1. The activity leader asks team members to think back to recent projects.
2. Ask the team to answer the following questions in an open and honest way (you should put them on the flip chart beforehand):

• How do you feel when someone disagrees with you?
• Do they give criticism in a constructive and non-aggressive way that does not make you feel fear or offence?
• How well do you think the team discusses the relationships between team members?
• Do team members treat each other with respect?
• How well do team members get on with one another or is there tension, discrimination?

1. The activity leader asks team members to think back to recent projects.
2. Ask the team to answer the following questions in an open and honest way (you should put them on the flip chart beforehand):

• Does the team have a fair, open and inclusive process that allows you to express your opinions and feelings?
• Do you feel your views are listened to?
• Do members of the team have ‘hidden agendas’?
• Does everyone in the team feel that their opinion is valued and taken into consideration when decisions are being made?
• Do members of the team use inquiry and listening skills in an effective way?
• Are some things easier to discuss openly than others?
• Why is that?

1. The activity leader writes the following questions on a flip chart before the meeting.
• What sorts of things lead people to under-participate or fail to participate?
• Are we encouraging diversity so that everyone feels they can contribute and offer their views? Are their views respected?
• How do we handle people who are quiet and withdrawn and not contributing to team discussions?
• How do we handle people who are not contributing in an effective manner, e.g. turn up to meetings unprepared, or do not complete the actions that are their responsibility?
• Are we sure we are not marginalising anyone and is everyone included in decision making?
• Do we ourselves always feel able to participate fully, if not, why not?
2. The activity leader asks each team member to think about and make notes on the questions and their own experience of how they have dealt with this problem in the past. Think about a particular person, or various people, who you feel does not participate fully in your team?
3. Then the individuals should pair up with another team member and discuss their experiences and ideas and techniques for dealing with non-participating, and under participating, team members.
4. Finally, the whole team discusses the issue and then offers suggestions and gives any feedback to team members in a constructive manner.

1. Divide the team into smaller subgroups of three to six persons in each group.
2. The activity leader hands the checklist of questions to individual team members and one extra for each group. Explain that there are a number of key interpersonal issues that commonly cause disagreement to occur within teams; the checklist gathers these issues into categories and suggests a number of questions that can be issued to both diagnose underlying problems and provide a checklist for improving future performance. There are no right or wrong answers; rather the benefit of this self-assessment tool is in allowing the team to have objective discussions about how effectively each member of the team perceives the team is working.
3. As a first step and without discussion, individual team members should answer the questions.
4. The second step is for the sub-groups to reach consensus on a group score and note this down on the spare handout.
5. Each group using self-adhesive dots or a marker pen should mark their score for each characteristic on the flip chart prepared by the activity leader.
6. The activity leader should facilitate a debriefing discussion.

1. The activity leader asks the team to call out examples of best and worst examples of behaviours in team meetings. For each item suggested, ask individual team members to give examples.
2. Write the bad behaviours on one flip chart and the good behaviours on another.
3. Then, working together, ask the team to suggest actions that the team can take to avoid the worst and strengthen the best examples. Write these up and keep them available for future reference.

1. Distribute the handout to individual team members.
2. After 10 minutes ask for volunteers to read aloud their completed Blank Team handouts.
3. On a flipchart the activity leader should write the words that each individual member uses (i.e. at the end there will be several words in each blank space).