When you teach a baby to walk, you don’t evaluate their end destination. You assess the process, and you encourage them to take another step, no matter the direction.
So… Why don’t we do this in other fields as well?
Why do we still evaluate the outcome of group projects at high schools, instead of the process preceding the end result?
As I said in my previous article on teaching soft skills, they are learned through experience and are hard to be measured. It is also a very vast field, so let’s concentrate on the most desired ones: the ones that enable your team to cooperate and adjust to new circumstances.
Why would you want that?
Because the majority of failed projects have something in common: insufficient communication and/or sticking with the old assignment even when circumstances have changed. Therefore, communication and adaptability are the skills you want to have.
What qualities do people need to have to achieve adaptability and cooperation?
- not to be afraid to admit something,
- not to be afraid to disagree,
- be able to discuss respectfully,
- think outside the box,
- cooperate creatively.
If we’re not able to teach them this at school, it’s up to us, the employers, to help our people acquire these skills at work. Of course, the issue stays: you can’t teach them to cooperate if you concentrate on the outcome of the cooperation only. That means it would be tricky to use real projects to teach soft skills.
In that case, what are the other options?
A lecture? A hand-book on healthy communication? Code of conduct?
These things can help, of course, but they don’t let them experience the benefits of cooperation, and as we said, experience is the only way to acquire these skills.
However, there is one field where you need a very similar skill-set. It doesn’t concentrate on the outcome because there is no final product. It is a hands-on process where everybody starts with what they have, they develop through the process, and it doesn’t require any level of previous experience: it is theatre improvisation.
Of course, I am not talking about theatre with an audience, and I am not talking about professional improvisation. I am talking about games and methodology used in drama in education. Short games with clear rules that help you experience how it feels to be part of a group that cooperates no matter the circumstances. It helps you understand what it feels like to support others and be supported by them. It teaches you to react to others, not to push yourself forward at any cost, articulate your thoughts, and listen to the ideas of the rest in the group.
One step at a time, with the correct guidance, they can acquire the soft skills you need them to have.
And that leads to the desired: healthy, open communication, cooperation and, ability to adjust.
If you want to know more about improv-games and teaching soft skills or how I know projects can be more successful if done in a cooperating team, get in touch. I’ll cover another subject in this fiend in my next article, but I am happy to have a one-to-one conversation with anyone interested in talking more about the topic.
Do you have other ideas of how to inspire cooperation within a team? Please leave it in the comments, as I am curious.
Pavla
CEO of TIMEPRESS / Open for your feedback on Linkedin
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