By Matt Kuny CPA, Senior Associate, KBH Chartered Professional Accountants
Matt received his CPA designation in 2020. In this blog, he discusses how teams in Capstone 1 can leverage various resources—and the different strengths of each member—to develop their ability to work collaboratively.
Starting Capstone 1 can invoke a lot of emotions: you may be nervous because you were just getting into the groove of completing your weekly assignments and this module is different. You’re probably also nervous because you’re getting closer to the CFE. Getting closer to the CFE (and the end of CPA PEP!) might even make you excited. However, if you’re like me, you’re mostly just nervous.
This module brings people with different personality types, strengths, and weaknesses together and requires them to work together for two months. Chances are, you will have people from all over the DiSC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness) spectrum in your group, which can make for some tricky group dynamics. You could end up with two dominant people who butt heads or a group without someone willing to take the lead, which can make it more difficult for your group to make decisions.
In Capstone 1, you don’t choose your teammates—just like you don’t choose your colleagues in the real world. For a team to succeed, members need to know how to work together. Below are my tips for navigating group dynamics and succeeding in this important CPA PEP module.
Assign roles
It is important to assign a role to each member from the outset so that the group is able to fall back on those roles in times of conflict. This will also help to leverage the group’s strengths. If one member emerges as a dominant personality type—for example, someone who is results-driven, strong, and wired to make decisions—it would make sense to assign them the role of group leader. If another member is a strong writer, having them edit the final submissions will help the group prepare a more refined report.
Effectively resolve conflict
Conflict is inevitable in group dynamics, and every group’s conflict will be different. With that said, there is no single formula for resolving it. However, it is important to always remain professional; this means using professional tone and language, and respecting everyone’s ideas. This will help your group get to the root of the problem and resolve problems faster. It is also important to exercise patience towards team members whose first language isn’t English; they have strong technical knowledge but may lack the vocabulary to express themselves fluently.
My group also found it useful to contact our facilitator for guidance when we reached an impasse. Your facilitator is a great resource as they have extensive experience dealing with group dynamics and can likely suggest a multitude of ways to resolve issues. One of the main benefits of Capstone 1 is that it allows candidates to develop their teamwork and collaboration skills. Learning how to deal with conflict—and how you personally respond to it—is a very important part of this.
Use technology
Even pre-COVID-19, technology was a crucial part of Capstone 1. Tons of resources exist to facilitate virtual teamwork. My group stored all our documents on a Google Drive so that all group members could access them at any time. This also allowed multiple people to work on a file at once. We tried to meet every two weeks and would set the date and time for our next meeting at the end of each meeting. Doing this forced us to leave room on our schedules for the group and ensured all members could attend every meeting.
Today’s pandemic climate and social distancing guidelines have made virtual meetings the norm. Several platforms can be used for these meetings, but Zoom and Microsoft Teams are my preferences as I find them the most user-friendly. When choosing a platform, the most important attributes to take into consideration should be the ability to easily share files and computer screens to allow for easier collaboration. From the outset, your group should also discuss how they intend to use technology so that they can hit the ground running.
Practice your presentations
The final challenge that Capstone 1 poses is the group presentation. This is the most nerve-wracking part of the module for many candidates because public speaking is just not their thing (me and my group members included). We got past our nerves the old-fashioned way—practice, practice, practice. While practicing on my own helped, I found the trial runs we did as a group to be the most beneficial.
One of our group members even convinced a few managers from their firm to act as the panel for us and provide feedback on our presentation. Simulating the board report presentation environment was really beneficial as it allowed us to see some of the questions we might be asked and exposed possible flaws in our presentation. Of course, you have to convince people to sit through a presentation first. I recommend bribing them with coffee and treats, as these tend to be very effective.
As usual, hindsight has been 20/20 for me when it comes to Capstone 1. Going into the module, I was guilty of looking past it and focusing ahead on the CFE. Looking back, the module taught me some lessons that have helped me immensely in the real world. I am much more comfortable speaking in front of a group of people. I have also learned more about my strengths and weaknesses when it comes to group work. Both of these have helped me to take more of a leadership role in my career and have made me better at working with others.
The views expressed in this post are those of the guest writer, Matt Kuny CPA. Please refer to cpawsb.ca for the latest guidelines from the CPA Western School of Business.
