Group Management
“On Thursday, Beth took us to the staff kitchen and blindfolded one person while the rest of us were in teams of: instructing, place setting, clean up crew, and ingredient selection. Our mission was to cook a meal using ingredients that she brought. At the end, we all had to taste it.”
Focus:
The focus of the group varied. Definitely. Some people didn’t want to be there, some people didn’t want to participate, some people were participating. If something needed to be decided, it was either Beth or a part of the group. The entire group never made a decision together about anything. When Beth felt that Copa wasn’t performing well, she pulled him out, we didn’t decide that as a group. I felt that because Beth was constantly switching group members’ roles that we couldn’t establish a focus on the task. If we had constant roles, that would’ve helped accomplish our task better.
Another reason that I felt like we lacked focus was because the task was too small for as many group members we had. As if we had too many people trying to stuff their hand into a small pot.
Clarification:
For clarification, I felt that Beth gave us some instructions, but not enough. For example, at first it was Emily (I think), Mark and I who were supposed to be giving cooking instructions, but another student was also trying to give directions with us. (Which I’ll admit, I was doing later..) However, the other student didn’t realize that once he was done helping pick ingredients, so he was lacking clarification. I felt like we should’ve all been in the kitchen, clarified our roles, the task, and possibly came up with a plan of attack on how to accomplish it most efficiently.
The Mouse:
In my opinion, I feel like we had a lot of mouses. Again, the task was so small and yet we had so many group members I feel like it was somewhat impossible to avoid this happening. When I wasn’t instructing, I was standing off to the side, out of the way of the group members who were active. However, I didn’t experience a mouse when I was an active member of the instructing group. Maybe if we split into two cooking teams if we had two stoves available, we could’ve had less chance of having mice.
The Loud Mouth:
I feel like I may have been this person at times, but also other people in the group were. I feel like the dominate personalities came out and tried to rule. Beth tried to help, but it didn’t really work out so well.
The Written Record:
This principle is a little odd. However, nobody could decide if we were going to keep two eggs and pour out butter or add another egg. Eventually, the group had decided that we would add an additional egg. I overhead some other group members who were confused. We could’ve designated a person to keep notes.
Negative Feedback:
The only negative feedback I can recall is when Copa wasn’t performing well as the project manager and Beth pulled him and replaced him.
Positive Feedback:
To be honest, I can’t recall any positive feedback. Beth gave feedback after we completed the task, but I can’t remember if it was positive, constructive criticism, or negative.
Handling Failure:
We completed our task, not well, but we completed it. I guess our failure would’ve been in the taste. Which we could’ve delegated the ingredients team to fix by adding additional eggs or spices while we were cooking.
Handling Deadlock:
We experienced deadlock when we had too much butter vs. egg. Part of the group wanted to pour out the butter but the other part of the group wanted to add more eggs. We eventually decided that having a blindfolded person pour out hot butter would be even more challenging than having them crack more eggs.
Sign Post:
I think Beth actually provided a lot of this for us. We weren’t doing it on our own. Had we established a team leader, this would’ve helped.
Avoid Single Solutions:
I think this principle also applies to what I wrote with handling deadlock. The first solution wasn’t good enough, so someone added another, which we ultimately went with.
Active Communication:
I feel like because there was one person cooking and 3 (or more) people instructing the m, that there was a lot of confusion. Sometimes whenever, whoever was cooking, was confused, they typically asked for clarification so that follows the principle in that section.
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Tags: groups, n250, team building
The Blind Egg
On Thursday, Beth took us to the staff kitchen and blindfolded one person while the rest of us were in teams of: instructing, place setting, clean up crew, and ingredient selection. Our mission was to cook a meal using ingredients that she brought. At the end, we all had to taste it.
What Went Wrong:
- The amount of butter added to the eggs. I’ll take the blame for that one.
- Not enough eggs being added at first.
- Some people (myself included) were instructing the blindfolded chef when they weren’t supposed to be.
- I don’t think we ever really got past the “storming” stage. Since the team members were always changing, there wasn’t a consistent leader. We might’ve gotten to “norming” when Beth established Copa as a “project manager” in a way, but he was fired for not being able to complete his task.
- Participation varied. Some would’ve have been involved had Beth not pulled them out.
What Went Right:
- Nobody got hurt while cooking blindfolded.
- Eggs were cooked completely.
- Problem solving between all of us was okay. At one point there was a bad butter/egg ratio and someone wanted to pour the butter out but then as a majority we decided adding another egg would be best.
What I Did:
- I was either giving instructions to the blindfolded or not. I don’t believe I had any other role.
- At one point, Beth told me I was giving instructions when I wasn’t apart of the group. After that I tried to make sure I was further away from the action to avoid giving my input when I shouldn’t have been.
What Could Have Been Done Differently:
- I would’ve kicked anyone not instructing out of the room. Too many hands in one small pot, I guess.
Parallels between class and real world:
- Groups can always change. Employees leave/get fired and new hires come in. You won’t always work with the same people.
- Communication isn’t always going to be the greatest. You’re going to have the people who want to be hands on (touching the blindfolded) and the people that would rather communicate through e-mail.
- You don’t always get to pick the projects you work on. You work on ones you don’t want to and you don’t get the ones you want.
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Tags: cooking, cooking blindfolded, n250, team building
VARK
I’m a visual learner. Who knew?…
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Competition
My opinion on competition: I love it. I thrive on it. It motivates me. It’s been a part of my life since I can remember….especially in colorguard and now with running. Competition is a good thing, otherwise, you wouldn’t want to get any better. If a person thinks they’re the best at something, they may be pretty good, but there’s always someone better.
After reading the Wikipedia article, I do see where competition is a bad thing. When competition and the pressure to be SO great (or the best) in education gets so bad that students commit suicide in Japanese culture, it is a bad thing. And the point when competition crosses the line between being a motivator and being a life or death situation, should be monitored and addressed as soon as possible.
The second article “Competition vs. Cooperation,” (the one with Courier-ish font) was a bit lengthy but had interesting points. I feel that cooperation and competition should be separated though. Cooperation should happen within teams and groups. Competition should happen between teams and groups, not within them. “Additionally, individuals who develop a cooperative stance tend to feel more in control of their lives and do not live for approval from others.” I found this interesting because a friend of mine made a comment that while I don’t seek the approval of others, I do relish in praise from people regarding my work.
The third article, on Psychology Today, I can relate again to colorguard. “Across four studies, we found clear and consistent evidence that kids enjoyed shooting free-throws more when they were part of a team in competition against another team (intergroup competition) compared to when they were simply cooperating, competing, or shooting alone. This led us to conclude that both competition and cooperation can provide unique benefits to individuals (and that each may have some drawbacks when experienced alone).” When we were together at competitions, we all united together and wanted to beat the other teams. However, during practice times, there were occasions where I would try to (mentally) compete against another team member to make sure I was either just as good or better than them.
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Prisoner’s Dilemma
Prisoner’s dilemma is when two people are caught doing something illegal. These two prisoners are interrogated separately. Each prisoner is told they’ll serve 6 months if they don’t confess, but only half that time if they confess. The dilemma is that each person needs to decide if they want to save themselves and become a rat, or save the group and serve more time.
To be honest, I’m not really sure how it’d relate to the group project we did. (Beth said she’d assign only 1 A grade to a student but we had to decide which student was rewarded.) Or maybe we didn’t do it according to the prisoner’s dilemma. Or, maybe I don’t really understand prisoner’s dilemma. We all decided on a method in which to decide who gets an A, which was an obstacle course, and let people who didn’t want to compete sit out.
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N250 Group VS. Team
Do you think it was a team or a group experience?
I would say we were two teams because we were working toward a common goal to arrange the room in a way that Beth would find interesting.
What was your contribution to the exercise?
I was helping with the chair team during the first half. I suggested stacking them as high as possible and then with other team input we decided to make two stacks because one stack wasn’t stable. During the second half, I helped deconstruct the chairs. I was kind of lost a little bit and felt like I wasn’t really being an effective team member.
How effective do you think the exercise was?
I guess it was our first time working in a team. Nobody seemed to have an issue with anybody.
What would you have changed about the exercise?
Maybe split us up into predetermined teams?
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N250 “3 People”
3 People I Could Find Easy to Work with:
- Stambro – Jerk Whisperer, could be helpful to a group setting where there is an asshole..
- Lecia – Likes to present, I don’t
- Sharayah – Bias, worked with her before. (P.S. We have matching tattoos.)
3 People I Would Find Challenging to Work with:
- Who is Walleyed Squid? You have some spelling errors. My pet peeve. Sorry.
- Alec – Quiet. Answers seemed vague to me.
- Chris – You don’t seem very confident in your abilities.
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N250 1/12 Class Notes
“And don’t cackle! It only takes 37 drinks to feel like a slimy water buffalo.”
“It was decided that a bikini wax strip needed to go around the village in order to protect them from their enemies.”
“What is a group?”
- A bunch of random people
“Why groups?”
- Teachers grade less
- Learn to play well with others
- Easily categorize people
- Break down complex tasks
- Social comfort/fit in & be part
- To have a stronger voice
- More effective than individuals (sometimes)
- Forces trust
What is a team?
- A bunch of
randompeople working toward a common goal - Teams are made of individuals
What is the difference between a team and a group?
- Unity
- Purpose – form a cohesive unit
- Build a team
- Members of a team can be removed
- Removed due to not doing their job, unskilled, attitude, disruptive (from goal), asked to be removed, not a “team” player
And what we did in class today besides discuss this…
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Tags: group, n250, team, team building
N250 Skill Set Inventory
- What is your favorite thing to do outside of school? Run.
- What is your favorite class and explain why it is your favorite? Probably any class where we accomplish relevant work.
- What are you good at doing in New Media? Designing (web/graphic) and front-end development.
- What are you good at doing outside of New Media? Planning.
- What is your favorite area of New Media (you don’t have to be good at it, but you have to like whatever you talk about for this one?) What I’m good at: designing and front-end development.
- Do you prefer to work independently or in a group? Please explain why. I prefer to work independently because I end up being such a control freak most of the time if no leader emerges. I don’t want to depend on other people to get things done because I don’t trust people I don’t know. If I have to be in a group, I prefer to be in one with people I’ve either A) had good group experiences with in the past B) someone I know.
- What New Media classes have you had? All of them? Um..what used to be considered “web track,” plus Ricardo’s Intro to Sound, Lewis’ Intro to Video, & Seeing Sideways
- In a group project explain what you usually end up doing. If no leader emerges, I take control of the group.
- In a perfect group what would you like to end up working on? (i.e. hands-on work, research, presentation, web development, planning, etc.) Design or development. I’d like to have a part in planning too. I hate groups that work slowly or when people have varying paces.
- What is your opinion of group work? Please explain why. When groups are good, I have no issues. (Of course..) When groups are bad, I feel a majority of the things we listed in our “Why Groups Suck” list portray my opinion. I hate depending on other people for things that I know I can accomplish just fine by myself.
- How do you think other people would describe you? An outspoken control freak.
- How would you describe yourself? The same.
- What do you do when a group project goes bad? When the entire project goes bad, I (seriously) try to make the best of it. Be honest with the professor and hope their are peer reviews if necessary.
- What is civic engagement in your opinion? Volunteering, being involved in the community.
- What experience have you had working with community partners, either on your own, through school, church, or in any other capacity? In Computing for a Cause.
- What do you know about Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB?) Nothing but what you told us in class. But I’ll look at their website after I finish answering this question.
- How do you think New Media (the program and all its resources) could help the community in general, and KIB in particular? Marketing, possibly?
- How could YOU help the community, and KIB, particularly in terms of New Media? Completely honest: not sure. Like I said earlier, probably marketing?
- What are your goals for this semester? Survive capstone and graduate.
- What do you want to be when you grow up? A successful (and employed) designer & front-end developer.
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Tags: n250, skill set, team building
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