My experience so far for teamwork is school assignments and my high school frisbee team. I think if you know you’ll be with the team for the long haul, it’s good to get to know each other and host events solely for the purpose of ice breaking. Though often for school assignments, we just cooperate because we have a common goal and that goal doesn’t necessarily involve making connections within the group, we’re just focused on getting things done. And I think if the group is for the short term you can get away with having certain few do the bulk work and having free riders. Teamwork is used to maximize efficiency and if a person can’t do their share, it’s just going to hinder progress. It’s better to have people specialize in what they do rather than divide into fair “equal” loads. Then in that case, yes it’d be important to get to know your teammates first like Christa said.
Rose Scholars Fall 2018
Endless possibilities
I very much agree with your analysis on the dynamics of team-work. When in a team for the long term, it is very essential to have a good team work-ethic and set expectations clearly. This way the work done is faster, better and develops an amazing team spirit.
I agree that if people are forced to form a team, such as for a short-term project, the team dynamics and cohesion are not always priority. In my experience, these situations often lead to people only doing the bare minimum, with one or two people (the self assigned “group leader”) doing much more work than necessary. If the project is short enough though, the group can still pull a good grade despite a poor team work-ethic and even if this causes a disproportionate amount of work for some people, sometimes it is best not to waste time with group activities and ice-breakers and get right down to business. If the project is more long term though, poor team dynamics would be unsustainable, and it would be necessary to put in the extra effort to bond as a team.