Professional Development Event: Teamwork and Communication

This project involves designing and implementing a two-day professional development training event for PA Consulting Group employees. The student, in the role of a new employee, is tasked with planning the event, which includes workshops, coaching sessions, and team-building activities at a residential center. The project requires creating a detailed schedule using project management software, designing a comprehensive training pack with various activities, and designing a two-hour workshop on teamwork. The student must also evaluate the effectiveness of interpersonal skills used during the design and delivery process and provide a report on problem-solving techniques. The assignment covers communication skills (verbal, non-verbal, and written), time management skills (planning, prioritization, organization, delegation), and the practical application of these skills in a professional setting. The provided content includes detailed explanations of communication and time management skills, along with a sample event schedule for a Docker training session. The project emphasizes practical application and evaluation of skills learned.

PROGRAM TITLE: ……………………………………………
UNIT TITLE: …………………………………………………….
ASSIGNMENT NUMBER: 01
ASSIGNMENT NAME: …………………………………….
SUBMISSION DATE: ……………………………………….
DATE RECEIVED: …………………………………………….
TUTORIAL LECTURER: ……………………………………
WORD COUNT: ……………………………………………..
STUDENT NAME: NGUYEN NGOC HA
STUDENT ID: BKC12404
MOBILE NUMBER: 0379165558

Summative Feedback:
Internal verification:

A. INTRODUCTION
 You have recently joined PA CONSULTING GROUP, You have been asked to support
your training and development manager with the planning and implementation of a
professional development event targeted at internal employees within the organisation
that you work in. The training event is scheduled over a two-day period at a nearby
residential centre, and will include a number of workshops, coaching sessions and team-
building activities. The centre requires a schedule of the types of activities proposed so
that plans can be finalised. In addition, any guest speakers or motivational coaches will
also require a minimum of three weeks’ notice for all bookings. You have also been
asked to design and deliver a workshop as part of the training event based on the
dynamics of team working.
 Working in small groups (3–5 per group):
1. Produce a professional schedule (using project management software) that identifies
planning and resourcing prior to the two-day event. In addition, design a training pack to
include a range of activities, seminars, workshops, team-building activities and break-out
sessions. It is expected that 30 employees will attend the event. There is a large
auditorium that will seat 50, and the outdoor centre can accommodate 15 at any one time
for activities. In addition, there are three break-out rooms, one with computers for up to
20 and two other seminar rooms that seat up to 45.
2. Design a two-hour workshop session based on ‘TEAMWORKING’ to include a
presentation, interactive links to suitable sites and an activity sheet that will require
delegates to take part in some form of team-building task.
3. Following the event, your training and development manager has asked you to provide
some feedback. Produce a written evaluation of the effectiveness and application of
interpersonal skills during the design and delivery process. You should also include an
evaluation of your performance in this project and your contribution to the team you
worked in.
4. Produce a report discussing problem-solving and its importance in planning and running
an event. Your report should include a discussion of various problem-solving techniques
and justify the solution methodologies used during your project. You should also include
a critique of the application of critical reasoning and your experiences of it.

B. CONTENT
LO1: Demonstrate a range of interpersonal and transferable
communication skills to a target audience.
I. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
1) What are communication skills?
 Communication skills are abilities you use when giving and receiving different kinds of
information. They involve listening, speaking, observing and empathising. It is also
helpful to understand the differences in how to communicate through face-to-face
interactions, phone conversations and digital communications, such as email and social
media.
2) Type of communication skill
 Verbal: Verbal communication is when you’re talking to other people, whether it’s face-
to-face, on a video call, or over the phone. Your choice of words matter (a lot), but so do
smaller details like the tone of your voice and the timing of when you say things.
 Non-verbal: Non-verbal communication, also referred to as body language, is what
people see when they’re looking at you during a conversation, either face-to-face or on
video. It’s your facial expressions, eye contact, and the positions of your body. You
might not realize that your body language is saying, “I don’t want to be talking to you
right now,” even if it’s an important conversation.
 Written: These days, written communication mostly show up in emails and chat
messages, including an email to your partner or a customer service email for work. This
can also include chats on platforms like Facebook Messenger or Slack. If
you’re managing a remote team, it’s important for your written communication skills to
be on-point.
3) Examples of communication skills
 Active listening: Active listening means paying close attention to the person who is
speaking to you. People who are active listeners are well-regarded by their coworkers
because of the attention and respect they offer others. While it seems simple, this is a skill
that can be hard to develop and improve. You can be an active listener by focusing on the
speaker, avoiding distractions such as mobile phones, laptops or other projects, and by
preparing questions, comments or ideas to thoughtfully respond.
 Adapting your communication style to your audience: Different communication styles are
appropriate in different situations. To make the best use of your communication skills,

it’s important to consider your audience and the most effective format to communicate
with them in.
 Confidence: In the workplace, people are more likely to respond to ideas that are
presented with confidence. There are many ways to appear confident, including by
making eye contact when you’re addressing someone, sitting up straight with your
shoulders open and preparing ahead of time so your thoughts are polished. You’ll find
confident communication is useful not just on the job but during the interview process as
well.
 Giving and receiving feedback: Strong communicators are able to accept critical
feedback and provide constructive input to others. Feedback should answer questions,
provide solutions or help strengthen the project or topic at hand.
4) How to communicate effectively?
 Ask a close friend or colleague for constructive criticism: It can be hard to know how
you are perceived as a communicator. To get an objective opinion, ask a trusted friend for
their honest feedback. Understanding your areas of improvement for communication can
help you identify what to focus on.
 Practice improving communication habits: Many communication skills are habits you
have developed over time. You can improve those skills by practicing new habits that
make you a better communicator. That might include being more responsive to
communications when they are sent, reminding yourself to make eye contact, practicing
giving positive feedback and asking questions in conversations.
 Attend communication skills workshops or classes: There are several online and
offline seminars, workshops and classes that can help you be a better communicator.
These classes may include instruction, roleplay, written assignments and open
discussions.
 Seek opportunities to communicate: Find opportunities both on and off the job that
require you to use your communication skills. This will improve your clarity and
confidence.
II. TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS
1. What is time management skill?
 Time-management skills are the skills that help you organise your time effectively to be
more productive. Learning to manage your time effectively will benefit your career as
time-management skills are useful transferable skills that apply in any job. Time-
management skills include:

- Planning: Planning is a fundamental component of time-management since it helps
you identify and plan your daily tasks, prepare for meetings and keep to your
schedule.
- Prioritisation: Prioritisation is part of the planning process. It involves assessing each
of your tasks to determine their importance.
- Maintaining boundaries: Your time is your most precious resource. Learning to say
no is a challenging skill to develop, as we always strive to maintain positive
relationships with colleagues.
- Organisation: Good organisational skills support good planning. Organisational skills
include scheduling appointments, updating your calendar frequently, filing documents
effectively and taking detailed notes during meetings.
- Communication: Strong communication skills refer to verbal and written
communication. Effective communication skills can help you explain your timelines
and other expectations to your colleagues.
- Delegation: Being able to delegate less critical tasks will help you focus on the urgent
tasks required to complete your deliverables. Learning to delegate takes time.
- Stress management: Being able to manage your stress levels can help you remain
motivated and perform at a high level. Taking regular breaks, exercising and
meditating can help you relax and focus on maintaining your physical and mental
health during stressful periods.
- Self-discipline: Good time-management requires self-discipline. Self-discipline helps
you deal with procrastination and distractions. Once you have created a work plan
with priority tasks, you need to discipline yourself to keep focusing on these priorities
until they are complete.

2. Why are time-management skills important?
 Good time-management skills help you do more in less time and with less effort.
Spending less time on a particular activity allows you to lower your stress, learn new
skills and keep focused. These consequences of good time-management can encourage
you to achieve more career objectives and success in life. Time-management skills can
make your work more fulfilling and help you remain motivated and energetic at work.
 Organizations look for employees who can effectively manage their time, accomplish
their work responsibilities before deadlines and to the desired standard. Managing your
time and meeting your work obligations may help you get noticed by your organization's
management team and improve your advancement opportunities.
3. How to strengthen your time-management skills?
 Set short- and long-term goals: Planning incorporates goal setting. Setting goals helps
you understand what you need to complete for a specific outcome. When you set longer-
term goals, try to identify short- and medium-term milestones that support your long-term
goal. For example, suppose your goal is to get promoted to a senior management
position. In that case, you need to identify the requirements you would need to meet to
qualify for the promotion, such as completing a leadership qualification or improving a
specific skill.
 Determine your priorities for the week: To prioritise tasks, you need to know their due
dates and impact on other parts of your organisation. Prioritisation becomes easier with
practice. Once you have identified important tasks, you can create a weekly and daily
task list to ensure that you focus on these priority items until you complete them.
 Create a schedule: Create a schedule with the tasks, responsibilities and other activities
which need your focus. Having a schedule is essential, but so is ensuring that you adhere
to your schedule. You can create a schedule by using your calendar to allocate sufficient
time to each of your tasks, meetings and other responsibilities. At the end of each day,
you need to review the day to determine if you are still on track with your schedule. If
deviations from your plan occur, it may affect your goals and work tasks, and you need to
reassess your schedule.
 Delegate less important tasks: You can delegate activities that are not urgent to your
team members. Delegating ensures that you use their skills and abilities. It makes them
feel like they are part of the team. If you delegate tasks, you reduce your workload and
you can focus on your priority tasks. After you have delegated a task, you also need to
follow-up to ensure that the task gets completed to the required standard.

 Incentivise yourself: Think of incentives you can use to reward yourself for completing
challenging tasks. For example, you can allow yourself some time on social media when
you take a break after spending an hour drafting a document.
 Use meetings productively: Usually, meetings take a lot of our time. To improve your
time-management skills, you can make sure meetings are productive by collaborating
with colleagues on the meeting agenda and assigning a note-taker and timekeeper
beforehand. Also, you need to ensure that the session ends with specific action items.
 Become self-aware: A simple way to improve your time-management skills is to
become more self-aware. Knowing when you are most productive can help you focus on
tasks at the right time of the day. For example, if you concentrate better and are more
creative in the mornings, it may be more productive to focus on writing tasks in the
morning. If you know your energy levels are lower in the afternoons, consider tasks that
require little energy, such as reading documents.
III. PLANNING A TRAINING EVENT
 Topic: Training about DOCKER.
 Content:
1. Introduce about Docker.
2. Pros and cons about Docker.
3. Application of Docker in programming.
4. Enhance teamwork skills.
 Targets:
1. Developer.
2. Tester.
 Time & activities:
- 5/6/2022
Times Activities
8h - 8h30 Pick up the staff and stabilize the seats.
8h45 - 9h Opening ceremony

9h-11h General about Docker:
· Introduce.
· Applicability of Docker.
· Why should use Docker.
11h - 11h30 Answer the questions of participants.
11h30 - 11h35 Summary of morning activities
11h36 - 13h Rest & lunch break.
13h15 - 16h Start the training with Docker.
16h - 16h30 Finish the training of first day & announce
the schedule for the 2nd day
- 6/6/2022
Times Activities
8h-8h10 Organize groups and practice.
8h10 - 8h30 Review the knowledge of day 1 and assign
tasks to each group.
8h30 - 11h Assign tasks to each group to practice and
evaluate the process of doing each group.
11h - 11h30 Summarize the results of each group.

11h35 - 13h Rest and lunch break.
13h30 - 16h Workshop & teambuilding
16h Finish the training
LO2: Apply critical reasoning and thinking to a range of problem-
solving scenarios
I. PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS
1. What Are Problem-Solving Skills?
 Problem-solving skills help you solve issues quickly and effectively. It's one of the key
skills that employers seek in job applicants, as employees with these skills tend to be self-
reliant. Problem-solving skills require quickly identifying the underlying issue and
implementing a solution.
 Problem-solving is considered a soft skill (a personal strength) rather than a hard
skill that's learned through education or training. You can improve your problem-solving
skills by familiarizing yourself with common issues in your industry and learning from
more experienced employees.
2. Steps of Problem-Solving Skills
 Analyse Contributing Factors:
 To solve a problem, you must find out what caused it. This requires you to gather and
evaluate data, isolate possible contributing circumstances, and pinpoint what needs to be
addressed for a resolution.
 To do this, you'll use skills like:
- Data gathering
- Data analysis
- Fact-finding
- Historical analysis
 Generate Interventions

 Once you’ve determined the cause, brainstorm possible solutions. Sometimes this
involves teamwork since two (or more) minds are often better than one. A single strategy
is rarely the obvious route to solving a complex problem; devising a set of alternatives
helps you cover your bases and reduces your risk of exposure should the first strategy
you implement fail.
 This involves skills like:
- Brainstorming
- Creative thinking
- Prediction
- Forecasting
- Project design
- Project planning
 Evaluate Solutions
 Depending on the nature of the problem and your chain of command, evaluating best
solutions may be performed by assigned teams, team leads, or forwarded to corporate
decision-makers. Whoever makes the decision must evaluate potential costs, required
resources, and possible barriers to successful solution implementation.
 This requires several skills, including:
- Analysis
- Discussion
- Corroboration
- Teamwork
- Test development
- Mediation
- Prioritizing
 Implement a Plan
 Once a course of action has been decided, it must be implemented along with
benchmarks that can quickly and accurately determine whether it’s working. Plan
implementation also involves letting personnel know about changes in standard operating
procedures.

 This requires skills like:
- Project management
- Project implementation
- Collaboration
- Time management
- Benchmark development
 Assess the Solution's Effectiveness
 Once a solution is implemented, the best problem-solvers have systems in place to
evaluate if and how quickly it's working. This way, they know as soon as possible
whether the issue has been resolved or whether they’ll have to change their response to
the problem mid-stream.
 This requires:
- Communication
- Data analysis
- Surveys
- Customer feedback
- Follow-through
- Troubleshooting
II. CRITICAL THINKING
1. What is critical thinking?
 Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments that are logical and well-thought out.
It is a way of thinking in which you don't simply accept all arguments and conclusions
you are exposed to but rather have an attitude involving questioning such arguments and
conclusions. It requires wanting to see what evidence is involved to support a particular
argument or conclusion.
 Critical thinking is divided into three skills:
- Curiosity is the desire to learn more information and seek evidence as well as being open
to new ideas.

- Skepticism involves having a healthy questioning attitude about new information that you
are exposed to and not blindly believing everything everyone tells you.
- Humility is the ability to admit that your opinions and ideas are wrong when faced with
new convincing evidence that states otherwise.
2. Critical reasoning and its techniques:
 To prevent the misunderstanding, it is important that we must be able to evaluate the
information that we gain, that we can reason correctly and make good judgments. This is
called the term ‘critical reasoning’. Critical reasoning helps you cope with better daily
life.
 We can improve critical reasoning by implementing the followings techniques:
- Identifying problems: Before dealing with the problems we first need to find what
problem actually is.
- Keep an open mind: This simply means that you don’t need just to accept an opinion or
view as being true or essential. We need to look for other option as well. We need to
think from all possible aspects.
- Obtain relevant information: To find what is right and what is wrong we need to collect
as much as information we can. This increases our thinking capacity and increase
reasoning ability
- Be emphatic: can express their feeling emotions more Listening to all sides of the story of
a person encourage people to say what they want to say and they frankly.
- Avoid over generalization: It is a very bad idea that arriving at conclusion with very little
idea is not fruitful.
III. APPLY PROBLEM SOLVING SKILL AND CRITICAL THINKING
ON PLANNING
 Estimated budget
The costs Cost estimates Note
Engine room 30.000.000 Including about 50
computers, stage,
presentation equipment
Backup equipment 10.000.000 Used when equipment
malfunctions

Food cost 10.000.000 Food cost
End of event gift 2.000.000 Gifts for games
 Problem-solving
Situation Solution
The team has someone unexpectedly busy Invite more people before joining the event
Computer crashes Prepare backup equipment
Audio equipment malfunctions Prepare backup speakers
LO3: Discuss the importance and dynamics of working within a
team and the impact of team working in different environments
I. TEAMWORK SKILLS
1. What are teamwork skills?
 Teamwork skills refer to a range of interrelated abilities that help you cooperate with
others in different situations, meetings and projects in an organised manner and with
empathy. Individuals who are mature and have people skills usually have good teamwork
ability, since it allows them to work with team members to achieve the organisation's
goals.
2. Why are teamwork skills important?
 Most organizations have teams in every department and division, meaning that you will
almost always work as part of a team regardless of your industry or job level. Working
with team members in an empathetic and responsible manner helps you to achieve your
career goals, enhance your CV and achieve the organization's goals.
 Effective teamwork also contributes to the team's success, morale and the retention of
staff. Teamwork skills help you build rapport with colleagues and other stakeholders,
which can lead to deeper relationships, new network connections and even new career
opportunities. Teamwork also contributes to a harmonious office environment for teams
to complete projects and goals.

3. Types of teamwork skills
 Communication: Clear and efficient communication is an essential teamwork skill.
Communication skills include verbal and nonverbal communication skills.
Communication skills can be used in person, over the phone or via email. Effective
communication does not depend on the medium of communication. Communication
skills help you share your ideas, information and thoughts with your colleagues and other
stakeholders effectively. Teams with exceptional communication skills have a culture of
trust and transparency.
 Influencing skills: Team leaders need the ability to inspire their team members to achieve
the team's objectives and goals. You can learn how to be persuasive and influence people
by improving different teamwork skills. To influence team members, you need to build
the team's trust in each other and connect to each team member to leverage their
strengths.
 Listening skills: It is easy to build rapport when you listen to what other people say.
Listening to each other allows team members to understand each other better by
promoting the sharing of thoughts, ideas and feelings. You can show that you listen by
asking questions, showing concern and using nonverbal cues to demonstrate your
understanding and care.
 Problem-solving: Organisations establish teams to solve specific problems. Effective
teamwork requires team members to have problem-solving skills whereby they consider
an issue from many angles to identify unique and creative solutions to a problem.
 Planning and organisational skills: A team must develop a plan that all team members
understand, which allows the team to solve problems efficiently and effectively. Once the
team agrees on a plan, the team members need to organise their tasks and set deadlines to
coordinate their efforts to achieve a specific goal.
 Decision-making: Decision-making can be a challenge when people disagree on the plan
of action. Team members must put their self-interest aside to decide what is best for the
team to achieve their goals. Involving team members in decision-making allows the team
to consider the alternatives and select the best option for the entire team.
II. TEAM BUILDING
1. What Is Team Building?
 Team building creates stronger bonds among the members of a group. The individual
members respect each other and their differences and share common goals and
expectations.

 Team building can include the daily interaction that employees engage in when working
together to carry out the requirements of their jobs. This form of team building is natural
and can be assisted if the group takes the time to come up with a set of team norms.
These norms help group members know how to appropriately interact on the team and
with the rest of the organization.
2. How Does Team Building Work?
 Often the team leader or manager will facilitate a series of meetings at which employees
get to know each other and develop cohesive working relationships.
 In a larger organization, organization development staff can lead the team-building
sessions. Many human resources practitioners are also comfortable leading team-building
sessions. And with a little practice, teams can use another employee to facilitate their
group's session.
 But team building doesn't always have to have a facilitated meeting to accomplish the
goal of a cohesive team. You can build your teams by structuring activities and fun
events that team members can do together.
III. APPLY TEAMWORK SKILLS TO THE PLANNING (GANTT
CHART) AND THE EVENT
 GANTT chart: plan implementation progress:

Figure 1: GANTT chart
 Team building plan:
Time Activity
15h15 - 15h30 MC introduces and presents activities
15h30 - 16h Puzzle games and body language expressions
with topics related to teamwork.
+ Divide into 3 teams; 10 people each team.
Total 30 people.
· Format: Each team has 1 person to describe
the given word and one person to answer
· The team with the highest score after 10
turns will win, each person can answer 1 time
· Help connect everyone in the team
Location Building A17 Ta Quang Buu – Hai Ba Trung
– Ha Noi
Cost MC: 3,000,000 VND
Reward: 2,000,000 VND
Daoist: 2,000,000 VND
Food: 2,000,000 VND
 Workshop: Teamwork
13h30 - 13h45 Presentation: Teamwork
13h45- 14h Answer everyone's questions
14h - 14h15 Divide the group and the topic of each group:
· 3 groups of 10 people each
· Select topic:

1. The three main parts of Docker
2. “Container Technology”
3. What is Dockerfile?
14h15-14h45 Discuss the topic selected by the groups
14h45 - 15h15 The groups present the selected topic
C. Reference