Team working

Quesion 1.     How does management differ from leadership? What qualities of each do you have?

Leadership is setting a new direction or vision for a group that they follow. A leader is the spearhead for that new direction. Management controls or directs people/resources in a group according to principles or values that have already been established.

Quesion 2.     How can you be a manager and a leader? - Leadership combined with management does both their functions ie it both sets a new direction and manages the resources to achieve

Quesion 3.     How  do  you  manage  people  who  are  working  under  you?  -  Providing  direction,  motivation, coordination, representation & development and also by a model to them.

Quesion 4.     What is meant by Team work - A co-operative effort by a group of people to achieve a common goal.

Quesion 5.     What qualities a team member should have?

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, published in 1990, is a book written by Stephen Covey. It lists seven behaviours that, if established as habits, are supposed to help a person achieve "effectiveness" by aligning him- or herself to principles of a character ethic.

·         Be Proactive. An attitude of initiative-taking and compares this to the less effective, but more common "reactive" stance.

·         Begin with the End in Mind. This chapter is about setting long-term goals based on "true-north principles" ie. to formulate a "personal mission statement" to document one's perception of one's own purpose in life. He sees visualization as an important tool to develop this. He also deals with organizational mission statements, which he claims to be more effective if developed and supported by all members of an organization, rather than being prescribed.

·         Put First Things First. Here, a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at long-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear to be urgent, but are in fact less important. Delegation is presented as an important part of time management. Successful delegation, according to Covey, focuses on results and benchmarks that are to be agreed in advance, rather than on prescribing detailed work plans.

·         Think Win-Win describes attitudes whereby solutions are sought that benefit oneself as well as others, or, in the case of a conflict, people on both sides of that conflict.

·         Seek First to Understand, Then to be understood. Giving out advice before having understood a person and their situation will likely result in the advice being rejected. Thoroughly listening to another person's concerns is purported to increase the chance of establishing a working communication.

·         Synergize describes a way of working in teams. It is purported that, when this is pursued as a habit, the result of the team work will exceed the sum of what each of the members could have achieved on their own.

·         Sharpen the saw focuses on regaining productive capacity by engaging in carefully selected recreational activities.

Quesion 6.     What is co-ordination – Means integrating or linking together different parts of an organization to accomplish a collective set of task.

Quesion 7.     Teamwork – Is a basic source of integrated activity. Fostering teamwork is creating a work culture that values collaboration. In a teamwork environment, people understand and believe that thinking, planning, decisions and actions are better when done cooperatively.

Quesion 8.     Strategies in Team Development in an organization. – 4 stages.

Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing. ie Formation stage, storming with ideas, normalizing & understanding the goals, performing stage.

Quesion 9.     Qualifications of an Ideal Team

·         Motivations are selfless

·         Everyone is aware of everything

·         Feelings are expressed and respected.

·         Trust and openness are highly valued by all.

·         Difficulties are discussed / resolved openly.

·         Process maintenance and task are focussed on equally

·         Commitment is very very high.

Quesion 10.   People Management –

It is about problems of motivating the project team, middle management and the work force and of gaining their commitment.

Quesion 11.  Team Dynamics - Cohesiveness

Group Cohesiveness is the force bringing group members closer together. Cohesiveness has two dimensions: emotional (or personal) and task-related. The emotional aspect of cohesiveness, which was studied more often, is derived from the connection that members feel to other group members and to their group as a whole. That is, how much do members like to spend time with other group members? Do they look forward to the next group meeting? Task-cohesiveness refers to the degree to which group members share group goals and work together to meet these goals. That is, is there a feeling that the group works smoothly as one unit or do different people pull in different directions?

Quesion 12.  SMART-ER – SMART / SMARTER is a mnemonic used in project management at the  project objective setting stage. It is a way of evaluating the objectives or goals for an individual project. The term is also in common usage in performance management, whereby goals and targets set for employees must fulfill the criteria.

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time bound, - Evaluate, Re-evaluate

Quesion 13.  Keys to good team work – communication, accountability, motivation, leadership, co-operation, cohesiveness.

Quesion 14.  Strategic alliance – is the formal relationship between teo or more parties to pursue a set of agreed upon goals or to meet a critical business need while remaining independent organizations. They will provide strategic alliance with resources (products, labour, experience etc) Eg. JV. Allaince os a co- operation or collaboration between the parties to benefit each other.

Quesion 15.  Difference between Team and a Committee – Committee is a body of people appointed for a function.

There may not be a unity in actions and disagreement. Team is a group of people aiming for a common goal in good spirit. Team success will satisfy everyone. But committee’s success may not satisfy anyone.

Data Management

Quesion 1.     What is data management? (Store information)

Is the management of sources of information and data, and of the systems applicable to an organization or practice, including the methodologies and techniques most appropriate to collect, collate and sore data.

Quesion 2.     Building Cost Information Services -

BCIS, the RICS' Building Cost Information Service, is the leading provider of cost information to the construction industry and anyone else who needs comprehensive, accurate and independent data.

The BCIS database includes details of 16,000 projects, together with their tender costs. It also provide the latest resource cost data (both online and through price books), which is invaluable in producing fast, accurate estimates.

This services include measuring price movement, benchmarking, market research, statistical analysis, forecasting and impact studies. These services will help in collecting, modeling, analysing and interpreting data.

Quesion 3.     BCIS Construction

BCIS construction data is used by consultants, clients and contractors to produce specific estimates for option appraisals, early cost advice, cost planning and benchmarking. Its historic data goes back 45 years, while their forecasts will help to plan for the next five years.

Quesion 4.     Building Maintenance Index (BMI)

Benchmarking data - covering maintenance and operation costs such as cleaning, energy consumption and administrative costs - has long been relied on by property professionals.

It provides a sound basis for early life cycle cost advice and the development of life cycle cost plans. Increasingly, this data is taking on a new importance as the industry places more emphasis on sustainability and whole life costs.

It is committed to encouraging sustainable development and have recently worked with BSi (British Standards Institution) to develop the construction industry's first standardised method of life cycle costing for construction procurement. This is set to have a major impact on all future construction procurement as clients focus more on setting accurate budgets that optimise their life cycle costs, from both a whole life value and sustainable development perspective. To make their buildings more sustainable, they need to know more than the initial cost of the building. They need to know the total cost of their investment.

Quesion 5.     Data Protection Act 1998 –

The Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament which defines UK law on the processing of data on identifiable living people. It is the main piece of legislation that governs the protection of personal data in the UK. Although the Act does not mention privacy, in practice it provides a way in which individuals can control information about themselves. Most of the Act does not apply to domestic use, for example keeping a personal address book. Anyone holding personal data for other purposes is legally obliged to comply with this Act, subject to some exemptions. The Act defines eight data protection principles.

The Data Protection Act is mandatory. It is essential therefore that YOUR-COMPANY fully complies with it. Not just to avoid prosecution and bad publicity, but to demonstrate to customers that YOUR- COMPANY operates with due diligence and responsibility. Also bear in mind that a breach of the act can lead to claims for compensation.

Quesion 6.     Pricing books – There are a number of price books (Eg. Spon’s pricing book) and guides available from RICS / BCIS which helps the estimation process.

Quesion 7.     Different sources of price information – BCIS / BMI, Pricing books, Elemental analysis, In house data base, Libraries, Statistical Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD) etc.

Quesion 8.     Due Diligence is a term used for a number of concepts involving either the performance of an investigation of a business or person, or the performance of an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a legal obligation, but the term will more commonly apply to voluntary investigations. A common example of due diligence in various industries is the process through which a potential acquirer evaluates a target company or its assets for acquisition

Quesion 9.     What type of data systems using in your organization –Computer systems, internet, intranet, computer data backups, external file storages (physically & electronically) etc.

Quesion 10.   If you want to dispose a document from your office, what are the things you will check –

·         Is it original contract / legal documents

·         are they need for any litigation

·         do they relate to any current project

·         are they for work with outstanding fee

·         are they related to any disputes

·         do they belong to any client

·         can we microfilm it

·         is it any confidential information- if yes, it should be disposed securely (eg. Shredding)