What was the objective of the task?
The objective of this task was to gain the highest possible points by constructing a tower made of newspaper and joint together by sticky tape. We were competing against several other teams in which I believe my team was one of the most efficient out of the other four or five teams. We had forty minutes in order to complete the task so we had to use our time wisely in order to gain the highest possible marks.
How can you measure its success (what is your criteria and why)
I could measure the objectives success by analysing what I and the team did wrong and what we did badly as individuals or as a team. I believe I contributed on how we were going to structure this tower in order for it to be stable and match the criteria which was given i.e. - the structure had to be stable in order to gain points. At one point of the activity there was conflict between the team but me and a few other members of the group decided to be the bigger people and compromise as it would reduce conflict within the team.
Advantages of Working in a Team
There are many advantages of teamwork. We’ve all heard the phrase “two heads are better than one.” If you have more minds set on a specific goal, you can have access to more ideas. Looking at things from the perspective of others can increase the likelihood of quality improvement. Teams create an environment of support and push people towards performance. A team environment can boost the confidence of individuals, allowing them to do their best work. Good teams make the most of individual talents. Where one member may be weak, another might be strong and working together they provide the perfect resource for an organisation. The more people work together, the more they learn and step away to become better workers in their own jobs. Teams can create better communication and respectful relationships among employees.
Disadvantages of Working in a Team
For every advantage of working in a team, there is the flip side. Basically, if there are too many people, too many ideas, and too many “experts” to come to an agreement and achieve a good result it will resolve into a huge conflict between the team. It is simply why we have to constantly be reminded that there is “no ‘I’ in team.” When people can’t leave their egos behind, conflict and resentment arises. People become unwilling to open their minds to other perspectives and are intent on either forcing their point of view or not cooperating with others. The more conflict, the less improvement is made, the further the team gets from performance and meeting goals. While a team has the potential to boost up the individual members, if it is not functioning properly it can make some members feel inferior and unimportant. They contribute less and are discouraged from accessing their strong qualities. How much each person is contributing or not contributing becomes the focus of the individuals – some feeling they are carrying the team, others resenting those who are taking charge. Relationships and communication worsens. The team is unsuccessful and the individuals walk away worse off than when they started.
Make justified suggestions on overall team performance such as improvements to any areas you feel needs to be better in the future and why
One improvement for the future is to plan well before hand before we actually start the task as it becomes easier and less time consuming and not having the need of worrying constantly as we as a team would have more time during the activity to discuss further advanced plans to improve on the structure of the tower. My team lacked on monitoring as we would need a huge improvement on it. Monitoring involves checking how well things are going and spotting problems. The principle tool for doing this is the initial plan that you will give set out, as discussed earlier. We could have team meetings in the future to assess how we was/were doing and this link into monitoring as team meetings provide the opportunity to check on progress against the plan. By spotting areas where the team is falling behind the plan, it is possible to allocate additional resources and time getting back on track. My teams preventing and resolving conflict skills were ok not the best but did help during the objective that we needed to complete. I feel as me and my team would need improvement to out preventing and resolving conflict skills s preventing and resolving conflict is important in reducing tem tension in a team and raising team morale. You can resolve conflict by stepping in when there is a disagreement. One way is to try identifying and maintaining the positives in both optional; this will make it a ‘win-win” situation so hardly any conflict is raised. Another area my team would need improving on is valuing and supporting others as most people went their own ways only certain people stickled together. Our team leader stickled together and havieing good team leaders support all the members of the team. They look on the positive side and are typically encouraging. When reviewing progress, the team should focus more on what went well, although the team would need to identify the weaknesses as much but only in a fair way. The team members can value others by pointing to their success, identifying who did what well.
Explain how individuals and the team leader contributed to the team’s effectiveness,
A team leader works with most of the team as the team leader is the heart of the team. The team leader supported the team members by motivating them until they succeed there aims and objectives which is good because it creates team moral and self esteem making the task run more smoothly and effectively. If there is any conflict between any members in the team the team leader can resolve the conflict by helping the talk it out and put things back into place by leading the team back onto track. Certain individuals helped the team out a lot as they had different tasks to do but would be bring a good outcome to the task. An example of an individual was me as I helped with designing how the structure of the tower was going to look like and how it would stand strong, as the other members of the group discussed it out and talked amongst them self. The team leader helped contribute the team’s effectiveness as he was the main person who leaded me and my team through to the finish line, he helped motivate us and keep the team cohesive which was a good outcome as if we weren’t as cohesive the team would of have just fell apart and we wouldn’t not of have completed the task which would of have lead the failure of the objective not being met. Individuals are also a big part of the team as individuals are the main workers of the group and produce most of the work even more than the team leader in my opinion.