Session #1 Working Together

Session led by: Rachel Gendich + Doris Grose

Notes by: Huang Bahn + Nikki Taylor

Working Together started with an icebreaker that asked, “What was the worst job you ever had?”. Replies ranged from jobs related to the architecture/engineering industry to ones that were held as far back as high school.

Presentation #1: Learning about the ‘Team of Teams’ structure by David Bolt, CEO, GMP + Rob Den Besten, COO, GMP

David Bolt, CEO and Rob Den Besten, COO at GMP, presented first on “Learning About the ‘Team of Teams’ Structure”. The term ‘Team of Teams’ is derived from a book by Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Circa 2016/2017 David and Rob saw the team at GMP was growing larger than a “family size” (>~40 people) and realized the company needed to make a decision. Both people and processes are important, but ultimately you must pick one to be first. They chose people over processes and proceeded to set the company up for self-management. The principles of this concept are people first ideas: building connection & trust, working toward a common goal & purpose, empowering individuals, and free exchanging of ideas. It was acknowledged that this type of organization is not for everyone, and GMB attracts or detracts people based on their affinity for this type of company. A couple of keys to the success of a people focused organization is continual learning and sharing of knowledge, and being surrounded by good people both internally and externally.

Presentation #2: Introduction to Belbin Team Roles and Review of
Individual Reports by Max Isaac, CEO, 3Circle Partners

The second presentation was an “Introduction to Belbin Team Roles and Review of Individual Reports” led by Max Isaac, CEO of 3Circle Partners. The Belbin testing system is good at giving you heightened self-awareness and is very effective for individuals and a team as it has a synergistic approach.

The Belbin test system was created by and named for Dr. Meredith Belbin and it is a predictor of financials and determining team roles. The test looks at how people behave, contribute, and interrelate with others, assesses your ability to contribute over time, and indicates your functional and team roles based on self-perception and observer responses. There are (9) roles that are grouped into (3) categories:

Thinking roles: plants, specialists, and monitor evaluators
Action oriented roles: shapers, implementers, and completer finishers
People oriented roles: coordinators, team workers, and resource investigators

There are natural/preferred roles, and the idea is to focus on your strengths and be aware of your weaknesses. This tool can be used to help diagnose and improve team performance or to design teams. What rounds out the testing is the observer’s portion which can sometimes reveal that you’re “hiding a Ferrari in your garage” meaning you have hidden strengths that you aren’t aware of! Conversely, it can reveal things that you may think you’re good at that you really aren’t. We must keep in mind that the results are computer generated, so they’re very general and we should be careful not to label people based on the results. Knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are helps to improve speed, quality, and execution of decision making, creates a higher quality of cross team collaboration, produces more effective individuals, builds trust, and allows the ability to assign tasks to people who will do them well.

Presentation #3: Leadership through Honest and Timely Feedback by Pam Hartsell, CPD PMP

The last presentation for this session was guided by Pam Hartsell, CPD PMP, a Project Manager and Senior Mechanical/Electrical Designer at Strategic Energy Solutions.

The importance of feedback was emphasized as it creates trust, is a learning opportunity, allows for performance improvement, and gives you insight that will help with your job performance. There is an art to giving feedback. The more you do it and the stronger your relationship is with the person, the better it becomes. You should be aware that feedback may sometimes cause animosity, could be perceived as criticism or a complaint, and you need to be sensitive to other’s cultural differences. The benefits of giving good feedback are preventing repeated errors, time wasted, missed deadlines, and lost profits. It improves project quality, encourages making meaningful connections, and contributes to professional growth and success. Honesty, delivery, and timing of feedback are critical and remember, feedback isn’t always negative, it can be positive. An easy way to ease the tension of giving feedback is to start by answering two basic questions:

What is someone good at?
What could someone do better?

As a leader, it’s imperative that you give constructive feedback and listen to understand not listen to respond. Feedback is a gift, especially when coming from people who care about you.