Project getting it back on track.

Friday 4th October 2013

I presented a 2 hour seminar yesterday. It went really really well. I'm not sure I really covered the brief that the lecturer wanted but the feedback I received from students was that it was interesting and informative. I am so relived.

This is what I feel like.

However I think the reason that it went well is because I prepared and I prepared and I prepared. It took me about 18 hours of preparation. (A little more than the 3 hours that my boss told me he would give me for it!). I am actually really cross about having to take time away from the "work that matters" to have to do this. Now I feel behind in my day to day work and behind in my project. I know it is going to be difficult to find the time to catch up. So back to the drawing board with scheduling in tasks and preparing to do the urgent work that is needed.

I have reviewed where I am up to in the literature review and I know it is going to take me a full day or 2 days to complete it. It is enjoyable work but it does need a serious chunk of time devoted to it.

I am finding myself reviewing the team roles we learnt about in September and thinking about my team and how we all play a part to get jobs done. My manager is such a strong Coordinator that I am getting to the stage that every time I go near him I have more work to do! Delegation is definitely his strong point and I often feel manipulated in my dealings with him. I am looking forward to managing people seminar in October to explore this a bit more.

presentations - oh me oh my!

26th September 2013

I have been directed by my manager to present a  one hour seminar to second year psych students on motor development. I am freaking out about this. I was trying to work out why the prospect of doing this has unsettled me so much I believe it is because the last time I did a presentation I did a really bad job and received a complaint afterwards. Last time I was presenting to more than 60 experienced teachers about our service and I had not actually had the opportunity to work in the service. So was very much put on the spot.

There is some useful info here from mindtools. It is hard to prepare for a presentation when you don't know what to expect and the brief changes. Already we have been given 3 different emails with 3 different request for information. So today rather than working on my project I am working on a presentation!

I like this mind map for preparing presentations.
http://www.presentation-skills.biz/images/Planning_a_Presentation.jpg

Well at least I will have researched and practiced this prior to learning this in the last unit in November. Wish me luck!

Teamwork: Thought from the September workshop

19th September 2013

We had a great session on building innovative teams and understanding how teams work. I found this unit really interesting and enjoyed the Belbin Team Role's identification and think this is a useful tool to apply at work. Mindtools has info and links to the self perception inventory at this link. I also learnt about the situational leadership model which I think is a useful tool. So will try to get my hands on a copy of The One-Minute-Manager Builds High Performing Teams. Applying this to my own team I can see the constant struggle we have experienced as we have had 10 out of the 12 people in our team join in the last 2 years. Our team has been forming and re-forming and re-forming since I started nearly 3 years ago. This has meant that it has been really hard to think of us as a team as we still tend to work parallel with each other, occasionally coming together but not really working on our services together.

http://leadershipsolutions.co.nz/images/TAP.jpg

In our team we have lots of 'people' people and struggle with the action and thinking roles a bit more. We are about to embark on a new round of recruitment so will take this info with me during that process.