Blog Reflection 7 – Team Project: Best and Worst

Blog Reflection 7 – Team Project: Best and Worst

What follows is a reflection on my working process with Team Splashy in this course. I outline the best and worst parts the process as experienced from my perspective.

First: The Worst

It really is a misnomer to characterize any part of my work process with this team as bad. It really was a great experience working on this project with such strong teammates; but more on that later. Since this assignment calls for identifying the worst, I’ll take aim at that target. (partially hoping I’ll miss) The worst part of the process has been the inconsistent assignment of tasks for each part of the project. For our second assignment, we were able to clearly lay out the assigned tasks, but then in our third assignment, the responsibilities for each task were a little less clear. Some were identified, but others were open ended. All the work was completed, and the assignments turned in on time, but the team member doing each piece of work was identified on some of our projects as we went along, with our due date approaching, instead of at the outset of the assignment. As I mentioned, this didn’t happen on every assignment, but the lack of consistency in this vein is what I would call the “worst” part of the process if I must focus on a negative. I can’t leave it there though, because we worked together as a team over the course of our projects to address this, meeting to identify tasks in the upcoming assignments and making sure everyone knew in advance what piece they would own.

And Now: The Best

            In my view, the absolute best part of Team Splashy’s work process is its flexibility. We have invested, committed, and responsive team members who follow up with one another early and often to find out what needs to be done and when. We worked well together in clarifying requirements of assignments and helping point out areas of concern in our collective work or asking questions about things we might have missed. Our schedules away from our schoolwork varied and we had to be flexible to come together at times where everyone could be available. This led to some narrow windows for getting our work done in some cases, but our team’s adaptability made it work. This is a very talented and bright group, and I am very satisfied with and enriched by the work we did together.

Impact on Future Career Teamwork

            My experience with this team’s work process has taught me a couple of things. First, there are areas where I can improve as a team member. I have some professional experience being in charge of teams and departments, and I can easily take the reigns of a project to try and get it done. While this is a useful skill in some cases, it is not conducive to building an effective team when applied all the time. I think to make the teams I am on in my career in the future stronger, I will try to evenly balance my contribution of opinions with those of my teammates. I want to be more mindful of how often I speak relative to the amount of team others are offering their thoughts. Second, I’ve also learned that sometimes people don’t speak up because they are more comfortable listening and considering what everyone else has to say rather than contributing their perspective. And others might feel it is unsafe to share what they are thinking. I want to encourage others who might be slow to speak up or share their opinions that what they have to offer is not only welcome, but vital to the team’s success. I want to be more adept at developing a team environment where everyone feels at ease to share their thoughts and where everyone feels valued and heard.