Strong Life Test for Women

Have a look at this - I am sure it applies to men too, and spookily, my main role is a teacher and supporting role as a Creator - very similar to the TMS results.

10 September

Media Wiki - a good session about the how to, and also structuring discussions. At our next meeting on 29 September we will have general information for all staff to edit, and determine the classifications for specific induction.

Bring your documents and information, thinking hats and ideas :-)

28 August

Team work - this is the most dynamic team I've ever seen, and other people comment on it too. Do we need to quantify what we've achieved - how do you show a return on investment? Obviously we will have an end product - the online induction Wiki, but we've also developed team skills, as well as team building skills and tools to use with our own teams; project management skills, with the team leaders powering with their ability to draw together information and to then share it with everybody else on the project, and to be able to use technology, which we've probably improved in by about 50%, especially SharePoint, which can be cumbersome.

On the 28th we revistied the TMS work preferences, discussing how we've been able to apply this in our workplaces, with different styles of communication, having your profile posted in your office, doing the abbreviated tool with your own team, and various other impacts that the knowledge we gained about ourselves has had.

We then worked out a rough time line for the induction online, with a Media wiki workshop on the 10th Septebmer to learn more about populating and modifying the resource, and also drew together the results of the research, content, and promotion work with the design. Another good meeting, and thanks to Sharyn for facilitating, but to all for your enthusiastic, positive and constructive input to this project.

Where are we up to?

A great day on Thursday 30 July with the TMS analysis - what are our work preferences, and how do they fit with others on our project team. At the same time, our mid-term report is due, and the feedback reflects the calibre of this team - constructive, dynamic, flexible to say the least.

We decided that for the induction resource introduction we need to emphasise the need for:

Trust, mutual respect and helpfulness, working together and how this relates to Teaching and Learning

The TMS looks at nine key success factors which make teams high-performing.

This was about different characteristics of teams – the different type of tasks that need to be completed to ensure excellent performance.

We had some great “real life” examples of these roles from the tem team members attending.

Discussion re Floor Robe - sometimes the incidental learning is the most important :-) any suggestions on how to get teenagers to get rid of their Floor Robe will be gratefully received.

We decided to advertise jobs looking for people in the North-West sphere - Advising and Innovation - to expand our workforce capability. A prize is offered to the first person to fit this category. We had no people in the ‘green sector” which is not a problem for our project, but may be for the organisation.

Our project people find the profiles a bit spooky in terms of the accuracy of the profiles. We recognised that our preferred roles did not necessarily fit with our current roles.

One of the most helpful things from today was about how to work best with other work role preferences.

e.g. The Assessor – Developer is:

· Analytical and objective
· Developer of ideas
· Enjoys proto type or project work
· Experimenter

When working with, for example, the Concluder Production

· Be structured and practical
· Give notice of proposed changes
· Stick to your word
· Keep deadlines
· Stay focussed
· Don’t waffle
· Don’t change your mind too frequently

Some things to work on:

· 2 things I’d like you to know about me:
· 2 things you can do to best communicate with me
· 1 thing I’d like help with

Maintaining

· Develop a personal action plan
· What could you STOP, START and CONTINUE to be even more effective at work?
· Swap profiles with your Manager/Section team/ Colleague. Discuss how to best work with one another.
· Build on your individual strength but remember if preferences are overdone, the strength can turn into a weakness.

Getting ready for the mid term report

Have sent out a Survey Monkey survey to gather information for this report, and had two responses, both fabulous!

Also getting ready for the TMS: Team Management System which all our team members will undertake in the next few weeks.

Mentoring

Part of the Initiative is to have mentoring conversations, half an hour on the phone. What did I learn from mine?

• That we have a good partnership and innovation strategy happening.
• That we have developed a good partnership with HR in particular, around performance development, TAA2, EEo and lots more!!
• Some sub teams will operate better than others
• The need to remove yourself sometimes
• Don't be too hard on yourself :-)

We need some photos!

WEll, I've titled this posting as a reminder for myself! We are using a SharePoint site, which is only open to our team. This is becasue SharePoint is the preferred site for the Institute, so we are all learning along the way as well.

We have used Survey Monkey to collaboratively write the mid-term report, with some responses; we've tried a survey from the SharePoint site where the team's reflection on learning show that they've "learnt where the SharePoint site is" :-)

In deciding to go ahead with the project, I needed a facilitator who would move the team along. We decided to have four sub teams at the first meeting, where we also did an excellent job of scoping the poject, giving us great parameters around the Research, Content, Design and Promotion of the online induction resource.

What I love about this project is the links that are being made across various Units, Faculties and Colleges within the Institute, and how it scaffolds communication. Our second meeting saw three of the sub-teams move ahead with their planning and actions, and we now have a two week holiday.

On the 30th July we will have completed the TMS profile, and be having a debriefing day with our HR Business Partner.