The purpose of this paper is to reflect my personal experience working part of a group in Assignment 2 using the concepts and theories from Topic 6 of Groups and Teams. My reflection has grasped my ability to learn and recommend strategies to manage performance of the team.
Through the brief background introduction of the students, this gave me an insight of each person and the groups. I joined Group Report 01 because I felt they were the most down to earth bunch of colleagues with life experience, who were open to ideas and seem to have a good support attitude. Being accepted immediately created a high motivation to do well. The first week was a combination of forming, storming and initial integration stages of the group, (Wood, et al., 2019, pp. 221-222). For example, the members got to know each other in the first week, understood the objective, allocated tasks and coordinated the schedule. While deciding on responsibility of the tasks, I had already started on Section 1 task and volunteered the Introduction task, as it was closely related to my part. The total integration is the next stage where team members interact with each other’s ideas and discuss their creative views, (Wood, et al., 2019, p. 222). I regularly forwarded my drafts to the group, as I understood others required this information to be able to do their work and welcomed any comments. I believed we worked as an effective group, by completing my section on time and continually sharing information, which created motivation, good impression of the group’s characteristics and set the work pace, (Wood, et al., 2019, pp. 211-212). The adjourning is the last part of the group development, (Wood, et al., 2019, p. 222). As each member had a tight schedule and was reunite at the end to achieve the word count requirement before adjourning, I realised we were a successful team and I would be glad to work with them again in the future.
Recognising that our team members worked very well on an independent to interdependent levels, (CSU Charles Sturt University, 2019, p. para 2). For example, I worked independently to complete my section with practically minimal supervision, we still had to coordinate the work and rely on each other to get the work done, which is on an interdependent level. It could be argued that even though I had minimal group communication with the whole team that could have resulted in poor decisions and issues. However, I understood the urgency and time management to meet deadlines for a successful outcome. This seem to override the lack of group communication by having strong group task performance. I regularly communicated with Matt Bridges informing him of my updated work and giving information for other sections was posted on Interact2. In the beginning I had requested to join the messenger group, but when nothing happened, I was too scared to ask again. Apparently, another me, ‘Suzan Rundle’ was added to the messenger group and this was only amended a week prior to submission. To my amazement, after reading the messenger history there was not much to catch up, since I was very efficient and active on Interact2. This has made me realised that my regular updates in Interact2 to the group was an important fact that I was working with the group even with lack of group contact. I recognised the need to trust and voice myself, where it could affect the outcome and for my team members to see my perspective of the matters related to this work.
Team work opens up different experiences and views to myself. I have gathered insights that I could have not come about if I had done the assignment on my own. Through a small group, Self-Managing Teams (SMTs) members were able to self-direct and self-manage on a day to day basis. Members in SMT possessed similar attributes and skills to work well together and make good decisions on dividing the tasks, scheduling work, perform more than our own set of tasks and assist others to achieve more than just being individual, as we applied a wide range of skills to assist to evaluate other member’s work, (Wood, et al., 2019, p. 260). For example, each member was self-driven and self-motivated and focused on the goal. I quickly decided to take the responsibility of finishing Section 1 early and providing my drafts along the way to assist other members to be able to start on their work. I also procured the responsibility to completion the Introduction task and assist other members by providing information and references I found in my research that was related to their section. The benefits of integrating the SMTs concept and theory into our actions improved our work attitudes, productivity and production quality and avoid any disruption and loafing, (Wood, et al., 2019, p. 261).
Our group was a gathering of five people to achieve a common objective, however our team was a group of people who were accountable for their action and have a purpose in the group. My team members had taught me the following positive benefits through working together, (Wood, et al., 2019, pp. 205, 241).
· It made a huge difference towards my attitude and response towards other members by just being accepted immediately. I felt, even though others knew my English level was not up to standard and being open about this, I was not discriminated, but was instead given support. For example, when requesting others to read through my section for grammatical proofreading, I was amazed of the existence of group support. In the mannerism in which the team responded I felt I was respected as a professional person and part of the team. I learnt a new strategy on how to manage the performance of other member’s work with appreciation and assertiveness through positive attitude.
· Each member of our team possessed different experiences and perspectives. Sharing our insights opened up my knowledge and view of different ways at looking into SMTs strategies. I learnt that we worked well together and made good decisions on allocating and/or volunteering tasks, scheduling work, as this provide us with a wide range of skills and knowledge, (Wood, et al., 2019, p. 260).
· Working with others enhanced my self-awareness and identified some of my strengths and weaknesses. For example, acknowledging my interpersonal skills, such as loyalty, a doer, hard worker and motivating others, but not so good at speaking my voice. This has come to my knowledge that I still have a lot to learn on leadership skills.
Reference
CSU Charles Sturt University. (2019, MAY 01). Topic 6: Groups & Teams. Groups and Teams. Bathurst, NSW, Australia: Charles Sturt University.
Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Wiesner, R., Morrison, R., Factor, A., & McKeown, T. (2019). Organisational Behaviour - Core Concepts and Applications (Vol. 5th Australasian Edition). Milton, QLD, Australia: Wiley.
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