Including different viewpoints gives you stronger AO Working Together evidence when you show how those views changed the work. The AA and AO Civil Service interview guide provides more grade-specific questions to practise now, before the panel asks how you treated disagreement fairly.
Question
“Tell me about a time you made sure different viewpoints were considered when completing a team task.”
What Is Being Looked For
The panel wants evidence that you listened, respected other people and helped the group reach a useful outcome. At AO level, the example can be a routine team task. The key is showing how you created space for another view and what happened because you did.
Use B-STAR to explain your belief about involving people who understand different parts of the work. Keep the background short. In the action, explain how you asked for views, handled disagreement and kept the group focused on the shared task.
A weak answer says everyone had a chance to speak. A stronger answer shows how a contribution affected the decision or plan. You should also make your own role clear. Avoid claiming that you led a formal consultation when the situation was a normal team discussion.
Finish with the team result and any service benefit. Prepare one sentence about how you would respond if the group could not agree, including when you would ask a supervisor to decide.
Example Answer
I believe teams make better decisions when the people doing different parts of the work can explain what they need. I try to listen before assuming that my preferred approach will work for everyone.
While working in a library, our team was asked to reorganise the public computer booking process. The original plan was to move all support requests to the main desk, but a colleague who regularly helped older users believed this would create longer queues and discourage people from asking for help.
I asked her to explain the common problems she saw and invited the weekend staff member to describe demand during busy periods. I recorded the main needs and suggested a short trial rather than changing the process permanently. We kept simple bookings at the main desk but created two scheduled support slots for customers who needed more help.
I helped produce clear signs and tested the wording with a colleague who used assistive software. I also agreed how staff would record demand so the team could review the trial fairly. When another colleague wanted to remove the support slots after a quiet first day, I suggested waiting for the full two-week period because weekend use was likely to differ.
The trial showed steady demand for the support sessions and shorter queues at the main desk. The library kept the mixed approach, and the colleague’s concern directly improved the final process.
Choose an example where a different view genuinely affected the outcome. Use the AA and AO Civil Service interview guide before the interview to prepare another Working Together question and make sure your answer shows action rather than a broad claim about valuing opinions.
