8605-401 Planning and Leading a Complex Team Activity

Unit Overview

8605-401 Planning and Leading a Complex Team Activity is a unit within the ILM Level 4 module that prepares the learners for different duties and responsibilities that they will have to play within the organisation, including management of complex teams. Middle managers interact with different types of employees and stakeholders within the organisation. They are required to effectively manage the individuals that they interact with to achieve the set goals and objectives for the team and contribute to the overall performance of the organisation.

This unit helps the leaders to develop the necessary skills and knowledge that they can apply in ensuring they meet the needs and expectations of complex team activities. The leaders are provided with information relevant to planning, communicating, and evaluating their leadership efficiency, which contributes to shaping the general performance in these tasks and improving the adaptability to the complex activities that the teams may face. The main purpose and aim of 8605-401 Planning and Leading a Complex Team Activity is building awareness and ability of the candidates to plan and lead a complex team activity.

This accomplishment demonstrates the leadership and management skills of the middle-level managers as well as their willingness to play a central role in facilitating success within the organisation. The unit is taught in 6 hours of guided learning and is equivalent to 4 credit values within the ILM Level 4 module.

Suitability of the Unit

8605-401 Planning and Leading a Complex Team Activity is designed to build the abilities of the learners to play the central and primary role of creating adaptability within the teams which is important in ensuring that teams are able to achieve the desired standards of performance in complex activities. The unit is designed to meet the learning needs of the middle managers. As such, it provides both the theory and practices that they can implement in coordinating teams across complex activities.

Additionally, middle managers are tasked with the duty of evaluating the performance of junior managers and team leaders as well as monitoring their personal performance, and this unit provides the relevant knowledge and skills that they can use to achieve these tasks. However, this unit is not limited to middle managers. Other stakeholders within the organisation may face the duties and responsibilities of overseeing complex activities and practices. Junior managers and team leaders, who have direct responsibility over teams within the organisation, can pursue the unit to improve their skills and ability to oversee the accomplishment of different tasks.

By following the learning provided within the unit, these leaders are able to build competency in interacting with team members and influencing them to achieve assigned duties and responsibilities within the organisation. The unit also helps to prepare them for future leadership positions creating an effective succession plan within the organisation.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Identify the purpose, aims, and objectives of complex activities that they aim to accomplish with their teams

• Identify the tasks and resources that are required to accomplish the specific activities, including the operational constraints that are applied in achieving the tasks

• Create an effective plan for implementation of action steps on the activity

• Understand the risks associated with operational and safety factors during the accomplishment of the complex activity

• Effectively communicate with the team by providing an opportunity for asking questions and providing clarity on uncertainties

• Assign roles and responsibilities effectively in ensuring that team members play an active role in the accomplishment of the tasks

• Collect and analyse feedback on personal ability to lead the team through accomplishing the tasks of a complex activity.

• Review individual performance and identify strengths and weaknesses in the process of leading the team

• Create a personal development plan to improve ability to plan and boost leadership skills through t eh use of feedback and self-assessment.

Key Learning Areas

8605-401 Planning and Leading a Complex Team Activity focuses on improving the ability of the middle managers to influence the performance of the teams, especially when handling complex tasks within the organisation. This unit therefore covers critical areas that may include:

Complex Activities

Leading teams through complex activities, the middle-level manager must understand the actual purpose of the activity and the roles that the team should play in accomplishing the activity. This area of learning helps to ensure that the leader is able to understand the goals and aims of the complex activity as well as conduct a risk assessment that ensures the various factors of operation are factored in when setting plans and techniques to achieve the activities additionally, the leaders are introduced to different operational constraints that may impact the process of accomplishing the tasks and responsibilities associated with the complex activity.

Team Leadership

This area of learning helps the learner to understand the specific responsibilities that they should play in facilitating the accomplishment of complex tasks. The learners are helped to build their briefing and communication skills which help them to communicate with team members effectively through listening and questioning abilities.

Secondly, they are helped to understand the different work scheduling and duty allocation skills that help to carry out complex tasks as well as understand the nature, purpose, and best practice of allocating the duties to the team members.

Personal Assessment

This area of learning helps in improving the ability to lead the teams. The learner is presented with tactics and techniques that they can use to collect and analyse feedback from the team members on personal performance. The process is important in ensuring that the learners are able to conduct a self-assessment and review their performance which is critical in understanding strengths and weaknesses and hence creating opportunities for improvement.

This area of learning also focuses on improving understanding of leadership theories and leadership practice hence ensuring that the learners are able to use these principles in improving personal process. Lastly, the personal development planning is improved to ensure the prospective leaders are able to boost their leadership skills and capabilities.

Evaluation

Upon completion of the unit, the learners must complete a 3000 words assessment to determine their understanding of the content taught. This assessment helps to evaluate both mastery of theory and practice presented within the unit.