Introduction

Team development and improvement are complex and time-consuming. Communication, Clear and mutual goals and a well-defined work ethic are all vital in a well-performing team. This essay aims to reflect my personal learning through my group research paper. By reflecting on the roles played by each of the members in my team I believe it will be an effective way to grow and improve my strength and weaknesses when performing within a team in the future.

Group Description

My group included 6 people Susan(Wenzy), Bob(Young), Alice(Katie), Mary(Reny), Sarah(Naomi) and myself. Throughout our research paper we met up twice for meetings the first being the 1st of October in the hub, unfortunately, Sarah and Alice were unable to attend. Our 2nd meeting occurred on the 5th of October in the professions hub, unfortunately, Bob was unable to attend. additionally, although not set in a meeting situation we did have an open messenger that allowed us to communicate ideas.

My Role and the Others Roles

Teams effectiveness is important for increased productivity. It was evident that it was important for me to understand not only my responsibilities but of my teammates as well, therefore it took careful collaboration for us to gain the ability for us forge strategic plans, divide work equitably and reach our end goal of a research paper of the highest quality. Throughout our meetings, I believe it was evident we didn’t really have a single leader I found Susan, Alice, Sarah and myself collaborated on ideas with the others just agreeing to what was being said. We needed to have a clear purpose and goals I believe that as a team we all wanted to achieve the highest mark possible therefore we came up with a set of key milestones and goals to achieve. We had set time limits on when we had to have our individual research completed.

This was for us to have numerous sources of information to work from to come up with our own ideas to share with the group to set a clear plan in mind on how we approach our research paper. As a team we improved and developed, in how we interacted and communicated. Bruce Truckman developed a theory called “Tuckman’s Stages. ” This theory states that every team inevitably goes through 5 stages of development and growth. I believe as a team we also went through these 5 stages and many of the headings for this reflective essay can be attributed to these stages, which are;1st Meeting and Leadership and decision making in the group.

Stage 1: Forming

This stage took place when we first met up as a team. At this stage, as a team, we discussed appropriate ways to achieve the objectives and goals of our project, at this stage as a team we developed our strategy and discussed our research paper.

Stage 2: Storming

At this stage our team started working together, during this stage we competed for status and acceptance on our ideas, in terms of what contemporary trend to research. There were conflicting ideas and we found the most effective way to choose was by discussing and then voting on what trend we would research. Although this stage says that even members who like to avoid conflict must get involved I found that Bob and Mary did not really contribute their own ideas and only agreed with what was being said.

State 3: Norming

At this stage, our team started working more effectively together. During this stage is when we developed set milestones to achieve to complete our goals. This is where we conducted our research and exchanged ideas to work together, this marked significant progress towards our research paper. 2nd Meeting and Ways that the group experience worked well and ways it could have been improved

Stage 4: Performing

We were able to reach this stage near the completion of our research paper. By this stage we were able to come up with a decision on problems that arose suddenly, like how we forgot to allocate one part of the work, however, we were able to reallocate very effectively in order keep everything fair. During this stage, however, Bob had a lack of communication and had yet to complete his part of the paper.

Stage 5: Adjourning

The adjourning stage was reached once individual parts of the research paper were complete, and members moved on to other assignments. This stage saw our communication drop; however, we were still available for communication on completing the assignment when help was needed.

Conclusion

Hence, upon reflection, I believed that as a team we worked very effectively and productively. It is evident that from this project we have grown as a team to become more fluid on how to work in a team, although I do believe there was a lack of communication through some parts of our decision-making process. However, moving forward I would be more mindful of the stages of team development, and how it interacts with each stage of a team project, to work more effectively and communicate better within my team.