Reflection Paper: Working in a Team

Reflection Paper: Working in a Team

BC 380: Team Communication

Jarvitz Richmond

Team Members: Asli, Sherri, Taffney, and Molicia

Jones International University

November 25, 2013

Abstract

Over the last 8 weeks, I have learned how to work as a team. I really understand what it means to say team work now. In this course BC 380 Team Communication, you are assigned to a team of which you know no one in the team. So, therefore you don’t know anyone’s work ethic. You go through the process of team development all the different stages. During this report I will reveal to you the different challeges that I faced through out this course.

Reflection Paper: Working in a Team

In my Course Project, I was tasked to experience the process of becoming an effective part of a team. In my team, our roles was to conduct case study on Citi group team and how they work together. The goal for the case study was to be to analyze the effectiveness of that team. In this paper, I will begin with the case study.  I will also discuss  working as a team and leadership…. Finally, I will conclude with reflections of this project.

Part I: The Case Study Project

The team we have selected is the Citigroup INC: Citigroup Inc. is a global diversified

 financial services holding company whose businesses provide consumers, corporations,

governments and institutions with a broad range of financial products and services. Citigroup

Inc. is a private also public company. It operates in two segments: Citicorp, consisting of

Citigroup's Global Consumer Banking businesses and Institutional Clients Group, and Citi

Holdings, consisting of Brokerage and Asset Management, Local Consumer Lending and Special

Asset Pool.

We have chosen Citigroup because one of our team member have been working at the Citibank

corporate office as an IT Support Specialist II. Citigroup INC is well known around the world.

 Citigroup works towards one goals and that serving the customer. This team runs

well do to effective communication, strong leadership and customer service..

My group goal is to learn from them how to be a part of a team. I plan to communicate with my

group through the class formum, I plan on having my project responsibilities completed by

Wednesday of each week.

Part II: Reflections on Team Purpose and Commitment

My Team has developed a clear sense of purpose for our course project. We have begun by setting up short term objectives and assigning tasks. Since this is a virtual team it is fairly new to all of us, we’ve had to have a vision of the overall goal, then we had to decide how we were going to obtain and how we were going to navigate to get us to that point. In my team although its virtual we have still been able to make connections with each other and we’ve all accepted and realized that we belong to something bigger than ourselves because we all depend on each other in order to fulfill our purpose in the course. We have adopted an action plan to ensure that we accomplish our goals as a team. With doing this we’ve all had to make a commitment to do our best for our team. Right now my team is in the storming stage where everyone’s role is being identified and assigned to them.

There are two steps that I believe my team could use that will help us be a more effective team. The first thing is to set a specific time that everyone should check the forum. Example being everyone check the forum by 9:00est every day for

updates, concern or questions. This will ensure that no one is left behind in fulfilling our goals for the course. Secondly, if everyone declared their strengths and limitations we could tailor our assignments around that so we could help the weak get stronger in areas where they struggle.

My team is doing well for it to be week two of class. Some of our strengths are that we all are determined to do well in this course. We could increase effectiveness by setting a time that everyone should check the forum by every day. We can improve by better communication with one another. I feel like my team is coming together, at first It was a bit confusing because I didn’t know anyone or how we was going to get this process started but we manage to come together and work together. Now, were on the same page trying to fulfill our purpose.

Part III: Reflections on Team Communication, Collaboration, Conflict and Structure

We have approached week forth week working as a team in my group. To be completely honest I would say we are still in our forming stage. Our communication is polite and somewhat superficial. We all do our part in completing the task for our assignments but in my opinion it’s still scattered and unorganized. We do have somewhat assigned roles within our team, but I’m not sure if we are letting our team leader lead. I am not in no way neglecting the fact that I have a role and a voice on my team. I am however, saying that we should have the expectations and standards of each role outlined and defined with in our team. Each week we have a group assignment we have to wait for each person to select what part of the assignment they would like to complete. I feel as though if we got together as a team and discussed everyone’s strengths and weaknesses on our team, then assigned a specific role for each member our team would be more effective. My team is at that awkward stage were conflict is being avoided and we’re trying to make sure everyone is happy by letting each member choose what part of the assignment they want  to do each week for the assignment. I respect my role within the group, so I don’t voice my opinion to the group because I understand that no matter what you do as a team, leader, or group there’s going to be someone unhappy and/ or someone who feels that there was a better way to accomplish the task. During week two of our team assignment I was the first member to post to the forum about the assignment however, awaiting for everyone to respond and choose a part of the assignment it appeared to the teacher that I wasn’t an active participant in week two and points were deducted from my grade. I feel like that was a team failure because I turned in what was assigned to me and was an active participant in the weekly discussion for the assignment. I feel like if roles was assigned then maybe the teacher would have felt like I did my part. On that assignment I was briefed that I need to participate more in my group, I believe that if we had assigned roles that this process would be less complicated and confusing.