Processing Teamwork

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."

This quote from Henry Ford says a lot about teamwork in a few simple words. It also epitomizes what we have been discussing in our Elements of Team Leadership class. When working in a group, the first thing to realize is that there are multiple steps to reach the point of efficiency and success. As demonstrated by the case study we watched in class on General Rebecca Halstead of the United States Army, the baby steps of the team work process can begin by assessing what each person is good at and assigning them to roles that they will enjoy and work hard doing. Cooperation and communication are also essential elements that must be included in the team building process in order to be effective with the groups goals and projects and to avoid problems later down the road.


This held true in our in-class learning activity with the balloon challenge. The task was to simply keep our 7 balloons afloat and at the end of the allotted time, we would have collected points based on how many balloons refrained from touching the ground. Prior to the first round, we made a game plan and estimated how many points we thought we might be able to gain. Once the game started, however, we  were surprised to find that other team's plans had been to sabotage our success by trying to knock our balloons out of the air. So we reassembled and made a new plan, utilizing the strength of the boys in the group to act as defense, and  the girls relocated to a safer location in the room. After the second round was over, we had reached our points goal.


As my group gets ready to prepare a workshop for Harding Avenue Elementary for our service learning project, we can take many lessons out of this balloon activity. First, set high goals that will push us to succeed and find roles for each member of the group to excel in. Second, there will more than likely be roadblocks during our process, but through strategy and communication we should over come them or work around them. Finally, group cooperation is what is going to helps us successfully accomplish our goals, not competition within the team. I look forward to this learning process!