Title:
Developing Team leadership skills
Category:
In class or in group curricular intervention
Preparation time:
10 – 15 minutes (for defining a problem, making copies of team role
assignments and pondering the tasks)
Time required to apply:
15 – 30 minutes (depends on complexity of task and time used to
process the exercise)
Goal:
To have students better understand how a team leader/facilitator can enhance
even small group tasks and encourage students to practice the behavior.
Intervention # 1: Group Roles Activity
Group Leadership assignment: Form the class into groups of 5 people each giving
each person one of the following assignments. Ask them to keep their specific
assignment to themselves until after the group assignment is completed. Revealing and
discussion of the specific assignments will occur during processing of the group activity.
(Naturally the specific topic given here is an example for illustration purposes. Nearly
any topic may be used.)
1) In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to come up with ideas. Participate freely but keep this specific assignment
to yourself.
2) In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to come up with ideas. Participate freely but keep this specific assignment
to yourself.
3) In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to come up with ideas. Participate freely but keep this specific assignment
to yourself.
4) In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to organize and record the ideas that are generated. You may participate
as long as you are able to complete your role as assigned. Keep this specific assignment
to yourself.
5) In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to foster ideas from others. You should not worry about coming up with
any idea, simply encourage and help others to do so. Your role is to encourage and help
others and be sure they are included. Participate freely but as assigned but keep this
specific assignment to yourself.
Processing the intervention: Discussion that occurs after the group activity is the best
way for the students to gain insights into the purpose of the activity. It need not be long,
but without some time for processing the activity will lose most of its value. The main
points to bring out are: a primary role of leadership is to build others; organizing and
order is important but more of a management activity; even the leader (fostering ideas
rather than coming up with them) gains as much from the discussion (if not more) as do
those who actually come up with the ideas; a good leader need not have all the answers.
The following questions could be helpful in the processing of the activity.
1) What roles did you see being played out in the group activity?
2) How did the individuals accomplish their roles (what techniques, ideas, methods did
they use)?
3) How did the various roles help in the solution process?
4) Was the person who fostered ideas helpful? How? (this one can be a bit dangerous if
the one with the #5 assignment did not function well, but even then a good learning
opportunity exists as the role, and its purpose, is explained.)
5) How did the recorder help in the process? (same caution as previous)
6) Does the one who foster (the “leader”) learn less than the others?
7) How did the negative role impact the group? (If it was used – see below)
8) How is foster and encouraging others a leadership characteristic?
9) How can one who has a gift or talent in helping others succeed be as valuable as one
who “has all the right answers”?
10) What characteristics are necessary and important to be a successful leader in this kind
of a situation? (humility, determination, persistence, patience, etc.)
11) Where can this kind of leadership be helpful other than the situation in which it was
used?
If the group is larger you could add one task that is:
In your group discuss how the practice of first part inspection as a quality assurance
technique is inconsistent with the Taguchi quadratic loss function. In this task your
primary role is to shoot down ideas that are suggested. Don’t be rude, just be pessimistic.
Keep this specific assignment to yourself.
However, using this task is hard for some students while others may take it to the
extreme. If you want to demonstrate some of the difficulties of leadership and team
dynamics, this is a good role to use. If your primary purpose is demonstrating how a
leader can facilitate ideas and to search a technical problem more deeply, then this role
should probably be avoided.