TEAMWORK: Tips from a Lab Skills Seminar Mentor
Through
my placement as a LSS mentor, I came to really appreciate one very important
type of skill: teamwork. In the beginning, I did not expect that I would be
able to gain and develop this skill so much. I am already in a team at work (in
fact, I am one of the leaders), and not too many issues have arisen. But as I
started my placement, I soon found out that this would be a very different kind
of team. Throughout the placement I was faced with challenges such as changes
in original scheduling, almost late submission of presentation slides,
unorganized seminars, uneven division of tasks, and more. It allowed me to
realize that there may be many different types of teams, and in each new one I
can experience different kinds of challenges. As time progressed in the
placement, we were able to overcome the challenges, improve our performance,
and work more efficiently. The skills and experience I gained would certainly
help me to be more prepared to face new challenges when I work in new teams in
the future.
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| Slides 1-3 of my PowerPoint on Teamwork tips |
One of the workshops that we were fortunate to have in
the SCIB03 course was called “Working in Groups” and it was presented to us by
Janice Patterson. Through this workshop, we were able to learn some important
aspects that are necessary to make a team successful. Thus, I decided to create
PowerPoint slides that outline some tips and ways that we used her information
to help our team to improve and mature throughout the term. There are two main
parts: essential skills that a team would need to function well, and the group
development cycle.
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| Slides 4-7 of my PowerPoint on Teamwork tips |
Four main essential skills that a team should have are
communication, observation, self-expression, and supporting others. I went
through each one on the slides and came up with several things that could be
considered and ideas and tips on ways to develop them. It is important to do
this in order for a team to function properly. We, ourselves, tried our best to
follow many of these strategies. I felt that by doing them, we were able to
understand each other more, and become aware of each others’ abilities. To me,
it seemed we were able to become more self-sufficient, and then certain aspects
became more natural and common sense. Gradually, the team was able to function
more and more resourcefully. Through this, I gained the experience of being
able to mature and develop in a team, and this can definitely be useful as I go
on in my education.
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| Slide 8 of my PowerPoint on Teamwork tips |
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| Slides 9-12 of my PowerPoint on Teamwork tips |
In the second half of my slides, I go through each
step of the “Group Development Cycle” and relate them to the different steps of
our own placement. First our team formed,
then we had to brainstorm on how we
would fulfill this placement. Eventually, we were able to norm our activities, and lastly we were able to perform. As mentioned on the slides, we
had to go through the cycle many times since we had to start again each time we
began a new set of slides (but mostly just performing, since the team did not
really need to re-form, re-storm, and re-norm too much—our main
responsibilities and activities remained the same for the most part throughout
the term). Through analyzing our placement in this way, I feel I have been able
to appreciate how important it is that each of these steps exists, so that placement
activities can run more proficiently. It allowed me to think about how these
steps have to exist for any kind of team that is formed, and from now on I can
keep them in mind to make sure teams I work with in the future are organized
and well-structured.
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