APPENDIX 5

Emotional Intelligence Training

EXERCISE 5: ROLE PLAYS TO SHOW PRACTICE IN RAPPORT, EMPATHY, AND ANTICIPATING AND RESPONDING TO EMOTIONS

Role Play One: The Trophy Project (Based on Kerzner, 1998)

Background

Richard was involved with the Trophy project from its conception and was appointed as project manager when the company accepted the project to develop a new prototype. The program schedules started to slip from day one, and expenditures were excessive. Richard found that the functional managers were charging direct labor time to his project but working on their own pet projects. When Richard complained of this, he was told not to meddle in the functional manager's allocation of resources and budgeted expenditures. After approximately 6 months, Richard was requested to make a progress report directly to corporate headquarters.

Richard took this opportunity to bare his soul. The report substantiated that the project was forecasted to be 1 year behind schedule. Richard's staff, as supplied by line managers, was inadequate to maintain the required pace, let alone make up any time that had already been lost. The estimated cost at completion at this interval showed a cost overrun of at least 20%. This was Richard's first opportunity to tell his story to people who were in a position to correct the situation. The result of Richard's frank, candid evaluation of the Trophy project was predictable. Nonbelievers finally saw the light, and the line managers realized that they had a role to play in the completion of the project. Most of the problems were now out in the open and could be corrected by providing adequate staffing and resources. Corporate Headquarters ordered immediate remedial action and staff support to provide Richard a chance to bail out his program.

The results however were not at all what Richard had expected. He no longer reported to the project office; he now reported directly to the operations director. Corporate Headquarter's interest in the project became very intense, requiring a 7:00 a.m. meeting every Monday morning for complete review of the project status and plans for recovery. Richard soon found himself spending more time preparing paperwork, reports, and projections for his Monday morning meetings than he did administering the Trophy project. The main concern of the corporate head office was to get the project back on schedule. Richard spent many hours preparing the recovery plan and establishing staffing requirements to bring the project back onto its original schedule.

Corporate Headquarters, in order to closely track the progress of the Trophy project, assigned an assistant program manager. The assistant program manager determined that a sure cure for the Trophy project would be to computerize the various problems and track the progress through a very complex computer program. Corporate provided Richard with 12 additional staff members to work on the computer program. In the meantime, nothing changed. The functional managers still did not provide adequate staff for recovery, assuming that the additional manpower Richard had received from corporate would accomplish that task.

After approximately £50,000 was spent on the computer program to track the problems, it was found that the project objectives could not be handled by the system. Richard discussed the problems with a computer supplier and found that £15,000 more was required for programming and additional storage capacity. It would take 2 months for installation of the additional storage capacity and the completion of the programming. At this point, the decision was made to abandon the computer program.

Richard was now 1½ years into the project with no prototype units completed. The project was still 9 months behind schedule with the overrun projected at 40% of budget. Another problem that Richard had to contend with was that the vendors who were supplying components for the project were also running behind schedule. Richard had been providing reports to the customer on a regular basis and they were aware that the project was behind schedule. However, after receiving this latest update in a report from Richard, the customer telephoned and demanded a meeting to find out from Richard how this was all going to be sorted out.

Richard

Yesterday while in the office putting together a report for the client, a corporate vice president came into your office. “Richard”, he said to you, “In any project I look at the top of the sheet of paper and the person whose name appears at the top of the sheet is the one I hold responsible. For this project, your name appears at the top of the sheet. If you cannot bail this thing out, you are in serious trouble in this corporation. You know you are being held responsible for the project and action needs to be taken.”

First

Consider what you think your priorities are in order to (a) get the project back on track and (b) placate the customer.

Then

You are about to go into the meeting to explain to the customer how you intend to get the project back on track and a plan for recovery. Consider how you intend to use your emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills in order to respond to the customer effectively and try to secure the outcome from the meeting that you want.

Customer

You have been receiving reports from Richard on a timely basis and have been aware of the fact that the Trophy project was behind schedule. However, these delays and problems seem to be getting worse and you are now becoming extremely impatient with the seeming failure of Richard to steer the project satisfactorily. You now have major concerns that the Trophy project is in serious trouble.

You have decided that enough is enough and that a meeting between yourself and Richard is necessary in order to get to the bottom of this and for you to gain some assurance that the project will succeed.

You have decided that you want a number of outcomes from this meeting given that that project is currently running 6 to 8 months behind schedule. The first is some specifics from Richard as to how he intends to get the project back on track. The second is that you now require progress reports on a weekly rather than monthly basis in order to keep a tighter grip on what is going on. The third is that you wish to make arrangements to assign a representative in Richard's department to be “on-site” at the project on a daily basis and to interface with Richard and his staff as required. In this way you believe you could exercise greater control and make changes to the program as necessary.

Although you intend to be polite you are in no mood to be fobbed off!

Role Play Two: The Lyle Project (Based on Kerzner)

Atlay Co.:	Engineering Company
Vice-president of sales:	Greta Munz
Vice-president of procurement:	John Mabby
Project manager supervisor:	Sanjay Sesh
Preliminary project manager:	George Fitz (now relocated)
Project manager:	Chrissie Jung
Project purchasing agent:	Jennifer Shields
Lyle Co.:	Industrial Plastics Manufacturer
Vice-president of operations:	Fred Wilson

Background

In November Atlay's vice-president of sales (Greta Munz), was notified by Lyle's vice-president of operations (Fred Wilson) that Atlay had been awarded the US $600 million contract to design, engineer, and construct a polypropylene plant in Louisiana, USA.

Sanjay Sesh, the supervisor of project managers at Atlay, had initially appointed George Fitz, who had been responsible for handling the initial proposal, as project manager; however, 1 week later, George received a promotion and was relocated to another part of the company. Following this, Sanjay appointed Chrissie Jung to be project manager. Chrissie had been with the company for 15 years, starting as a project engineer, and had previously worked on two other smaller projects by comparison.

Approximately 1 week after being awarded the contract, Fred Wilson and his contingent from Lyle arrived at Atlay headquarters to go over details in the project specification. During this initial meeting, Fred emphasized that it was essential for the plant to be completed on time since their competitor was also in the process of preparing to build a similar facility in the same general location. The first plant that was finished would most likely be the one that would establish control over the southwestern U.S. market for polypropylene material. Mr Wilson felt that Lyle had a 6-week headstart over its competitor at the moment and wanted to increase that difference, if at all possible.

Next, the design package was handed over so that the process engineering stage of the project could begin. This package was, according to their inquiry letter, so complete that all material requirements for this job could be placed within 3 months after project award (since very little design work was required by Atlay on this project). Two weeks later, Chrissie contacted the lead process engineer on the project who informed her that the design package needed further development that would take about 6 weeks to straighten out, which meant adding a 6-week schedule delay to the 3 months’ lead time to obtain materials.

The Atlay team, operating within a matrix organizational structure, plunged right into the project and was made aware of the delay. Chrissie instructed the team, however, to cut corners, whenever doing so might result in time savings. She also told team members to suggest to members of their functional departments who were working on this project, methods that could possibly result in quicker turnaround of the work required of them. Following Chrissie's instructions, the project team coerced the various engineering departments into operating outside of their normal procedures due to the special circumstances surrounding this job.

For example, the civil engineering section prepared a special preliminary structural steel package, and the piping engineering section prepared preliminary piping packages so that the purchasing department could go out to inquiry immediately. Normally, the purchasing department would have to wait for formal take-offs from both of these departments before they would send out inquiries to potential vendors. Operating in this manner could result in some problems, however. For example, the purchasing department might arrange for discounts from the vendors based on the quantity of structural steel estimated during the preliminary take-off. After the formal take-off has been done by the civil engineering department (about 1 month) they might find out that they underestimated the quantity of structural steel required on the project by about 50 tons. This would be damaging because knowing that this extra steel was required could have enabled the purchasing department to secure additional discounts.

To add to Chrissie's problems, she has just been informed that a 6,000-staff-hour overrun is forecast on the purchasing side of the project compared to that which had been estimated in the initial proposal by George Fitz, who put the proposal together. To deal with this, she decided to pass some of the purchasing directly to the subcontractors at the job site.

At the present time

It is now 2 weeks since Chrissie was selected to head up the project. She just returned to her desk and saw a message stating that John Mabby (vice-president of procurement) had called. She returns his call to discover that John Mabby wants a meeting with her tomorrow morning to discuss a number of concerns he has been hearing about the project. It seems as though he had had a rather lengthy discussion with Jennifer Shields, the project purchasing agent assigned to the Lyle project. During the course of that conversation, it became very apparent that this particular project is not operating within the normal procedures established for the purchasing department.

John Mabby

You are extremely angry and upset to have learned from Jennifer Shields that Chrissie has been operating outside normal operating procedures. You are acutely embarrassed that you never knew what was going on and believe that Chrissie made you look a fool in front of Jennifer (who reports to you) by keeping you in the dark.

You also firmly believe that Chrissie should have discussed any deviations with you in your role as Atlay's vice president of procurement, prior to instructing Jennifer, the purchasing agent on the project, to proceed in this manner.

Importantly, you would never have agreed to allow purchasing to work around the procedures and, in any event, you would have expected that Chrissie would have come to you first to discuss these changes to procedures.

You intend to tell Chrissie that as of this moment you have instructed the purchasing side on the project (Jennifer) that from now she is to check with you prior to going against any standard operating procedures. After all, Jennifer works in your department. You are the one who reviews her annual performance, approves the size of any raise, and/or determines whether she gets a promotion. Jennifer receives her directions from you.

In addition, you are not pleased that you have also been informed that there is going to be an additional 6,000-hour overrun on the purchasing side of the project and that Chrissie has not submitted an additional change request to the client.

You have now arranged to meet with Chrissie to let her know your views on these matters.

Chrissie Jung

Although you have handled two projects previously, those were much smaller than the Lyle project and you feel that you need to show that you can head up projects of this scale. You also know that it's very important that this job be completed in accordance with the Lyle requirements since they would be building two more similar plants within the next 10 years. A good effort on this job could further enhance Atlay's chances for being awarded the next two jobs.

The telephone call from John Mabby has left you feeling a little uneasy, but you are sure that you can explain that the design problems you encountered early on in the project viewed against the need to complete the project on time justified the actions you took and the requests that you made of the project team. After all, you are responsible for the project's success and satisfying the customer's requirements; and a lot is at stake. Furthermore, individuals assigned to you for this project should operate in accordance with your requests and expectations, whether they are within procedures or not.

You have also attempted to solve the predicted overrun on purchasing staff hours by passing some of the purchasing responsibilities directly to the subcontractor on site so you don't think those predicted hours will actually be needed now. Given that it was George Fitz who was responsible for underestimating purchasing requirements in the first place, you can hardly be blamed for the forecast overrun.

First

Consider what you think your priorities and outcomes are before going into this meeting.

Then

You are about to go into the meeting. Consider how you intend to use your emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills in order to respond to effectively and try to secure the outcome(s) from the meeting that you want.

Reference: Kerzner, H. Project Management Case Studies.

Role Play Three: The International City of Culture Project

Role One

Background to the Case

The Creative & Visual Arts Council has been a keen player in a major project to develop a new arts complex in a key city in the south of England which is setting its sights on becoming an international city of culture by 2026. Initial plans were drawn up for a modern 300- to 350-seat performance space with flexibility for configuring it into a variety of differing formats as well as a 120-seat studio with retractable seating. The aim of the new arts complex is to offer a wide range of arts and cultural events ranging from music, dance, theatre, and comedy/cabaret.

Although the city has a good basis from which to start with its diverse population and vibrant arts communities, its infrastructure is weak and there is a pressing need to invest significantly in creating cultural facilities for the 21^st century. The proposal for this new arts complex is seen as a central component of plans for creating a vibrant cultural quarter in the city and in securing the prestigious title of international city of culture. The project has been going for 18 months with four key partners driving it, consisting of the city council, the regional economic development agency, the Creative & Visual Arts Council, Regional Arts members, alongside representatives from local arts groups and city development agencies.

Key stakeholders have already committed to the vast majority of capital funding and a considerable portion of the revenue finding. A project manager from the city council is leading the capital project and work has been underway for 6 months. However, the project schedule started to slip from day one, and expenditures are becoming excessive with already a considerable overspend being predicted. Funds still need to be raised from commercial sponsors and some of the arts partners are becoming increasingly concerned that the potential sponsors will put off investing in the project if something is not done to get the project back on track. The Creative & Visual Arts Council representative on the project recently spoke to the project manager from the city council but was told not to meddle in how the council allocated resources and budgeted expenditures for carrying out the project. At the beginning of the week, strategic partners on the project received a report confirming many of their fears that the project was forecast to now be almost 1 year behind schedule and that the estimated cost of completion at this interval showed a cost overrun of at least 20%. Contained in the report were also recommendations by the project manager that in order to try to contain expenditure, the proposed studio attached to the Arts Complex must be reduced in size to approximately 50% of its original proposed capacity. Many of the arts partners feel that this would severely restrict the range and type of arts that could be offered and believe that the Arts Council simply does not appreciate the implications of such a measure. Furthermore, they believe that the problem lies with how the capital project is being managed. Having now seen the report, the Creative & Visual Arts Council representative telephoned to arrange a meeting with the project manager from the city council to voice his concerns.

Creative & Visual Arts Council Representative

You have been receiving reports from the project manager on a timely basis and have been aware of the fact that the project was behind schedule. However, these delays and problems seem to be getting worse and you are now becoming extremely impatient with the seeming failure of the council project manager to steer the project satisfactorily. You now have major concerns that the project is in serious trouble.

You have major concerns that:

1. The continuing project schedule overrun will mean that many of the local arts groups planning to move into and use the Arts complex will have major problems in finding a suitable location to perform or display their work if the arts complex is not completed on time, and this will severely affect their financial positions and viability.
2. The excessive costs will deter other prominent corporate sponsors from investing in the project and is therefore creating additional risks in the longer-term success of the project.
3. The project manager's recommendation that the studio space be significantly reduced to address the project overspend will significantly affect the overall success of the project in being able to showcase the range of arts and cultural events that were envisaged, again significantly affecting what you consider to be one of the chief success factors.
4. You believe that there are problems with how the project is being managed, and that if these were addressed, the project could get back on track.

You have decided that enough is enough and that a meeting with the project manager is necessary in order to get to the bottom of all this and for you to gain some assurance that the project will succeed. You are in no mood to be fobbed off as too much is at stake and you want to avoid any bad publicity that might reflect badly on the Arts Council if the project is not seen to have been managed effectively and efficiently. You are about to go into this meeting.

Firstly, spend about 5 minutes deciding and writing down what outcomes you would like from this meeting given that the project is now running 6-8 months behind schedule.

Then consider how you will attempt to show empathetic understanding and use emotional intelligence abilities in order to try to secure the outcomes you have identified.

You have 15 minutes to try to secure the outcomes you want from the meeting.

Role Play Three: The International City of Culture Project

Role Two

Background to the Case

The Creative & Visual Arts Council has been a keen player in a major project to develop a new arts complex in a key city in the south of England which is setting its sights on becoming an international city of culture by 2026. Initial plans were drawn up for a modern 300- to 350-seat performance space with flexibility for configuring it into a variety of differing formats as well as a 120-seat studio with retractable seating. The aim of the new arts complex is to offer a wide range of arts and cultural events ranging from music, dance, theater, and comedy/cabaret.

Although the city has a good basis from which to start with its diverse population and vibrant arts communities, its infrastructure is weak and there is a pressing need to invest significantly in creating cultural facilities for the 21^st century. The proposal for this new arts complex is seen as a central component of plans for creating a vibrant cultural quarter in the city and in securing the prestigious title of international city of culture. The project has been going for 18 months with four key partners driving it, consisting of the city administrative council, the regional economic development agency, the Creative & Visual Arts Council, and Regional Arts delegates alongside representatives from local arts groups and city development agencies.

Key stakeholders have already committed to the vast majority of capital funding and a considerable portion of the revenue finding. A project manager from the city administrative council is leading the capital project and work has been underway for 6 months. However, the project schedule started to slip from day one, and expenditures are becoming excessive with already a considerable overspend being predicted. Funds still need to be raised from commercial sponsors and some of the arts partners are becoming increasingly concerned that the potential sponsors will be put off investing in the project if something is not done to get the project back on track. The Creative & Visual Arts Council representative on the project recently spoke to the project manager from the city administrative council but was told not to meddle in how the council allocated resources and budgeted expenditures for carrying out the project.

At the beginning of the week, strategic partners on the project received a report confirming many of their fears that the project was forecast to now be almost 1 year behind schedule and that the estimated cost of completion at this interval showed a cost overrun of at least 20%. Contained in the report were also recommendations by the project manager that in order to try to contain expenditure, the proposed studio attached to the arts complex must be reduced in size to approximately 50% of its original proposed capacity. Many of the arts partners feel that this would severely restrict the range and type of arts that would be offered and believe that the City Administrative Council simply does not appreciate the implications of such a measure. Furthermore, they believe that the problem lies with how the capital project is being managed. Having now seen the report, the Arts Council representative has decided to meet with the project manager from the city council to voice their concerns.

The City Council Capital Project Manager

You have been involved in the Arts Complex project since its inception and are the project manager responsible for the capital building component of the larger project. You have worked on a number of projects before but none as large as this one and it has proved challenging. A major problem is that the project is currently running about 6 to 8 months behind schedule and is heading for a 20% overspend.

There are a number of reasons why you think this has happened. Firstly, the total number of staff hours estimated for the project from the estates, planning, and finance departments in the council were too low at the outset and did not take into account the additional time that was needed to satisfactorily undertake the public consultation regarding the facilities on site at the proposed new Arts Center and how it can respond more effectively to local concerns over the potential environment impact of the Center. A local residents group raised a number of concerns regarding increased noise and traffic levels to the local area which held the project up in its early stages.

You also discovered that the heads of the departments for planning and estates have been charging direct labor time to your project but with staff actually working on their own pet projects. Your staff, as supplied by the head of department to work on the capital project, was inadequate to maintain the required pace, let alone make up any time that had already been lost due to the additional public consultation that was needed. You had a meeting with the chief executive of the City Council and these heads of departments a few weeks ago and they now seemed to realize that they had a role to play in the completion of the project. Most of the problems were now out in the open and could be corrected by providing adequate staffing and resources. Corporate headquarters ordered immediate remedial action and staff support to provide you with a chance to get the project on track.

However, although this should help to get the project back on schedule, the overspend remains a major problem and you put forward plans to reduce the planned studio build in order to try to get the project back within budget. You have recommended this in your last capital project update report to the other partners in the Arts Complex project but have not had any formal response yet. You received a telephone call from the Creative & Visual Arts Council representative yesterday asking to meet with you this morning to discuss the project. You expect there to be some strong views about your recommendation, but you believe the priority is to get the project back within budget and on schedule. However, you think that if you explain why the project fell behind schedule and how you are getting it back on track, it should be fine. You know the Creative & Visual Arts Council representative will probably focus on aesthetics and cultural aspects of the project but believe you can bring them round if you explain the importance of getting the project completed on time and within budget. You are about to go into this meeting.

Firstly, spend about 5 minutes deciding and writing down what outcomes you would like from this meeting.

Then consider how you will attempt to show empathetic understanding and use emotional intelligence abilities in order to try to secure the outcomes you have identified.

You have 15 minutes to try to secure the outcomes you want from the meeting.

OBSERVER SHEET

Your role is to observe the interaction that takes place between the two participants involved in the role play.

Specifically, you are looking for signs that either party is attempting to build rapport and demonstrate empathetic understanding, and for behaviors that might be thought to be either socio-emotional positive or socio-emotional negative. Look on the list below to familarize yourself with the behaviors that you need to watch out for. Note each time either person shows these behaviors by simply marking a tally ( / ) in each column under the appropriate person. Also note if either person shows any socio-emotive negative acts in a similar way. At the end of the session, you will need to provide feedback to both parties, so try to be as observant as you can. Feel free to make any written notes if you so wish.

At the end of the interaction, you need to complete the observer questionnaire attached to underpin your feedback to the interactants. Attached is also a criterion template for you to use to record your observations relating to specific communication, rapport, and empathy behaviors you observed between the two interactants.

OBSERVER SHEET FOR RECORDING OBSERVATIONS OF BEHAVIORS ASSOCIATED WITH EMPATHY, EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE, AND RAPPORT

You should use this as a basis for providing feedback to the interactants and for making your own judgments regarding the quality of the interaction on the Observer Feedback Sheet.

Rapport	Role Play Participant 1	Role Play Participant 2
Mirroring
Attempts to pace/lead
Forward lean
Smiling at other person
Adjusts proximity to other person
Seeks eye contact
Empathy
Identifies with what other person is feeling
Reflects back an understanding of feeling and why it is occurring

Some Descriptors of What You Should Be Looking for During the Interaction:

Adaptors

Refer to manipulations of one's body such as rubbing, scratching, preening (often indicative of anxiety).

Eye Contact

The amount of time the interactants looked into each other's eyes.

Forward Lean

The time spent by the interactants maintaining a postural configuration in which their head was forward from the upright, vertical position relative to the hips.

Mutual Silence

Refers to the total time spent in which interactants were simultaneously silent for periods longer than 1.5 seconds.

Nervous Behavior

Any action or activity that suggests that someone is scared, anxious, uncomfortable or nervous (e.g., fidgeting, shaking, knees knocking, quivering voice, swallowing, and “freezing”).

Proximity

The extent to which any individual attempts to shift the proximity between the interactants.

Synchrony

Refers to the extent to which the behaviors and the behavioral stream of each interactant were similar to and coordinated with (i.e. synchronized) each other. Manifestations of synchrony may take the form of mirroring, simultaneous movement, and coordinated movement.

Smiling

Refers to the total time spent by both interactants smiling.

OBSERVER FEEDBACK SHEET

1.How would you rate the interaction that took place between the interactants on the following dimensions?

2.Do you think that the interactants managed to communicate their perspectives of the situation to each other?

3.Do you think that either or both of the interactants successfully communicated their empathetic understanding of the other's perspectives?

4.To what extent did the Arts Council project manager attempt to build rapport? What if any impact did this have on the meeting outcome?

Any Additional Comments You Want to Make: