Teamwork

Guiding Questions

1. What did you do?
   Identify and Analyze Positive and Negative Team Experiences

   • • Identify a team in which you have participated that worked well together to accomplish its mission. What characteristics contributed to its success? In other words, why did it work?

     • Identify a team in which you have participated that did NOT work well. What characteristics contributed to its unproductivity? (Why did it not work?)

     • What does the "research" say? What have you learned from reading and discussing sources on this topic?

2. What does it mean?
   Evaluate & Synthesize Your Findings to Determine Why Some Teams Work Better than Other

   • • Based on your observations from your own experiences and from your reading and discussions about teamwork, what criteria are needed to create and support an effective team? What barriers inhibit productive team effort?

3. Who benefits and how?
Transfer (Bottom Line)

• • What will the job require you to do as a member of a team? How do you expect to fulfill your role as a team member? How do you anticipate applying what you have learned about teamwork in this role? Provide examples from your collaborative project, other team experiences, previous reflections, and class discussions to develop your response. Attach a management or work plan, team contract, self-evaluation, performance evaluation by team leader, or any other artifact to support your reflection.

Tips for Reflecting on Teamwork

Tip 1: Consider how your leadership training has informed your response to or your understanding of teamwork. For example, how have you applied what you learned about communication styles in a team setting? What were the results? Or, how does something you learned from your leadership training (e.g., strengths) explain why the team operated the way it did, whether positive or negative?

Additional questions to consider regarding what you have learned from teamwork:

• • What were you expected to do (or learn) to perform the tasks as communicated by the project guidelines?

  • What challenges or conflicts did you (or your team) encounter?

  • How did you resolve them or what was your part in how they were resolved?

  • Did you identify methods of involving each team member to solve problems, make decisions, build consensus, resolve or manage conflicts, negotiate compromises, support self-expression, and bring forth new ideas and opinions? Explain.

  • Did you determine ways to motivate team members? What were they? Did they work? Explain.

  • How did your teammates evaluate your contribution to the project? What did you do well? What areas were identified that you will work to improve upon in your next team (or workplace) project?

  • How have you used various technologies to collaborate with your team to complete a project? Which technologies did you use? Why? How did you learn them? How well did they work to do what you needed them to do? Did you discover uses/benefits/consequences you had not intended? How do you see yourself using these or similar tools in the future?

  • For which of these can you make a compelling case?

    • I can set goals and prioritize

    • I can handle and resolve conflicts

    • I can change my role with a team from leader to follower as needed

    • I know when to recognize others for the work they have done

    • I know how to respond correctly to positive and negative feedback

    • I will contribute to the team’s effort

    • I understand that everyone will have different ideas

    • I have time management skills

Tip 2: Be sure to secure permission to use collaborative or proprietary work. In other words, make sure that your teammates (and businesses and organizations) agree to your using their work in your portfolio. Also, indicate in the portfolio and with the artifact that permission has been granted. Doing so will demonstrate that you are responsible with proprietary information and that you respect others' privacy.

Courses, assignments, and high-impact experiences that address this outcome

• • PSAA 601, Foundations of Public Service, Justin Bullock, "Federal/State Program Collaborative Project"