Objective:
By the end of this term me and my team will have found a way to work smoothly together and hold each other accountable. This will be measured by the fact that we won’t have any missing parts of the project and will not need a retake.
Acting out:
This year I wanted to focus on having effective communication within my teams, so that we can all hold each other accountable when someone isn’t putting in the same amount of effort as everyone else. I wanted to achieve such good team work that we wouldn’t need to retake any assignments. Also, I wanted to try out being the leader of the group.
Reflect:
In the first half of the year, our team really struggled with communication see challenge journal 2. My team mates weren’t responding to messages, doing their parts of the assignment or communicating about their struggles, delays, learnt information about the assignment. I tried involving everyone but some just wouldn’t participate so it felt that we weren’t a real team. Other’s did their parts with delay, wouldn’t inform each other if they weren’t coming to classes see appendix 6. My actions didn’t have much effect as no one was reacting to them, I wanted to make sure that everyone felt well within the team, but I often wouldn’t get a straight forward answer and frequently was left alone scrambling last minute to do their parts of the assignments. I also wanted to try out being more strict with those who were very dismissive of the whole assignment, but I could’t be confrontational. That is my character issue, I like to bottle things up and hope that everything will work out without me needing to cause any drama see appendix 7. I thought that those team members would realise that what they are doing is selfish and unfair to everyone else, but they didn’t see appendix 9. It made me feel as if my mental health and life doesn’t matter and I should always be the one that adapts. As for the second part of the year, I feel like our team managed to meet this collaboration objective in part. Our communication is much better than with the first group, everyone is much more respectful of each other’s time than in the first team, but we did have to retake the organizational report in IB. Working with this team feels much better, because I can trust them to do their parts on time and know that if there will be any issues with someone not doing their parts that they will have my back.
Awareness:
I learned from this experience how crucial it is for team members to communicate well with one another. Initially, because some team members were unresponsive and uncooperative, poor communication resulted in unfulfilled responsibilities see challenge journal 2. My unwillingness to confront these difficulties made matters worse, making me anxious and rushing to complete assignments alone last minute. But during the second half of the year, our teamwork was greatly improved by better communication and respect for one another. I discovered that, in order to guarantee accountability, I occasionally need to modify my leadership style to be more assertive see appendix 5. For me to grow personally and improve team dynamics see appendix 6, it has been essential to identify and deal with my tendency to shy away from conflict see appendix 7. In general, achieving group goals requires creating an environment of respect and accountability within the team.
Action plan:
I will continue to use platforms like Slack or Trello to create clear communication channels and set expectations early by outlining roles and deadlines at the beginning of the project in order to improve collaboration and communication. I’ll continue doing weekly check-ins on a regular basis to track progress and quickly resolve problems. I’ll also try to be more assertive by dealing with problems head-on in a positive way, starting with little problems instead of letting them grow into big issues. Regularly asking team members for feedback can improve dynamics and communication. My immediate objective is to use these techniques next year during my minor to improve teamwork and reduce scrambled actions. My long-term objectives are to become a more assertive leader see appendix 5 and develop an environment of respect and accountability within the team. I’ll start by focusing on collaborative assignments during my minor (see minor and internship plan).
SMART Goal for next year:
By using Slack or Trello, setting early expectations, checking in weekly, and being more assertive when it comes to problem-solving, I hope to improve teamwork and communication next year. My minor will also benefit from improved team dynamics and assignment completion without retakes.