Introductory Level
Please Choose A Webquest
Skills for Effective Teamwork
Cooperation, Communication
Skills for Effective Teamwork
In this WebQuest, you will work in small groups of 2-3. There are four tasks waiting for you in the WebQuest. Let's look at them.
TASK 1
Your first task is to gain basic knowledge about cooperation, proper communication, and the importance of teamwork.
TASK 2
Your second task is to learn more about the role of respect, compromise, and negotiation during teamwork.
TASK 3
Your third task is to acquire organizational skills for cooperation and involvement in teamwork activities.
TASK 4
Your final task is to prepare a professional presentation on the topic The Importance of Effective Teamwork.
TASK 1
Your first task is to gain basic knowledge about cooperation, proper communication, and the importance of teamwork.
Study the following information sources that contain all knowledge you need to fulfil this task.
Source 1 - Article about team cooperation
https://www.techtarget.com/searchhrsoftware/definition/team-collaboration
Source 2 - Video about how great teams communicate
Source 3 - Article on communication skills: definitions and examples
https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/communication-skills
Source 4 - Article on importance of communication skills
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/communication-skills.html
Source 5 – Video about how miscommunication happens
TASK 2
Your second task is to learn more about the role of respect, compromise, and negotiation during teamwork.
Source 1: Article about respect in the Workplace
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/workplace-respect
Source 2: Article about Showing respect at workplace
https://www.betterup.com/blog/respect-at-workplace
Source 3: Video about compromising with others
Source 4: Article about several secrets to better compromises
https://www.inc.com/larry-alton/7-secrets-for-better-compromises-in-workplace.html
Source 5: Article on negotiation skills
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/negotiation-skills
Source 6: Video about 4 principles of negotiation
TASK 3
Your third task is to acquire organizational skills for cooperation and involvement in teamwork activities.
Source 1: Video about organisational skills
Source 2: Article about what organisational skills are
https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/organisational-skills
Source 3: Article about how to improve organisational skills
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/organization-skills
TASK 4
Your final task is to prepare a professional presentation on the topic The Importance of Effective Teamwork.
You have learned many useful skills in this WebQuest. Now your task is to prepare a presentation where you will mention the most important of them. The topic of the presentation is The Importance of Effective Teamwork. The following resources will help you.
Source 1: Video about how to prepare a presentation with the correct structure
Source 2: Article about tips for making effective PowerPoint presentations
https://www.ncsl.org/legislative-staff/lscc/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations
And now think together about what you will do with the presentation. You can present it during classes at school or make an interesting video from it on YouTube or publish it on an internet blog. There are many options. Share your knowledge with other people.
You have successfully completed several tasks in this WebQuest. Try to answer the following questions to see how much you have learned:
- Which knowledge from this WebQuest was just a repetition for you because you already knew it?
- What knowledge was new to you?
- Why should people have the knowledge contained in this WebQuest?
- What would you say if you had to say a few words about the importance of effective teamwork?
- Why are respect and the ability to agree on compromises necessary for teamwork?
- How should communication work in a team? Can you give some good tips?
You have just successfully completed this WebQuest on skills for effective teamwork. If you have completed all the tasks, you can rightly consider yourself an expert on this topic because you now have much more knowledge about this topic than the average person in your country. You already know the reasons why effective collaboration with other people in a team is important in today's world. You can discuss communication skills and you know how miscommunication happens. You know the four principles of negotiation. Furthermore, you know what organizational skills are and how to improve them.
Congratulations, your skills for effective teamwork are excellent now!
Cooperation, Communication
The following tasks will guide you through this topic:
Task 1:
Your first step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to get a basic knowledge about cooperation, communication skills and the importance of collaboration in modern workplaces.
Task 2:
Your second step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to learn more about the role of respect, compromise and negotiation during teamwork and communication skills.
Task 3:
Your third step for becoming an expert on cooperation and communication is to gain organisational skills for collaboration to engage teamwork activities.
Task 4:
Your fourth step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to gain a basic knowledge of problem-solving techniques.
Task 5:
Your fifth step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to design a project to invite collaboration among team members.
Have fun!
Task 1:
Your first step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to get a basic knowledge about cooperation, communication skills and the importance of collaboration in modern workplaces.
Cooperation
What is cooperation?
Click through the articles and find out.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cooperation
Maybe you prefer a more creative definition? Click on the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kihZUsADQTQ
When cooperating it is very important to have proper communication skills. As you may know already, these are active listening, respect, confidence, empathy, and body language. But there is more to it then you might think. Find out more about communication skills and how to improve them.
Communication skills
Click on the links below and learn more about communication skills.
https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/communication-skills
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/communication-skills.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCfzeONu3Mo
Now that you gained a basic knowledge on “cooperation” and “communication skills”, discuss with your peers:
- Which communication skills are important for cooperation? And why?
- Why can miscommunication lead to issues during a cooperation or teamwork?
- How can good communication skills help during cooperation?
You might ask yourself now: why is this important in a workplace?
https://resources.owllabs.com/blog/collaboration-in-the-modern-workplace
https://www.betterup.com/blog/collaboration-at-work/
https://www.simpplr.com/blog/2019/importance-of-collaboration-in-the-workplace/
Discuss with your peers the importance of collaboration in modern workplaces.
Task 2:
Your second step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to learn more about the role of respect, compromise and negotiation during teamwork and communication skills.
As you heard in task 1, a big part of communication skills is respect. Learn in task 2 more about respect, compromise and negotiation, skills that are important for cooperation. Also, practice communication skills for teamwork.
Before getting into practicing, read through the articles, watch the videos, and learn more about respect, compromise and negotiation.
Respect
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/respect
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/workplace-respect
https://www.betterup.com/blog/respect-at-workplace
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2ppLtHbag4
Compromise
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/compromise
https://www.inc.com/larry-alton/7-secrets-for-better-compromises-in-workplace.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdCQFuWaV2g&t=57s
Negotiation
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/negotiation
https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/negotiation-skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfTalFEeKKE
Now its time for action! Practice communication skills for teamwork. Therefore, get together in small groups and try out to negotiate about a topic of your choice. Also try to find a compromise on an issue of your choice.
Need inspiration? Here are some topics for negotiation:
- Pay rise
- Days off
- Your desk neighbour is eating crisps, this is very annoying for you and distracting
And here are some topics for a compromise:
- For a team event you proposed to go out for food, your colleague wants to go go-karting, but there is not enough money to do both things. How can you compromise?
- You would like to work in Home Office, but your boss wants you to work from the office. Can you find a compromise?
Best way to practice this is via role play.
Task 3:
Your third step for becoming an expert on cooperation and communication is to gain organisational skills for collaboration to engage teamwork activities.
When collaborating or during teamwork it is major to have good organisational skills. Find out more about organisational skills and how to improve them by reading the articles:
https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/organisational-skills
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/organization-skills
Now it’s time to engage teamwork activities. Read through the list of possibilities and choose three you would like to try out with your team:
https://www.themuse.com/advice/team-building-activities-games-for-work-office
https://www.wrike.com/blog/ultimate-guide-team-building-activities/
Invite your peers to feedback your collaboration. Evaluate your performance in a team in term of level of collaboration.
Here are some phrases to use for your feedback and evaluation:
https://www.betterup.com/blog/team-skill-self-appraisal-comments
Task 4:
Your fourth step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to gain a basic knowledge of problem-solving techniques.
In every work and every team, as in our private lives, there will always appear problems. It is important to have problem-solving strategies to not get overwhelmed with it.
Read trough the articles and watch the video:
https://www.betterup.com/blog/problem-solving-strategies
https://asq.org/quality-resources/problem-solving
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahha-igVmJw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrlYkx41wEE
Try the problem-solving techniques in your teamwork. Develop a solution to a problem that is encountered in a collaborative project.
Task 5:
Your fifth step for becoming an expert on collaboration is to design a project to invite collaboration among team members.
Now it is up to you! Get started and design a project.
Create a team and then brainstorm on what project you could get started.
Maybe something to clean your neighbourhood of trash on the streets?
Or what about a lemonade stand or a cookie sell?
A step-to-step guide on how to design a project:
https://asana.com/resources/project-design
You’ve done it! Well done.
Topics | Level | Knowledge | Skills | Attitudes |
Collaboration | Introductory:
Sub-topics:
|
Practical knowledge of organisational skills required for effective collaboration |
|
Openness to developing one’s own communication skills to improve collaboration |
Very well done! You now know about the value of cooperation in a team as well as the role of respect, compromise and negotiation in cooperation. Furthermore, you learnt about problem-solving techniques, gained communication and organisational skills for collaboration. You also can define collaboration and cooperation and know about the importance of teamwork. Finally, you are able to design a project and solve problems as they appear
Advanced Level
Please Choose A Webquest
Emotional Intelligence and Empathy
Empathy, Trust
Emotional Intelligence and Empathy
The topic of this WebQuest is emotional intelligence and empathy. You will become familiar with the concepts of emotional intelligence and empathy and understand their importance for work and personal life. You will understand how to develop emotional intelligence and empathy. You will learn to keep an emotional journal, which develops emotional intelligence. You will learn and practice active listening techniques, which can improve your relationships with other people. And finally, you will know the power and magic of a random act of kindness.
The following 6 tasks await you in this WebQuest.
TASK 1
Your first task is to familiarize yourself with the definition of emotional intelligence and empathy and understand why they are important in life and in the workplace.
TASK 2
The next task is to explore how emotional intelligence and empathy can be developed.
TASK 3
The next task will be to try an emotional journal, which is a great tool to increase your emotional intelligence.
TASK 4
Your next task is to gain comprehensive information about active listening, a skill that can improve your relationships with people very significantly almost immediately.
TASK 5
Your fifth task is to try active listening in practice and transfer this skill to your everyday life.
TASK 6
Your final task is to create a “random act of kindness” project.
TASK 1
Your first task is to familiarize yourself with the definition of emotional intelligence and empathy and understand why they are important in life and in the workplace.
You can work in a group of 3 people. Your first task is to discuss the following questions:
- How would you define or describe emotional intelligence?
- What is empathy?
- What behaviours and actions are typical for a person with high emotional intelligence?
After answering the questions above, study the following resources to check how correct your answers were.
Source 1 – Article about what emotional intelligence is
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-emotional-intelligence-2795423
Source 2 – Article about empathy – the cornerstone of emotional intelligence
https://www.conovercompany.com/empathy-the-cornerstone-of-emotional-intelligence/
Source 3 – Video: Emotional intelligence at work
Source 4 – Video: 7 Signs of Emotional Intelligence. Which of these do you possess?
TASK 2
The next task is to explore how emotional intelligence and empathy can be developed.
Source 1 - Animation about developing emotional intelligence
Source 2 – Video: 5 Simple Ways to Develop Emotional Intelligence
Source 3: Article about how to develop empathy
https://positivepsychology.com/empathy-worksheets/
Source 4: Article about how to be more empathetic
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-be-more-empathetic
TASK 3
The next task will be to try an emotional journal, which is a great tool to increase your emotional intelligence.
There are a few basic emotions that are considered universal and natural to people regardless of culture. Our emotional experiences are rooted in these five core emotions: joy, fear, anger, disgust and sadness. However, our ability to combine and mix emotions and then feel them in a variety of intensities increases our emotional experience exponentially.
Learn to identify your emotions by keeping track of how you’re feeling throughout your day. Get familiarised with the emotion journal method.
Source 1: Emotions tracking diary template and instructions
https://www.shannonharvey.com/blogs/resources/emotions-tracking-diary-template
Thanks to this task and the identification of emotions, you will understand yourself better and thus increase your emotional intelligence. In the next two tasks, you will improve your emotional intelligence towards others, as we will learn active listening.
TASK 4
Your next task is to gain comprehensive information about active listening, a skill that can improve your relationships with people very significantly almost immediately.
In this part of the WebQuest, we will learn about a very practical communication skill called active listening. Active listening is important in many situations, such as when communicating with a partner, friends, family, at work and in customer relations. It helps create better understanding, improve relationships and resolve conflicts.
Active listening is the process of focused listening and understanding another person, which involves an active effort to understand what the other person is saying and how they are feeling. In active listening, we try to let the other person know that we are really in contact with them, that we hear them and understand what they are saying to us.
Source 1 – Article: What Is Active Listening?
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-active-listening-3024343
Source 2 - Article on signs of active listening
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html
Source 3 – Video: 4 things all great listeners know
TASK 5
Your fifth task is to try active listening in practice and transfer this skill to your everyday life.
Here are some practical exercises for active listening that can be done in groups of three. Choose one of them that you like and try it practically.
- Listen and Summarize - Divide into groups of three and choose one person to talk about an experience they recently had. The other two members will actively listen and then summarize what they remember from what they heard. The speaker will then ask if they understood their experience correctly.
- Reflect and Add - Divide into groups of three and choose one person to talk about a problem they are experiencing. The other two members will actively listen and then try to reflect and add to what they heard. Reflection means repeating back what they heard, while adding means asking for additional information if there are gaps or uncertainties.
- Three Things - Divide into groups of three and each person takes a paper and pen. Each member then writes down three things that are important to them in life. Then, one member asks the other about their three things and actively listens. After the conversation ends, the members switch and repeat the process.
- Introduction, Middle, End - Divide into groups of three and choose one person to talk about a situation they recently experienced. The other members will actively listen and then try to summarize the introduction, middle, and end of this situation. The speaker will then ask if their summary matches what they wanted to say."
Source 1 – Video: Active Listening Skills
Source 2 – Video: Active Listening
TASK 6
Your final task is to create a “random act of kindness” project.
A "Random Act of Kindness" is an action that offers kindness to people who are not close to you. It means doing something kind, nice and selfless for some other person or group of people. You will get nothing but a good feeling from this act.
Source 1 – Article: Random Act of Kindness
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/random-act-of-kindness
Source 2: Kindness Ideas
https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas
Source 3 – Article: 101 Best Random Acts of Kindness Ideas
You have successfully completed several tasks in this WebQuest. Try to answer the following questions to see how much you have learned:
- Which knowledge from this WebQuest was just a repetition for you because you already knew it?
- What knowledge was new to you?
- Why should people have the knowledge contained in this WebQuest?
- How would you define emotional intelligence?
- What is empathy and how does an empathic person behave?
- What 5 basic emotions do you know?
- Do you think suppressing emotions is good or bad?
- How can active listening skills improve your relationships with people?
Great job! Thanks to completing this webquest, you should have a deeper understanding of empathy and collaboration and how these skills can help us create a more connected and supportive community.
We must analyse both the relational reality of the group and our place in it.
Empathy, Trust
What is a WebQuest? By conducting research activities on the internet and combining these with additional activities, you will become familiar with new things concerning a specific topic. This allows you to expand your knowledge and create new skills for you.
In the introductory WebQuest you learnt about the basic knowledge of the value of cooperation in a team and to gain communication, organisational and social skills for a successful cooperation. Furthermore, you will gain a basic knowledge of the role of respect, compromise and negotiation in cooperation and a basic knowledge of problem-solving techniques.
In this advanced WebQuest you will learn how to develop empathy skills and why empathy is important for teamwork. Furthermore, you will learn about bias in communication and how they can impact empathy. You will discuss about trust, emotional intelligence and practice communication skills. Finally, you will keep an empathy journal, engage with peers to invite feedback and create a “random act of kindness” project.
Ready?
The following tasks will guide you through this topic:
Task 1:
Your first step for becoming an expert on empathy is to define “empathy” and its contribution to one’s emotional intelligence as well as how to develop empathy skills.
Task 2:
Your second step for becoming an expert on empathy is to learn more about the role of bias in communication and empathy and how to develop communication skills to improve empathy skills.
Task 3:
Your third step for becoming an expert on empathy and trust is to learn more about the importance of trust for teamwork and develop a plan to prove mentoring to new team members.
Task 4:
Your fourth step for becoming an expert on empathy is to read case studies and discuss how peers/colleagues or co-workers could show empathy.
Task 5:
Your fifth step for becoming an expert on empathy and trust is to keep an empathy journal to reflect on how and when empathy was practiced in the work environment.
Task 6:
Your sixth and last step for becoming an expert on empathy is to create a “random act of kindness” project.
Have fun!
Task 1:
Your first step for becoming an expert on empathy is to define “empathy” and its contribution to one’s emotional intelligence as well as how to develop empathy skills.
Read through the articles and watch the videos.
Empathy
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/empathy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzPMMSKfKZQ
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-empathy-2795562
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy
Emotional intelligence
https://www.conovercompany.com/empathy-the-cornerstone-of-emotional-intelligence/
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-emotional-intelligence-2795423
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUdfblJEAY8
How to develop empathy skills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9h8fG1DKhA
https://positivepsychology.com/empathy-worksheets/
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-be-more-empathetic
https://ideas.ted.com/5-exercises-to-help-you-build-more-empathy/
Answer and discuss the following questions with your peers:
- What is empathy?
- Why is empathy important? What happens if you don’ have empathy skills?
- What is emotional intelligence?
- How can emotional intelligence help you at your workplace?
- How can you develop empathy skills?
Task 2:
Your second step for becoming an expert on empathy is to learn more about the role of bias in communication and empathy and how to develop communication skills to improve empathy skills.
You learnt in task 1 a lot about empathy and emotional intelligence. You also came across the term “bias”. What are bias?
Click on the articles and find out:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/bias
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/bias
Learn more about the role of bias in communication and empathy. Klick on the links and read through the articles:
What do you think? How can bias affect your communication or empathy?
Discuss with your peers.
Empathy is an important skill not only for your personal life but also for your professional live. Reflect on value of empathy in a team by reading through the articles and discuss about it with your peers.
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-be-empathetic
https://www.careercontessa.com/advice/empathy-at-work/
- Why is empathy important at work?
- How can you show empathy at work?
Discuss with your peers.
As you learnt earlier, empathic people practice active listening.
Active listening
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-active-listening-3024343
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW82k7lwI_U
How can empathy be practiced and refined as a skill?
https://enhancv.com/resume-skills/empathy/
https://www.lynncareercoach.com/blog/2017/3/30/job-qualifications-curiosity-empathy-and-gratitude
To finish this task, reflect on value of empathy in a team. Why is it essential for teamwork to show empathy?
Task 3:
Your third step for becoming an expert on empathy and trust is to learn more about the importance of trust for teamwork and develop a plan to prove mentoring to new team members.
Trust amongst team members is really important for teamwork. Learn more about the importance of trust for teamwork:
Can you come up with more ideas why trust is essential for teamwork? Discuss with your peers.
When people are new to a team it is often a good idea to provide mentoring to new team members. Develop a plan to provide mentoring.
Here is some inspiration:
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/leading-new-team-5885.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t_XUUcM1ng
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2019/04/04/seven-keys-to-successfully-onboarding-new-team-members/?sh=10cc686b7a0d
Write down a step by step plan to provide mentoring to new team members.
As you learnt, trust and empathy are important qualities for good teamwork. It is also important to find nice words for your team members and to give them praise and feedback.
Develop a project to engage your peers in giving praise to one another each day or week as a means for building trust.
Here are some compliments for inspiration:
https://www.verywellmind.com/positivity-boosting-compliments-1717559
To finish this task, engage with peers to invite feedback on your empathy skills.
Task 4:
Your fourth step for becoming an expert on empathy is to read case studies and discuss how peers/colleagues or co-workers could show empathy.
In your previous tasks it was all about articles and videos. Another text type is a “case study”.
What is a case study?
https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-write-a-psychology-case-study-2795722
You read and researched a lot on empathy. Look through possible case studies regarding empathy: https://scholar.google.at/scholar?q=case+study+empathy&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
Choose one and read it.
- How is a case study different to other articles?
- What did you learn from your case study?
Now that you learnt a lot about empathy already. What do you think, how could peers, colleagues or co-workers show empathy?
Discuss with your team. For inspiration, here is a wiki how: https://www.wikihow.com/Show-Empathy
Try to find other ways of showing empathy.
Task 5:
Your fifth step for becoming an expert on empathy and trust is to keep an empathy journal to reflect on how and when empathy was practiced in the work environment.
Here are some useful prompts for your journaling:
https://www.teachersnotepad.com/writing-prompts-about-empathy/
And some ideas:
- Write about a situation of your workday and how you showed empathy.
- Write about a situation of your workday but from the others person perspective
- Also note: how can you be more empathetic the next time?
- How did you show empathy today? How can you show empathy tomorrow?
Task 6:
Your sixth and last step for becoming an expert on empathy is to create a “random act of kindness” project.
A “random act of kindness” is an action to offer kindness to people outside your usual zone of people. To be kind to each other means, to be caring and selfless and to act unconditionally. That means, that from acting in a kind way you gain nothing but a good feeling and definitely a good respond.
Read some more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/well/family/random-acts-of-kindness.html
https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/random-act-of-kindness
Now its up to you! Create your own “random act of kindness” project.
Here are some ideas:
https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas
https://www.naturalbeachliving.com/acts-of-kindness/
Before you get started on your project, evaluate the level of trust in your team before as well as after the “random act of kindness” project and compare if the level of trust changed.
Write the plan down and fulfil it with your peers. Have fun!
You made it through every task! Congratulations and well done.
Topics | Level | Knowledge | Skills | Attitudes |
Collaboration | Advanced:
Sub-topics:
|
Practical knowledge of how to develop communication skills (active listening, body language) to improve empathy skills |
|
|
You have almost completed this WebQuest. Let’s give it a try and answer the following questions to confirm how much additional knowledge you have gained:
- What is empathy?
- Why is trust and empathy essential for teamwork?
- How can you improve trust and empathy?
- What are bias and what risk are they baring?
- What is a random act of kindness?
We must analyse both the relational reality of the group and our place in it.
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The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project Number : 2019-1-PL01-KA204-065089
