Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?

Sitearm Madonna presents the theory of teamwork and collaborative working.

John introduced Sitearm Madonna, our guest speaker on the topic of teamwork and collaboration this week. Site began by asking each of us to jot down one experience of poor teamwork and another positive experience of teamwork for later discussion. He then pointed us in the direction of a short video to introduce the topic.

Site also provided this link to his slides.

Projects involving teams go through different stages and each stage requires different energies or has different flavours, as described in the sestet (a poem made o fix lines) displayed in the class – if you haven’t seen it make sure to visit SL and review it along with this summary.

Sitearm’s sestets give a flavour of teamwork dynamics.

Teamwork is like breathing: it is a process not a one time event. There are four aspects to understanding how teams function. Firstly, teams have effective members. Each of us brings some commitment and some level of competence. You can compensate for the lack of either in team mates to ensure a positive outcome. Secondly, effective teams develop in stages. Starting with the forming stage where members are getting to know each other and find their place before moving onto what can be the most difficult stage known as storming. This is where everyone is pitching ideas and working out how to proceed. Then teams usually move on the norming stage when the members are beginning to work together comfortably and settle down to performing and getting the project done.

Thirdly, effective teams use best practices. For example, using brainstorming to generate ideas and then agreeing a protocol for deciding how to progress: majority vote, consensus or some other way. You will find that you move back and forth between brainstorming and deciding until the project begins to take shape. When you meet in your teams get into the habit of briefing yourselves. Ask questions like: what are we going to do in this meeting? Then do it. At the end of the meeting leave some time for debriefing: record any decisions made or what happened. Also ask each to member to say what they liked about the meeting and what they wished had happened. This helps your team meetings to become more efficient, effective and enjoyable.

Finally, effective teams share roles: research shows that there are nine key roles for highest performance and success in teamwork. As many teams don’t have nine members it is often necessary for people to take on more than one role. Each of us has a natural affinity to some roles but you can practice taking on new roles also. The disadvantage of this is the discomfort as you move into unfamiliar territory and the extra work involved but the advantage is seen in performance and success on both the personal and team levels.

Collaboration is a technology – proven and time tested with a vast number of academic papers describing the process. Think of it like that and you will find it less daunting.

Always remember to practice your presentation before the final deadline, have backups and expect catastrophe. Prepare for it and you will be successful no matter what happens. Ease the typical headaches of teamwork, whether you are a member or leader, by trying to discover what you can rely on from yourself and others on your team.

We then revisited the experiences Sitearm asked us to jot down at the beginning of the class to compare them against the theory outlined in the talk. This helped to root the theory in practice.

In closing, Sitearm introduced Persona theory. The concept originated in ancient Greek theatre where the actors wore wooden masks with a hole for speaking through. Humans develop multiple personas during our lifetimes – tailored for multiple purposes and taken on in different social situations. An awareness of persona increases your competence in moving from one role on a team to another as necessary.

Finally, John posted the team members for the Team Project. In the next class we will consider the brief for the project and answer any questions you have about working on it for the rest of the semester.

For the rest of the semester you will be working in the following teams.