The Wheelchair Team, "AGP - Arthrogryposis Going Places" at a social activity
Teamwork is hard work. On the teams I’ve experienced, some teams seem to instantly connect, ready to work together effectively and efficiently. Other teams take a while to warm up to each other. And other teams just don’t seem to work at all. Sometimes, the best solution I’ve had for a dysfunctional team is to try to do parts myself, and then push the rest onto other people in the group. But for design projects, teamwork is absolutely essential. Not only does having people to work with allow greater productivity, it also allows better ideas, wider outlooks, and a variety of skill sets.
So how do we cultivate good teams? It’s so easy just to think about the challenging team situations we’ve been on. How could any of us Apprentice Leaders know how to work perfectly with a team? How could we even claim to have figured it out? For the most part, teamwork is just something that happens. In my experience on teams, I mostly just think about myself and the idea we are all working towards. Other people come into play when they can help make my life better or bring us closer to the goal. So to sit with these teams of students, and not think about ourselves, or even necessarily about the projects, but just about shear teamwork and what healthy teamwork looks like, it can be enlightening. Suddenly all my tendencies to dominate groups I’m in become obviously inappropriate. Suddenly my greatest desire is to see each member contribute in some way and feel “enfranchised.” If I see one student taking complete control, I see that student as an enemy to the good of the team.
Not only is this kind of meta-analysis challenging, it’s also hard to know how fruitful it is. Once I’ve arrived at some level of understanding, how can I actually do something to push a team in the right direction to grow as a team? Or how do I know when a team has “arrived?”
One thing we AL’s did to try and build team connectedness was throw a social for one of the teams. We set a rule: no talking about the project for the duration of the social event. Instead, we hung out, played pool, drew pictures, and learned some about each other. I thought everything was perfect, until I realized that the same dynamics that bothered me in the classroom were also present in this social interaction. Once having put on these group-interaction analytical goggles, could I never take them off?
And even though I don’t know what I’m doing, it is encouraging to see all the teams moving closer together. Maybe the point of this isn’t to “arrive” anywhere, but to leave where we used to be?