Communication and negotiation / Teamworking / Inclusive Environments Flashcards
How would you prepare for a negotiation (agree, prep, decisions, positions, approach, walk)?
- Agree your client’s objectives and negotiating strategy before starting the negotiations
- Detailed research and preparation
- Deciding what points you can concede on and which are non-negotiable
- Understand the other party’s position
- Develop a partnership/collaborative approach, rather than an adversarial approach
- Walk away when you need to
What makes effective communication (4 c’s)?
- Clear
- Concise
- Complete
- Courteous
What key skills are useful for effective teamworking (L, D, P, R, H, S, P, C, R)?
- Listening – to other people’s ideas
- Discussing – team members to ask questions and interact
- Persuading – individuals to consider their positions
- Respect – treating team maters with respect and support their ideas
- Helping – to encourage team work
- Sharing – information to create a positive team environment
- Participating – ensuring all team members get involved
- Communication – have effective communication skills to allow team members to work together
- Reflection and identifying strengths and weaknesses
What are key ways to improve collaboration in a team (E, C, E, L, R)?
- Establish team goals
- Communicate expectations
- Encourage cohesion between team members
- Leverage team member’s strengths
- Recognise and encourage collaborative behaviour
Why would it be beneficial to have a greater diversity in the industry (G, I, B)?
Greater talent pool
Increased innovation
Benefits reputation
What are the RICS doing to encourage diversity (3)?
- RICS launched the Inclusive Employer Quality Mark (IEQM) for firms to sign up to
- Achieved gender parity on the Global Executive Team
- Setup diversity working groups e.g. LGBT+
May 2022 - The Governing Council of RICS has established a strategic oversight group to steer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives focused on building a culture of accountability and belonging, and ensuring the membership and profession better reflect the societies they serve.
What is unconcious bias?
Learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply ingrained, universal, and able to influence behavior
When people favour others who look like them and/or share their values. (Everyone has)
How can you prevent unconcious bias?
Training to make people aware of their own biases to help manage them
What is a ‘win-win’ situation?
- When the agreement reached cannot be improved further by any discussions.
- Outcome cannot be improved for your benefit, and similarly, the agreement for the other party cannot be improved further for their benefit either.
What is the definition of an inclusive environment?
A safe space in which integration of diverse experiences and perspectives can freely coexist. It’s a place where people feel respected by and connected to each other.
How can you reduce the likelihood of unconscious bias affecting your decisions?
- Be aware of unconscious bias.
- Don’t rush decisions - take your time and consider issues properly.
- Justify decisions by evidence and record the reasons for your decisions, for example during a recruitment exercise.
- Try to work with a wider range of people and get to know them as individuals.
- Focus on the positive behaviour of people and not negative stereotypes.
- Companies should implement policies and procedures which limit the influence of individual characteristics and preferences.
The Equality Act 2010 : nine protected characteristics
Age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
What is the RICS Inclusive Employer Quality Mark a response to, when launched, how many companies signed up, and what are the 4 key principles (L R C D)?
o Launched 2015, response to the sector being behind other professions in moving towards a more diverse and inclusive workforce, which is only possible if there is a measurement of this specifically to determine how inclusive an organisation is.
o 183 companies signed up, representing 300,000+ workforce.
o 4 clear, key principles:
Leadership – demonstrable workforce diversity commitment at highest level.
Recruitment – using best practice recruitment methods engage to attract new people from under-represented industry groups.
Culture – develop an inclusive culture where all staff engage with developing, delivering, monitoring and assessing diversity and inclusivity
Development – training and promotion policies that offer equal access to career progression to all workforce members.
What is the RICS position on diversity and inclusion?
o Communities are becoming more diverse, and we want to work in organisations that treat people fairly, with respect and embrace different viewpoints, cultures and backgrounds.
o We lack diversity throughout our organisations (generally in wider public), and need to address this urgently if we are to tackle the skills shortage.
o Limited progress from legislation and cultural change, more needs to be done and everyone needs to consider their own behaviours.
Define equality
- Equality: ensuring everybody has equal opportunity, not treated differently or discriminated against because of individual characteristics.
Define diversity
- Diversity: taking into account differences between people and groups of people, and placing a positive value on those differences.
Explain the moral case for diversity
An inclusive industry where everyone is treated with fairness, dignity and respect would provide better outcomes for society as a whole.
We are involved in the whole community, but often do not represent the communities we work in.
Why was the Equality Act introduced/what purpose?
Introduced to bring together various separate pieces of legislation into one single act (Equal Pay Act, Sex Discrimination Act, Race Relations Act, Disability Discrimination Act)
Purpose: protect individuals from unfair treatment and promote a fair and more equal society.
What is direct discrimination/what could it involve?
o someone treated less favourably directly because of protected characteristic they have/someone else they know has/thought to have
o Could involve a decision to not employ, dismissal, poorer promotion/training/contractual benefits, or denying contractual benefits because of a protected characteristic
What is indirect discrimination/what could it involve?
o Less obvious, often unintended, basically where you have procedures in place that make it indirectly more challenging for someone with a protected characteristic to perform, and you are unable to justify it.
o Could involve a recruitment selection criteria, contractual benefits or a redundancy scoring matrix.
What is harassment?
o ‘unwanted conduct’ – violating dignity or creating intimidating/ hostile environment for someone.
What is victimisation?
o when an employee suffers what the law terms a ‘detriment’ – something that causes disadvantage, damage, harm or loss
What is positive action?
when employer takes proportionate steps to remove barriers and provide support to improve protected characteristics participate, as long as will not lead to further discrimination
What is affinity bias?
Feeling an affinity with someone as they have similar life experiences.
What is the halo effect?
Unfounded positive trait attribution (i.e. dressing ‘smart’ = good)
What is inclusive communication, and what are 4 typical ways to do it?
Being aware/valuing different ways people communicate i.e.:
• using gender neutral language (‘they’ not ‘he/she’)
• Put person first (e.g. people with disabilities, rather than disabled people)
• Diverse range of people represented on marketing materials etc.
• Deaf accessible if possible
What is the business case for diversity and inclusivity (performance, skills, end user, image)?
People perform better when they can be themselves at work
Millennials want inclusive employers, and we must be able to attract them to deal with skills shortage (RICS is white male dominated)
Having team members that can understand the end user and provide a more diverse range of inputs will do a better job.
Simple actions such as being listened to can increase confidence and self-esteem and create more engaged employees.
Strengthen company’s image (press etc)
How should a company approach a diversity and inclusion policy, and what should one set out?
Policies are secondary to ensuring a supportive culture.
Diversity and inclusion policy: sets out company approach to diversity and inclusion, and detail how to avoid discrimination at work.
How does direct disability discrimination differ between DDA and EA?
Under DDA applied only at work, under EA unlawful in all circumstances: worse treatment because of disability than someone without disability.
How does discrimination arising from disability differ between DDA and EA?
Introduced under EA - when disabled treated unfavourably because of something connected with disability (and which cannot be justified) and not due to disability itself.
How do reasonable adjustments differ between DDA and EA, and what 2 discrimination types were introduced under EA?
DDA requires changes only made where otherwise would be impossible or unreasonably difficult, under EA only substantial disadvantage needs to be experienced.
o Harassment and indirect discrimination were not covered under DDA.
How do EA and Part M differ?
o EA and Part M are both about disabled access, but completely different things:
Part M sets out minimum requirements for door widths, accessible toilet provisions, lifts etc for disabled access
This does not mean building complies with EA.
What is an access statement?
Documents how applicant addressing accessibility issues in design
What are the 3 common duties under making reasonable adjustments?
Changing how things are done
Providing an auxiliary aid (i.e. hearing aid system etc.)
Changing physical features.
