may turn to good use. During TPM trainings the aspect of feedback will be thoroughly discussed;

6. Do not create scapegoats: it is seldom useful to tell a person what exactly he is doing wrong, for he generally knows this himself. Work toward finding a solution together, instead of focussing on problems;

7. Do not exclude anyone. If someone excludes himself, ask what is wrong;

8. Change roles regularly – also informal roles. In this way, everyone can play every part, both those you like and those you do not like so much. And remember: practice makes perfect.

Appendix 3: business plan, a possible structure

This is NOT THE ONLY WAY you can do this, so you can look for many other, creative, solutions to writing a coherent business plan. In the literature you can find a number of possible structures for the final report, and of course you can also use the structure you can find in the book on your literature list of Van Sten, Creating a Business. Just make sure you include the important parts!