Teamwork

At the Bush School, teamwork and collaboration are integral to the learning experience. As a member of several teams, I have had experiences that were overwhelmingly positive as well as some that were negative. However, these team projects have taught me how I have contributed to the successes (as well as the failures) of the projects, and have taught me skills that are vital to any collaborative project, such as how to manage time efficiently, how to communicate with a team, and how to give constructive criticism.

Time Management in Teams

In my first major team-based assignment, I learned that efficient use of limited time is crucial to the success of a project. My second semester at the Bush School, I was part of a small group of students charged by our department head, to do a “mini-capstone project” to determine if the Public Administration department was adequately preparing students for employment. Our team did this by creating, administrating, and analyzing a survey to protentional Bush School graduate employers about what skills they were looking for in new hires. Knowing we only had a semester to create a report that was informative and reliable, and that every member had other responsibilities and schedules, the team made sure to create a plan that would maximize our time. By creating a Gantt Chart, having regularly scheduled meetings, and self-imposing deadlines for particular sections of our project, our team was able to provide a quality product that our client found useful. This mini-capstone required several moving parts and would not have been possible without recognizing the importance of efficient time management.

Communication and Team Contracts

An integral part of any team dynamic is how well individual members can communicate with the group - unfortunately, not all teams will have the forethought to construct a system by which communication is easy and efficient. Such was the case in my Public Policy Formation class. In this class, we were placed into groups, and each group had to produce three unrelated reports throughout the semester. For my group’s first report, we had only an initial meeting in which we divided the assignment requirements. When we met again the day prior to the report’s due date, we found that several of us had struggled with our sections, but did not reach out for help. Additionally, of the sections that were complete, there was no sense of connectivity between them. We rushed to complete the assignment, but received a grade that no one was pleased with which reflected that we merely regurgitated facts instead of performing a thorough analysis, did not create a fluid narrative, and were not familiar with the information in our report. For our next report, in our initial meeting we wrote a team contract that plainly described the report requirement, our individual assignments, and most importantly, created a means of communication among members that we agreed to. The second report was better written, had more quality content, and did not leave anyone feeling as if they had not contributed to the group. Both of these projects taught us to recognize that a team is more than the sum of its parts and that communication between members is necessary for a project’s successful completion and cohesiveness.

Constructive Criticism

Constructive feedback is a necessary to the success of any team project, but given in an unconstructive manner can tear away at team morale. At my workplace, we would have bi-weekly department meetings, in which we would debrief about projects teams were working on. This consisted of giving a short presentation on your team’s progress on a particular project, followed by questions, suggestions, and comments. This practice usually resulted in clear direction for our projects. However, occasionally we would receive harsh or demeaning criticism by way of comments that belittled a team’s work without giving advice on what could be improved or feedback that was vague and of little value. Worse still, there would sometimes be criticism that was plainly hurtful regarding one’s appearance, accent, or clothing. Harsh criticism would decrease motivation and performance While there is still work to be done, there has been a recent initiative to reduce this kind of behavior by addressing unconstructive criticism as harmful. For example, we have begun taking training courses on sensitivity, which has shown a decline in unconstructive criticism and higher morale in the office. This experience has taught me that being part of a team means being supportive, being understanding, and being sure that what you say is meaningful. A team needs feedback to improve, but there is no advantage to being destructive and negative.

Takeaways

No matter the subject or field, being part of a team is an inevitability. It is often difficult when given assignments and deadlines to remember that each member of a team has their own priorities, values, strengths, and weaknesses. However, by continuously working on being a team member who respects the position of others and communicates effectively with their teammates, one can ensure that their team works efficiently and successfully.