If you were to conduct a survey to discover why people dislike working in groups you would discover that there are two specific events that consistently contribute to bad group experiences: (a) group members are not aware of (or are not committed to) accomplishing group goals; and (b) one person in the group does all the work (either by default, or worse, because they believe in order for tasks to be completed correctly they must complete them alone).
It is interesting to note, however, that even those people who report having had negative experiences working in groups will not hesitate to participate in athletic competitions as a member of a "team." Why? Because teams are different than groups. Being a team member is fun! Teams have specific goals-- Team members have learned that team goals cannot be accomplished unless everyone participates and works together--and Teams have developed a shared strategy which allows them to evaluate their progress.
This course is designed to make learning fun and permanent. It provides students with the opportunity to participate as members of a "Learning Team." Learning teams make it possible to focus the vast majority of class time on developing student abilities to USE course concepts--as opposed to simply learning about course concepts. The key to success is a proactive and shared strategy which provides regular feedback.
In order to be successful, however, it is important to consider your personal learning goals for this course. What do you expect to gain from this course? How can what you learn in this course be applied to your future? What are your individual goals? How can a "Learning Team" help you achieve your goals?
Believe it or not, when you've completed your college education and you begin devoting a majority of your energy to a chosen career, you will find that most successful companies and organizations expect employees to have mastered the interpersonal skills to work in teams. Organizations know that competent employees enjoy working in teams because they are more productive--and that means greater profit margins for the company! College communication courses provide the best learning environment to master these skills.
Where do you start? First, you and your team members will need to identify both individual and team goals you want to achieve over the course of the next fifteen weeks. Secondly, you will need to identify specific criteria and procedures you will use to evaluate the individual members of your team and the effectiveness of your team as a whole. Of course, your criteria should in some way reflect and connect to your team goals. Areas you might consider as you and your team members identify your team learning goals and create your peer evaluation procedures and criteria (including specific peer evaluation forms) include the following:
The
Outcome
How can your learning team
optimize productivity in order to satisfy the requirements of this course
(as discussed in the course syllabus)? What set of criteria can your team
establish to determine whether you have achieved the course objectives?
What do you think will help you satisfy your own expectations for this
course? What set of criteria can your team establish to determine whether
you have achieved your individual objectives for the course?
Group
Process
How will you evaluate your
team's ability to work together? How will you evaluate whether members
of your team have developed a greater ability to actively participate and
work together as a team? What kinds of interpersonal communication processes
(i.e., methods for communicating, making decisions, solving problems, accomplishing
tasks, selecting a leader, etc.) will enhance each members' ability to
work together interdependently?
Well-Being
of the Members
How can your team ensure
that your experiences working together will enable everyone to fulfill
their own goals and to facilitate their learning?
First, identify what your team wants to accomplish. What desirable results do you hope will come of the work you do in this team? Whenever you form a new small group, each member will have personal goals (i.e., to get a good grade, to learn skills you can apply to your future, to get to know people, to have fun). As a team, you need to consider each member's needs and goals as you set goals for your entire team to achieve together.
Larson and LaFasto (1989) suggest that in the small groups they observed the most successful ones had "clear, elevating" goals.
The members of these teams had "mutually focused visions" of what they wanted to achieve, and they believed theirs were valuable goals to reach. On the other hand, the goals of ineffective teams were "unfocused and politicized." Somehow the goals of the less successful groups had become insignificant, and their vision was swept away by too many of the individual goals and responsibilities of the different group members. How will your team take advantage of Larson and LaFasto's research findings?
Most important for developing
a "mutually focused vision" or a "clear, elevating goal"
is to identify the goals and specific criteria you will use for judging
your accomplishments as a team. Set goals that are clear and worthwhile.
Develop specific criteria that will help each individual team member
understand what he or she will be responsible for in your team's efforts
to reach the goals you have set.
Successful achievement of team goals results from superior processes. To develop specific criteria for evaluating your team's process you will need to look at two aspects: (a) communication and relational process, and (b) task processes.
Communication and Relational Processes
These processes are important to conveying meanings about individuals, the team, and the task; establishing supportive or defensive climates; and determining the ethics of a interpersonal small group interactions. The quality of your team's communication and relational processes will be primarily responsible for determining the level of success your team will achieve. The following questions will help you focus on specific criteria you wish to use to evaluate the quality of your team's communication and relational processes:
Goals and Vision. What are your team goals and vision for this semester? How will your individual and team goals contribute to a larger team vision?
Support. How will you support and reward the members of your team? How will you help members feel they are an important part of the team?
Autonomy. How independent do you want your team to be in its work? How free are you to set goals; develop solutions; make decisions; assess your work independently?
Cooperation. How, and in what ways, will your team operate with other teams within the larger class? How will you ensure that these relationships are effective, well-coordinated, and mutually beneficial?
Shared Leadership. How will you determine what roles and responsibilities team members will perform? Will each member be expected to help in guiding and encouraging successful communication and the establishment of healthy relationships between team members?
Dialogical Ethic. Do you expect members to treat one another authentically, equally, inclusively? To confirm and support one another? To respect one another; appreciate diversity; seek understanding and empathy and enable critical thinking?
Communication. How will you ensure that team members communicate effectively with one another--both verbally and nonverbally? How will you encourage team members to use dialogical listening and questioning?
Climate. Do you expect the climate in your team to enable members to be open, supportive, trustworthy and trusting? Will you be able to express what you believe to all members of your team?
Leading. Will the leaders of your team be responsible for facilitating members' ability to contribute actively and freely; to keep the channels of communication open; to inspire and strengthen the team in its goals and its overall communication?
Team Culture. How will your team develop a healthy team identity and personality? How will they take advantage of the synergistic nature of working with a diverse group of individuals? How will your team be cohesive and make other team members feel comfortable with your team's image, vision, and teamwork? How will you manage problems of groupthink, conformity and conflict?
Task Processes
These include defining problems, setting goals and criteria, collecting and analyzing information, using creative and critical thinking to analyze problems, develop ideas, analyze them, make decisions, and solve problems.
Preparation. How will you ensure that team members take responsibility for their work; for getting the information and resources the team needs; for thinking and planning ahead for meetings; for attending all class sessions and outside meetings?
Cooperative analysis. Will your team members engage in cooperative critical analysis of goals, criteria, information, problems and solutions? Will you examine the logic, validity, and truthfulness of sources; causes, effects, inferences, and judgments?
Ethics. Will your team be concerned with examining values; issues of right and wrong; probable effects of decisions on others and on team members? How will you determine whether every member's ethics, values, and beliefs are considered as you work to complete tasks? Is it important that your team make ethically defensible decisions?
Leading. To what extent do you expect the leaders of your group to encourage interaction and decision making; to enable all members to be open and critical in their thinking; to obtain resources necessary for accomplishing the task? Who will manage the meetings and link the team to outside groups and sources as needed?
Meetings. How will you set your agenda for meetings? What do you need to make sure that your meetings accomplish your group's objectives? Do you want your meetings to be efficient and flexible; to encourage cooperative critical thinking? What will you do to make this happen?
Projects and assignments. How will your team make sure every member's input is represented? How will you ensure that your team's final results are carefully prepared and presented? How will your team assess outcomes?
If your team is a success, it will affect you in at least two important ways: your personal growth, and your ability to work interdependently.
Personal Growth and Satisfaction
You can start by assessing your own feelings. In what ways do you want to grow from the experience? Maybe you want to develop a deeper understanding of people; strengthen your interpersonal leadership skills; learn how to help a team work together effectively. Perhaps you expectations include developing a new understanding of how differing people--women and me, cultures and subcultures, political right and political left, able-bodied and physically challenged--contribute to you and you to them. You may also be interested in learning how to perceive the ethical implications for interpersonal communication from a clearer perspective. Hopefully you are interested in learning how to apply these communication skills in other classes and in your personal life.
How will you gain a sense
of satisfaction from this learning team experience? What do you think will
make this course's outcome most gratifying for you? How do you wish to
be rewarded for the contributions you make to the team? How much are you
willing to sacrifice to make those contributions? Knowing what you want
to accomplish from your learning team experience will help you be a member
of a mutually focused team, so give these questions some serious
thought.
Interdependence
Think, also, about the other
members of your team--about how you might help them in their personal growth
as a team member. This, too, provides insights for how you wish to develop
your leadership skills. How will you facilitate each member's opportunities
for growth and satisfaction in the team? How will you encourage group members
to work together interdependently and effectively?
*Permission has been acquired from the lead author to provide a copy of the article with these materials.
The concrete result of your team's consideration of the previous information, particularly those questions related to group goals and evaluation criteria, is two-fold.
Your team will produce a set of group goals and create a document that best communicates those team goals to your instructor. This document should be prepared using the format below and be presented in a professional format.
Your
team will create a peer grading form which lists the specific criteria
that your team will use to evaluate the participation of all team members
(this includes a self-evaluation) throughout the course of the semester.
Your peer grading form should be created on the computer so that revisions
can be easily made. This form should also be presented to your instructor
in a professional manner. Several samples of the peer grading forms
which have been developed by teams in previous semesters are provided on
the following pages.
NOTE: Please make sure that your peer grading form is based on a 100 point scale and that each individual team member can be evaluated on a separate sheet of paper.
Peer Evaluation Procedures and CriteriaInstructions for TEAM ASSIGNMENT:
Before
proceeding, read the four pages which constitute Michaelsen and Schultheiss'
Making Feedback Helpful.
Develop a system for providing performance feedback to the members of your team in this class. This should include:
1. A statement of the team goals and objectives that you intend to achieve. These goals should reflect an integration of individual team members' goals.
2. A description of how you intend to collect the data on which the feedback will be based. Please include copies of specific peer grading forms as examples of data collection instrument(s).
3. A description of the feedback process you intend to use. Please specify:
5.
A statement of how the system provides input into the grading process for
the class.
1. Is the group collecting data they will need to support the achievement of their objective(s)?
2. Will the procedures they intend to use support the achievement of their objective(s)?
3. Are the procedures they intend to use practical (i.e., can they be implemented effectively given the specific situation in which they will be used)?
4. Have they accurately anticipated the problems they are likely to encounter in implementing their performance feedback system.