Raft Building survey

Describe the task

In detail, what was the aim of the task? How many teams? What was the team dynamic? Timings?
Rules & restrictions?
Our task was to build a raft with this equipment to then race at sea against the other team. There
were two teams of 8 and their was no reinforced time limit. We were given 8 pieces of bamboo
sticks, 4 rubber rings, 8 paddles and a bunch of rope. However there was a twist to this allowing us
to really work on teamwork and leadership skills and developing these skills, two people were
blindfolded, two could not use their hands and two other people could not talk. By creating this
challenge an aim was established. The aim was to find a way to deal with these difficulties in this
group and figure out a way that we can all work together effectively as a team. It also created an
opportunity for people to take the leadership role and give out tasks and manage the team.

What was your role in the team? *

What did you do? How did you contribute? Leader or teamworker?
I was given the disadvantage of not being able to speak throughout the activity. This meant that I
was not able in anyways to take the leadership role. This is because as a leader you would have to
be able to talk to everyone and give out roles and instructions fast and efficiently. So instead I was
a team worker and since I was still able to use my hands I was doing a lot of the physical work.
The leader (Dominic), who could only talk but not use his hands, analysed that I was the strongest
with making the knots, which is why I was given the task of tying the main bamboo structure
together along with 2 other team mates, while the other tied the tires to the structure and inflated
the tires. At the beginning of the task I also helped carry the equipment to our area and helped lead
the blind team member to the working area. Finally when I was finished with tying the structure I
gave a hand to tying the tires. Then when we entered the water our raft unfortunately collapsed
due to the tires being too flat. After this happening Ben and I decided to pull to raft along while the
others kept on rowing.

How did you perform as an individual? *

For the M & D criteria make comparisons with other individual performances in your team and
relate to theory.
I believe that as an individual I preformed very well as I was a key player in the construction of the
raft. I was concentrated throughout the task and made sure my job was done to the best of my
ability. I feel I was very responsible as well. This is because I knew that I wasnt very knowledgable
at first on how to make knots so I made sure I concentrated significantly in the tutorial they gave.
When looking at Belbins theory, out of the 8 roles I think I would best fit into the completer-finisher.
This is because I was barely able to communicate and would people could understand what I was
doing with my hand signals I would just get frustrated and then keep to myself. I would then just
make sure I was doing my knots properly and kept concentrated on finishing the task. Also when
the knot was not tight enough, with out the leader telling me I would redo the knot as I did not want
to let the team down and then take the blame. Compared to some other members in the team I
think we were all very focussed on just finishing the task at the best of our abilities. However the
two member which could not use their hands I felt like they were very much the shapers of the
team as they would always tell us what was going wrong and they were making sure we knew
what we were doing and how to do it.
The skills I had in this task was that I was able to tie knots really well and the quality was probably
my adaptability to the leaders instructions as I was constantly changing my way of working
depending on the leaders instructions.

How did you perform as a team? *

For the M & D criteria make comparisons with other team performances and relate to theory.
If looking at the activity from a teamwork perspective I feel that we worked better together as a
team compared to the other group. This is because I believe that we were all contributing equally
but with the other team I could point out only two major contributors to the group. I think that this
was due to effectiveness of the leaders.
In our group our leader was able to follow John Adairs Action Centred Leadership theory.
Therefore he was able to manage the individuals, the team and keep the task competition on track.
This was achieved by constant communication and instructions. We were given roles and tasks to
complete throughout the whole activity and the leaders were closely monitoring us giving us
feedback and motivation. There leadership approach in my opinion was laissez-faire as they gave
us instructions and then let us complete the task. This was mainly because they could personally
not get hands on as they were prohibited from using their hands.
When looking at the other group the leader was not very successful with keeping a balance
between the team, the individuals and the task completion. In my opinion the leader was mainly
looking at the individuals and the task completion. This meant that at times there were team
members not doing anything as the leader was not paying attention to the team as a whole. I felt
that their leader was democratic as he gave out instructions and also listened to others, but at the
same times also got hands on with the work.
For this task I would feel like a laissez-faire leadership style would have been more effective
because the members were able to use their own initiative and therefore were motivated and with
such a stressful task this was very important to have.

What were your strengths? *

Communication, problem solving, time management, supporting others, physical abilities,
confidence, motivation, resolving conflict, praise, questioning, body language, listening,
awareness, creativity etc
Throughout the task I think I demonstrated I had a few areas of strengths. The first area was
probably my listening skills. I was able to listen to my leader and follow instructions correctly. This
sometime meant having to use my own creativity as I came up with some difficult obstacles that I
had to resolve. The second strengths I felt I had was that I was quite good at communicating
without talking. I did this by using body language and I feel that my team mates were able to
understand me quite well which at times was crucial to solving a problem. My final strengths would
probably my questioning of the raft structure. I was able to signal out areas of concern to my
leaders and then they would evaluate the situation and make decisions appropriately.

What were your weaknesses? *

Communication, problem solving, time management, supporting others, physical abilities,
confidence, motivation, resolving conflict, praise, questioning, body language, listening,
awareness, creativity etc
With strengths also come weaknesses. While making the raft I felt like I had 3 main weaknesses
and they are as follows. To start off with I believe that I was not a very good at keeping my
motivation throughout the task. I got quite stressed out throughout the task as I felt like the other
team was doing a much better job so I was very de-motivated. However the team leaders were
able to encourage me by giving advice and suggestions. My second weakness would probably be
my time management. I think I took too many breaks during the task and when working I worked at
a very slow pace as I did not want to make any silly mistakes. Finally I feel that my awareness of

the team situation was not the best. I think this is because I felt very alienated as I could not
communicate with the others very much therefore I worked mainly on a self centred mind set.
How could you improve for next time? *
Make future recommendations for yourself, your team and other individuals / teams.
My personal improvements for next time would be to keep an eye on the time more. Even though
we did not have much of a time limit we could not use all the time of the world. By keeping an eye
on the time this would also help keep motivated as I would want to work faster so I can finish on
time. Secondly I could tune into others conversations a bit more while doing the task so that I could
feel a bit more involved and therefore increase my awareness.
The team as a whole I felt worked very well and efficiently. The only improvement I could think
about is the members who could speak should have tried to start simple jokes or conversations so
that the people who couldnt see or talk could have a bit of a laugh and therefore this would
increase the productivity, as a happy team is a productive team.
When looking at the other group my suggestion for them would be to make sure that all the
members in the team have a fair amount of collaboration in the team. If members are just left aside
this will dramatically decrease motivation and also efficiency as you do not have as much man
power. In a business leaving team members out could lead to staff alienation which would then
lead to members quitting. This then means the business needs to go through the hiring and
training process all over again which can be quite costly.
The final improvement we could have made a team, that would have dramatically increased our
productivity, was us making SMART goals before getting to work. In this activity the moment the
instructor said go we all rushed and go straight to work. What we should have done is all sit down
and discussed these goals. This would have allowed us to work more productively as we could
keep track of work and the groups pace. Also we would have also encountered less last minute
problems with timing up the tires to the raft as we would have been much more organised,
therefore reducing carless mistakes.
Was there any conflict in the group? *
If yes, describe why and how was it resolved? If no, what did the leader do to ensure this was the
case?
We did encounter one conflict in this task and this was due to the frustration of some members, in
particular the people who could not talk. This was because we felt like the others were not paying
enough attention to our needs and without being able to communicated properly it added to the
anger. This was resolved by one of the team members coming to us and slowly communicating
with us while we replied with sign language. They then referred this back to the leader and he
made sure we were being monitored as well and from time to time one team member would check
up on us.
How else could you use relevant theory to analyse the overall performance today? *
Leadership styles, Belbin, Tuckman, Adair, Honey, Margerison & Mccann, Woodcock,
Another theory that I thought was evident in our group throughout this task was Tuckmans theory. I
feel that we went through all the 5 stages and the theory states. By going through these stages we
were able to work very well at one point which was crucial to the completion of the raft. This also
showed that the team was a successful team as we were able to follow the theory. The leaders,
when looking at the Tannenbaum and Schmidt theory, were very much empowering us. They were
giving us simple instructions and suggestions and then let us do the work. When there were
problems we all discussed and all had an equal say in the decision. I think this is because our
leaders are very shy individuals which do not like to argue much therefore they did not want to go
against our ideas, instead they suggested alternatives in a more calm manner. Finally I think our

leaders had expert power when looking at the French and Raven theory. This is because one of
them in particular is a boy scout and has been doing these sort of activities fro many years,
therefore he had many smart tips and advice which gained our respect.