Listen Up!

Successful Teambuilding

You are going to listen to Karen King, a Manager at MineheadAutomative, leading a session on Teambuilding. Team building is a philosophy of job design in which employees are viewed as members of interdependent teams instead of as individual workers. So, Karen will give us some advice about successful teambuilding.

1 Pre-listening activities

a) Answer the questions:

What do you think is the most important for team work?

What can your team role be (from listed bellow)? Why?

Belbin’s Team Roles are:

Action Oriented Roles	Shaper	Challenges the team to improve
	Implementer	Puts ideas into action
	Completer Finisher	Ensures thorough, timely completion
People Oriented Roles	Coordinator	Acts as a chairperson
	Team Worker	Encourages cooperation
	Resource Investigator	Explores outside opportunities
Thought Oriented Roles	Plant	Presents new ideas and approaches
	Monitor-Evaluator	Analyzes the options
	Specialist	Provides specialized skills

b) Study new vocabulary (e-flashcards can be found on: http://quizlet.com/58687117/flashcards):

without any ado – without any delay;

to outline – to give the main ideas of a plan or a piece of writing without giving all the details;

initially – at the beginning;

shared vision – common point of view for all team members, the main general idea of how to work on a project;

commitment – a strong belief that something is good and that you should support it, a promise to do something;

motivation – a feeling of enthusiasm or interest that makes you determined to do something, a reason for doing something;

seasoned – experienced in a particular activity or job;

leadership – a position of being in charge of work, group, organization;

to encourage – to suggest that someone is doing something very good, to give someone confidence and hope, to provide conditions that help something to happen;

to attain consensus – to succeed in achieving agreement among all the people involved in a tem after a lot of effort;

to sort out the roles of the team members – to make arrangements for work that every person in a team should complete and the way they should complete it;

to spot complications before they arise – to foresee, predict and prevent any problems or mistakes;

scope – a range, vary of something;

weakness – a fault or a problem that makes something less effective;

to make up – to work extra time;

to deliver to the customers – to transform, to inform the clients about something;

external customers – clients coming outside the company;

outcome – result, effect, conclusion;

senior management – leading executive, people with a higher rank or position;

supplier – provider, a company or organization that supplies or sells products or services;

stakeholder – someone who invested into a business and owns a part of it;

to commission – to officially ask for a piece of work to be done in a team;

to undertake – to agree, to be responsible for a job or a project and do it;

requirement – something that is a rule, law, that you must do;

set-up phase – a period or stage when the way of a particular group work is being organized;

doubtful – not certain or likely to happen or to be true;

convinced – certain that something is true;

team bond – something that gives people in a certain group a reason to be feel they have a duty to one another;

demanding – needing a lot of job, efforts, ability, time, energy;

to assess progress – to consider, to judge or to calculate the result or effect, to decide if the project is worth doing it;

informal atmosphere – relaxed and friendly mood and feeling in a group of people;

to foster – to help something happen;

to avoid – to try to prevent something from happening;

interpersonal issues – questions and things involving relationship between people;

to be on the look out for – to be watching carefully in order to find, obtain, or avoid something;

smooth – without problems, difficulties or delays;

to establish – to set up, to make something start or happen;

to blame – to say or think that someone is responsible for an accident, problem or bad situation;

to be tolerated – to be accepted by others even if they don’t approve you or your ideas;

fault – the factor of being responsible for a bad or unpleasant situation;

gossip – chat, talk about unimportant subjects, especially about people’s private lives;

inevitable – impossible to avoid or prevent;

malicious – unkind and showing a strong feeling of wanting to hurt someone;

divisions in a team – separating people into smaller groups or parts;

c) Remember new vocabulary: http://quizlet.com/58687117/learn

d) Write a dictation: http://quizlet.com/58687117/speller

e) Have some fun: scatter-game: http://quizlet.com/58687117/scatter,
race-game: https://quizlet.com/58687117/spacerace

f) Take a test: http://quizlet.com/58687117/test

2 While-listening activities

Listening for general information

a) Listen to the program and answer the questions:

What makes an effective team?

What should be avoided while working in a team?

b) Listen to the program and complete the following exercise (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5021375.html):

Say if the sentences are true or false:

A teamleader should identify everyone's talent and use it.
Individual achievements of every member are the most important while working in a team.
The company where the meeting is taking place is focused on advertising a new range of products.
According to Karen King, every company should be focused on internal managers and suppliers.
In Karen's opinion, team members should climb the mountains on Fridays.
Friday group lunches develop confidence between team members that improves the whole efficiency.
Interpersonal relationships should be tolerant to the culture of blame.
Creating team spirit depends on speaking about individual faults.
Gossips should be excluded from team work entirely.

Choose the best answer to the questions (sometimes more than one answer are possible):

“Shared Vision” is followed with:

a) motivation

b) consensus

c) outlining

d) commitment

These things should be avoided in an efficient team:

a) team bond

b) interpersonal issues

c) blaming each other

d) gossips

Put the main points of Karen’s talk into the correct order:

1 _____; 2 _____; 3 _____; 4 _____ 5 _____.

a) creating team spirit;

b) defining team roles;

c) giving the main ideas about team building;

d) warning to avoid some things;

e) the idea you want to bring to your customers.

c) Complete the sentences (notes of Karen’s talk) with one or two words from the program (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5033838.html):

Initial Considerations:

One of the first steps is to develop what Karen refers as a _______ _______ of how a team should work.
Reaching agreement on a way forward requires practiced _______ skills.
Teams require members who will check the _______ of a creative scheme for possible problems.
Members must be willing to help compensate for any _______ that appears n the team’s work.
Identify the full range of _______ who will benefit from the team’s work.
Remember to keep the team’s _______ informed of progress.

How to keep members working in a team:

You can encourage _______ _______ by organizing a number of joint events.
Sharing a meal regularly is an excellent scheme for reviewing team _______ in a non-threatening way.
Work will go better if you develop an atmosphere of _______ in the team.

Warning points:

Prevent any _______ _______ between team members from becoming serious.
Make it clear to the team that _______ is not acceptable response.
Restrict any _______ about members of the team as far as possible.

Listening for detail

d) Listen again and complete the text (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5031184.html):

Listen up, everyone. Karen King has kindly agreed to lead a session on 1 _______ as we prepare to set up team to develop our new product range. So, without more 2 _______, over to you, Karen.

So, what makes an effective team? In my view, it depends on working out 3 _______ what I call a “shared vision” of the best way the team could operate. With this in place, commitment and 4 _______ will follow. But this can’t be achieved overnight. It takes time and 5 _______ leadership expertise to encourage the team to discuss the options fully and attain consensus on how to advance.

Having got the measure of your team, it’s time to focus on what you have to 6 _______ to the 7 _______ – in your case, a new product range. But you shouldn’t only think about the external customers, there are others who are concerned in the outcome of your work, such as other departments, 8 _______ _______, suppliers and so on. So, check who these 9 _______ are and what they expect of the team. Similarly, you must keep in mind the people who have commissioned the work you are undertaking and provided resources for it. I like to call this group the 10 _______, and you will need to update them regularly on developments and let them know your ongoing requirements.

I just want to warn you now of a few things to 11 _______. Teams are made up of people who don’t always get on well. So, 12 _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ _______ any interpersonal issues. Deal with them quickly by talking things through with the 13 _______ concerned, and, if necessary, change any work pairings to keep things 14 _______.

Finally, all workplaces are alive with 15 _______ and this is an inevitable part of human 16 _______, I’m afraid.

3 After-listening activities

a) Match words from each column to make collocations found in the program (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5031813.html):

1. to be achieved	a. range
2. without	b. overnight
3. external	c. phase
4. informal	d. customers
5. shared	e. part
6. senior	f. atmosphere
7. team	g. consensus
8. divisions	h. management
9. to sort out	i. spirit
10. product	j. the roles
11. to attain	k. issues
12. interpersonal	l. vision
13. set-up	m. ado
14. inevitable	n. in a team

b) Choose the best option to complete the sentences (e-test can be found on: http://www.quia.com/quiz/5031805.html):

You should _______ divisions in a team.

avoid

separate

foster

demand

Young children can be very _______. They are not very easy pleased and need a lot of attention.

inevitable

smooth

tolerant

demanding

If it all goes wrong, don’t _______ me.

blame

encourage

tolerate

outline

Without any _______, let’s begin our show!

ado

period