1 the essentials of management - eu management training · task allocation role-play ... the...

The Essentials of Management

Activities Pack

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Overview programme ............................................................................................................... 2

The Roof ...................................................................................................................................... 3

The Overall Framework for Reflection – Initial Case Study ...................................................................................... 3 Some Misconceptions on Management ........................................................................................................................ 6

Pillar I - Some key operational challenges ................................................................................ 7

Engaging staff in operations............................................................................................................................................... 7 Mapping my contribution ................................................................................................................................................... 8 Learning Review ...................................................................................................................................................................... 9 Organising the optimal workflows ................................................................................................................................... 10 Task allocation Role-play...................................................................................................................................................... 11 Learning Review ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12

Pillar II - Some key behavioural challenges ............................................................................. 13

Paradoxes and complexity .................................................................................................................................................. 13 Making difficult decisions .................................................................................................................................................... 14 Influencing the different stakeholders ........................................................................................................................... 16

Building a learning PLan ........................................................................................................... 17

The next steps .......................................................................................................................................................................... 17 Learning log .............................................................................................................................................................................. 19

The Essentials of Management Activities Pack

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OVERVIEW PROGRAMME


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THE ROOF

The Overall Framework for Reflection – Initial Case Study

a) Individually, read the following case study

Unit XYZ in Directorate General A is in charge of supporting other operational Units in the DG. Deborah is the Head of Unit. She has 3 Heads of Sector, Rui, Anna and Vera. Deborah views Rui as her unofficial deputy when she needs to be away.

Quite recently, the DG decided that part of its new strategy was to build up excellence in the services it provides, i.e. to be more service-oriented. Apparently, internal "clients" had been complaining that in most of the Units (including XYZ) it was difficult to find one single point of contact for dealing with requests and problems, and that requests were not being processed in a structured way. Some new procedures had already been agreed and put in place to try and deal with this and indeed staff appeared very committed to excellent service provision … but sometimes it seemed that it was to such an extent that deadlines were often not met and reminders needed to be sent repeatedly.

Rui used to be a member of staff in the Unit and has recently been promoted. Anna moved recently from another DG. In fact she had been a Head of Sector for several years in another Unit and so considers herself to have much more people management experience than Rui. Vera is relatively new to the Institutions – she started only one year ago and comes from a private sector job. She was placed immediately into this role as Head of Sector.

Deborah can see that each Sector has very different cultures and ways of working. Rui’s team is long established – they dislike change – and feel frustrated by the constant requests for updating and doing things differently. They have worked very well for many years as far as they are concerned. Vera’s team is newer, younger and made up of a majority of staff from the newer members states. It also appears to Deborah to be much more results focused. She views it as being pretty dynamic and does not get too involved in what they do. She finds it hard to get information from Anna about any issues in her Sector.

Among the staff, 2 members, Katri and Henrik, have joined the Unit relatively recently and are working for Vera’s Sector after having spent most of their careers in operational Units (actually supported by XYZ). They are enjoying the new dynamism of their Sector and are highly critical of the other two Sectors. Sophie, Deborah's assistant is pregnant.

In this Unit, there are also Giuseppe and Pavel. They happened to meet each other at their training course for new comers when they entered the Institutions, and have become good friends since. As far as they are concerned, their Heads of Sector - Anna for Pavel and Rui for Guiseppe - do not tap into their potential sufficiently and this is causing them to feel somewhat unhappy.. They have been here more than 2 years now and really wonder whether their HoS’ see the point in optimising people's contributions.

Five months ago (while Rui was still a regular staff member and before Anna and Vera moved to the Unit), Deborah organised a team-building event. This highlighted the existence of some tensions, particularly around workload and task allocation. Some staff also complained about the "strategic move" towards more "service-orientation", saying that: "Anyway, colleagues in the operational Units should start being clearer about what they need and should stop issuing last-minute requests!" There were also complaints that requests were issued without following procedures and there were too many excuses for making exceptions to the rules. ‘’Does being service-oriented just mean being at the


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‘beck and call’ of every operational Unit?" was another question that had been asked. There also seemed to be a consensus among staff that, after all, operational Units were not really "paying" XYZ, so they should not expect to be treated as "clients".

Rui is finding it a struggle in this role as Head of Sector and feels torn between working with his boss, Deborah, who keeps looking after practical details ("We need to make sure the job will be done, don't we - and there are so many emergencies to be coped with and so few staff!", she will often say to him), and working with his team who know him well from the years they have worked together. Deborah has noticed that he is reluctant to attend any meetings when she can’t attend. He seems very reticent about deputising for her.

Vera finds the culture a complete shock after working in the private sector in Hungary and is increasingly frustrated by what she sees to be the slowness of some of the people in the Unit. This includes Rui who she considers to be unprofessional and far too much ‘in’ with his team (always laughing and joking) and not focused enough on the work in hand. In fact she is not terribly impressed with Anna either.

Deborah has been feeling under pressure to improve the services in the Unit for some time – especially from her Director - who has received several criticisms from other Units within the DG about the standards in her Unit. She feels frustrated because she knows where these complaints have come from – or thinks she does – and believes that these other Heads of Unit are highly political and ambitious and just want to get in the ‘good books’ of the Director and get a high visibility.

She also feels that she has little credibility with her Director – a man who seems to get on better with the other male Heads of Unit.

Now only yesterday, she has heard rumours that one of the team members in Rui’s Sector had made a careless mistake that had an impact up to DG level. She realises that Rui has the ear of that Sector given his close relationships with the group. She really must speak to him about this and find out who is responsible. She would like to deal with the person directly to sort this out, especially as she wonders how far Rui is really ready to act as a manager and keep the appropriate distance with his team.

b) Then, in groups, answer the 3 questions below:

1. What are the main problems here? And what degree of priority would you consider them to be i.e. short, medium or long-term?

2. How have the responsibilities of Deborah, Vera and Rui changed since they became managers?

3. Imagine that you are one of the managers in this Unit? How would you feel when faced with these challenges?

Write your answers on sticking coloured cards as follows (or colours as outlined by the trainer):

1. = red

2. = green

3. = blue

When instructed by the trainer, you will stick each card on the corresponding colour Area on the Roof poster.


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c) After a brief individual reflection, discuss in threes around: "As a consequence, what might be different for managers in terms of responsibilities and how does the perspective make you feel?"

d) Individually, sort your initial expectations against the 4 areas of the roof, then work with the

Learning Log in your Course Manual, highlighting:

What was important for me in this session?

What complementary explanations/information do I need?


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Some Misconceptions on Management

a) Pick one card from the pack.

What are your individual responses and perceptions of the statement on the card? How does the statement resonate with you?

b) Share with another participant ….

Who picked the same statement and prepare to present back in plenary. Don't try to reach a consensus.


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PILLAR I - SOME KEY OPERATIONAL CHALLENGES

Engaging staff in operations

a) Please reflect on your current role while answering the following questions.

Tick the box Yes if you consider the statement mostly true.

Tick the box No if you consider the statement mostly untrue.

Questions Yes No

1. Do you know what is expected of you at work?

2. Do you have the materials and equipment you need to do your work right?

3. At work, do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?

4. In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

5. Does your superior, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?

6. Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

7. At work, do your opinions seem to count?

8. Does the mission/purpose of your organisation make you feel your job is important?

9. Are your fellow employees committed to doing quality work?

10. Do you have a best friend at work?

11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?

12. In the last year, have you had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

b) After you have ticked all Yes or No boxes as appropriate, and based on your own experience,

discuss in threes some initiatives managers could take when managing operations so as to ensure staff commitment.


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Mapping my contribution

Look at your current job/position.

Come up with the key elements for each area in the Map.

Position/Job:

Reason for Being

Key Missions

Main Activities

Crucial Tasks

Share with one colleague helping each other challenge the information you have come up with.


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Learning Review

First individually then in pairs, review Day 1 against the following questions:

If there has been one "Ah-ha" moment, one striking insight, one very thought-provocative remark or input, what is it?

How has it made me feel; what thoughts has it triggered? Are there elements which I will explore in greater depth and, if so, when will I do it?

Read the extension to the Initial Case Study below.

Maria works in Rui's sector. She is 50 years old and has a long experience in the European Institutions. She has always worked here. She is tired of the continuous changes the team has experienced over the last few years and does not see the purpose of her job anymore. She misses the good old days when people had the time to do their job properly. Now she feels she has to rush from one priority to another continuously and she dislikes that feeling. Everything is so urgent that she often does not see where to start. And when she finally takes a decision, she gets interrupted with something more urgent and has to rush to another task. As a result she usually has a lot of dossiers open on her desk; all of them are urgent and she hardly manages to finish them on time. From time to time she has the awful feeling of having no control over the situation. She is demotivated and takes more and more days off.

Pavel is a member of Anna's sector. Although he is in another sector, he needs to collaborate with Maria on numerous occasions. She initiates dossiers which he then takes on and completes. When he finishes them, he sends them to another Unit. He took that job over when he arrived and nobody explained to him what he had to do. He had to learn by himself - investigating old dossiers to really get an understanding of what was required. Now he is complaining to whoever is prepared to listen to him, that nothing is ever clear about who should be doing what between Maria and himself. He has got the impression that he is doing most of the job himself – Maria is often absent – but without getting any recognition for it.

Rui has an old management style. Everybody has been doing their job for so long and is so familiar with the procedures so he sees no need to write any of that down. He knows that Pavel is complaining about Maria's contribution to their common dossiers but what can he do? Maria is an older-generation staff member who has very fixed habits and ways of doing things. When a large number of urgent requests arrive for Maria, Rui tends to deal with them himself because he knows that she won't handle them properly.

And so Rui is complaining that he is working too many hours but does not see how else he could manage. The only time he tried to initiate a conversation on this subject with Maria, she almost cried. So he decided that he would not confront her again.

He sometimes has the feeling that he should give fresh impetus and probably a new structure to the work in his team – and particularly to Maria – but he simply doesn't know how to do this.

Since he wants to keep a hand on everything that comes out of his Sector he spends a lot of time doing things himself: as a consequence, he cannot find the time to reflect on this.

Based on the initial case study as well as these new aspects, you will be asked to work in sub-groups and identify what Rui's objectives should be both for himself and for Maria. What priorities should Rui make and why?

Prepare to present back in plenary


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Organising the optimal workflows

In three sub-groups, consider the following situations:

You are part of a team whose mission is to prepare the publication of an official communication document by your Institution

Your team has been asked to rationalise the way newcomers are integrated into your DG

A new IT application is going to be introduced in your DG and you will manage that project.

a) Map the optimal structure for the required workflow (s), and highlight:

The expected end-results and benefits (= what added-value a structured workflow would bring)

Who are the key players, which ones may be difficult to work with

What behaviours are required for the workflow to be effective and efficient

b) You will then present your findings: try and be as visual and lively as possible. You may even

draw a picture, tell a story, create a mime.

c) Back in your groups, study the workflow again from the point of view of resources:

What types of resources are required?

What are the risks associated with each type of resource (including acquisition, maintenance, development)

d) Giving positive feedback to a "difficult" workflow partner

In threes, each one (A, B and C) picks a different character from the initial case study and the extension on page 10 among Vera, Anna and Rui.

A (say Vera) praises B (say Anna) for the very valuable and beneficial contribution she brings to the Unit and describes some constraints and needs B may have in order to make that contribution. B may react very briefly to some of the things said to her. C observes, makes a note of how that went (were there any "negative" messages? How authentic was A? How comfortable did B seem to be in taking the positive messages?), then briefly feedback.

Once this is over, B thanks A then praises C (say Rui) exactly along the same pattern. A observes then feeds back.

Finally, same pattern with C speaking words of praise to A and B observing then feeding back.

Brief summary of learning from that situation.


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Task allocation Role-play

One participant plays the role of a "manager" who needs to allocate 2 different responsibilities within the team, on top of what people are already doing:

Task 1 is absolutely crucial and quite risky. It requires quite a lot of experience Task 2 is important and not so difficult (could even become boring and repetitive), but with very strict

and recurrent deadlines. It would also involve liaising with people outside the DG quite a lot

The manager has the choice in terms of who s/he will entrust with the responsibilities:

The person playing the part of staff member A is afraid s/he won't be able to manage risky situations and seems to have a difficulty maintaining attention for long periods;

B is obviously a high-performer, is clearly overloaded but would love to "get some fresh air"; The person playing the role of C refuses anything on top of what s/he is already doing – the new

responsibilities are not part of the job description. Besides, it has taken a while to feel comfortable with the job and now that s/he is effective and comfortable s/he would prefer to keep the routine;

The person playing the role of D understands that s/he might not be picked by the manager and is frustrated since s/he considers s/he has a far better "profile" for Task 2 than any other colleague in the team in terms of experience and meeting deadlines, even if s/he is not particularly easy-going and open to different points of view.

How should the manager go about allocating the responsibilities?

The manager prepares to allocate the responsibilities, with the support of an advisor. The rest of the group share the 4 potential "candidates" (A, B, C and D) and the role of coach for each of the candidates and prepare for the upcoming meeting where the manager will allocate the responsibilities.

After a 10-minute preparation, the manager holds a 10-minute meeting with A, B, C and D to allocate the 2 responsibilities.

The rest of the group observes.


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Learning Review

First individually then in pairs, you review Day 2 against the following questions:

If there has been one "Ah-ha" moment, one striking insight, one very thought-provoking remark or input, what is it?

How has it made me feel, what thoughts has it triggered? Are there elements which I mean to go into more deeply, and if so, when will I do that?


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PILLAR II - SOME KEY BEHAVIOURAL CHALLENGES

Paradoxes and complexity

a) You are going to watch a video vignette featuring a complex "management situation".

b) Based on this video clip work in your table group to reply to the following questions:

What are the key issues for Jason in this situation?

What are the paradoxes he has to face?

How will he need to evolve and develop in order to handle future similar situation in a more serene way?

c) Present the results of your discussion, to the plenary group


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Making difficult decisions

a) Read this extension to the case study

When Deborah received the negative feedback from her Director about the quality of work of her Unit, she immediately realised that she should set up a meeting with her 3 Heads of Sector. So far, she had postponed that meeting several times. She felt uneasy and was afraid that the tensions among the Heads of Sector would erupt.

She really does not know how to deal with it if that should happen. She finds conflict very hard to handle. And in any case, she has a good excuse – she has got so many things to do! How can she honestly find the time for such a meeting? And after all, during the team-building they all agreed on common standards. So they should all just apply them. That's it.

Actually, she is afraid that, if they hold this meeting, she will be forced to listen to each of them and after that, she will be unable to make a good decision. Too much listening can make you vulnerable, she thinks. If they all express their expectations, how will she impose a common way of working? … Moreover each of them has their own view and is partially right. Furthermore it is not clear to her how she should take on board their different and presumably conflicting points of view. How can she build common standards and practices, particularly since she realizes that she might actually have been quite directive when getting the Heads of Sector's agreement on the standards. So she keeps on hesitating.

She sometimes gets the worrying feeling that she is not mastering the situation as she would like to. There have been so many things to deal with and so many changes to absorb over the last 2 years. Worse still, she does not see when it will end. In addition, the team has grown bigger and it is now much more difficult to manage: so many diverse people with so many different expectations. Is it her role to satisfy everybody? She is already working so hard! How can she possibly keep everyone happy?

She just wishes that Rui would do more in his role of deputy. But there again she did not have a clear conversation with him about it. She knows what she would like and thinks she has made it clear. But obviously Rui is not taking the job as she would like him to …

b) In your table groups, imagine you are Deborah:

What are your objectives?

How do you assess the current situation?

What options do you have to choose from?

What would be your action plan facing this situation? What would you do and in what order?

What decisions would you have to take?

Score each of these decisions, from 0 to 9, according to the level of the difficulty: ( 0 = easy decision to make; 9 = very difficult decision to make )

Explain why you score it like this


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c) Present your results to the plenary group

d) Individually, think of a difficult decision you need or will need to make.

How could you apply the Sand Glass decision-making process to help you make the decision?

What would you need to do in order to be able to make that difficult decision and feel good and confident?

Share with a colleague.


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Influencing the different stakeholders

a) Among the network of people around you (cf. picture below):

Who has an influence on you?

What do they do to create that influence? To what level do they correspond?

b) Then in small groups, reflect upon the following questions

Identify when these people use this influence - in specific circumstances or on a regular basis

According to you, how far does the attempt to influence seem to produce the desired impact? To what extent does it fail and why?

How influential are you with these people?

c) Present 3 best practices in plenary

d) In pairs, consider one specific situation for each of you, where you want to improve your

influence …..

…and with the help of your colleague, decide how far you will change your current way of influencing.

Project manager

Hierarchy

Peers across institutions

Peers in DG

Managing a team or Unit

??

Team members

??

Clients (internal)

Clients (external)


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BUILDING A LEARNING PLAN

The next steps

Individual reflection on the whole programme:

a) Refer back to the key learning points you have collected in your learning log (at the end of this pack)

Finalise your learning log for the 3 days b) How far have my initial expectations been met?

c) How far has my understanding of management changed/evolved over the three days?


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d) Complete the table below

It will help you to decide what you are going to work on.

In practical terms, what can I put into practice in my current job?

What I will keep doing?

What I will do more of?

What I will stop doing?

What I will start doing?


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Learning log Yo

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, whe

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20

Ope

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Und

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9


21

Conf

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0

9

Influ

ence

and

mot

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rs

0

9

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