00:00 GV
Exterior University with students in foreground
Wide
Aston University sign
MS
Students
MS
Student in yellow box outfit
Wide
student banner with students in background
MCU
students
MCU
students
Wide
student being thrown into air
Wide,
Exterior Aston Business School
Wide,
Prof. West and group discussing team building
MS,
over shoulder Prof. West towards 2 group members
CU,
2 group members
CU,
2 group members
Guide Voice: These students at Aston University
in the West Midlands, at the heart of the UK, are doing what people
have always done – combining their efforts and imaginations
to achieve their shared goal; in this case, encouraging their
fellow students to vote in University elections.
But are they really working as a team – what constitutes
teamwork and why is it so important in human society?
Researchers at Aston Business School, within the University, are
conducting research into Team Working – trying to establish
the most effective ways for groups of people to work together.
00:35 SOT: Professor Michael West, Head of Research
& Professor of Organisational Psychology, Aston Business
School – “We’re trying to understand
how groups of people can work effectively together in modern
organisations to achieve the tasks that organisations need them to
do, whether it’s drilling on oil and gas rigs in the North
Sea or carrying out surgery in hospitals or teaching in a
University, indeed. How can we get people to work together in the
most efficient and productive way to achieve the tasks that the
organisation sets.”
00:59 Wide,
Students playing football
CU
football action, feet dribbling
MS,
Students playing football
CU
football action, feet running
CU
expands to MS, football action, feet dribbling & passing
MS,
football action, dribbling and tackle
Wide,
Students playing football
Wide,
Netball players
CU,
Netball action, feet running
Wide,
Netball action, shot
CU,
Netball dropping through hoop
MS
to wide, netball action, passing
CU,
Netball action, feet running
MS/wide,
netball action, passing and shot
CU,
netball dropping through hoop
Wide,
Fire Trucks arriving for Fire Crew Training
Wide,
Fire Crew disembarking vehicles
MCU,
Fire Fighter getting equipment from truck
MS,
Fire Crew running up path from trucks
MS,
Fire Fighter at water outlet
MS,
Fire Fighters a truck with
hoses
Guide Voice: Sports teams are a good example of
teamwork; not only do the players work together to achieve their
combined aim but they constantly review their performance. At half
time they’ll analyse how they played in the first half and
what they need to do to overcome deficiencies. When the game is
over they’ll review the performance, discussing aspects of
the game and working to identify what they need to do to improve
their play in future. This is true teamwork.
As society develops it throws up increasingly complex structures
and organisations, making team working ever more valuable. Trying
to co -ordinate the activities of individuals in large
organisations is time consuming and inefficient – team based
organisations respond quickly to change and can work faster and
more effectively.
Fire-fighting crews like this one need to constantly hone their
team working skills in order to maintain efficiency. An important
issue here is that teams retain their learning more effectively.
When one team member leaves that learning is not lost to the
remaining team members.
02:05 SOT: Michael West -
“I think one of the mistakes we make when we think about
team-working is that we think the most important thing is the
people; actually the most important thing is the task. The
beginning point of the team is the task that the team needs to
perform. The only reason we have a team is because we’ve got
a task that we want to be performed effectively – putting out
a housefire for a fire engine team or whatever. Then when we know
what the task is we want to do then we have to decide who are the
people that we want to do it. Who’ve got the skills so who
can we bring in to perform the teams task. If we focus on the
people first we may get it completely the wrong way
round.”
02:43 Wide,
pan across UNHCR camp in Kosovo
MCU,
UNHCR member handing box into vehicle
MCU,
UNHCR member obtaining details through translator
MCU,
UNHCR member with translator and Kosovan
MCU,
UNHCR member talking to man in van
Wide,
Prof West and group discussing Team Building
CU,
Prof. West
CU,
group member
MCU,
over shoulder to Prof. West
CU,
group member
MCU,
group member
CU,
Prof. West
MCU,
2 group members
CU,
group member
Guide Voice: Imagine trying to co-ordinate
large scale relief work, such as the UNHCRs work in Kosovo. The
aftermath of conflicts or the impact of natural disasters put huge
strain on organisations designed to relieve human suffering. This
work needs a range of abilities, cultural and linguistic knowledge,
counselling experience – in short, a package of skills
you’re unlikely to find in an individual; it needs a diverse
team to tackle problems of this magnitude.
The research from Aston Business School is showing that this
need to build diverse teams is essential to our modern way of life.
If we can create teams that are diverse, and learn the skills of
good team-working – setting clear objectives, communicating,
supporting ideas for innovation – then these teams can, and
will, be very effective.
03:33 SOT: Prof. West –
“Team working is the way human beings have always worked.
We’ve created huge new organisations and we haven’t yet
adapted teamworking to this new situation. Organisations are lazy
about the concept of teamworking and we need to work hard to build
effective teamworking into organisations so that they can be
effective. Our evidence is that when they do that they easily
outperform other organisations; whether it’s health care
organisations concerned with mortality, manufacturing organisations
convcerned with profitability or Universities concerned with
advancing understanding.”
04:10 End
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