Question :
Task: The project summarises the material which have been learned throughout the module through a brief examination of your experience of teamwork. You are required to provide a written reflection of your experience of working in a group for the first assessment on this module and differentiate the different aspects of your experience (example – team processes, team composition, individual differences, leadership style, power, culture and influence) in relation to theory and empirical evidence, as well as to your previous experiences of teamwork (for example, in current or past jobs).
Reflective Writing: Getting Started
Practical exercise – Think of an activity, interaction or event which you have experienced and ask the following questions:
- What happened?
- Determine your role?
- How feelings and perceptions surrounded the experience?
- Analyse the situation to someone else?
- How would you describe the situation to someone else?
- How this experience might mean in relation to your learning/ development? Your current/future workplace?
- How other perspectives, theories or concepts will be applied to the situation?
- Lastly, what have I learnt today?
In consideration with the connections, identified patterns and made sense of past reflections, you are required to plan and implement changes for the future.
Models of Reflection
There are various models of reflection that you can explore to help you with your reflective writing. Driscolls (1994) model is just three questions:
- What? Discuss the experience – what did you do/ read?
- So, what? Analyse the differences made by it, what influence or meaning it has for you in relation to other learning and experiences, why is it considered important?
- Now what? Analyse what are you going to do to continue your professional development in light of this learning?
Answer :
INTRODUCTION
Leadership and Management are the terms that are considered to work synonymously in an organisation (Bush, Bell and Middlewood, eds., 2019). Leadership can be defined as the way in which leaders and managers in an organisation influence their subordinates or employees of the company on a whole in order to motivate them towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation. The main aim of this report is to carry out a reflection on my experience of working in a team.
MAIN BODY
Working in a team or with a group of people means working together to achieve a particular goal and objective. Ideas and suggestions are usually considered instead of just one person working according to him/her. A successful team work is when everyone in the team put forward their reviews and inputs while working on a project (Dartey-Baah, 2016). This helps them strengthen as a team and attain the goal in a much more effective manner. The main purpose of making people work in a team is to enable them to plan and participate in the decision making process in order to generate an effective output/result, identify the right people who will fit in getting a task completed. It also helps in identifying the skills that will be needed and the key people who possess these skills.
We were assigned to work on a project by forming teams and while working as a part of a team I realised that our team comprised of people from different backgrounds having different characteristics, who interacted with each other independently. Each team member had a different approach in working towards achieving the goal and how do they perform as a team. The major role of the leader in our team was to guide and motivate us to achieve the final output effectively of the project we were working on. All the individuals in the team were different in their approaches, personality traits, behaviour etc. from each other as all of us came from different backgrounds and cultures. The leadership style of our team leader was very influential. I have an experience of previously working in a team in my past job where there was a system which helped us organise the communication among us and hence enhance our productivity. We divided the major tasks of the project that we were assigned into small tasks and divided them amongst us. In context to the recent project that I worked on as a part of a team, there was a case when one of the team members was not able to give outputs that were expected of him. Hence, the leader motivated and encouraged him to put in his best efforts and giving out the best results. Also, being a co team member I helped him out with the tasks that he was not able to complete. As a team, all the members were concerned in helping out that person so that the overall team performance was not affected and also in helping out the concerned member. All the members felt that the individual needed help in his portion of work and were willing to help in whichever way possible. This particular incident taught me that while working in a team there can be cases when a minor or major problem may arise within the team. Hence, not only the leader but the members of the team as well should come forward in addressing them in order to maintain as well as enhance the overall productivity of the team. When the concern was raised by the team member regarding his not being able to complete the task, the leader should have spoken to him individually and helped him out on the area of concern. Therefore, all of this has made me learn the importance and value of working as a part of a team, its advantages and positive points that working as a team helps in building trust among the team members, teaches various skills that help in resolving conflicts among the members, there is a wider sense of ownership among the team members, a sense of security and greater motivation and team morale among the individuals. Teamwork makes people give in their inputs, suggestions and feedbacks regarding what they feel. Also, information is shared which helps in maximising the knowledge levels and overall learning of the employees of the organisation on a whole. As a result, there are improved and enhanced outputs resulting in better quality of performance in order to achieve higher goals and objectives. As there are inputs and suggestions given by all the employees thus, the team finds more creative ways of completing the tasks. Working in a team made me make a large number of connections with all the members of the team and hence will be helpful in the future.
According to Discroll's model, which addresses just three questions, we as a team worked on a project that help me interact with all the members of the team who guided me regarding various tasks that had to be carried out as a part of the project (Ferkins, Shilbury and O’Boyle, 2018). This let me know how can I work upon building new skills and enhancing the ones I already possess. In order to complete the tasks, I read various books and articles that were corned with my tasks. This not only helped me complete the tasks that were assigned to me but also increased my knowledge. I got to learn many new things and how to put them to practice. And the difference could be seen in my work output. This proved out to be important because I got to learn many new things, skills besides increasing my knowledge regarding various new topics. All of that I have learnt, will help me in some way or the other in my future endeavours as to how to work efficiently as a part of a team in order to generate results that are efficient. The learnings will also be helpful in other professional organisations that I choose to work for in the future. I also got a chance to make new friends and interact with different people who belonged to various backgrounds. Also, I knew that if I had any problem regarding any task, the team will have my back. Also, we were able to complete the project well within the timeline that was specified thus making the mission successful. Working in a team fostered creativity and learning in me which in turn made the work more enjoyable and creative (Gerbaudo, 2017). Working together raised our level of enthusiasm and sharing the work load which can prove to be challenging for the members of a team who are working together towards achieving similar goals and objectives. It also made me realise my strengths as well as weaknesses and gain a brand new perspective of doing things in a different yet innovative manner. Also, the Gibb's model encourages individuals to think in a systematic manner regarding various experiences they have had during a particular situation, task or activity. The Gibb's cycle starts at description and then follows from feelings to developing an action action plan. The cycle involves a total of six continuous steps (Gerard, McMillan and D’Annunzio-Green, 2017). The model is basically designed for helping out people in learning and gaining experience from various situations that they come across while working