DB 7

Chapter 7

Respond to 3 other student posts. Right now, one 1 has posted. Will update the

document when more have been added.

Student Post #2 (Five C’s)

This is an important chapter. Teams are a huge part of school and working. I feel like so many of

us dread working on group projects. I have had a share of bad teams/groups, but also

good. One of my favorite groups was a few semesters ago. It was a randomly selected group,

but some how we all messed. Looking at the 5 Cs of effective team member behaviors, it makes

sense why this team was so successful. The five Cs are cooperating, coordinating,

communicating, comforting, and conflict handling. All of us were cooperative. We shared

resources and we worked with each other when someone may have not been able to show up.

Everyone was willing to do their part and more to get an A in the class and have a successful

group project. We also coordinated with each, and made sure to hold each other accountable.

Never once did some one fail to complete their part. Communication was key for our group. If

we were going to be late, not be able to make it or had something come up, we let each other

know. We shared our knowledge and listened to each other. We used a group message to keep

in communication with each other. Which is something that I have learned that works well with

groups is having the app "group me" and it allows for easier and faster communication. We

traded off being the “group leader”, but the person never had too much power or took over the

group. At the beginning of our group formation we made a conflict plan, in case conflict did

arise, which it never did because we fully trusted each other and respected one another. Lastly,

we were comforting towards each other. We all had a lot going on but were supportive of each

other. Not once did I feel like I had to pick up another members’ slack or not enjoy being with

this group. We even enjoyed hanging out with each other outside of group meetings or class,

which I think also helped the group dynamic. Has there been a time you really enjoyed working

with a team or a time you did not enjoy working with a team in school or at work?

Student Post #3 (Virtual Teams)

This chapter has been very interesting to me as it does directly relate to my day-to-day job with recently

forming a new specialized project team. Team dynamics are very important to understand when you

are not an individual contributor. Virtual teams can pose a challenge when trying to understand team

dynamics as meetings and even one-off conversations can be more of a challenge. When trying to

understand why someone may come off a certain way it can be much harder with a virtual team than if

you were in the same office since you cannot just get up and go chat with the person.

The project team I am on has decided that all of our meetings will be held using our laptop cameras. We

are spread throughout the United States and even India and it can be very hard to feel like a close team

when you never get to see the other team members. The cameras make it easy to see the other

persons expression and better understand if the person is upset, happy, or even shocked at something

that has come up. It also helps to ensure everyone is engaged during the discussion because you cannot

multi task since the other members can see what you are doing.

Being able to be part of a team that is virtual has it's downfalls and also benefits. We are spread out in

different time zones so are able to get more work completed throughout the entire day rather than one

specific set of working hours. However, the timezone differences can also make it hard when trying to

schedule meetings. The majority of the team also works from home and has the ability to be more

flexible with their time since they are not constrained with traveling to and from the office. I have the

benefit of working remotely and have much more flexibility in my day. It makes it easy for me if I need

to stay on a conference call until 7pm to accommodate my west-coast partners; however, if I have

technology issues then being a part of a virtual team is not very good.