Team Summit navigated the assignment allocating tasks and coordinating meetings to complete tasks. Throughout the process and over the following weeks, the group found individuals’ strengths and weaknesses and adapted the approach to suit these. Issues occurred and solutions were suggested and swiftly acted upon to produce a well-coordinated and timely report. There was great diversity and skills amongst group members which was found to be imperative to completing the assignment as the tasks at hand required a lot of in-depth skill in a lot of areas which would generally be unreasonable to expect a single person to know. Something that went well was the team diversity in knowledge of IT areas. It was a surprise which incredible and specific valuable skills everyone had to offer which allowed us to get a head-start in navigating the tools and getting started with the assignment. This reduced pressure on the team to approach the learning curve of learning new software and more focus on getting to know one another. This also allowed suggestions of new software that others were not aware of which would streamline and centralise processes which was beneficial for simultaneous work in remote locations. Something the group could improve upon is the communication skills involved. Some suggestions mentioned upon reflection included solutions as more details added to tasks, more respect to deadlines, streamlining actions such as if a team member could not make a meeting, it would be quick to catch up on the content by reading the details attached to the content title in the agenda. The group learned a lot in regards of how to approach many aspects of the assignment such as social and technical which made the group stronger and using these new skills can now redirect the approach over to the next assignment which will demand more from the team. The group learned that the real-world applications of the necessity of a diverse team is to catapult a project timeline where projects require input from a lot of areas. The team learned the importance of bringing up issues and concerns, conflict resolution and continuing to work to finish an assignment. Overall it was a necessary experience which encouraged growth, built leadership skills, provided experience with many types of personalities, learning to take feedback, navigating timelines and learning new skills along the way which others could offer and teach.
As a group one of the major strong points was the ability to overcome conflict and pull together as a team, this is due to multiple factors the first being the benefit of multiple personality's when conflict does arise between group members it's great to have team members that can give an objective opinion while tackling the problem from there personality particular style of handling conflict. Moreover, it also provides a break from the conflict and allows the team members involved to take a step back and look at the problem from another viewpoint and reach a calm resolution, this is something our group exceled at.
However, a weakness of our group is communication and lack of polish, as this group moves into assignment three things that would help are more concise communication and consistency of groupwork this is for all aspects of the assignment. One thing that is worth considering is appointing a rotating leader just to touch base and follow up on task to be complete by the next meeting due to everyone's schedule being different. The thing that surprised me about group work is how quickly things can escalate and potentially tear a group apart when personalities clash and there is a lack of communication. However, the most important I learnt about groups is everybody is valuable in some way, and everyone shows their strengths and weaknesses in different ways and the more open minded and accepting you can become the more the group also works for the individual.
Team summit came together as individuals seeking other group members. Meetings were organised early, and we quickly found our feet to come together or a regular basis. We also organised agendas, actions and recordings early which showed great team organisation and enthusiasm to work together. A ‘Teams List’ was setup to show rotating chairs & action takers, with a simple filter applied it meant that the next chair and action taker was always at the top of the list.
Whilst a strong start, challenges within the team occurred when there was misunderstanding or required actions and subsequently those actions missed. This was the main area that both could be improved. The correct documents existed, the right discussion happened, and attendees was reasonable throughout. When it came to listing tasks, they were listed as a single line that could have had multiple interruptions. For example, a document to be updated could be updated in GitHub or Teams. Due dates were added against task items however I felt overall as team, we didn’t put strong value against that date. This lead to tasks missed or tasks completed in a different area than expected by other members.
Whilst a strong start, challenges within the team occurred when there was misunderstanding or required actions and subsequently those actions missed. This was the main area that both could be improved. The correct documents existed, the right discussion happened, and attendees was reasonable throughout. When it came to listing tasks, they were listed as a single line that could have had multiple interruptions. For example, a document to be updated could be updated in GitHub or Teams. Due dates were added against task items however I felt overall as team, we didn’t put strong value against that date. This lead to tasks missed or tasks completed in a different area than expected by other members.
All members of the team bring unique experiences and skills that overall creates a strong team that has learnt to build on communication skills and will be stronger going forward into future assignments. The team has proven collaboration through commits in GitHub and MS Teams activity analytics.
Something that went well is the group is comprised of greatly diverse individuals with solid strengths in each area to build up where others need a hand, individuals were willing to offer help and support quickly where they feel their strengths lie. Some issues have stemmed from lack of awareness or understanding of the task, which, on my end, has been resolved thus far as communication has drastically increased.
Although personality test results should be taken with a grain of salt, someone such as myself who is a visual learner really does not benefit from spoken instructions and general notes on tasks (example a title of what was discussed). Moving forward I will personally write a list of the topic, what to-do in a topic, cross check for clarification so I am able to see tasks set out in front of me to do.
A suggestion that may be beneficial is, in the agenda/meeting notes that the titles have dot point descriptions attached so people can quickly refer to meetings to see the tasks. This also may be beneficial for those who have extremely busy lifestyles and would be a very quick way to get updated on the discussions and expected tasks. If a task isn’t done, perhaps asking why would go a long way. It’s one thing to offer help with but if a team member doesn’t know that they’re struggling/ not doing something correctly, they cannot ask for help.
Moving forward being more respectful of the due dates for tasks that trickle onto the next task and improving communication such as the suggestions mentioned above. Being respectful of the deadlines causes assurance for others and affirms trust that team members are working on content.
A surprising event was the ability for the group to come to a resolution of differences and take feedback into consideration which has catapulted assignment content. One thing I have learned about groups is everyone’s thinking process and concepts are different and they are all necessary to provide different approaches to a large assignment where different opinions and design elements are needed.
Team Summit is comprised of a diverse group of people. Although there have been some deadlines missed, from my perspective most issues have stemmed from a lack of awareness for the basic and sometimes ‘un-named’ tasks required. Even towards the end of the assignment, surprisingly it still seemed that some team members were still unaware/confused that they had to update content within the report document as well as the website. The flow-on effects of late submissions has also impacted on the website – with additional work needed to go back and update content/links. Now that we have completed Assignment Two, I am confident we will all improve our communication and that we will have a greater understanding of requirements and a rhythm to our work moving forward.
Some contributions have been submitted late and have needed editing as some have contained spelling/grammatical errors. Moving forward, it would be helpful if individual submissions could be edited by another team member and given the ‘OK’ prior to being uploaded to GitHub to avoid unnecessary ‘re-work’. Referencing has also been incomplete and not consistent we didn’t have a common approach. These are all issues that we will learn from.
Team Summit started off a little slowly but has come together to finish a great report. One thing that surprised me is that half the team are night owls and function at their best as last-minute contributors whilst I am a very routine and process-oriented person. I think the balance and contrast works well for us and we will continue to learn and work together moving forward. Hopefully we have now resolved earlier teething issues and we all have greater awareness of each other’s personalities and learning styles as well as the breadth of tasks required moving forward.
Team summit came from a range of backgrounds, skills and personalities. This was both a challenge but also very beneficial for the team. The ability of the team to recognize tasks that required to be done helped us develop drafts of timelines and manage our time in some way. In saying that, the team was extremely diverse in time management strategies which we all learnt to work with. The team was also strong in the sense that everyone was willing to assist when and if they were able to, should someone reach out for help. Another strong point the team has is the ability to both accept and give criticism and attempt to do so in a constructive manner.
Some improvements I think the team would benefit from in future would be detailed action plans and timelines. Although some deadlines where missed, detailed action plans and timelines would assist the team in identifying tasks that may need extra attention while leaving enough time to allocate to these tasks. Given this, I believe the team would be more effective and efficient in the quality work that was produced as a whole.
Personality tests are designed to be taken lightly. I found it surprising how much the results and being aware of personalities would benefit myself within a team environment. Being aware of my own personality and how it may or may not interact with another personality, how it would contribute and the challenges that may arise from the personality dynamics will be of great benefit in future. I did not expect personality to weigh as highly as it did within this project.
I have learnt quite a few things about working in groups in this project. A highlight for myself in this project is the importance of completing the communication cycle and receiving acknowledgment about the message that the other parties have received.
Working with this group has been a wonderful experience so far and looking forward to working with these Nerds again. Some positive points about the team are that no matter how hard the task has been we have always come through as a whole and it just shows the kind of understanding we have. From personal experience I can say that no matter the time someone is always there to guide me through if I was stuck at something. We always had someone organizing the meetings and going through them was extremely easy, even though we had some difficulties there but at the end it all got sorted.
One thing that I think could be improved is that, maybe the team should’ve distributed the tasks bit earlier to avoid any last-minute changes. We did distribute tasks early, but some tasks were still there unattended. Surprising part about my group was that even after having some bad downfalls we all managed to re-group easily and got the focus on assignment again, and that’s amazing. One thing that I have learned about the group is that everyone is capable of handling pressure situations, mainly when its most needed. Most team members were able to counter any problems that came up and got through it quickly. I would like to just suggest, when the group starts next Project maybe decide earlier what tasks are going to be given to whom, because I found that there were times where some are lost on what they had to do. Overall, I was happy to work with the team and look forward working with them again, I really think each one of us brings a unique skill set to the group which helps us.
Created using original code and creative design by team Summit