Diversity, inclusion and teamworking

Question 1

What are the benefits of team working?

Answer 1

• Improved productivity
• Improved quality
• Improved customer focus.
• Speed up the development of solutions.
• Increase employee motivation.
• Utilise different skill sets.

Question 2

What makes a good team member?

Answer 2

1. Committed
2. Flexible & Adaptable
3. Reliable
4. Actively listens to others
5. Communicates effectively
6. Respects others
7. Recognises when they are wrong
8. Embraces collaboration

Question 3

How would you run an effective meeting?

Answer 3

• Agenda discipline.
• Start and end time of meeting.
• Times against each item.
• Brief attendees to prepare specific information if
required – manage participation up or down
• Put easier items at the start and end and the most
important items in the middle to take advantage of
when attendees would be most alert and engaged.

Question 4

What is the Latham Report?

Answer 4

The report was commissioned by the UK government to investigate the perceived problems with the construction industry.

Question 5

What were the findings of the Latham Report?

Answer 5

Sir Michael Latham described the construction industry as ‘ineffective’, ‘adversarial’, ‘fragmented’ and ‘incapable of delivering for its customers’.

Question 6

What were the Latham Report Recommendations?

Answer 6

•The New Engineering Contract (NEC) should be
adopted more widely as a less adversarial form of
contract.
•Partnering should be used to encourage the
establishment of long-term contracting
arrangements.
•There should be greater standardisation and better
integration of contract documents.
•There should be compulsory latent defects insurance.
•Risk allocation to the party best able to manage,
estimate and carry it.
•The avoidance of conflict, speedy dispute resolution
and adjudication.
•Firm duties of teamwork with shared financial
motivation.

Question 7

What are the stages of team development?

Answer 7

•Forming (or undeveloped) - when people are working
as individuals rather than a team.
•Storming - teams need to pass through a stage of
conflict if they are to achieve their potential. The team
becomes more aggressive, both internally and in
relation to outside groups, rules and requirements.
•Norming (or consolidating) - the team is beginning to
achieve its potential, effectively applying the resource
it has to the tasks it has, using a process it has
developed itself.
•Performing - when the team is characterised by
openness and flexibility. It challenges itself constantly
but without emotionally charged conflict, and places a
high priority on the development of other team
members.
•Mourning - when the team disbands.

Question 8

Why is diversity and inclusivity valuable to businesses / teams?

Answer 8

• More qualified and rounded business / team;
• Reduce staff turnover
• Fosters a creative workforce

Question 9

What does inclusive communication include?

Answer 9

Enables as many people as possible to be included in that interaction. This approach: Recognises that all human beings use many ways of understanding and expressing themselves.

Question 10

What is unconscious bias and how can you avoid it?

Answer 10

Unconscious bias is learned stereotypes that are automatic but not necessarily intentional.

Ways to avoid unconscious bias at work include:
• Keeping a written record of why decisions were
made.
• Advertising a job vacancy in at least 2 different
places to reach a wide range of people from different
backgrounds.
• Provide training to expose people to their
unconscious biases, provide tools to adjust automatic
patterns of thinking, and eliminate discriminatory
behaviors.

Question 11

What the RICS Inclusive Employer Quality Mark?

Answer 11

It is a response to the sector striving to move towards a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Question 12

What are the four principles of the IEQM?

Answer 12

In 2015 the RICS launched the Inclusive Employer Quality Mark (IEQM) as a response to the sector being behind other professions in moving towards a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

It is based on 4 clear, key principles:

1. Leadership – demonstrate commitment at the
   highest level to increasing diversity in the workforce.
2. Recruitment – engage and attract new people to the
   industry from under-represented groups; best
   practice recruitment methods.
3. Culture – an inclusive culture where all staff engage
   with developing, delivering, monitoring and
   assessing diversity and inclusivity.
4. Development – training and promotion policies that
   offer equal access to career progression to all
   members of the workforce.