To Team or Not to Team

 Since the beginning of the year we were tasked with the decision to figure out if we wanted to work alone or with a team for our portfolio. I have gone back and forth on whether I wanted to tackle this independently or have help from a teammate. At first, I thought I wanted to do this venture alone. I planned on creating a short movie intro with the help of just my parents but after doing some team activities I have decided to switch sides and do a magazine with a teammate. We did two team assignments; one was called lost at sea and the other was a social media analysis of another person in our class.  

The first assignment was the Lost at Sea assignment. We were put into groups of four to five people and was asked to rank a list of items from most important to least important. These items were to help us if we were lost at sea. The list contained items such as food, water, maps, fishing equipment, etc. We then compared our ranking to an official navy seal ranking. Let's just say we were pretty far off but we got to know a little more about each other through this process.  

The second assignment we did was the social media analysis. We had to choose another student in the class and analyze any social media pages they owned whether it was a Twitter account, Instagram account, or YouTube channel, etc. I chose to analyze Sarah Belli’s YouTube channel, as we have already worked on projects together in the past. The Videos that were posted were mostly video blogs from their trips to TSA. They also created videos outside of school like around our town or in their neighborhoods. This analysis allowed me to learn more about Sarah and how we can more efficiently work as a team. 

Last week I read several articles about boosting team efficiency and the amazing benefits that come from working with a team. One of the articles talked about the surrealism as well as the love, friendship, collaboration, and the common good that is presented in works of art. Creating a team is somewhat like creating a piece of art. The team members are like different colors, and you have to use each color to complete the final masterpiece. Sometimes it will create something beautiful and efficient but other times it may create something ugly because you mixed colors that don’t go well with each other. Each team member can bring something valuable to the table, but it is up to you to know what colors go well with others and what colors don’t. 

One of the other articles I read talked about the Darci Kleindl, the new general manager of Fortune 100, wanted to make a “lasting impact” on her new employees.  She wanted to stabilize a “culture of trust, collaboration, and accountability--one that would resonate beyond just her direct reports”. Teamwork is the core for any business, “you can have great products, you can have phenomenal software, you can have the smartest people, but if they're not playing together, it's never going to get you ahead”. The Five Behaviors was suggested for Kleindl to use. The Five Behaviors is the “operating system for teamwork”. It helps all members of the team understand how their group is different from others and how they can channel that to learn how to work with each other and become more effective in the workplace. The Five Behaviors help teams determine the trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results that come with working with a team. This article added onto my want to work with Sarah as a teammate for we have already gone through a process like The Five Behaviors. We already know how we work together, we have trust, commitment, and we easily avoid conflict.