Teamworking in Practice

Team Charter
To ensure good communication across the team, you need to have access to your team members contact details. Whilst we encourage you to use your NTU email address (especially when using Office 365 and Microsoft Teams), you may find other forms of communication easier for quick responses or for developing team relationships (e.g. WhatsApp, HouseParty, Facebook Messenger etc).

It is important to have a record of contact details. You can use the template CEP Module Team Contact Details (1)  as a guide. If everyone in the team agrees, please can you send a copy to your supervisor.

It is also important to consider any emergency procedures. For example, what if you are feeling unwell/have an emergency that prevents you from attending a meeting? What sanctions will there be if someone does not turn up to a meeting without communicating it in advance? When will you involve the supervisor? At what stage will the team member forfeit the right to be part of the team?

In high performing teams, everyone can and does challenge irrespective of status. As previously discussed, a key element of a successful team is trust. Trust can not be established until the process of challenging and supporting under performing team members takes place and is seen as being constructive rather than punitive. It is important therefore to establish a set of do's and don'ts and have everyone in the group agree.

Team Roles and Responsibilities
Teams need structure to work successfully. If you work in an organisation, your roles and responsibilities will often be defined by the job you are currently doing. Organisations often have policies in places around how meetings should be structured, templates for agendas and the need to record minutes. These are all good practices and enable a project to stay on track.

Team Roles: Defining roles
It is important to consider the different roles needed within a team. There are two main roles that need to have a designated team member. The role of the coordinator to organise and facilitate meetings, and a communications lead who will be the main team contact with the supervisor. When defining roles, consider each others strengths (and weaknesses). Also consider the practical elements that need to be fulfilled. For example:

How will you ensure that all members always know when and where you are meeting?
How will you set an agenda?
Who will chair meetings?
Who will take notes?
What will happen to your notes afterwards?

Setting up systems to share files and collaborate
It is good to agree where files and documents will be stored. Potentially this could be the role of an IT Lead. As the project develops you will gather a lot of information. Some of the information will be sensitive and may need protecting (for example, company information, any primary data etc). For this reason, it is always good to ensure files are password protected. As an NTU student, you have access to Office 365 and OneDrive.

There are a variety of software systems available to enable teams to share files and collaborate (for example, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, Google etc). As an NTU student you have both access to Microsoft Office 365 and to support in using the software from NTU Information Services (IS). Please note, you will need to use your NTU email to gain access to the full version of Teams.

Microsoft Teams
By now, you should all be familiar with using Microsoft Teams but if you don't feel overly comfortable with Teams, then follow the links below to videos on LinkedIn Learning that will help you. Even if you mainly chose to meet face to face it can be helpful to run some of your meetings via Teams.

One of the assessments for this module is a presentation to your client. The presentation is an opportunity for you to highlight the main findings of your project and show your knowledge and skill. You may not be able to present to the client face-to-face. Instead, the presentation may be done virtually.

It is understandable that some of you might find the idea of a virtual presentation a little daunting. Many students find face-to-face presentations daunting, let alone involving technology and doing it virtually!

Attachment:- Teamworking in Practice.rar