Building a Team…

Most people will tell that they love working in teams, that they get support from each other and encouragement to carry on, press forward so to speak.  Someone to help smooth the way when all they want to do is crawl into the big black hole of study.  This is exactly what happened last time when I worked as part of a group.

The paper was Integrative Accounting, a wonderful paper that talked not about measuring growth in monetary numbers, but the green issues that companies now face.  The offset for carbon credits, the development and support of communities and other charitable organisations.  During the course of this paper we were assigned to groups or teams of five to develop a report and presentation, much like we are doing now.  So here were five people who had never meet before and had to find common ground to work through the issues that we had been presented with. 

I was lucky as one of the ladies that had been assigned to my group I actual knew, not well, but I had done a few contact courses with her.  So I had some idea of her personality and her working style.  She in turn knew one of the others in the group quite well as it turned out, and knew that we would work well as team, but we really weren’t prepared for the other two team members, and thought that our core three would be able arrange most of the stuff that needed doing.  Boy, were we wrong! It was a large assignment with a very complex presentation. 

The first meeting was an eye opener, as one of the group disagreed with everything anyone said, it had to be her way or the highway.  Another just sat there not really joining in in any of the discussions.  She then admitted she had to leave 30 minutes after the meeting had started due family commitments and felt like she could not add any input as she was behind in her study, which she hoped to catch up with in the next week.  So our first meeting was a bit of wash out and did exactly accomplish anything in regards to the team structure or roles.  The only thing we all agreed on was the topic, and that was only because we had to submit it for approval.

The second meeting was a little better as the team member, who had disagreed with everyone, on the first occasion, was more agreeable this time around, and actually helped with really good suggestions as to team roles.  It turned out that she had just come from a difficult personal situation in which she had been made to feel undervalued and taken advantage of.  AS she said it had affected more than she appreciated, and that she hadn’t meant to let it affect her in her studies.  However the one with family comments was a no show and no one had heard from her.  The advice of our tutor was to continue to develop the team and the presentation, assign her a role and try to keep communicating with her via email.

Somehow in the end we got there (after several other meeting with missing team members), just the four of us as we found out much to our horrification that our missing fifth member had been subject to domestic violence.  None of us had thought to ask her if everything was okay, we just steam trolled ahead focusing on what we had to do, and not the personal development side of the group.  It taught us all a great lesson that not everything is what is seems.  She was able to join us for the presentation on the day, slightly battered and bruised, but very happy that despite her problems, we still included her in the presentation, and helped her through the day.  What it taught me is well we may work in a team; we need to be able to communicate with each other not just on professional/developmental basis, but also a personal level, not in-depth but nice level of personal awareness.

The Positive Spirit of Christmas.

For many Christmas can be a very stressful and expensive time.  There never seems to be enough hours in the day, and money which has normally budgeted down to the last cent just to make ends meet needs to be stretched even further.   For many there is not happy glow just a feeling discontent, uneasy and unhappiness.  That everyone else has something that they don’t, or that they need what everyone else has to be happy.  So what need to happen to change the mood of the season from frown to a smile?

What we need to focus on is what we actual have in our lives. It may be that we have good health, great friends and a place to call to home.  People that keep us centred, help us feel loved.  A lifestyle that is easy to sustain. But then comes a long Christmas and the pressure to do everything, from seeing people we really haven’t communicated with since last Christmas, to buying expensive gifts that we really can’t afford, and then to eating and drinking just a tad too much and not really enjoying any of it.  So how can we use positive psychology to change this around?    We plan and focus on what we need, may be the following steps will help. 

Step one:  Remember that before the silly season started, that we normally planned what we were doing, with whom and how much time, money and effort was involved, this is something that we should be kept up.  And we shouldn’t accept every invite that we receive, especially if the people involved don’t or aren’t support of our life choices.  This will help eliminate some of those feeling of discontent as we won’t be comparing ourselves to them.

Step two: Plan and buy present early, and remember it’s hard to meet everyone expectations of what they hope to receive.  If the gift comes from the heart and is given with love, then hopefully the recipient will love it too. If not maybe they have issues and it not your responsibility to make them happy all the time.  

Step three: The food doesn’t need to be restaurant quality it just need to be prepared with love and a little bit of salt and seasoning.  Plan for the number of people that will be with you on Christmas Day, don’t be afraid to ask people to bring a favourite dish or contribution to the meal.  After all you don’t want to spend the entire day cooking, cleaning and doing a never ending pile of dishes.

Step four: Remember it should be about family and friends, not about the commercial experience that is being sold to us by the marketing companies.

Above all if we focus on what we can do, for ourselves and each other rather than the focus is on the positive, of what we have and not what thing we should have a do.  This is what positive psychology is all about, the focus on what we have that makes us happy. 

So to all, I wish you a Merry Christmas……..

Two Sides to the Aurgument.....

There are always two sides to any discussion or argument, a right and wrong (depending on your point of view), for or against.  In the case of border security and the Queensland Fruit Fly invasion there are strong arguments on both sides. Most articles I found represented a very balance approach, but one or two focused on errors or solutions.  And sometimes they were years apart. I cannot say this is my preferred style of writing, to sit down and analysis articles for how the write felt or what their motivation is, as I am not them, but I will try my best.  

There was an article published in 2012("Fruit fly find sparks call for better biosecurity in NZ,"),which questioned whether or not our current system where working effectively.  The writer was obviously involved in the horticultural industry so therefore may have had a financial stake at risk. This threat of a fruit fly invasion was something that threatened part of his income and possible lifestyle.  His objective was to raise awareness of the situation and what they thought where the issues.  This while it was a shorter article, clearly indicated the horticultural body had a vested interest in getting to the bottom of the issues and felt very strong that there was something wrong with the current system that was in place.  They actual stated that they were advocating for better biosecurity. 

The for in this argument came a few years later (2014) there was article that once again, that contained references to a possible fruit fly invasion, but this time it to focused on eliminating an entry point for the fly. ("Sea-dog helps hunt for pesty stowaways in Northland," 2014).  It talked in general terms of protocols introduced to help with yacht and vessels entering in to New Zealand waters and the checks that had now been updated to include the use of dogs and MPI inspectors.   It focused on what had been identified on what was seen as problem entry point.  The accent of this article was very much from the point of MPI, sings it praises and showing the steps that had been taken to prevent any further fruit fly invasions, by sea.  To me, while this showed the positive steps that had been taken to eliminate a threat, it felt like a piece of propaganda feel good material.  And yes that effective, as it make you focus on the positive and move you forward.    And let’s face who doesn’t like reading about animals.   

AS you probably see from the Bibliography below bother articles came from the same publication and only a few years apart.  My conclusion is that well we may agreement against a point or situation in the end what we really want is move forward and focus on a solution, the positive rather than the problem, a negative.

Bibliography

. Fruit fly find sparks call for better biosecurity in NZ. (2012). Orchardist, 88(2),12-15

Sea-dog helps hunt for pesty stowaways in Northland. (2014). Orchardist, 87(9), 22-23.