Learning Team Debriefing

The Learning Team Debriefing will be an assessment of not only myself, but my team members as well. Working as a team can be quite a challenge, both difficult and rewarding in its own sense. Finding that happy medium and learning how to work well as a team is the evidence on whether or not you were effective. Everything is evaluated after the end result, but how you get there is the true story. I am going to talking about the successes and the challenges that we faced as a team and how we were able to overcome them in the end.

What makes a successful team? In an article in Healthcare Executive, Janet L. Snow; Christopher P. Mulrooney (2002) wrote, "Creating a successful team is not something that happens overnight. It can sometimes be a painful process. The good news is that even a struggling team can become a successful one." This is very true in every aspect. In our class, we were expected to be somewhat successful, not overnight, but it sure felt like it in the one week we had to complete our first team assignment.

Our first assignment was quite the interesting topic for three people, who didn't know each other from Adam, to tackle and in a short period of time and be successful. We as team I feel worked well together considering the circumstances. The "forming" stage of team development happened very quickly for all of us. It was like, forming by fire. Since this was the first "team" assignment, our schedules seemed to have conflicted a little bit. My teammates were able to get online and share ideas during the day, where I was not able to do this. This

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caused me to feel as if I was behind the eight ball most of the assignment and as if I didn't contribute as much as I could have. Therefore, we exercised something similar to what was in an article in Cost Management Update, Robert R. Picard; James P. Jolly; William Stratton (1998) where they make the point that, "Determining members' skills. Each team member will bring certain skills to the group. Determine who has specific skills needed to achieve the group goals, such as writing ability, analytical thinking skills, technical proficiency and people skills." Since I didn't have as much time as the others, they had me work on the conclusion that way my schedule didn't keep us from staying on pace to get the assignment done. The above mentioned quote also holds true when trying to evaluate your team. You take the time to find out your teams strengths and build your team around those strengths. There is an old saying, "you are only as strong as your weakest link." Therefore, you recognize that and try to find ways to disguise the weaknesses so you can show the emphasis on the strengths.

The reasons we were successful in doing well with this assignment, even with some scheduling conflicts, is that we encouraged an open forum. This is evident, similar to an article in IIE Solutions, David G. Rohlander (1999) wrote, "Encourage all members to volunteer ideas and solutions. We all know that the only dumb question is the one that isn't asked. Different people see things different ways. Respect each individual and have the patience and courtesy to listen to all questions." Keeping the communication open was the key for us having a successful team and accomplishing the difficult tasks. It was evident that we all had the same goals;