Teams

I really enjoyed working in a group with Tom, Allison, and William in this BEM 311 class.  At this point, I would not stop at calling us a “group,” but rather I think we are a team, and one that trusts each other as well.  The reason I see us as not just a group but a team is that I believe we fit the five criteria of becoming a team: we all act as leaders, we are accountable on both individual level (to each other) and a collective level (to the class and professor), we have a defined purpose, we spend a good amount of time problem-solving, and finally, our success and effectiveness I measured in how we perform in this class and on our assignments.

To clarify those five criteria and how they apply to us, here is how they relate:

·      We share responsibilities and all act as leaders within our group; anyone can present an idea and take charge of a project or situation

·      We are accountable to each other, in that we set deadlines for work to be done and quality of work while exercising expectations about competencies, while we are also accountable to the class and professor to show what we have done

·      Our defined purpose is to cohesively work together to produce the best quality of work possible in order to receive the best possible grade we can

·      We are constantly problem-solving, whether its choosing a multiple choice answer between two possible answers, or deciding when is most convenient to work

·      There is an indicator of how well we function as our team: our grades on the assignments we work on together

What makes us such a good team is that we all trust the other members.  There are six steps in building trust among team members, and though we did not consciously go through each, I believe they all apply to our team:

1.     Communication – we keep each other informed on our individual and group work by meeting regularly and keeping an open Gmail thread

2.     Support – everyone on our team supports each other, whether that means giving advice on work one of us has done and understanding when someone simply cannot meet due to other obligations

3.     Respect – everybody in our team respects each other as a person and as a student, so we know will be able to produce quality work

4.     Fairness – we give credit where credit is due, whether that means giving a pat on the back for knowing a multiple choice answer or commending someone for a great idea for our projects and assignments

5.     Predictability – we are all reliable and predictable; when people are supposed to be somewhere or be doing something for the team, they are; this has been great for our productivity

6.     Competence – we all emit a sense of professionalism and usually know what we are talking about, so we have gained credibility with each other

The bottom-line is, I really enjoyed working with my team because I can trust them.  We are always on time for meetings, unless there are circumstances out of our control, we delegate work well and contribute equally, we listen to all ideas and come to meetings ready to work and with a thorough understanding of the material and what we need to accomplish.  We have been a very well-functioning team.

-Mike



Calloway has given me many opportunities to work in different group settings. Our team for 311 has been a similar experience to any student team. It is composed of four very different people with a common class goal. We have been an effective team due to a variety of understandings and constructs. Our weekly meetings keep us in tune to what everyone is thinking and allow us to build trust in each other by showing up on time, sharing the work, and completing assignments on time and doing them well. We have all been prepared for quizzes and want to help each other succeed and meet all our goals. As the semester has progressed and we have bonded, our motivations have shifted from mainly selfish grade oriented to wanting to work hard for everyone to do their best.
-Alison

Being able to work effectively in a team setting is beyond critical in a work environment.  When it comes to effective teams, we didn’t need to look farther than our own BEM 311 team, The Travelers.  Over the past month, William, Alison, Mike and myself have actually become a rather good example of an effective team.  We have productive weekly meetings, we all can rely on each other, and we delegate our workload well and contribute equally.  More importantly, despite initial concerns that team quizzes may be an issue if people relied on other people to do the readings, rather than do it themselves, we were able to trust each other to read and understand the concepts for each class period.  In fact, our team quiz grade should calculate somewhere in the mid to high 90’s for the semester. 

-Tom

The idea of using teams while still in school is the perfect way to teach members of a team to work as efficiently as possible while forming interpersonal relationships as well. I like being in a team best because I am not the strongest at every subject. I realize my strengths are math and number oriented while my other teammates are strong in other areas; Alison and Michael being stronger writers than myself and Tom being much more apt with computers and technology, a valuable asset especially with this blog. As someone who is not embarrassed to ask questions when unsure, a team environment works especially well for me. Everyone is willing to teach and help others because it in turns helps themselves and benefits the entire team.

-William