The project is going fairly well, however I want to reassess and understand if the current approach is suitable or could be better. This is in part to identify the best appraoches to collaboration with people outside of my field. If not I would see what can be learned from the below sources.
In John Adair’s Decision making and problem solving strategies Ch.3, he makes a point about leadership. “A key issue in leadership is how far the designated leader (appointed or elected) should share decisions with others-team members or colleagues.” (Adair, pg.35, 2010) This made me realise we do not have an appointed leader in our group but in fact we seem to share decisions and responsibilites. So do we need a leader in our team? I think not, we have been able to clearly communicate with each other, voice our opinions on decisions and come to decisions. However, Adair also proposes that there are three needs for working groups.
Task need: what is needed to accomplish the task. In our case this need is satisfied as each member has some task to work on.
Team maintenance need: This is for the team cohesion. Maintaining external and internal pressures. Adair writes that “good relationships, desirable in themesleves, are also an essential means towards the shared end.” (Adair, pg.37, 2010) While we are progressing well, I do feel I cannot answer if this need is being met. I only so much keep in contact with Arthur most wednesdays meetings, Kevin has joined twice so far. But Hani has only joined once. We have been keeping in contact via Whatsapp however. No conflict has arisen so far and it has proven to be a useful way to update and garner ideas.
Individual needs: Each of us have needs to consider. Particularly recognition and discussion of ideas and comments. For this I feel we have fulfilled quite rightly. We give praise and comment on each other’s contrbutions to the project. Sometimes offering suggestions for improvement.
These needs interact/overlap
“If there is a lack of cohesiveness in the team circle – a failure of team maintenance – then clearly performance in the task area will be impaired…” (Adair, pg.38, 2010) Any of these needs I had not truly considered when starting the project. Although we had more or less met most of these needs to some degree, these were not actively monitored or maintained. It was certainly not considered that there should be a leader for the group, nor have we had the need for one either. The only member who might serve as the leader would be myself. This is because I am in contact with all members and set up the neccessary channels of communication we use (Trello, teams and Unity Collab). I also listen to what members need e.g, text meeting minutes and record meetings for documenting. I have also adapted the use of the Trello to some other members’ needs. E.G Arthur found it easier to work if he had a list of tasks to accomplish after the meeting. As such the Trello board had a list of tasks for all members to do.
In my conclusion, a leader would be beneficial to the group. It could certainly be improved if we did ask and communicate better too.
Power of positivity
In The Power of a Positive Team, Jon Gordon writes that “You need to communicate, connect, commit and care to create meaningful relationships, strong bonds and team unity.” (Gordon, 2018). Placing an emphasis on team relationship and well being. While we have been communicating well in our group. Our team cannot fully declare that we are connected to a high level, afterall we do have two different groups within the team. This being the game development side (me and Arthur) and the audio engineering side (Hani and Kevin). We still do share ideas and discuss future steps. However, there were instances where decisions were made independently from the whole team. For example, I had implemented a start button at the beginning of the game. This was added because I wanted to allow the player to move in the space and get a feel for the controls as well as being in control of the flow of the game before it truly begins. I had not communicated this implementation until it was committed in to the newest build.
Disease of me
“The disease of Me infects everyone. Narcissism and self-focus creates a disconnect between personal goals and team goals, and it undermines the team. People who put themselves and their projects before the team don’t build great teams.” Because of the nature of our work we had team members working mostly on an individual level. That is team members were assigned or volunteering on tasks and performed such tasks indepdently. These tasks may have had some input from other members but were still completed in a vacuum. Then this brings the question of co-operation, our goals are shared but within those goals were tasks that were completed individually. This could possibly foster a level of disconnect, I for one felt it did. Some members did not contribute comments or thoughts on another’s work. I did not share some of my contributions until they were finished. Then I conclude that our connectiveness was not as good as it could have been.
Bibliography
Adair, J., 2010. Decision making and problem solving. 2nd ed. Kogan.
Gordon, J., 2018. The power of a positive team. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, p.79.