On 8^th August, TRG Talk – Project Management: “How to improve collaboration within your team?” was led by Chris Kruppa – Agile coach, and founder of Semdi Solutions at PJ coffee, 145-147 Nguyen Co Thach, D2, HCMC.

Mr. Kruppa started off the seminar with an engaging group activity, raising the question: ‘What are your challenges/problems you have right now’. He encouraged each group to bring forward three points. After gathering each groups findings, the biggest challenges were:

• Diversity of opinions
• Individual purpose over team purpose
• Lack of authority
• Team engagement
• Resource management
• Generation gaps
• Missed communication
• Organisational structure
• Office politics

After highlighting the biggest challenges companies face when it comes to collaboration, Chris heated up the workshop by dividing attendees in different groups to play games together: Better communication, Moving Motivators, Delegation Poker, Work Expo and Meddler Game. These games are designed to help participants understand the various point of views and barriers during teamwork.

• Better Communication – To have better communication the team came up with listening with intent – using the right body language when speaking, by making eye contact and not being distracted. Mr. Kruppa also stated that to improve communication it’s vital to talk more and talk better. This can be achieved through video calls, and regular meet-ups. This is particularly important if distance is a problem for your company.
• Moving Motivators – This was a game of a set of cards complete with 10 different motivators written on them.
• The 10 motivators were CHAMPFROGS - Curiosity, Honor, Acceptance, Mastery, Power, Freedom, Relatedness, Order, Goal, and Status.
• The team then had to put them in order of the least to most important motivators. They came to the conclusion that acceptance is the most important motivator. They also stressed that each individual is different therefore; team leaders need to acknowledge this and set up motivators individually.
• Moving Motivators helps with miscommunication, generation gaps and diversity of opinion.
• Delegation Poker – Each team member was given a set of cards numbered 1 to 7, for the seven levels of delegation. They then had to pick out a situation and each person decides which of the seven levels of delegation, to answer who should delegate that decision. The team then reveals their cards to each other, and explain their reasons. It helps to clarify who’s responsible for what. It helps to build the idea of delegating decisions and tasks. This is helpful for generational gaps, miscommunication and a lack of being productive.
• Work Expo – They had to decide which values are the most important. The team decided to create a poster. They picked out the most important values in order to work together and collaborate, they said communication.
• Meddler Game – Teams had to build a company and decide what the organisational structure would look like, and how people would collaborate. It allows team mates to discuss organisational structure in a way that matches the concept of value networks.
  
  

After 30-minute team work, each team has 5 minutes to present their understanding through their assignment and receive more advice and coaching from Chris.

In conclusion, Chris wrapped up the TRG Talk-Project Management workshop by explaining to improve collaboration you need to be team competent, cross functional and self-organised, in order to be more proactive. He discussed how a company needs a continuous improvement process. Also, the need for transparency to improve the structure and communication to then be able to self-organise. Finally having leadership to give guidelines and framework. If all of this is achieved, then there will be far more collaboration.

That’s how exciting and fruitful the TRG Talk- Project Management has ended. Stay tuned to our next workshops!

About TRG International 

TRG International is an IT, Talent and F&B company. We help people and businesses to shine. We help people be the best they can possibly be by selecting the right people for the right job and developing them to their full potential. We help companies by providing an IT solution that works quietly and brilliantly in the background, freeing them up to focus on their core and not having to worry about their IT systems. We do this for more than 1,000 clients in 80 countries.