Reflection Paper: Working in a Team

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One of the things I find to be most interesting about my team is, if you talked with each person on my team they would have a different story. Example being, I said that I believe we are in the forming stage, while others may say were in other stages. It just depends on who you talk to and their role within the group.

I feel like we are doing the best we know how given our current circumstance in never have done this before. We are completing assignments on time, that’s all that matter I guess. Our strength is that we all have the same common goal, so no matter what we all insure we meet that deadline for the task in a timely manner. I feel we should stop allowing everyone to choose what part of the assignment they would like to do and assign everyone a task for the remainder of the course. To increase our effectiveness we should discuss our strengths and weakness as a team, and see what each member brings to the table, this will us improve as a team.

Part IV: Reflections on Leadership and Accountability

We have approached sixed week working as a team in my group. To be completely honest I would say we are still in our performing stage. Our communication is direct and goal oriented while but in a respectable manner. We all do our part in completing the task for our assignments because at this point team accountability is high. If you say you are going to complete something then we as a group are depending on you to have that task completed. So, now we understand what to expect from our teammates and what’s expected of us as well. We do have assigned roles within our team, but I’m not sure if we are letting our team leader lead because we all pitch in to get accomplished what needs to be accomplished and we don’t put it off on someone else just because they have a specific title. Each week we have a group assignment we still have to wait for each person to select what part of the assignment they would like to complete. I still feel as though if we got together as a team and discussed everyone’s strengths and weaknesses on our team, then assigned a specific role for each member our team would be more effective. My team is at that awkward stage were conflict is being avoided and we’re trying to make sure everyone is happy by letting each member choose what part of the assignment they want to do each week for the assignment. I respect my role within the group, so I don’t voice my opinion to the group because I understand that no matter what you do as a team, leader, or group there’s going to be someone unhappy and/ or someone who feels that there was a better way to accomplish the task. I’ll use this example again, during week two of our team assignment I was the first member to post to the forum about the assignment however, awaiting for everyone to respond and choose a part of the assignment it appeared to the teacher that I wasn’t an active participant in week two and points were deducted from my grade. I feel like that was a team failure because I turned in what was assigned to me and was an active participant in the weekly discussion for the assignment. I feel like if roles was assigned then maybe the teacher would have felt like I did my part. On that assignment I was briefed that I need to participate more in my group, I believe that if we had assigned assignment roles that this process would be less complicated and confusing. Here we are on week six and still in the same situation, everyone go to the forum on Monday and pick a part of the assignment to do and hopefully no one has taken what your strengths are in.

However, I do feel like that’s were accountability comes in. whether you choose the part of the assignment you would like to complete or not you are still held accountable to complete your part of the task. At this point in our group each member understands that they can ask anyone of us for assistance and we will be more than happy to help them out. I have had trouble understanding my part of the group assignment and I post my questions to the forum, within a few hours 3 of the members had responded to assist me with my questions. It would help with accountability if we clarified each member role, however, I believe that right now our role is to get a good grade on our assignments.

When I think of leadership with in my team, it hard to define because we all have our strengths in leadership in our own ways. Although we all may lead in a different manner that doesn’t mean that the other person is not leading correctly. I have always heard that in order to be a good leader a person must be a good follower. I believe that why my team works so well together because no matter what our roles are, we don’t stop there we help each other, we are willing to go above and beyond to ensure that everyone understands the assignment.

I feel like we are doing the best we know how given our current circumstance in never have done this before. We are completing assignments on time, that’s all that matter I guess. Our strength is that we all have the same common goal, so no matter what we all insure we meet that deadline for the task in a timely manner. I still feel we should stop allowing everyone to choose what part of the assignment they would like to do and assign everyone a task for the remainder of the course. To increase our effectiveness we should discuss our strengths and weakness as a team, and see what each member brings to the table, this will us improve as a team.

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Part V: Final Reflections

In this section, you should first describe the final product produced by your team (Assignment 7.1). Include as Appendix A a “handout view” of your slide show from Assignment 7.1. I could not format this power point correctly to be placed on my word document.

I would say I’ve learned to be there for each other and help out when needed. During the first two group assignments I would say that we need to work on our communication to better accomplish our goals. However, then we all got it together and started really helping our and ensuring everyone got it. So, by the end of the course it was already understood if your confused or don't understand, all you have to do is ask someone in the group and they will be more that happy to assist you. And that’s the definition of team, working together to achieve a common goal.

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References

Kanaga, K., & Prestridge, S. (2002). How to launch a team (pp. 8-28). Greensboro,