Team Exercise Rich And Nick example essay topic

1) I thought that the team charter was just and assignment. As the teams first official meeting together and project it was an easy way to start to get to know people. This team charter helped us set team goals and gave everyone in the group an idea of what everyone was about. When it came down to the specifics for example rules about people being late, people missing meetings, interruptions, and people being rude we didn't refer back to the charter to see if we should punish the person. If someone could not make it we would just assign him or her a part of the project to do and give it to him or her the next day. For example the team presentations I could not make it to one of the meetings because I had to work and could not get out of it.

When I got back on campus that night I checked my e-mail and Nina had e-mailed me what had been done that night and what I was supposed to do for the next meeting. The team gave me a little more work then what everyone else did but I accepted it because I could not be there to do it when it was supposed to be done. Also about interruptions there were plenty of times when everyone interrupted the group at some point, but nobody frowned upon it. There was no need to go back and look at the charter to find out what we were supposed to do in that situation. The charter is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. I just think that since we knew that we would not have to relate back to the charter the whole semester that we could make some nitpicking rules.

For example one of our lateness rules. I specifically remember Rich showing up about 10-15 minutes late for one meeting and it was not a big deal, we did not have to remind him that he was late he new and apologized and everyone was like "don't worry about it". I don't think that these kind if rules have to be stated, obviously if someone showed up late to every class and meeting the group would have words with that person. As a team we did and didn't adhere back to the charter.

When it came to our goals, norms, decision making, and conflict we looked back at the charter, but for everything else we did not even think to look back at the charter. That part of the charter just had no use to us. At the end of our team charter we had to list everyone's strengths and weaknesses. As I look back at what we each wrote down I think that everyone improved on what their strength was and defiantly in proved on their weakness. Nick put down that his strength was public speaking and his weakness was keeping focused. Nick defiantly knows how to voice his opinion and holds nothing back.

Just from sitting next to him in class he was always answering questions and giving examples of what you were talking about in class. He defiantly improved on that even though he really did not have too. His weakness keeping focused. This was a problem at first when we would go to the library he would see all his friends throwing paper balls very fidgety. As the semester went on he became very goal oriented especially when we did the case "Donny is my leader" there was a lot of work to be done and nick was very task oriented. By our last team meeting you could notice a change in Nick's behaviors.

Rich said his strength was public speaking and that his weakness was taking notes. Rich was a very good public speaker. He always represented our group well in class. He is a very vocal person. A good example of this was our very first class.

You had all the managers get up in front of the class in a "Fishbowl". This was kind of awkward because this was the first class and made people open up to the class and you. Rich went up there and just started shouting out ideas and made our group look very good. Rich's weakness was taking notes. To tell you the truth I do not really know if he improved on this since all his notes are in his personal notebook. I did seem him taking notes the whole semester, so I assume the more you take them the better you get.

I (Rocco) wrote down my strength as taking notes and my weakness was public speaking. When it comes to talking notes I know I am very thorough, and as I stated before the more notes you take the better you get at taking them. I defiantly took a lot of notes in your class so I did get better at note taking. When it comes to my weakness that is public speaking this is very hard for me. At first in your class as you know I was not very vocal. As we got further into the class I started speaking up in class and giving examples as much as I could.

It was very easy to talk in front of this class there were never really any wrong answers, and you squeezed absolutely everything you could out if us. I know that from now on because of your class it will be a little easier for me to voice my answers, opinions, and examples in any class that I take. Nina said that her strength was public speaking and her weakness was tardiness. Nina is a very good public speaker and was always throwing her ideas out in the class. A good example of this was during our team presentation when she had the headphones and was singing and dancing.

This showed that she was very comfortable in front of the class, and did not mind doing something like that in front of the class. Nina said her weakness was tardiness. I did not think this was a problem at all for her. When I read he weakness for the first time and found out that she was a commuter I thought to myself that she is going to be late for everything. I cannot think of one time when she showed up late. I can't think of a time when she showed up late for class either.

Nina defiantly was not tardy at all so she made an effort not to be that way. She improved on that big time. Lena said that her strength was organizational skills and her weakness was public speaking. From the first time I met Lena in class I could tell that she was very organized.

She always knew exactly what was going on and when everything was due. She is one of those people that cannot function if everything is all cluttered which is a very good trait to have. Lena's weakness is public speaking. From the first time I met her I could also tell that she is a very shy person and that public speaking was not one of her strong qualities.

The way you set the class up is that we all had speak up at some point in class there is no getting around it. At first in our group meetings she would not say a word and as we got to know each other more she opened up to us more. In class I noticed that she was starting to speak up answering your questions. I know that Lena's confidence has been boosted when it comes to public speaking. I also think that even though you never said it that one of your goals is to make your students more comfortable speaking in front of the class. I f I were able to change the charter I would not make it so specific with nit picking rules.

The rules that I would keep I would not make so picky. I would have general rules because everyone in the group is old enough and mature enough to understand why we are in the class and knows when to joke around and when not to. They also know that if you are not able to make it to a meeting or class just tell the group, something can be done about the work that you missed. If there is a real problem we know enough to go to you and ask what to do in that situation. I do not think that we needed to write down all those rules, just some general rules that everyone will abide by.

2) All of the exercises that we did this semester had an impact on our learning or you would have us do them. The two that really stick out in my mind are the exercise where we drew pictures about our group that had to do with eye contact, voice and "power puzzle". The Mountain survival exercise. The first one really sticks out in my mind because that day in call there were only three of us instead of the usual five. Myself, Nina, and Lena in class that day. Nick and Rich could not make it for some reason.

The object of this exercise was to see where you fit into your group. The first part was the "eye pie" chart. We did an exercise and after we drew a pie chart and separated with how much eye contact everyone got. I got the most in my group, but I think it had a lot to do with the way we were sitting. I was in the very back and the girls were right in front of me (just like a triangle). So, no matter what I was being looked at the most.

Because we were sitting this way it was much easier for everyone to talk. Ideas were flowing all over the place, the group was calm everyone agreed on everything. This part of the exercise was to see who was paid the most attention too but I think it really had a lot to do with how your group was seated. For example I might not have done the most talking but because of where I was I got the most eye contact. The next part of the exercise was the "voice box".

We did another exercise and after you asked us to drew a box and divide the box up according to who talks the most to least. This time Nina received most of the box. I know this is because the other two boys in our group were not there. Nina was talking the whole time getting all of her ideas on the table. Lena got the second most and I got the least. Myself getting the least does not surprise me because as we all know I just kind if sit back and go with the flow, but I was talking just not as much as the other two.

This exercise was to see who the dominant person in our group was, but for us this was not true because not everyone was there, so our group experienced us all being equal (which you accepted that day). The last part of the exercise was the "Power Puzzle". Out of all the exercises this was by far the best and most beneficial to the group. We were all to draw a picture to tell how the power is separated in our group.

In our group we all had very similar pictures. This is what I drew. Myself and Nick together Nina and Lena together and Rich as the outsider. I drew Nick and myself together because we both play sports here at Merrimack College, and throughout the semester whenever we had team assignments we were always on the same page and I know being part of a sports team has a lot to do with that. The girls in our group always pointed out that when it came to team things that Nick and I were always thinking the same. I put Nina and Lena together because they were the only two girls in the group and you could tell that they felt out numbered at first and would stand together.

They just felt that they needed to sick together, which was fine there was nothing wrong with that. I am sure that if it were two boys and three girls the same thing would happen. Now, I put Rich as the outsider because he loves to start controversy. He was always the devil's advocate no matter what we were doing. At some points we just thought that he would make arguments for the sake of arguing.

The other four of us in the group would all think the same and he would come out of nowhere with almost the exact opposite of what we were thinking. This was very annoying at some points especially when we were doing the case "Donny is my leader". In class that day all three of our pictures resembled each other with basically the same idea. After that day on class us three had realized that we all need to speak up and say what we want and not let Rich and Nick control the group just because they can voice their opinions better then we can. That class went very smoothly for us and we enjoyed it a lot. I can say that that was my favorite class of the semester.

The goals of this exercise were met in our group. We got a lot out of it and from then on the team meetings went a little differently, and we also got to evaluate our other team members which let is know where we stood in their mind. This was by far my favorite exercise as I have said before I got a lot out of it and it really helped our group. The other exercise that sticks out in my head is the "mountain survival " exercise. We did this exercise both as a team and as individuals. We were given a list of supplies that we had with us out lost in the mountains.

We were to list the supplies that we were given from most important to least important. So we al did it on our own and the as a team. We all had extremely different answers. It showed me that if I were trapped with these supplies that I would die.

Also it showed that working in a team could be much more beneficial then just working by yourself in some situations and this was one of them. First of al no one in my group agreed with each other that is the first problem. For this team exercise Rich and Nick took over more Rich then Nick though. Nick was more the voice for myself, Nina and Lena. We would all say our ideas and Rich would just kind of shake them off when after finding out the right answers that we were right more then him. I know for a fact I had 4 of them right and Rich was just kind of like that does not make any sense and would not listen to me or anyone else.

You know I could care less and was like whatever I was just sick of fighting over this stuff. For example I remember saying that the sunglasses should go here and He was like what do you need these fore I said "so you don't go snow blind" (you were actually standing right there). That was just one instance out of a bunch. The girls forget about them Rich thought he knew everything about the outdoors and as a team we ended up doing awful. What I learned form this exercise was that if you do work as a team you will do much better then just as individuals that clearly showed. I did not enjoy this exercise at all.

Not that it was a bad exercise just that the way it went down in my group was bad. The way we were working in class that day was exactly how our group meetings were going. Nick and Rich kind of going back and forth arguing Nick for us and Rich against everybody. We were clearly not working as a team and that is the whole point of the class. Nothing changed after this class. The group did not change until after we did the exercise that I mentioned before when only 3 of us were in class that day.

I do think that this exercise did achieve its goal too show that some things work better in teams if the team is working together not against each other like we were. 3) In the charter under "Norms" there are a couple of things that we followed. This was part of the charter that we actually used. The first one that we followed was everyone needs to arrive to every class and every meeting on time and with their work prepared for class and meetings, unless you notify the group beforehand. If this person was not doing this then we would talk to them and their grade would be lowered on the project that were doing. I only remember one case of this because it happened to me.

It was during the team presentations I could not make it to a meeting and I had told the group 2 weeks in advance that on that particular date I will not be on campus at all until about 11 or 12 at night. They ended up having 2 meetings and finishing the project without me. They e-mailed me my part in the presentation and the part of the paper I was supposed to write. Because of this everyone got A's and B's and I got a C, but I just sat back and said that's is fine I will just do more on the next project.

I did not make a big deal of it because that is not my style. Besides this one mess up by me we never had a problem with this. The group as a whole might have been off task but it was really never just one person. Another one of our norms was when we meet as a team. We would always meet unless stated otherwise at 12: 30 on Tuesday's on the second floor of the library. This time was the most convenient for everyone we made sure of this before this was final.

We did not have to meet every Tuesday because we did not have assignments due every class. This was decided at the end of class on Thursday if we had to meet or not. If this was not even brought up in class then it was understood that we were meeting. Everybody was always at our meeting unless they had said they could not make it and then we would usually reschedule if it were really necessary. Our third norm was Decision-making was a huge part of our group strategy. In order for us to hand something in as a group we all had to agree on it.

If only four out of five people agreed on it then we would not hand it in like that. This happened a lot to us since Rich always had the opposite opinion then all of us. A good example of this is "Donny is my leader". We would all be going through the tasks and doing it out on paper, and Rich would come in and say the complete opposite (not that the case was hard enough anyways).

I know in this case it helped us because he was right about some of the tasks we were doing wrong. That just shows that not all of us agreed and then he stepped in and said that he did not agree, we took it into account as a team and all agreed on a midpoint somewhere. We all thought this worked better then a democracy because everybody would have their own part in any of the assignments that we did as a team. Our fourth norm that I am sure everyone team had was that no one person is going to do all the work. The work will be distributed evenly. If you aren't there you are expected to make up the work and maybe a little more.

When we were doing "Donny is my leader" Nina could not make it to a very important meeting. It was one of the first that had to do with this case so we were getting all of our ideas down. She was not there when we did it so she added her ideas later and offered to type most of the paper because she was not there for an important part of the case. She did make up for not being there that day and made it so that no extra work that she was supposed to be doing was put on anyone else which is the way it is supposed to be done.

As a group on that case we worked very well. We worked around these four norms and some other ones that were not as important as these. Over all we concentrated on the four I have talked about and they helped us through all of our assignments throughout the semester. 4) I know that my group has come a long way from where we were the very first day of class. I think we have only gone up. We set really high standards from the get go that was that we would all get A's in the class.

I think some of us might get A's but not all of us. Still, this does not tell me that we did not put everything we had into our assignments. In the beginning of the semester we really didn't know each other so that does not help when you are trying to get you team work done. As you get further into the semester it gets much easier to work with the people you have gotten to know.

It was hard in the beginning for myself Nina and Lena because Rich and Nick are such vocal people, not that we are not just that we are not as vocal. So they did most of the talking in class and at meetings until we all got to know each other. If you had given us the case "Donny is my leader" in the first half of the semester I could almost guarantee that would have not gotten the grade that we did get which was an 87%. That case shows how much we needed to work together as a team to get it done and get it done right. We had to look so far into that case that not one of use could possibly get that deep without a team working on it. I would say that just about all the time we were on target.

I can only remember one time when we weren't and we all knew it so we all decided that it would be best to call it a night instead of just sitting there not getting any work done and being very unproductive. Overall as a team we really did not waste much time in getting things done. When doing the case "Donny is my leader" we spent a lot of time in the library, but it was time needed in the library. We always had a laptop at our meetings (thanks to Nina) and that really helped us out a lot because we did not need to go into the computer lab where all are friends were and could get distracted very easily. My experience with this team has been a good one. I would say that this has been my best experience with any team.

Some of us did not reach our goals but did what we could to try to get there. My goal was to get an "A" in the class and I know that that will not happen but I know that I can come very close. As a group I know that we did not receive any grade below a B-, which is very good, and something to be proud of. When dealing with the managers in class the managers did a lot of the talking in my group. The managers were also responsible for everything (as he / she should be), but when we got to out of class meetings there really was no manager.

It was just kind if a free for all, not really any order outside of class. Maybe if we had pushed for the manager to really be the manager outside of class we could have gotten better grades. I know that when I was manager the first time I did not take charge of the group at all and I remember speaking with you at our meeting and reading the evaluations that everyone wrote. They all said needs to speak up more. From then on I did make a point to.

When I was manager a second time there was really no homework or project just reading. We did not meet that week so I made it a point to tell everyone after class and call them on Monday reminding them that we did not have to meet. Maybe I didn't not change anyone's mind by doing that but I know that I took some steps in the right direction, and that if there were a project due on my week I would have been in charge of these meetings not just sat back like I did the first time. I realize now that I must speak up and make my point herd even if it causes confrontation (I was doing this by the end of the semester).

The way you set up the class is what made me realize this and how important it is.