Working in a Team

Working on a team can be a wonderful or painful experience. When you are on a good team, it is the great thing! Being a part of a Super Team is a terrific energizing experience that makes you look forward to coming to work - here are some things you can do to get there.

As engineers, you will experience good and bad teams in the Real World, along everything in the middle. Most of the time, you don't have direct control over who is on your team...but you DO have control over how you handle your interactions with your team mates.

All of my courses are team-based. Sometime you get to choose your team, sometimes you don't.... just like the Real World. For Capstone Design, you will be with your team for two semesters, so hopefully your team works effectively from the start. Here are some guidelines to help make that happen.

Respect your team.

I have noticed a very clear relationship between high grades and good team dynamics. What does it mean to have good "Team Dynamics?" That means teams that are proactive -

  • They anticipate problems and make changes to avoid them.
  • They meet in person regularly, they assign a leader for each assignment,
  • They establish clear goals for each assignment for each person,
  • They collate their deliverables and review them as a team before submitting them.
  • Great teams talk and laugh together.
  • They sit next to one another in class.
  • They get to know one another, share a meal, help each other when one member has a conflict (another test, personal issues, etc.) and stick up for one another so that the entire team is successful.
  • They Gel and Excel.

Average and poor team dynamics have produced no A's so far. Here are some symptoms:

  • Email is the only method of communication.
  • Assignments are made to another team member and not confirmed. (This is often called "Throwing it over the fence" and will not earn you points with your management or your team members. It is disrespectful and sets other people up for failure.)
  • Phone calls are not answered.
  • Face-to-face meetings are rare.
  • Personal problems become excuses not to participate in team deliverables.
  • One team member assumes he/she can "float along" without doing much.

I won't break up a team without a drastic reason, so your best option is to avoid/fix the problem.

Fix team problems positively and proactively.

So what do you do about poor team dynamics? Try not to let problems happen in the first place by clearly agreeing to responsibilities and deadlines. But if problems happen, call a team meeting face to face and address without blame or anger. Identify problems that have happened, and how they hurt everyone on the team. Also come to the meeting prepared with several ideas how you can prevent the problem from occurring again, and make sure everyone agrees with at least one solution.

The next level is to make an appointment with me. You can come individually if you want advice on a situation, but I would prefer the team attempt to work it out before seeing me together. Don't let things go so long that your grade will suffer - everyone is responsible for your project deliverables.

"Our third team member doesn't do any work. She doesn't answer email or come to class. We don't think she should get a good grade in the class because we basically did all the work."

By the time you are this angry, it will be harder to fix your team. See me before you get to this point. Be aware that part of the Real World is dealing with people you don't agree with, may not respect, and wouldn't ever call a friend. Don't take it personally. Absentee team members generally have issues that have nothing to do with you, but happen to affect you. In the Real World, teams may be broken up or a team member removed if things continue to affect productivity and morale. Or good team members may get fed up and resign. Often, the team member with the issue will be given a warning and an opportunity to make things better, so your complaints will never generally get someone immediately removed from your team. Instead, YOU may be sent to company training titled something like "Dealing with Difficult People." Don't worry - your bosses know who the problem is - they just want the problem to "go away" and that may mean training YOU to work effectively with a difficult person. Learn the skill - it will get you promoted.

I won't split team grades based solely on complaints from other team members. Part of your grade is a professionalism score, or a Performance Evaluation at the end of the term. As your "manager," I look at how well each team has functioned, how improvements were made, if problems were identified quickly and overcome, if people made a solid effort to improve performance and team dynamics, etc. Only as a result of all that will I give different grades when problematic team dynamics have hurt the entire team.

Some Links about Effective Teams

Much information about teams exists on the internet. Rather than repeating it here, please take a look at what has already been written. Here are some starts, but surf around.

© 2006-2008 Lisa Simone