Laerning Team

My involvement in the Learning Team environment at the University of Phoenix has been an interesting learning experience. When we were assigned teams at the end of the first week, I did not really know what to expect. I have worked in teams numerous times in my previous college years, both in the professional and private sectors. The teams I have worked on have always been to either produce a product or improve a process in the classroom setting for the real world in which we were preparing for. Learning has always been the purpose of these teams, so I was quite familiar with the process.

The first task my learning team was confronted with was coming up with an effective method of communicating. “High-performing teams have extensive communication mechanisms. They communicate regularly with each other wither in person, via telephone, or through e-mail and keep those unable to attend meetings informed of the group’s progress.” (Teams in the Workplace, Pg. 317) The problem was that our team was never online at the same time so it was very difficult to communicate with the team. It was always either myself or one other person or no one at all.

Our first official task was to create a Team Charter. One of the questions in this charter was to determine if the team would have a leader and if so, the term of that leader. “All groups need leadership. Without leadership, a group may be nothing more than a collection of individuals lacking the coordination and motivation to achieve a common goal.” (Leadership in Groups, Pg.173) Our team never set in stone that we would

Learning Team Experience 3

Officially have a team leader. I volunteered as we started the Team Charter but I backed away because I didn’t feel comfortable leading the team. Being the team leader, would have not only made me responsible for making sure that my part of the project was completed, but also everyone else’s. I consider the team) (and myself to be very unlucky in this, as we did have many conflicts that needed resolving. The team completed the charter on time but it was incomplete due to one team member not completing their part. So, our assignment was returned to us for completion. We finally finished and received full credit for the assignment.

We did not have a team leader for the second team assignment but I considered Gloria to be the leader because she did a wonderful job in communicating with each team member. The assignment was to write a paper on Ethics in the Workplace. The team did not assign parts on who would do what for the assignment. Instead, we all posted scenarios and ideas for the assignment and just put them all together. The first conflict a team faces can be a very difficult one to get over. Teams in the Storming stage can find it very hard to move forward due to the conflict. A feeling of dread can come over the team, and they may wonder if they will be able complete the task at all. (Teams in the Workplace, Pg. 315) Our conflict was over the introduction to our paper. We needed a strong thesis statement that would define our paper. I thought the current statement was far too negative for the content of the paper. Somehow we needed to put a positive spin on it. Even though this conflict