I got 12 months free from Assessment Day when applying to
Taylor Wessing.
They provide four group exercise mark schemes, which note:
"much more important than the ideas themselves [they do provide ideas, but they are very scenario-specific and not worth discussing here] is how you interact with the group to reach agreement"
They list competencies:
- consideration
- 👍
- respond to others points by showing you have listened to them: focus on specific issues
- bring up earlier speakers to show you have listened to what they said
- provide space - don't interrupt
- active listening - body language, summarise point just made, nod, eye contact
- note-taking (but not at expense of not participating)
- 👎
- asking questions already answered: shows you weren't listening
- failure to understand others points: ditto
- ignore others' contributions and just make your own
- interpersonal skills:
- 👍
- helping those struggling
- using team members' names
- polite to others
- resolve conflicts or tensions
- encourage participation of others, no favouritism
- gives feedback constructively, avoiding negative words
- active listening, including body language to show agreement
- diplomacy
- 👎
- rude/blunt/provocative/aggressive
- focused on personal ambition, not that of the team
- not considering human factors, e.g. where relevant to decision (e.g., firing staff) or feelings of discussion group
- ignore signals from others (e.g., are you talking too long and people giving signs?)
- teamwork
- 👍
- show concern for group, not self-interest: example, you've been asked to debate in favour one side of an issue and then come to a conclusion collectively. Changing your mind where applicable is good.
- benefit the group: where you have personal knowledge or experience
- work with another person who has a good idea to build on that idea, ensuring that they retain credit for it
- resolve points made by others: e.g., provide supporting evidence, or constructively explain why it's not relevant.
- contribute: bring up your own points, don't just repeat other people's content, so that you are adding something
- work to improve morale: e.g., make light-hearted comments or similar to defuse tensions
- democratic: support a conclusion reached, even if you think it sucks
- flexible: don't spend too long talking at the expense of coming to a conclusion
- 👎
- fail to contribute
- cause dispute/conflict
- rude/interrupt
- initiative
- 👍
- helping those struggling
- using team members' names
- polite to others
- resolve conflicts or tensions
- encourage participation of others, no favouritism
- gives feedback constructively, avoiding negative words
- active listening, including body language to show agreement
- diplomacy
- 👎
- rude/blunt/provocative/aggressive
- focused on personal ambition, not that of the team
- not considering human factors, e.g. where relevant to decision (e.g., firing staff) or feelings of discussion group
- ignore signals from others (e.g., are you talking too long and people giving signs?)
- decisiveness
- 👍
- help group come to a conclusion, e.g., combine your idea with that of another, or multiple team members ideas
- find agreement, e.g., "that seems like the best idea, shall we go with that?"
- quick to generate ideas
- resolve conflicts between team members, avoiding wasting time
- come up with practical steps from ideas, e.g., "so Sophie's idea to be more environmentally friendly is great, we could achieve it by switching our power supply"
- conclude and move on from points: provide a summary so the discussion can continue
- 👎
- unable to choose between options
- too long on one issue
- hold group back by disagreeing
- problem solving
- 👍
- identify the relevant points from a mass of information
- strategic thinking/long-term view
- consider multiple POVs
- consider side-effects & consequences
- identify risks and barriers to success
- find more information - ask team members, or seek clarification over some of the points in the scenario: typically issues will be raised that are deliberately ambiguous
- objective & unbiased decision-making
- 👎
- identify irrelevant issues
- fail to get others insights or suggest further research
- fail to consider multiple POVs (e.g., competitors, staff, management)
- cannot find causes of problems
- provide useless/irrelevant solutions
It depends on your individual personality whether you are someone who naturally wants to make a lot of your own points, or not, but while it's a good idea to have points to make, it's much more about working with others than what you have to say, and your attention needs to be focused more on listening to others than just making your own brilliant points. In addition, the group exercise will usually need to come to a conclusion, and it's common that there's a lack of initiative to do this from group members, so you might want to focus on this throughout. You will want to be ready to both make responses to other people's points and graciously respond to any points that others might make about you.
You should have some time to write down some points in the prep, then during the actual group discussion you can continue to make notes on what other people are saying, which can help you with the group skills.
