Completing Projects as a Team

Completing Projects as a Team

The process of completing a computational science project is time-consuming and intellectually challenging. A single person will rarely have enough knowledge, experience, or time to understand and complete each facet of the project. It is also all too easy for one person’s commitment and enthusiasm to waver during a long-term project. Several people pooling their skills, talent and knowledge, should result in gains in quality and productivity. People working together can also sustain the enthusiasm and lend support needed to accomplish a decisive goal.

Defining a project, gathering data, developing code, writing a report, are components of a successful project. To complete these tasks, team members must work out personal differences, identify individual members’ strengths, and balance work on the project with other academic and extra-curricular commitments. A team can concentrate on project goals best when team members:

• recognize their dependence on each other and their need for mutual support;
• feel a sense of ownership in their project and are committed to goals they helped establish;
• apply their talent and knowledge to team objectives;
• work in a climate of trust;
• practice open and honest communication;
• recognize that conflict is a regular aspect of human interaction; and,
• work together to resolve a dispute quickly and constructively.

As a team works together on a long term project, they usually go through four predictable stages.

Figure 1: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing

Stage One: Forming

The forming stage is a stage of transition from individual to team status. When a team is forming, members are exploring the boundaries of acceptable group behaviour. There is considerable time spent off-task and, consequently, there is some confusion. At this stage, teams should focus on the following actions:

• establish the norms of acceptable group behaviour;
• determine individual roles;
• define the task and decide on how to accomplish

it;

• determine what information needs to be gathered;
• communicate openly about personal likes and dislikes; and,
• engage in team activities that build trust and communication.

Stage Two: Storming

In the storming stage, team members realize that the task is more complicated than they imagined. Members may be resistant to the job and fall back into their respective comfort zones. There are sharp fluctuations in attitude about the team and the project’s chance of success. Communication is poor, with little listening occurring. Among team members, there is disunity increased tension, and conflict which divide the group. Collaboration between members is minimal, and cliques start to appear. The following actions are recommended at this stage:

• ensure forming stage issues are answered;
• reestablish, clarify, or modify ground rules (norms);
• negotiate roles and responsibilities; and,
• listen, listen, listen.

Stage Three: Norming

In the norming stage, team members accept the team, team ground rules, their roles on the side, and the individuality of fellow members. Competitive relationships become more cooperative. There is a willingness to confront issues and solve problems. Conflicts are avoided by expressing criticism constructively. There is more sharing and a sense of team spirit. As team members become more comfortable working together, they have more time and energy to spend on the project and can make significant progress.

Recommended actions are:

• do detailed planning;
• develop criteria for completion of goals;
• build on positive norms and change unhealthy patterns; and
• encourage continued team spirit.

Stage Four: Performing

In the performing stage, team members have gained insight into personal, and team processes and have a better understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They have gained the ability to prevent or work through group conflict. Members have learned how to resolve differences, and they develop a close attachment to the team. The team is now a capable, cohesive unit; they can begin performing.

• emphasize quality work;
• utilize each member’s talents;
• meet deadlines; and
• I continue to work on team commitment.

The duration and intensity of these stages vary from one team to the next. It may take months for one side to reach the performing stage, while another group is “performing” within a few weeks. Knowing that it is normal for a team to go through these stages will help your team understand and anticipate the process, and take action to build a more productive working relationship.

The teaming process is like a roller coaster ride. Progress will often proceed from climbing to stalling to falling. Feelings may go from excited, as the project begins; too bored or impatient, as team members realize the enormity of the project; to encouraged, as usage data and information isis gathered; to frustrated, as a team meets roadblocks and has to formulate a new plan.

Excellent communication is the component that can help the team progress towards successful completion of a team project. Teammates need to meet often and engage in open conversation. Norms (the team’s ground rules) need to be established early and then revisited and revised at different points in the year. Make diversity among individuals who work for the team by making an effort to use the unique talents of everyone on the team. Understand what is expected and follow-through by being dependable. A team member’s failure to pay his or her part will often pull the team down as other team members abandon their duties to cover. On the other hand, personal sacrifice for the team will be recognized and result in trust and support when needed.

Team Roles

On every successful team, team members fulfil or carry out the responsibilities of several principal roles. Roles may be specifically assigned, shared, or rotated among teammates. Tasks that are important to a team include:

Team leader

The responsibilities of a team leader include:

• encouraging and maintaining open communication;
• helping the team develop and follow team norms;
• helping the team focus on the task;
• recognizing stages of team development;
• actively listening and
• dealing constructively with conflict.

Recorder or Scribe

The recorder is responsible for:

• keeping a record of team meetings;
• printing team assignment; and,
• maintaining a record of the team’s work.

The record should include decisions and problems discussed, an action list with individual assignments noted, and a file describing items for future discussion.

Public Relation Person

This person should have excellent communication skills because they are responsible for:

• contacting resource people outside of the team;
• corresponding with the team’s mentor; and, working to maintain excellent communication among team members.

Being a Team Member

In our text, the author reflects on the discovery of what it means to be a team member when he examined Colin Powell’s first contact with real teamwork and how this contact inspired him to become the leader with which we are all now familiar.  Powell wrote in his book My American Journey:

My experience in high school, on basketball and track teams, and briefly in Boy Scouting had never produced a sense of belonging or many permanent friendships.  The Pershing Rifles did.  For the first time in my life, I was a member of a brotherhood. The discipline, the structure, the camaraderie, the sense of belonging were what I craved.  I became a leader almost immediately.

Powell went on to distinguish himself in every position in both a stellar military career and finally as Secretary of State in the George W. Bush administration.  It says he was the right person at the right time or as our author alluded to, Powell demonstrated the power of the Niche.

Good things happen to a team when a player takes place where he/she adds the most value.  Many players may be aware of the group, and on roles, they are not suited and the anxiety and angst that those individuals endured as a result.  Maxwell wrote, when people are in the wrong place, the dynamic of the team changes, and since the momentum of the team changes according to member placement, he postulates the following:

The wrong person in the wrong place      =             Regression

The wrong person in the right place         =             Frustration

The right person in the wrong place         =             Confusion

The right person in the right place            =             Progression

The right people in the right places          =             Multiplication

Finding Your Place on the Team

So now that we know a little more about team member placement, how does one begin to flesh out your team.  Start by finding the right place for you.  Our author suggests that one should be secure, get to know oneself, trust your leader, see the big picture and rely on your experience.  When you discover your place, you will say, “There’s no place like this place anywhere near this place, so this must be the place!”  A place for everyone and everyone in their place.

To effectively place people in the right place so that to maximize their talents, you need to know the following:

• You must see the team’s vision, purpose, culture and or history. You should begin by assessing where the team is at the moment.
• You must know the situation; good team builders see where the team is and what the position requires.
• You must know the player.  Start by evaluating each person’s experience, skills, temperament, attitude, passion, people skills, discipline, emotional strength and potential.