WORK ETHICS NOTES
WORK ETHICS NOTES
Self-management refers to the ability to effectively control your own thoughts, emotions, and
behaviors in order to achieve your goals. It encompasses a wide range of skills and practices that
enable you to take charge of your life and navigate challenges with resilience and confidence.
Self-Awareness: Understanding your own strengths, weaknesses, values, and emotions. This
involves recognizing your triggers, identifying your thought patterns, and understanding how
your actions impact yourself and others.
Goal Setting: Defining clear and achievable goals, both short-term and long-term. This
includes breaking down large goals into smaller, more manageable steps.
Time Management: Effectively prioritizing tasks, scheduling your time, and managing
distractions to maximize productivity. Techniques like the Pomodoro Technique or time
blocking can be helpful.
Stress Management: Developing healthy coping mechanisms for stress, such as exercise,
mindfulness, and relaxation techniques.
Emotional Regulation: Managing your emotions effectively, such as identifying and
understanding your feelings, responding appropriately to challenging situations, and
controlling impulsive behaviors.
Decision-Making: Making informed and thoughtful decisions by considering the potential
consequences and weighing the pros and cons.
Problem-Solving: Identifying and analyzing problems, generating creative solutions, and
taking action to address them.
Self-Discipline: Staying motivated and focused on your goals, even when faced with
challenges or distractions.
Continuous Learning: Seeking out new knowledge and skills, adapting to change, and
embracing opportunities for personal growth.
Set realistic goals: Start with small, achievable goals and gradually increase the difficulty.
Prioritize tasks: Identify the most important tasks and focus on them first.
Break down large tasks: Divide large tasks into smaller, more manageable steps.
Create a schedule: Plan your day or week in advance to stay organized and on track.
Minimize distractions: Find a quiet and focused environment to work in.
Practice mindfulness and relaxation techniques: Such as meditation, deep breathing, or
yoga.
Seek support from others: Talk to friends, family, or a mentor for guidance and
encouragement.
Continuously learn and adapt: Reflect on your progress, identify areas for improvement, and
adjust your strategies as needed.
Self-Awareness.
Self-awareness is the ability to understand yourself deeply and objectively. It's about recognizing
your own thoughts, feelings, emotions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and how they impact your
behavior and interactions with others.
Identifying Emotions: Recognizing and labeling the emotions you're experiencing in the
moment (e.g., anger, sadness, joy, fear). Understanding Triggers: Identifying the situations or
events that trigger specific emotions in you. Managing Emotional Responses: Learning to
regulate your emotions effectively, such as finding healthy ways to cope with stress or anger.
Identifying Core Values: Determining what's truly important to you in life (e.g., honesty,
integrity, compassion). Aligning Actions with Values: Ensuring your actions and decisions
align with your core values. Understanding Your Motivations: Identifying the underlying
reasons for your actions and behaviors.
Identifying Strengths: Acknowledging your talents, skills, and areas of expertise. Identifying
Weaknesses: Recognizing areas for improvement and areas where you may need to seek
support. Developing Strengths: Focusing on developing your strengths to achieve your goals.
Addressing Weaknesses: Finding strategies to mitigate or improve upon your weaknesses.
Seeking Feedback: Actively seeking feedback from others about your behavior and impact.
Observing Your Interactions: Paying attention to how others react to you in different
situations. Developing Empathy: Understanding and considering the perspectives of others.
Benefits of Self-Awareness
Cultivating Self-Awareness
Mindfulness Practices: Meditation, journaling, and mindful observation.
Self-Reflection: Regular introspection, such as journaling, asking yourself questions, and
reviewing past experiences.
Feedback Seeking: Actively seeking feedback from trusted friends, colleagues, and mentors.
Personality Assessments: Exploring personality assessments (e.g., Myers-Briggs,
Enneagram) for self-understanding.
Coaching and Mentoring: Working with a coach or mentor to gain insights into your
strengths and weaknesses.
Personal Vision
What is it?
Examples:
"To live a life of purpose, surrounded by loved ones, contributing to a better world."
"To be a successful entrepreneur, building a thriving business that empowers others."
"To become a renowned artist, sharing my creativity with the world and inspiring others."
2. Personal Mission
What is it?
Examples:
3. Personal Goals
Examples:
Break down large goals: Divide them into smaller, more manageable steps.
Set deadlines: Establish clear timelines for achieving your goals.
Track your progress: Regularly monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed.
Celebrate your successes: Acknowledge and reward your accomplishments.
2. Develop Solutions
Brainstorming: Generate a list of potential solutions, both big and small. Don't limit yourself
at this stage.
Evaluate options: Analyze the pros and cons of each solution. Consider the feasibility,
potential impact, and resources required.
Seek input: Get feedback from colleagues, mentors, or supervisors.
4. Take Action
Implement the plan: Start taking action and monitor progress regularly.
Be flexible and adaptable: Be prepared to adjust your plan as needed based on unforeseen
circumstances.
Celebrate successes: Acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments along the way.
Reflect on the outcome: Evaluate the effectiveness of your solution. What worked well?
What could be improved?
Learn from your mistakes: Analyze any setbacks and identify areas for improvement.
Continuously improve: Use the lessons learned to approach future challenges more
effectively.
Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well
as recognize and influence the emotions.
Self-Awareness:
Self-Regulation:
Motivation:
Empathy:
Social Skills:
Self-Reflection: Regularly reflect on your emotions, behaviors, and interactions with others.
Mindfulness Practices: Meditation, deep breathing, and mindfulness exercises can help you
become more aware of your emotions.
Emotional Literacy: Learn to identify and label different emotions.
Empathy Training: Actively listen to others, try to understand their perspectives, and
practice expressing empathy.
Conflict Resolution Skills: Develop effective communication and conflict resolution
strategies.
Seek Feedback: Ask trusted friends, family, or colleagues for constructive feedback on your
behavior.
Workload:
Time management: Use techniques like the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes of focused work
followed by 5 minutes of break) to improve efficiency.
Communication:
Clear communication: Ensure clear expectations and responsibilities with your manager and
colleagues.
Address conflicts directly: If you have concerns, communicate them assertively and
respectfully.
Work Environment:
Disorganization: A cluttered workspace can increase stress. Keep your workspace organized.
Lack of control: If you feel you have little control over your work, discuss your concerns with
your manager.
Perfectionism:
2. Relaxation Techniques
3. Lifestyle Changes
Prioritize Sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night.
Healthy Diet: Eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.
Limit Caffeine and Alcohol: These substances can worsen stress and anxiety.
4. Seek Support
Talk to someone: Share your concerns with a trusted friend, family member, or mentor.
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Many workplaces offer EAPs that provide
confidential counseling and support services.
Professional Help: If stress is significantly impacting your life, consider consulting with a
therapist or counselor.
5. Set Boundaries
Work-life balance: Establish clear boundaries between work and personal time.
Disconnect from work: Avoid checking work emails or messages outside of work hours.
Take regular breaks: Step away from your desk throughout the day to stretch, move around,
and recharge.
Assertiveness
Definition:
Expressing your needs, wants, and feelings honestly and directly, while respecting the rights
and feelings of others.
It's about finding a balance between being passive and aggressive.
Key Characteristics:
Direct and honest communication: Clearly stating your opinions and feelings without being
rude or demanding.
Respectful of others: Acknowledging and considering the perspectives of others.
Confident and self-assured: Believing in your own worth and the validity of your feelings.
Ability to say "no" when necessary.
Effective listening: Paying attention to others and understanding their viewpoints.
Examples:
Aggressiveness
Definition:
Key Characteristics:
Examples:
"You always..."
"You should..."
"I don't care what you think..."
Passiveness
Definition:
Key Characteristics:
Examples:
Developing Assertiveness:
Self-esteem is how you feel about yourself. It's a sense of worth and value as a person. Here are
some strategies to develop and maintain high self-esteem:
1. Practice Self-Compassion:
Be kind to yourself: Treat yourself with the same kindness and understanding you would
offer a friend.
Acknowledge your imperfections: Everyone makes mistakes. Learn from them and move on.
Focus on self-acceptance: Accept yourself for who you are, strengths and weaknesses.
Set achievable goals: Start with small, manageable goals and gradually increase the
difficulty.
Break down large goals into smaller steps: This makes them feel less overwhelming.
Celebrate your progress: Acknowledge and reward yourself for each step you take towards
your goals.
7. Practice Gratitude:
If you're struggling with low self-esteem, consider seeking guidance from a therapist or
counselor.
Developing and maintaining a positive self-image is crucial for overall well-being and
happiness. Here are some key strategies:
Identify your strengths: Make a list of your talents, skills, and positive qualities.
Acknowledge your accomplishments: Celebrate your successes, both big and small.
Focus on your strengths in daily life: Find ways to use your strengths in your work, hobbies,
and relationships.
Identify negative thoughts: Become aware of the negative thoughts and beliefs you have
about yourself.
Challenge those thoughts: Are they really true? Are you being overly critical of yourself?
Replace negative thoughts with positive affirmations: For example, instead of "I'm not good
enough," try "I am capable and worthy."
3. Practice Self-Compassion:
Set achievable goals: Start with small, manageable goals and gradually increase the
difficulty.
Break down large goals into smaller steps: This makes them feel less overwhelming.
Celebrate your progress: Acknowledge and reward yourself for each step you take towards
your goals.
Prioritize self-care: Make time for activities that you enjoy, such as spending time in nature,
exercising, or pursuing hobbies.
Get enough sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep per night.
Eat a healthy diet: Nourish your body with nutritious foods.
Engage in regular physical activity: Exercise releases endorphins, which have mood-boosting
effects.
7. Practice Gratitude:
Important Note:
TIME MANAGEMENT
Time management is a set of principles, practices, skills, tools, and systems working together to help us
get more value out of our time with the aim of improving the quality of our life.
1. Eliminate wastage
Wrong! Research shows that the body always has to “ come down” and when it does, we can’t
always be very effective then after the boost.
Myth#4 (A time management problem means that there’s not enough time to get done what needs to
get done.) No, a time management problem is not using our time to our fullest advantage, to get done
what we want done. Myth#5 (The busier I am, the better I’m using my time.)
Look out! We may only be doing what’s urgent, and not what’s important.
Myth#6(I feel much harried, busy, so I must have a time management problem.)
Not necessarily. We should verify that we have a time management problem. This requires knowing
what we really want to get done and if it is getting done or not.
In reality, many adults don’t even know when they’re really stressed out until their bodies tell them so.
They miss the early warning signs from their body, for example, headaches, still backs, twitches, etc.
This can’t be the real reason why I have a messy house. After all, other people manage. It’s
encouraging to hear that there are others who also have trouble with the ”little “ things in life.
Funny. This is the exact opposite of myth#8, Yet both myths contribute to procrastinating. Rather
than switch from one myth to the other, I need a specific, realistic view of how much my time is
worth and how much of it is left.
Myth#10 (I’ m busier than usual right now , so it makes sense to shift some tasks off to another time)
Occasionally it’s really true, of course. But really, there are so many other aspects to life: dentist
appointments, parties holiday celebrations, bike repairs, etc. etc. that taking all into consideration , the
other days are also just as busy.
Myth#11 (Re-scheduling something to a later time is procrastinating)
No, re-scheduling is taking control and responding to new information about priorities and time
available. It’s only procrastinating if you don’t schedule it at all, or if you re-schedule for the wrong
reasons.
Some times trifling little things are of utmost importance which should be done immediately. We
cannot postpone hanging the Danger board while working on live electrical lines.
Sector 1 Sector 3
Priority
Urgent Not Urgent
Important Important
Very urgent
Sector 2 Sector 4
Urgent
Important Urgent Not Urgent
Not Important Not Important
Not important
Not urgent
Time Wasters
a) Worrying about a task at hand and putting it off, which leads to indecision
b) Creating inefficiency by implementing first instead of analyzing first
d) Procrastinating
f) Unnecessary errors (not enough time to do it right, but enough time to do it over
g) Crisis management
h) Poor organization
i) Micro-managing by failing to let others perform and grow
n) Ineffective meetings
Time Savers
h) Ensuring all meetings have a purpose, time limit, and include only essential people.
What to do?
Write things down
A common time management mistake is to try to use our memory to keep track of too many details
leading to information overload. Using a to-do list to write things down is a great way to take control
of our projects and tasks and keep our self organized.
Prioritizing our to-do list helps us focus and spend more of our time on the things that really matter to
us. Rate our tasks into categories like “should do”, “Must do” etc.
Spend some time at the beginning of each week to plan our schedule. Taking the extra time to do this
will help increase our productivity and balance our important long-term projects with our more urgent
tasks. All we need is fifteen to thirty minutes each week for our planning session.
We never know when we are going to have a great idea or brilliant insight. Carry a small notebook
with us wherever we go so we can capture out thoughts. If we wait too long to write them down we
could forget. Another option is to use a digital recorder.
Learn to say No
Many people become overloaded with to much work because they over commit; say yes when they
really should be saying no. Learn to say no to low priority requests and we will free up time to spend
on things that are more important.
Think before acting
How many times have we said yes to something we later regretted? Before committing to a new task,
stop to think about it before we give our answer. This will prevent us from taking on too much work.
Make time in our schedule to learn new things and develop our natural talents and abilities. For
example, we can take a class, attend a training program, help children make their project or read a
book.
What we giving up to do our regular activities ?
It is a good evaluating regularly how we are spending our time. In some cases, the best thing we can do is
to stop doing an activity that is no longer serving us so we can spend the time doing something more
valuable.
Using a time management system can help us keep track of everything of everything that we need to
do, organize and prioritize our work, and develop sound plans to complete it. An integrated system is
like glue that holds all the best time management practices together.
Don’t be a perfectionist
Some tasks don’t require our best effort. Sending a short email to a colleague, for example,
shouldn’t take any more than a few minutes. Learn to distinguish between tasks that
deserve to be done excellently and tasks that just need to be done.
When we have to-do list filled with important tasks, be careful not to get distracted by “filler” tasks.
Things such as organizing our bookcase or filing papers can wait until we tackle the items that have the
highest priority.
Being efficient doesn’t necessarily mean that we are being productive. Avoid taking on
tasks that we can do with efficiency that don’t need to be done at all. Just because we are
busy and getting things done doesn’t mean we are actually accomplishing anything
significant.
Setting clear and achievable performance targets is crucial for individual and organizational
success. Here's a breakdown of the process:
Define your role: Clearly understand your job description, responsibilities, and key
performance areas (KPAs).
Align with organizational goals: Ensure your individual targets align with the overall
strategic objectives of your team and the organization.
Specific: Clearly define what needs to be achieved. Avoid vague or ambiguous terms.
Example: Instead of "Improve customer satisfaction," use "Increase customer satisfaction scores
by 10% within the next quarter."
Achievable: Set challenging but realistic goals that are within your reach.
Relevant: Ensure your targets are relevant to your role, the team's objectives, and the overall
organizational goals.
3. Involve Stakeholders
Discuss with your manager: Involve your manager in the target-setting process to ensure
alignment and provide guidance.
Seek input from colleagues: Get feedback from colleagues who can provide valuable insights
and perspectives.
Regularly track your progress: Monitor your performance against your targets on a regular
basis (e.g., weekly, monthly).
Use data and metrics: Track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress.
Be flexible: Be willing to adjust your targets as needed based on changing circumstances or
unexpected challenges.
Regularly review and update: Conduct regular performance reviews with your manager to
discuss progress, address challenges, and adjust targets as needed.
Example:
SMART Target: "Increase customer satisfaction scores by 10% within the next quarter, as
measured by customer surveys, by implementing a new customer service training program and
improving response times to customer inquiries."
Increased motivation and focus: Clear targets provide direction and motivation.
Improved performance: Setting and achieving targets leads to improved performance and
increased productivity.
Enhanced employee engagement: When employees are involved in setting their own
targets, they are more likely to be engaged and motivated.
Better decision-making: Clear targets help guide decision-making and resource
allocation.
Improved communication and feedback: Clear targets facilitate open and honest
communication between employees and managers.
Introduction In this learning outcome trainees will train on setting performance expectation for
teams, assigning duties and responsibilities and identification of team parameters and
relationships. Trainees will also be given skills and knowledge of establishing forms of
communication, carrying out communication at workplace, supervision and providing feedback
for team performance. Other skills, knowledge and behaviours from this unit will be; collection
and analysis of feedback, conflict resolution adhering to gender mainstreaming and human rights
as well as creating healthy relationships.
Definition of key terms
Setting performance expectations is to move towards a specific goal and creating workplace
accountability from one employee to another. It is applied to assess the progression and position
expectations as performed by individual employees. To communicate and manage expectations
effectively is important to know what is expected from the employees and teams and set realistic
reasonable tasks.
Team expectations are similar to individual expectations except that team expectations are
something every member of the team should be accountable for while also holding others
accountable. They are shared expectations. They are behaviors that occur while the team
accomplishes said tasks. They are for the team to be productive and work cohesively. Each
member of the team should be accountable for the following:
Having standards: Standards are levels or degree to which all are expected to strive. This is
mostly referred to as a norm. It is for the good of the company and all the team members
must work towards it.
Set goals: The goals are set with a direction, connection to the company standards. The goals
may be challenging but realistic and set up to reach levels that are a progression upwards.
Objectives are set: These are steps on a timeline that keep the workers towards moving the
goal in a specific and measurable way.
This means putting a person in charge of tasks. When team leaders assess the scope and
feasibility of the work assigned to the team. The primary consideration is the strength of each
team member. From the strengths, leaders assign roles and responsibilities. Assigning roles and
responsibilities improve the work of the team in the following ways:
Productivity: Productivity is enhanced when the responsibility assigned closely align with
team members’ strength.
Morale: Issuing of duties and responsibility to team members gives each person a sense of
ownership. They become invested in projects outcome hence increasing their effort to create
quality product. Without assigning roles to members, they may grow disinterested and
detached.
Efficiency: Assigning responsibilities boosts efficiency having a clear understanding of the
work roles allows leaders to develop timelines. This lists who is in charge of which task and
when the specific portion of the work is expected to reach completion.
Identify key opportunities for delegation: Not all can be delegated. A leader has to
determine which duties and responsibilities can be assigned or delegated.
Establish a clear set of objectives for each task- no matter the task being delegated; make
sure all the objectives are clarified so as the task can be accomplished.
Construct timelines: Timelines keep people focused and hold all members of the group
accountable to meeting goals on time.
Establish authority and respect: When assigning duties, it is important to set the tone for
your position in the relationship. This sets a tone of respect o they understand they are being
relied upon and appreciated.
Team parameters and relationships is how the team members engage with each other. This will
highly be influenced by how the leaders engage with the time. Team parameters and
relationships involves finding a balance point. In order to achieve this, a team leader shouldn’t
lead a team too highly or too loosely.
Encourage discussion but not too much of it- discussion and the exchange of ideas allow for
greater creativity and innovation. Through dialogue a team expands its problem-solving
capability.
Celebrate the collective and recognize the individual- team leaders have to maintain a sense
of who contributes what to the team. Team can be celebrated for completing major tasks but
the team members who accomplished and made significant contributions should be
celebrated.
Give autonomy but define parameters- the team should know the general direction, where it
is heading and trusts everyone enough to carry on. If the work is going too far off the rails,
the leader has to step in and keep everyone on track and moving forward.
Encourage opposing views but beware of obstructions – opposing views are important to
energizing teams and stimulating creativity. However, there is a thin line between well-
meaning critics and obstructionist rhetoric.
By keeping the above ways in mind, a leader can hit the balance point between loose and tight
leadership. If the balance is achieved, the parameter and the relationship of the team is identified.
These are the various ways of establishing and exchanging of information, ideas, thoughts and
feelings. Communication is categorized into two:
Informal communication: This is any communication that takes place without following the
formal channels of communication. It is often referred to as grapevine as it spreads without the
organization and in all directions without any regard to the levels of authority. Formal
communication: This is the type of communication that flows through official channels designed
in the organization chart.it may take place between a superior and a subordinate, a subordinate
and a superior or among the same cadre of employees or managers.
Written communication: this is one of the most important and frequently used mode of
communication in organizations. Written communications includes: letters, electronic
mail, fax transmissions or other device that is transmitted via written words or symbols.
Oral communication: this type of communication is through word of mouth. This can be
in meetings, or in any other event.
Nonverbal communication /silent communication: This is the non-word human response
and the perceived characteristics of the environment through which the human and non-
verbal messages are transmitted. There are two forms of non-verbal communication i.e.
physical/symbolic language and body language.
Leading people capabilities: This includes giving feedback, coaching others, performance
management, managing reward and recognition and setting measurable objectives, and
Managing work capabilities: This includes: Planning work, monitoring progress, setting
measurable goals and facilitating meetings.
There are core competency skills that are suggested in supervision. These skills include:
communication, decision making, delegating, meeting management, problem solving and
planning skills. The supervision skills are improved over time.
This is to ensure that employees are engaged and satisfied. These leads to:
More production.
Improve customer experience
Employees become advocates for the company.
Anonymous surveys- it can be in house or via survey form solutions which can be
distributed.
Non anonymous surveys- it creates an open culture based on open honest and respectful
feedback to replace fear in the workplace.
Pulse surveys. - They are shorter surveys distributed more frequently.
Suggestion boxes- employees who are hesitant to express unpopular ideas may want to
leave feedback in an anonymous way, but feel like surveys haven’t been a good idea to
express them.
Feedback meeting – they are a great way to connect staff and managers in more effective
ways.
Collecting and analyzing feedbacks are the initial steps to increasing employee satisfaction. But
they are not enough. the information you learn from surveys must channeled into action.
This is the process by which two or more parties engaged in disagreements, dispute or debate to
reach an agreement resolving it.
Some conflicts are essentially arbitrary which means it doesn’t matter who wins only that the
problem is relived to everyone who can get back to work. Conflict is normal occurrence in a
workplace hence the need to resolve them.
It is a strategy towards realizing gender equality. Gender mainstreaming requires both integrating
a gender perspective to the content of the different policies and addressing the issue of
representation of women and men in the given policy area. An effective implementation of
gender mainstreaming requires preparation and organization. People in decision making
positions can make a particular difference as they have more power to introduce changes. The
changes introduced they should at all-time distribute them across both genders in a balanced
way.
Human rights are basic right of each human being of independent of race, sex, political
affiliation, religion, social status or any other character. Human rights provide a universal
benchmark for minimum standards of behaviour. Many national laws and regulations have
evolved as a result of a state’s obligation to implement human rights standards. Businesses must
also observe such laws in all countries and jurisdictions in which they operate. If the human
rights are not adhered to, it is against the law and action should be taken against those not
adhering to them.
It is having a good interaction with fellow employees and working in harmony to achieve the set
goals. Developing a work relationship involves the actions that create a positive empowering
motivational work environment for people. It also entails helping other employees to achieve this
greatness.
Introduction
Trainees will acquire skills, knowledge and behavior in developing creative, innovative and
practical solutions, demonstrate independence and initiative in identifying and solving problems
solving team problems, applying problem solving strategies and analyzing in testing
assumptions.
Team Problems: These are the challenges that teams experience while carrying out their
assigned activities.
Problem-solving strategies: These are strategies of working through details of a problem to
reach a solution that may be favorable to the situation at hand.
Problem assumptions: These are something or problems that are assumed to be the case even
without proof.
Content/procedures/methods/illustrations
Creative, innovative and practical solutions are developed based on the problem In today's
evolving world solutions for the emerging issues must be creative, innovative and practical for
them to effectively get a perfect solution to the problem at hand. In order to come up with this
kind of solution, the following criteria should be considered:
This being the first step it is crucial a crucial one. At this stage, we should make sure the right
problem is being solved and be given a priority. The problem has to be clearly identified so as
the direction of solving it can be defined.
At this stage, the problem is scrutinized and all the variables and values that are the cause of the
problem. The focus should be on how often the problem occurs, how intense is it, the perceived
causes and if any special circumstances impact on it. All the primary causes should be on the
time frame of the problem. The duration it has been occurring if not are there factors that could
make it recur. In the future, critical thinking is involved which is the ability to analyze
information objectively? Good critical thinking leads to reasonable conclusion and solutions
• In this stage, all factors leading into the decision-making process are identified. Decisions
making is the process of making choices by identifying decision gathering information and
assessing alternative resolutions. Solutions decisions should be based on solely existing
standards.
At this stage, you come up with a variety of solutions. Evaluate all the solutions and scenarios as
objectively as possible. Assess the pros and cons of each solution to ensure that the pursued
solution is the most competitive.
The above give details about the independent skill that an individual should show in order to be
able to solve problems. In order for this skill to be portrayed in an individual, they need to be
able to follow through the task individual have without being monitored. This means that the
individual has to:
Solving team problems is an act of defining a problem, determining its cause, prioritizing,
identifying and selecting alternatives for the solution and finally implementing a solution. There
are 4 steps of problem-solving in teams:
The situation within the team is diagnosed fully. Flowcharts to identify the expected steps of a
process and cause an effect diagrams are used to define analyze the causes in the team.
b) Generate an alternative
Several problem-solving alternatives are proposed. The selection of the solution should not be
implemented until an alternative is found. The consideration of the alternatives can enhance the
value of the solution. Once a decision on what should be model has been achieved. The target
standards become the basis for developing a plan for investigating alternatives. Any alternative
solutions to the problem are generated before the final evaluation. If someone focuses on trying
to get the results the team wants the potential of learning something new will be lost.
A series of consideration are considered when selecting and evaluating a solution. The
considerations are:
• The alternative should solve the problem without causing another. Some problem- solving
technique should not lead to causing a different problem of a different nature that may lead
another round of problem-solving and yet it could have been avoided.
• The alternative should be generally accepted by all teams involved. The alternative taken will
be taken as the accepted solution to the problem. The solution will be implemented hence it
should be generally accepted by the majority of the team members hence it can be
implemented.
• Implementation of alternative if possible. The alternative selected should be implementable
within the team. There are three basic stages involved in implementing an alternative to a
solution.
• Planning and preparing to implement the solution. Planning of action describes. The more
important or complex the problem is the more thorough the planning and preparation of the
alternatives to solve it will be. The solution that may be chosen should not be difficult to plan
and prepare to implement.
• Implementing and monitoring: the alternative solution should be implemented in the easiest
way possible. The monitoring of the solution should be possible to easily monitored using
different monitoring techniques such as observation.
• Reviewing: reviewing involves how the alternative will solve the problem. Will it solve the
alternative effectively or not? If it won't, come up with a different alternative.
d) Implement and follow up of the solution
The solution selected should be the one that can implement and can be followed up. There are
solutions that are difficult to implement or impossible in a particular area. The above steps
enable effective problems solving skills process within a team.
The issue needs to be clearly known. Different people might have different views of what the
issues of the problem maybe. The first strategy is to identify this problem clearly. Separate the
listing of issues from the identification of interests. Identifying the issue is the key to solving it.
The given solutions to the problem need to go through an evaluation test. This test is meant to
come up with the most suitable option that can effectively be the best solution to the problem at
hand.
From the many options available the best option possible that effectively handles the problem
should be considered. It should be the best option that is likely to give the intended results of the
problem.
It is good for the agreement to be given a proper agreement document. Writing it down will help
you think through the details and implications. As opposite to memory which may not be reliable
in the future because of distortion. The document should be agreed upon by those that are
solving the problem.
Problems are analyzed and assumptions tested as per the context of data and
circumstances
Problem analyzing involves identifying a problem and establishing the causes and effects related
to a problem. The key element to problem analyzing is ensuring that the root cause is identified.
There are techniques that are used in problem analyzing.
a) Identifying priorities
Many problems are complex, involving a whole range of causes. The priorities will give you
ways of handling the problem that is at hand, identifying the priorities will also enable you to
know the need for the problem solving and how it is going to influence the result of the problem.
This is the heart of the problem. Before taking action the causes of the problem must be
distinguished. Many problems may be described and various solutions suggested as the way to
remedy the problem. It could not be wise to ignore anything said. We should listen carefully and
analyze any situation for ourselves before agreeing to a solution. Any solution suggested should
be a solution that is going to work and the most appropriate one after analysis.
c) Developing alternatives
Various approaches exist for developing alternatives. There are various approaches for
developing an alternative. This includes brainstorming and critical thinking. This also involves
the creativity of individuals to develop alternative, there is always another way of the problem if
we can find it.
d) Decision making
Choosing between an alternative can involve technical actors, human factors and risks. It
involves setting out the facts in a logical way so that the overall decision is made as a result of
many minor ones. The decision is made based on the various alternatives that are at hand.
e) Follow up
Having tackled the problem, there must be something learned from it. What new procedures will
help prevent similar problems in the future? Where decisions are made can we monitor their
effectiveness? The effectiveness of a solution should be monitored so as to see if the goal has
been achieved.
Assumption testing
An assumption is something taken to be true or the case even without proof. The data provided
can be used to make an assumption. The assumption made is testing so that it can be justified as
a problem to the solution of the problem. Assumption testing has three phases:
a) List assumptions
Once there is a list of the assumptions, start to assess them. How much would you assume that
your assumptions are right? Asses the risk of what happens if the strategy is wrong.
Before spending time on assumptions tests you would like to do, sort the list of assumptions by
the confidence and risk score from the worst to the best. The one with the best score can be taken
as the one with enough proof to be implemented and the one with the worst score can be
rejected.