During the class, my professor created an in-class activity. He asked each group to work together to build a tower, using cups, tape, plates, small sticks and paper. The team that builds the tower with the highest weight and height within the specified time wins. The groups then compare. The video names our group represents our group. The video names higher group represents the group ranked higher than ours. The video names lower group represents the group ranked lower than ours.
The essay should have required parts and formats below
Comparisons & Performance
Identify one or two observable differences across the teams that might have explained their performance differences.
Below are some potential aspects. Not all of them apply, and feel free to talk about something else. In any case, do not discuss more than 2 aspects: Depth is more important than breadth.
1. Leadership: Was/were there a leader/leaders? If so, what type of leader were they? What kind of leadership did they have?
2. Motivation to participate: Did everyone in the group equally motivated to participate and/or contribute? If not, why? And how did such a difference influence the performance?
3. Task Interaction vs Socio-emotional Interactions: What’s the rough proportion of task vs socio-emotional interactions? How were these two types of interaction related to the performance?
4. Problem-Solving Procedures and Phases: How did the team discuss their plan? Were there any noticeable phases? If so, how could these phases have induced the performance; if not, comment on the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the discussion procedure.
5. Other Structures: Were there any structures other than leadership in your group and other groups? How did it emerge? What did it look like? Did it contribute to the performance and communication of the group?
Task Interdependence: How did the members divide the labor? Were they working on separate tasks and pool contributions together, or did they work together on the same task? How did these contribute to the performance?
6. Composition: Is there any difference in team composition between your team and other teams? Is there more/less diversity? Do you think team composition influenced the way people communicated and/or the overall performance of the activity?
7. Conflict: Were there any conflicts, challenges, or confusion? If so, how did your team and other teams resolve those? Did everyone agree with the suggestions/resolutions? Did the ways people resolve conflicts affect the results?
8. Planning vs Building: How did the teams utilize the separate planning and building periods? Were they effective and efficient?
Growth: (If teams built two towers) Were there any changes in group dynamics between the first and second towers built by the same team?
When mentioning individual members, please use labels such as “Member 1,” “Member 2,” “Member 3,” and “Member 4.”
Recommendations
In light of the above comparisons, suggest what could have improved the result, along with explanations.
Here are some hypothetical questions to assist your thinking. You don’t have to address them, and you may talk about something else.
What were the biggest struggles you had as you worked with your team members? Can you see any struggles in other teams? How could this have been resolved? What would have eased the process of conflict resolution?
Based on the results of each group, what are your recommendations for each team’s success?
video link:
1. our group: https://youtu.be/LoNKWUxwmWo
2. better group: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnNrdBggdxw
3. lower group: https://youtu.be/zfUXnA6bcPM
