Crafting Team Tasks Around Strengths

Transcription

1 Positive Psychology Practitioner s Toolkit Crafting Team Tasks Around Strengths Strengths Exercise min. Group No According to strength use theories (Clifton & Harter, 2003; Peterson & Seligman, 2004; Wood et al., 2011), having the opportunity to apply one s strengths makes people feel efficacious, excited, invigorated, and intrinsically motivated. In support of this assumption, studies have revealed that strengths use is related to work engagement (Harzer & Ruch, 2012, 2013; Keenan & Mostert, 2013), enhanced ability to cope with job demands and lower levels of sickness absenteeism (Van Woerkom, Bakker, & Nishii, 2015). Studies addressing the relationship between strengths use and well-being at work consider strengths use as a relatively stable individual difference variable, assuming that employees have an overall tendency to use their strengths to differing degrees. This tool was designed to increase the extent to which employees use their strengths at work. Goal This exercise has several goals: to improve performance of individuals and of the team as a whole by allowing team members to use their strengths more effectively at work to create more opportunities for team members to use their strengths in different ways to enhance team cohesion to enhance awareness of others strengths for support Advice For step 4 and 5, it is advisable to use a big table or board with drawing pins, magnets, postit notes or cue cards with sticky tack. In this way, the strengths and tasks can be grouped in a flexible way. It is possible for the practitioner to complete step 5 without involving the participants. In this scenario, the practitioner assigns tasks to individuals according to where he/she feels that strengths are best applied. It is advisable, however, to involve the team members in the discussion of how strengths apply to tasks, because this is likely to increase ideas and approaches to problem solving, as well as building creativity, teamwork and engagement. This version of this exercise makes use of cards. The benefits of using cards is that they allow for a more dynamic, well-ordered and playful way of a assigning tasks to members than merely presenting text on a slide. However, especially for bigger teams (11+ members), it may be necessary present the information in a different way. For instance, after collecting information on the team members strengths, the practitioner makes a chart with all team members names and strengths listed. Next, the practitioner makes a chart that displays each person s strengths and each required task, designating tasks according to which strengths best apply. [1]

2 Positive Psychology Practitioner s Toolkit After completing the tasks, it can be very valuable to evaluate the task completion processes. How did team members experience completing the tasks? Did they enjoy the process? Where they indeed able to play to their strengths during the task completion process? What strategies may be developed to maximize strengths? Is it possible to pinpoint areas where additional staff or expertise was needed? This exercise can be a great starting point for strengths-based team work. Organizing team meetings on a regular basis where this approach is adopted can help to increase productivity, engagement and feelings of interconnectedness. Suggested Readings Clifton, D. O., & Harter, J. K. (2003). Investing in strengths. In K. S. Cameron, J. E. Dutton, & R. E. Quinn (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp ). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Harzer, C., & Ruch, W. (2012). When the job is a calling: The role of applying one s signature strengths at work. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7, Harzer, C., & Ruch, W. (2013). The application of signature character strengths and positive experiences at work. Journal of Happiness Studies, 14, Keenan, E. M., & Mostert, K. (2013). Perceived organisational support for strengths use: The factorial validity and reliability of a new scale in the banking industry. South African Journal of Industrial Psychology, 39, Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Van Woerkom, M., Bakker, A. B., & Nishii, L. H. (2015). Accumulative job demands and support for strength use: Fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101, Wood, A. M., Linley, P. A., Maltby, J., Kashdan, T. B., & Hurling, R. (2011). Using personal and psychological strengths leads to increases in well-being over time: A longitudinal study and the development of the strengths use questionnaire. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, [2]

3 Tool Description Instructions Step 1 All team members take the VIA Survey of Strengths (or engage in strength spotting discussions to uncover their top 5 strengths). Once completed, they write their name and strengths on each of the notes pictured on the next page. It is advisable to cut out the notes or write the name and strengths on post-it notes or cue cards. Step 2 The team members collect the notes with signature strengths and group them. They make piles of similar signature strengths. Step 3 The practitioner facilitates a discussion with team about what the various strengths generally mean to the individuals, and what they mean specifically at work. Step 4 The team members make a list of all tasks that need to be designated. They can use the task notes on page 5. After listing all the tasks of the team, the team members create separate notes from the tasks and places them on a big table or connects them to board, so that all the team members can see the tasks. Note that there should be enough room around the task notes in order to allow the strengths notes to be added during the following steps. A graphical representation of this step is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 Distributing the different task notes on a table or board [3]

4 [4]

5 Task Name: Brief Description of the Task: Task Name: Brief Description of the Task: Task Name: Brief Description of the Task: [5]

6 Step 5 The practitioner facilitates a discussion with individuals and with the group to brainstorm about which strengths they feel relate best to each task. Individuals then assign team members to tasks by selecting relevant strength cards from the previously created piles of strengths, placing strengths cards next to the task note they believe best matches with the strengths at hand. Of course, there is much more to assigning tasks than consideration of strengths. When assigning team members to tasks, it is also important to also consider skills (especially in a work environment), competencies and interests. In other words, although strengths can be considered as a good starting point for assigning tasks to team members, it is advisable to also consider the aforementioned elements. A graphical representation of this step is shown in Fig. 2 Fig. 2 Assigning relevant strengths to the tasks Step 6 After completing the exercise, group members may create a personal overview of the tasks to which they have been assigned, including the strengths that they may use during the tasks. The schedule on page 7 can be used for this purpose. [6]

7 Task Name The strength(s) that I can use for completing this task Strength #1 : Strength #2 : Strength #3 : Strength #4 : Strength #5 : Task Name The strength(s) that I can use for completing this task Strength #1 : Strength #2 : Strength #3 : Strength #4 : Strength #5 : [7]