Individual Reflective Report On A Team Organization

Our team consisted of five members. Since we did not know one another very well in the beginning, one of the hardest tasks was to assess how everyone’s attitude toward working in a group was like including the amount time and effort every single member is going to put in our project. My task was to, first of all, propose and eventually select a topic upon the agreement of group members. Furthermore, I had to clarify what we were going to undertake, since only a couple of us had actually read the requirements prior to our first group meeting. It was quite time-consuming regarding the assigning of the tasks.

The division of the tasks itself went properly, due to the fact that everyone accepted whatever he or she would have to perform. We clarified that which was not clear and each team member began executing his or her task. We made the decision to distribute the different tasks on the six of us in order to work independently on a certain aspects. In consideration that there were four main tasks to fulfill and two optional ones, we opted for executing one of the minor tasks as well.

Communication was restricted to moderate in the group. In the very beginning we created a ‘WhatsApp’ Group in order to have a fast and easy means to interact with each other, as everyone is reachable on his or her cellphone virtually always. It helped a lot especially when it comes to setting a date and time for the team meeting.

The presentation was planned to be put together a couple of days before the real presentation day. We indicated that one of us would be charged with the integration of the individual parts before that final meeting. Moreover, this person proposed handling the design, which each group member was fine with. On our final meeting we wanted to merge the last part of a group member who was not as yet finished with his or her part. However, it could not happen to be as it was supposed to be: somehow she did not save her presentation properly and consequently virtually all her work was lost. We assisted her re-do her area of the presentation as good as possible and finally added this final part to our whole presentation. Nevertheless, this team member had other imaginations concerning the design of the presentation. Subsequently, she decided on her own to re-do it and consequently changed it totally, which was kind of annoying and exasperating to a group member who invested time and effort in this particular task. Again, here I observe a problem of miscommunication in our team.

My recommendation in the very beginning was to decide upon a certain design in order not to have troubles in the end to merge the different PowerPoint presentations together. This was unfortunately rejected or only voted for by one person; hence, we did it at very last minute. Here, I see a weakness concerning my own role as a team member. Instead, I should have resisted on taking over the leadership role and basically just implement my idea, but I did not, which turned out to be a minor mistake.

What was admittedly quite creditable in the functioning of the team is the support we offered once in a while to one another. One team member once had difficulties with his or her task and communicated it to the group. As a team we tried to help him or her out as good as possible and gave suggestions on what he or she could add or improve in order to solve the problem. Also concerning issues of understanding, no one hesitated to explain a specific topic if he or she noticed a team member did not fully understand a certain aspect.

If we would have the chance to work in the team again, we would have a lot to work on. For instance, time management, team work, co-ordination and individual preparation in order to function as a team member. In general, I like team work if it is functioning as it is supposed to be: every team member is prepared, knows beforehand what task we have to fulfill, and prepares his or her individual part satisfyingly. Hence, trust and confidence are established and the collaboration is working out. Correspondingly, I favor considering and sharing opinions within the group. Concerning the fact that we now know each other already and I have developed a feeling of how every team member is performing individually and in a team, I would be happy to work with the same team again in the future.

Nevertheless, I would opt for a change regarding my own role, the co-ordination of the whole group and the time management. Beginning with my role as a team member, I would definitely take over the responsibility concerning co-ordination, design and time management. In the future, I would rather take the risk to have some disagreements and more discussions than letting others take over the responsibility and in the end not being powerful enough to change something, because of time constraints.