Facilitators' notes
Module: Managing People
Introduction
This module comes the closest to formal supervisory management training. It
looks at selection and induction of staff, and setting of standards. There is much
useful practical information in the module, but people who have not yet managed
staff may not relate to the material. For example, you may find that managers of
'off air' stations may not have the experience against which to compare the
material.
Broad Aim
The aim of this module is for participants to learn the basic skills needed to
manage people in the organisation.
Training outcomes
By the end of this module, participants will be able to:

Identify the factors that keep people at work motivated

Select the right person for the job

Define job roles

Set clear expectations

Give feedback and recognition

Identify and deal with conflict
Process guidelines

Total time required for this module: 15 to 16 hours (set aside 3
days to cover the whole module)
Please note that there are some alternatives for some activities you need to plan your use of time very carefully.
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Facilitators' notes

Materials required for this module:
 Flip chart
 Permanent Markers for the facilitator and for groups
 Prestick
 1 set of notes/ manual per person
 2 sets of Role-plays for each group of three
participants.(attached to these facilitators' notes.)
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
Activity 1.:
Reflecting on
people problems
20 min
Buzz in pairs: ask people to list all the problems their
radio station face. (5 minutes)
Then ask them to divide the problems into two
categories, those that are related to the people in
the organisation (e.g. lack of commitment, people
not preparing their work, etc), and those that are not
(e.g. lack of money, small premises, unreliable
phones, etc) (5 minutes).
Do a quick brainstorm in plenary - drawing up two
lists. Point out that many problems in all
organisations, are related to the management of
people. This module focuses on how you can
manage people to try to avoid, or at least minimise,
these type of problems.
Activity 2.: What
keeps you happy
at work?
45 min 60 min
Part of making decisions
1 10 5
5
7
2
Interesting and meaningful
work
6 1
2
3
6
1
Good salary and package
10 8
4
2
9
5
Challenge and growth in the 2 2
job
1
1
5
3
Good relationships
4 3
3
4
3
4
Contribute to social change
3 7
6
7
1
5
Able to do a good job
5 4
7
9
4
7
Recognised for my
contribution
7 5
8
10 2
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This exercise gets people to reflect on what is
important to them about work. Point out that 'work '
should be seen in the broadest possible way - which
includes doing voluntary work in a community
organisation or church.
The exercise can be done in different ways - You
can get groups to compare their individual rankings,
and talk about why they are different - you should
highlight issues like: previous work experience,
family circumstances, age, number of employed
people in the family, personality factors etc.
You can also get everyone to write up their ranking
on a prepared flip chart and then look at patterns:
are there things that this group has in common? Are
there differences? Why?
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
Another variation is to get people to fill it in for a
colleague from their station (preferably someone
who is in the training course) and then see how
close they are to that person's own rankings.
Conclude by discussing why managers need to think
about motivation. People often get quite moralistic
about staff members (e.g. they are lazy, or not
committed etc). The role of management is not to
blame or label, but to try to understand the individual
person's motivational needs, and to look for ways to
meet those needs. You also need to be careful of
making assumptions about what motivates people sometimes you will be quite wrong!
Note that many people get confused about ranking what they have to do it rank the statements in order
of importance. The most important is given a rank of
1, the next 2, and so on, until 10. (remind them of
lining up at school with the smallest child in the front
and the tallest at the back!)
Activity 3.: The key
skills for managing
people
2 min
This is a two minute introduction to the next section
Activity 4.: Case
study: Mzi's
Sleepless Nights
45 min
Let people read in two's and threes together. Make
sure that they all get the 'story' right. Then discuss
the questions in plenary.
Some key points that should come up: Nonjabulo
got the job because she was part of the founding
group and they trusted her. While she has attended
a lot of training, she has had very little experience in
organisations or as a manager. Training cannot
replace experience. She really needed their help
and support all along, not just once there were
problems.
Activity 5.: The
steps of a
selection process
45 min
groups,
15 min in
plenary
Give groups blank cards (or pieces of paper) to
develop a flow chart showing the steps in a selection
process. They should write one step on each card,
and then put the cards in order. (They may well
change their minds on the order a couple of times)
There is a fairly general set of steps in the manual.
Give people a chance to add any additional steps to
it.
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
Activity 6.:
Developing a job
description
2 hours
Before you can select people, you need to know
what you want them to do. (Some organisations do it
totally back to front and get the new person to write
their own job description!)
Brainstorm the main jobs in a station, and assign
one job to each group. Go through the main steps
for developing a job description in the plenary
session. Then give groups an hour to put together a
job description. They will not be able to finalise it,
but should be able to produce a statement of the
'Purpose of the Job' and the main areas of
responsibility with some tasks.
Get them to put up their work, and do a quick gallery
walk. (This means you all walk around the room,
looking at all the examples. One person from each
group stays with their chart and answers questions.)
As a summing up, point out that job descriptions
take a long time to write - interviewing and getting
an in-depth idea of the job can take a couple of
hours, and writing the final job description can take
you two to three hours. It is not a quick job!.
Activity 7.:
Selecting the right
person for the job.
20 min
Do this work in plenary - get people to buzz about it
first, and then discuss it together.
Ideas could include:
Interviews, auditions (getting people to present a
'mock' news bulletin), writing an essay (why I want
to work at this radio station), role plays: (for example
asking people to role play how they would respond
to a rude caller) etc.
Activity 8.: Group
Work on Selection
1 hour
Chose one job that everyone will work on.
Each group does a different aspect of the selection
process and presents in plenary.
You often get quite useful things in this session.
Either give people a chance to take notes of what
they find useful, or get someone to type up the
flipcharts.
Activity 9.: Case:
Losing Allison
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1h45 min
Note that most organisations do not have any kind
of orientation or induction programme. People are
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
usually left to sink or swim.
Use the case study to kick off a discussion on what
could be done to induct a new staff member.
Read the case and discuss the problems in plenary
session. Ask them to tell you about their first day at
the radio station.(15 min)
Give a brief introduction to the meaning of Induction
and Probation. You can base this on the main points
in the notes: The Induction Programme. (5 minutes
maximum)
Then get groups to suggest an induction programme
for a radio station. You could get different groups to
look at different jobs (e.g. group 1 does an induction
programme for a news reader, group 2 for a
marketing person, group 3 for a station manager,
etc. (45 min in groups, 30 min to report)
Sum up by telling them that there are detailed notes
in the manual that they can refer to when they need
it at work.
Activity 10.:
Expectations
This session can sometimes be a bit puzzling for
people who have little work experience. It is
probably the most useful part of this module on
managing people.
There are two possible ways to do introduce the
module.
Option 1: Use the case in the manual and have a
brief discussion - 15 min
And /or
Option 2: Role play and discussion - 30 min
Ask a couple of people to role play a situation where
a manager talks to someone who has not performed
well at work, and then ask the group: How would
you define "good enough" work in this situation?
Get people to do work on their own, and write down
what 'good enough' would mean for them.
Ask a couple of people to share their answers, and
write them up on newsprint. You'll find that everyone
has different ideas about "good enough" work.
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
Point out that if you are working with different ideas
of what is 'good enough', then you will have lots of
arguments, and people will feel that it is "not fair"
and that no matter how hard they try, they can never
satisfy the boss/the rest of the team.
Input on Expectation (20 min)
Do the input on Setting Clear Expectations in detail,
and do examples with the group as a whole. (e.g.
ask: what standard would you set for 'good enough'
news reading? This is a quality standard. What is a
good mix for programming ?- this is a quantity
standard. Etc
Group Work (30 min in groups, 30 min reports)
Each group works on a different job.
Activity 11.: Giving
Clear Feedback
40 min
Work in pairs, on the feedback statements. Ask
each pair to give you input on a different statement..
Model answers are:
1 Not OK - very strong emotion, "keep on" is too
general.
2 Very specific feedback, its nice to know exactly
what you did right
3 Sweeping statement - very hard to know what you
are supposed to do in response
4 Too many generalisations (always, never etc)
mixed in with a pile of specifics. Comes across as
very attacking.
5 Nice but? Some people like this, but many people
find the superlatives hard to believe. They tend to
discount the comment.
6 Very specific feedback
7 NO! First of all it makes people feel ganged up on
(We have all discussed this behind your back) and
no one is owning the criticism - they are hiding
behind this collective 'we'. It would also be useful to
know exactly what is meant by "supporting people" e.g. "When my mother died, you did not seem to
care."
8 Another sweeping statement - need specific
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Notes and suggestions
examples.
9 The use of a label makes it hard to listen - no one
wants to be called sexist or racist. You need to
describe what he is doing and then say something
like "This makes me feel that you don’t respect me,
because I am a woman."
10 Sometimes you have to use the labels - but first
try to point out the effect of what was said : "When
you said ….., I felt that you see all of us a 'blacks'
not as individual people." Or "When you said … it
sounded like you were judging me on my skin colour
and not on what I do or say." If this does not work,
you may end up having to say " … you must
understand that saying this is not acceptable, it is
racist."
Point out that in a working situation, the feedback is
meant to help the other person to learn and improve.
If you use labels, you will end up not being able to
work together. Explaining the effect of an action is
easier to listen to than a judgement.
Activity 12.: Skills
practices
In this session, you will get people to work in threes
to practice the skills needed to hold a meeting with a
staff member. The meeting could be a meeting to
plan work, a meeting to solve a problem, a quick
meeting to give positive feedback, or a meeting to
discipline the staff member.
The CLEAR building blocks are very general, they
help you in different types of meetings.
Put people into groups of threes and do at least
three role-plays. That way each person has one
chance to try out being the manager.
The role-plays are part of these facilitator notes..
You need at least one hour for a set of three roleplays.
If you have time, and people want to do a second
set of three role-plays, they can use examples from
real life, in their stations.
Activity 13.:
Dealing with
conflict. Role plays
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60 min
This is a fairly straightforward activity. Give people
20 min to prepare their role plays, and then stick to
this time limit. They don’t need to do polished
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Facilitators' notes
Session
and discussion
Time
Notes and suggestions
dramas, just a quick sketch showing a typical
conflict situation. The aim is to get a sense of the
types of conflicts that are common in organisations.
Activity 14.:Ways
of handling conflict
30 min
Somehow, people have got the idea that we should
always deal with conflict. In fact there are many
situations, especially in a work setting, where you
can just ignore conflict because dealing with it at
work is not appropriate.
Suggested answers - but you may not agree:
Situation 1 - Approach 1
Situation 2 - Approach 3
Situation 3 - Approach 2 (she must just do it!)
Situation 4 - Approach 3
Situation 5 - Approach 1 or 2 (the receptionist asks
her direct manager to talk to the MD). Depending on
the MD, you could even use 3
Situation 6 - Approach 2 and 3 (but avoid 3 if it will
turn into a rehash of their relationship)
Situation 7 - Approach 2 or 3
Activity 15.: A
simple approach to
resolving conflicts
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30 min
Get people to work in pairs, preferably with a partner
from their own station. Ask them to choose a conflict
situation at their station, and then each person takes
one side of the conflict and prepares for the conflict
resolution meeting by answering all the questions.
They then role-play the meeting. This session is
used as a means of testing the approach. You do
not need a report, but rather some feedback on the
approach and how people found it.
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Facilitators' notes
Session
Time
Additional Materials in
appendix
Notes and suggestions
1. Maslow's Hierarchy of needs
2. Suggestion from a management book on
responding to motivational needs. (Note that this
is very business oriented. It's included not
because the suggestions are all 'right' but
because it looks at very specific ways of keeping
people motivated - you may want the group to
look at them and then develop their own list of
suggestions for radio stations.)
These readings provide a bit of theory to back up
the discussion on Activity 2,: What Keeps You
Happy At Work? If you want you can include it in the
session - add at least 45 minutes, or give it to
people to read at home.
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Instructions for Participants
Role Plays for Skills Practices
Note that the people playing the manager and the staff member only get their
own sheet. The observer should get a copy of both people's role sheets. You
need two copies of each page, for each group of three people.

Role play 1:
Staff member's role sheet.
You are a volunteer who has been helping to prepare special events. You work
really hard, and the last outside broadcast was very successful. You feel proud of
your contribution.
Because you are not earning any money at all, you are very broke. Your girl/boy
friend lives in the next town, and you can't afford to visit her/him. You sometimes
use the phone at the station to call her/him and say hello. You know that this is
not allowed, but you work so hard, that you think the station 'owes' you the odd
phone-call.

Manager's role sheet.
You will be meeting one of the volunteers who is a very hard worker. S/he is
always available and helps with all the special events. The last outside broadcast
was very successful, largely because s/he worked so hard.
You do have one problem with him/her: s/he often uses the station phone to call
his/her boy/girlfriend. There is a very strict policy at the station that no-one may
make personal phone calls.
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Instructions for Participants
Role play 2
Staff member's role sheet
You are a volunteer at the station and you often help by answering the phone.
You like this job, because it means that you know what is going on and you get to
meet a lot of people. You know that you are efficient and friendly.
Yesterday, a funder phoned the office. He was looking for the Station Manager,
but s/he was not there. You took down the message, but then you lost the piece
of paper. You decided not to say anything, because you don't want to look stupid.

Manager's role sheet
You are meeting one of the volunteers. S/he often helps by answering the phone
and is very friendly and efficient. It's really nice to have a volunteer who is willing
to do telephone duty and who is so friendly.
Yesterday the volunteer took a message from a funder. It was really urgent and
you were supposed to phone the funder back so that you could meet him for
supper. He was only in town for one night - last night.
The funder called you this morning to say that he was leaving and would not be
able to fund the station this year, because he could not meet you. He said he
thought it was very unprofessional of you not to return his messages. You never
got the message, and you are really angry.
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Instructions for Participants
Role Play 3
Staff member's role sheet
You are a young presenter. You have a very loyal following with many fans who
listen to the station because they like your show. You don't always prepare your
shows before hand, and you never fill in the time sheet before the show. You
know the station manager wants everyone to prepare properly and fill in the time
sheets before each programme because otherwise presenters play too much
music. You know you are supposed to have a community reporting slot during
the show, but most times you don't bother, because you are having so much fun
being spontaneous.
You don't think these rules and time-sheets should apply to you, because you are
the best presenter in the station. You don't need to follow these stupid rules.

Station manager's role sheet
You will be meeting with a young presenter who is one of the most popular
people with your listeners. They really love him/her, and many tune in specially to
listen to his/her show.
You have made it a rule that all presenters must come in an hour before their
show, and plan their programmes properly. They are supposed to fill in a time
sheet showing what they plan to do throughout the show. You know that when
presenters are not prepared they play too much music, and there is little other
content.
At this meeting, you need to talk to the young presenter, because s/he is not
doing proper preparation at all. You have listened to the show, and while you
agree that s/he is very skilled and sounds really good on air, the content is often
very weak and there is far too much music and not enough content. S/he is
supposed to have a community reporting slot during each show, but in fact in the
last month, s/he has had no community reports at all.
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Facilitators' notes
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
Maslow was a psychologist who said that there is a hierarchy of needs. He
believed that needs are ranked in such a way, that unless you satisfy the
most basic needs, the ‘higher’ needs will not satisfy you.
Self fulfillment
Esteem: status, self-respect,
recognition and appreciation
Social: Family, friendship and belonging
Safety: Stability, physical and financial security
Physiological needs: Food, warmth, shelter, etc.
It is clear that the needs at the lower end of the pyramid are the ‘same’ for
everyone: we all need food, warmth and shelter after all!
However, the ‘higher’ we go up the hierarchy, the more differences there
are between individual people.
For example, we all need security, but some people feel secure very
easily, while others need to have a full pension scheme, a guaranteed job
for life and three insurance policies before they can relax. Some people
want to be friends with everyone at work, while others prefer to have a few
close friends, and to keep their private life separate from work. Some
people are very motivated when they know they do a good job, while
others like to be praised and thanked.
People in a team or an organisation don’t start out being motivated or
demotivated. It is up to the leader and the organisation to develop the right
atmosphere that will motivate your team members.
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Facilitators' notes
Suggestions On Motivating People
On the following page are some tips from a management book. When you look at them,
keep asking: are these helpful for a community radio station?
If a person is motivated by:
The organisation or manager can do the
following
Money
Look for incentive schemes based on
financial rewards (e.g. commissions,
performance related pay, etc)
Security
Ensure as much stability as possible. A low
but secure salary is preferable to uncertainty!
Status
Give a title, recognise status: e.g. by the type
of desk, size of room,
Put them in charge of a project with high
status
Give opportunity to learn new skills
Recognition
Give public recognition e.g. a ‘employee /
volunteer of the month’ award. (Let people
know in advance that you will be doing this.)
Remember to thank often!
Responsibility
Give people real responsibility – don’t just
delegate a task, but also the responsibility.
Discuss what information, resources and
equipment they will need to do the job, and
provide them. Then let the person get on with
it.
Job satisfaction
Make sure that you give the person a job they
are well suited for (so that they can do it
successfully.)
Make sure that the person can see how
his/her job fits into the big picture. S/he will
need to understand how their part of the
process is important.
Challenge
Ensure that this person gets
challenging
tasks that are
Give a lot of variety: new types of jobs, new
targets and objectives.
Make sure that there is a chance to learn
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