How we learn human skills
The BEST way to learn human skills is to be part of a team. We’re all in teams!
The young people in the video below met for the very first time earlier in the day. Through a learning experience called Why Are You Like That? they learn about themselves and different communication preferences. TetraMap uses four Elements of Nature – Earth, Air, Water, Fire – as a simple way to help us understand aspects of human nature. Through this metaphor, and during this process, the teams begin to understand how all the Elements add value to teamwork.
To bring this learning to life they are challenged to complete a task in teams. The task is to build a geodesic dome in 45 minutes from recycled newspaper. It’s a complex task, requiring many teamwork, communication and collaboration skills. The time component adds a little pressure. The activity has an important purpose – to learn about each other and BECOME a team – BEFORE they work on other leadership development activities for the remainder of their week long Leadership Programme together. What they learned in such a short timeframe is remarkable.
You’ll see the outcome and hear their reflections on key learnings. ALL teams mention learning those hard to develop human skills. Watch and listen carefully and note down how many of those skills you can identify.
What did you notice about how we experience teamwork?
By observing different behaviours, and by understanding how we are different – we can have better, more harmonious, creative teams where everyone has high self esteem, self confidence is built, and the group learn to deal with ‘failures’ by better supporting each other.
Here are some comments from the teams about their key learnings and those ‘human skills’:
- Team Yellow “Teamwork, Trust and Communication”
- Team Orange “Teamwork, Synergy and Inter-dependently working together”?
- Team Purple “With a combination of different Elements, you can form a very successful working environment” “There was natural delegation within our group” “Letting the appointed leader in this situation take charge” “Everyone was comfortable”
- Team Brown “working together” “having the four elements” “Önce we got into a process it made things smoother and we managed to speed up”
- Team Orange “At first our communication was a bit slow as we were getting to know each other but by the end it was great.” “Even though we failed, we know next time it will be a lot better.” “And we had a lot of fun.”
Without this understanding of each other, the newly formed teams could have easily had a much more difficult task of communicating and collaborating. This task required them to work to their strengths and identify how to achieve the result under pressure. The results and the high self-awareness and self and team esteem are evident from their debrief.
Activity
Take some time to reflect on the teams you have been part of. Home, Sport, Uni, Work? Make some notes to help you:
- What helped to make a team – good, great or not so great?
- How did you use the opportunities you were given to develop your skills?
- How were you encouraged by the team leader and other team members, especially when things went off course?
- How were contributions of yourself and others recognised?
Contrast this experience with a different scenario:
In many workplaces, teams are brought together based on technical skills and task capability.
Less attention is paid to human skills and developing teamwork capabilities. The result is misunderstandings, communication conflict, disengagement, low self-esteem and low team morale. Blame on the leader, each other, the information – is commonplace. As a result a work environment can become a negative or toxic environment to be in.
