About attitude, knowledge, and skills in teamwork, and which is the most difficult one to optimise, you can read here:
1. First of All, a Fancy Cake Is Being Baked
Three friends are baking a fancy cake for the birthday party to which they are invited that night. They know the ingredients, and in which order they have to mix them into the dough.
They know when they have to heat the oven and how long the baking time will be. They know when they have to prepare the filling and when to spread it, after the cake has cooled down.
They are able to transfer the cake onto the wire rack for cooling. They cut the cake into perfect cake slices and spread the filling evenly on all of them. Finally, they decorate their fancy cake with aptness and finesse.
To leave the landlady´s kitchen tidied up perfectly and spotlessly clean, is a point of honour.
Knowledge, skills, and attitude - you have certainly noticed, where the three of them have employed which component beneficially in their teamwork. Additionally, we understand that knowledge, skills, and attitude are vital in any kind of teamwork.
2. Where Do Our Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude Come From?
2.1. Knowledge
Sometimes, for example during spare time activities, we acquire knowlegde playfully. At other times, we have to cram with diligence and volition until we have a command of the subject. Somtimes, an exam forces us to learn, and somtimes we realise ourselves that we need the respective knowledge.
It certainly helps us to connect the new knowledge with what we already know or to reflect on how we are going to use it.
2.2. Skills
Everywhere in our lives we face practical things, which we want to or have to be able to do. It doesn´t matter whether we look our three friends in the kitchen mentioned above over their shoulders, or do some DIY, play a sport, or learn medical examination techniques.
We have to practise these skills until we are able to carry them out as required or until we meet our own expectations. Sometimes, we may become frustrated, but we carry on.
2.3. Attitude
We bring our attitude to our teamwork alongside our knowlegde and skills. An attitude is an opinion, a thought, or a feeling, we have about persons, situations, or other things. It influences our behaviour, as well as that of others, whilst working together.
Are we always conscious of our attitude? From where have we got it? Is it constructive or can we mend anything?
If we want to optimise it, we need to recognise the necessity to do so in the first place. Sometimes, it is not as apparent as the necessity to acquire knowledge and skills.
Therefore, and due to the role traditions play, it is most difficult to mend our attitude.
Only with our attitude we establish the cooperative and constructive atmosphere in our teamwork, in which we use our knowledge and skills to the fullest.
Now, we dare to approach this most demanding of the three areas of learning, knowledge, skills, and attitude. In the following paragraphs, we will elaborate how to perfect our attitude, using CRM as an example.
3. We Work on Our Attitude
3.1. The Attitude Towards a Boss and Subordinates in the Past
In aviation, until the beginning of the 1970ies, pilots were seen as indisputable heroes, who made the decisions. The other members in the cockpit assisted and were mostly not actively involved in the decision-making process. Also in healthcare, team members did frequently not dare to speak up, even if they had discovered an error.
Hence, it was the widespread attitude in those times that bosses in different lines of business were not to be questioned.
However, too many air disasters occurred, claiming lives almost every time, as I have already described on my CRM-page . As is commonly known, the worst disaster in aviation to date has been the collision of two jumbo jets on the runway on the island of Tenerife in March 1977.
3.2. Questioning the Attitude and Recognising the Necessity to Change
All air disasters are painstakingly examined, in order to find the course, but also to establish how the mistakes discovered can be prevented in the future.
One of the results, also concerning the crash in Tenerife, was the discovery that error chains lead to accidents. Human error, especially communication mistakes, plays the main role in more than 70% of such catastrophies.
Consequently, crew resource management was established, including a novel view on the roles in a team. Besides, one had recognised the necessity to reconsider the attitude towards the relationship between a boss and his or her subordinates.
This is evident in CRM concepts such as speak up (item 5.1.2. on my CRM-page), as well as using closed communication loops (item 2.3. on my CRM-page).
3.3. The Cycle from Planning to Evaluation
If we want to change something, we need a cycle, which allows us to plan the change, to discuss the planned steps, and, finally, to put these steps into action.
As we know, even well thought-out change processes never work according to plan. Thus, we try things out practically, evaluate our successes and the room for improvement. Following that, we start the cycle anew based on our results.
However, does everyone agree to the intended change immediately? Even CRM met resistance as it was developed. It was not established within one day, but in six generations, each of them with its own focus, starting in 1979.
4. We Meet Obstacles and..... the Traditions
Have you ever discussed attitudes with your team and worked on them? If so, what difficulties have you met?
Such obstacles are nothing new, of course, and only human. Here, you find some of them summarised briefly:
- colleagues who are afraid of losing their current role or authority
- coworkers who cannot recognise the benefit of the project
- coworkers who are against it per se
- coworkers in any role, who are constructively critical - of course, they are not an obstacle in this spirit
- coworkers who are afraid not to be able to cope with the new requirements
- coworkers who see themselves taken by surprise and their plans completely disrupted
- coworkers who are afraid of more responsibility
- obstacles which you can name additionally
What shall we do with our traditions? How about renewing where necessary and deliberately keeping tried and tested concepts that are still valuable?
5. We Overcome the Obstacles
How have you managed to overcome obstacles on your way to changes so far?
As in every change management process, we come a long way if we bring everyone in early, state the reasons transparently, and invite constructive suggestions actively.
As we move along, we should let everyone involved share their thoughts, opinions, and feelings.
Let us now look at possible ways to overcome the obstacles mentioned above:
- We should address the fear of losing one´s role openly and discuss new responsibilities constructively.
- We should state the benefits transparently, preferably fortified by scientific results. We should answer questions and meet doubt with open questions. We should prepare our answers. If we cannot give an answer, we should work it out and then come back to the one who asked.
- We should meet the ones who are against it with open questions in order to find out whether they can justify their scepticism.
- We should listen to the constructive critics, praise good suggestions and integrate those into the concept. If we cannot accept a suggestion, we should state the reason why.
- We should explore possible fears of new tasks and work out help and learning opportunities together.
- We should announce plans to change early and let the ones who need a precise plan take their time. Additionally, we should offer them the opportunity to support the planning process.
- Why does the fear of taking more responsibility exist? We should explore this together using open questions and discuss further education or a new role as necessary.
- Your additional solutions. We should always ask our team members if they have anything to add.
6. Changed Attitude in CRM to Detect Errors Early
6.1. The Changed Attitude
In a CRM team, everyone should contribute and his or her concerns or suggestions should be heard, regardless of his or her position in the team. Hence, the attitude is different to the one from the 1970ties mentioned above.
6.2. Using This Attitude, We Detect Mistakes Early
With our present-day attitude, all of us in the team use their knowledge and skills the best they can, applying the various CRM concepts. As is known, even when using CRM, we cannot avoid making mistakes to one hundred percent.
However, with the help of the CRM concepts, we as a team discover errors as early as possible, before they cause any harm.
6.3. Let´s Improve and in Addition: Celebrate Your Successes!
Whenever we change something, we should set ourselves measurable goals, document the results of our work and assess them. We should present our analyses to everyone involved transparently and improve together, what needs to be optimised.
Of course, we celebrate our successes together. We are explicitly allowed to praise our colleagues and motivate them to keep going. I wish you many opportunities to do so!
7. In My Next Blog Article You Can Read About:
What different types of stress exist, and which of those we can use for great achievements. How to keep all other kinds of stress at bay, in order to master important CRM concepts, such as workload management, situational awareness, and decision-making, none the less.
Author: Eva-Maria Schottdorf
Date: March 16th 2021