Team Dynamics & Collaboration
Team Dynamics describe how members of a team come together to reach a commonly desired objective or goal. They are created through interactions and interpersonal relationships amongst group members. Strong team dynamics are created through openness, trust, a willingness to correct mistakes, respect, and consensus decision making. Dynamics like trust, respect, and openness greatly impact your groups potential to collaborate with each other. To maintain strong team dynamics a group must be able to communicate effectively, define role and responsibilities, break down barriers, and productively brainstorm ideas. There are many informal parts of a team that effect a teams dynamic such as informal groups, informal networks, informal group norms, and informal roles.
Team Dynamics & Collaboration in Leadership
Teams are very present in my current organization and with the direction that I want to go they will not be leaving any time soon. To effectively lead my team I must understand how to navigate the different dynamics that are present in my team. I think something that learning about team dynamics and collaboration helped me with is understanding informal roles and norms within my own workplace. I hadn't realized how many informal roles exist within the store that I work in and even within groups inside the store, informal groups if you will. Thanks to the broader view of the team dynamics and collaboration competency that the Organizational Leadership program has provided me with. I recently noticed a few different examples of informal group norms and team dynamics in my own store and got to apply a lesson from my courses to a real life experience.
Artifact
The artifact that I have chosen for the Team Dynamics & Collaboration competency is from a team project that I participated in during OGL 357: Assessment in Organizations. With this presentation I want to focus less on the finished product and more on the team process that it took to get there. I like to compare this presentation to my artifact from the responsibility competency. The reason I like to compare them is because they are examples of what happens when there is no responsibility amongst team members and what happens when a team collaborates and contributes equally. One produces a finished, organized, themed and uniform presentation, while the other looks like the team members never met each other.
Reflection
Team Dynamics & Collaboration in Organizational Leadership
I believe that the structure of this program in itself is proof of how necessary Team Dynamics & Collaboration are. During my time in this program, specifically the last two years, it has seemed like one in every two classes involves a group project. If you wish to succeed as an organizational leader, you must be able to contribute in a team setting. I think that this competency contributes positively to my progress in the Organizational Leadership program because it has taught me and many others how to exist within an organization. It is very likely that whatever organization we work for in the future will require us to work in a group setting at some point so developing an understanding of how to navigate group dynamics and contribute to a team is very important. Organizations of todays age are very reliant on teams and they use them to problem solve and tackle many projects. I think that without the understanding that this program as given me, I would be much more confused on my first day in a new group.
Personal Growth & Development
I think that over the course of this program I have learned a lot about what it takes to be part of a team. I have learned how necessary it is to develop skills like responsibility, accountability, communication, collaboration, empathy and all sorts of other skills. It takes a combination of all these skills to be an effective team member. I don't believe I had a true grasp of what it takes to be an effective and productive team member before this program. I have also learned the true value of teams. Teams are much more creative and collective problem solvers than the average individual because they have more people to contribute to the flow of information and they can bounce ideas off each other to come to a more thoroughly thought out solution.