Teamwork

Introduction

A team is built, not given. This means that a team is not a solid construct or tool ready for use from the beginning. At the beginning, a team is not a team. Becoming a team, in fact, requires getting to know each other, getting to know each other's strengths as well as weaknesses, and using that knowledge to build on each other. This does not only require self-knowledge and reflection skills; it also takes time.

In Active8-Planet we apply a particular understanding of teams as based on relationships between peers. In other words, team members are understood to be on an equal standing. A team made of equals, however, does not mean that everybody has the same role. Your team role is dependent on your expertise, profession and personality. For instance, the Servant Leader [link to Servant Leader wiki] plays a particular role within a team of peers, facilitating an equal playing field for all. A number of ingredients help promote peer Teamwork. These are listed below. You can also scroll further down to “Exercises” for some concrete methods you can use to first design a Team, then build a Team of peers, and lastly ensure that members remain aligned to shared goals and roles throughout teamwork.

Intercultural Communication

As with all relationships, communication is a key aspect of team building. In Active8-Planet, teams are multi-generational, multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural [add wiki links to Interdisciplinary and Intergenerational Co-creation]. This brings extra challenges and opportunities. Since our teams are made up of people with all kinds of different backgrounds, it could be said that we are dealing with intercultural communication. Not only will we be learning each other's communication culture, but each team will also be developing their own new intercultural communication. Active8-Planet partner Vaike Fors writes about her experience with intercultural communication in teams of students, academic supervisors and industry partners in an article published in the first Active8-Planet newsletter. She refers to the “cinnamon bun effect” as a tool to overcome diverging views and enhance interdisciplinary team building by moving the conversation out of work-related workshops and into informal discussion groups in which shared rituals (like making coffee and eating cinnamon buns). You can read more about the “cinnamon bun effect” here [add link to A8P newsletter one: https://active8-planet.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Active8_newsletter1.pdf]

Checking in and Checking out

When you are building a new team it is important to connect to all the members. Since most people nowadays are part of many different teams (families, departments, friend groups, work projects) it is important to facilitate the switch. A simple method for this is checking in and checking out. When you start a session with your team, check in. Have everyone share briefly how they are doing and feeling before getting into the topic of the session. At the end of the session, make sure there is time to have everyone again share briefly how they are doing and feeling before leaving. This way you allow for people to really connect with each other and take the time to transition into this new setting with this particular team.

Understanding your Role in the Team

In many ways, all participants serve the team. To do this in a way you feel comfortable with and that benefits the team, it is important to understand your role. In Active8-Planet teamwork, this role is of course related to your function as a student, academic supervisor, or industry partner. But it also relates to your professional and educational background, your field of expertise and your personality. For instance, as social scientists, we are especially aware that our cultural and generational backgrounds are important factors shaping our role [add link to intergenerational and interdisciplinary wiki]. Sometimes you automatically take on a role that you actually do not want. Or sometimes your role can change during the course of the project. Being aware of your role in the team can help your comfort and performance. Working together with the Servant Leader [add link to Servant Leader wiki] you can address these different roles and your place in the team, including when a change might be needed.

Equity versus Equality 

Active8-Planet teams are multi-layered [add link to interdisciplinary/generational etc. wiki]. It is often assumed that in such teams it is important to strive for equality and to give equal help to everyone. The illustration below however shows well that what you want to achieve is equity, not equality. This requires inventorization of the different needs and adjusting help to allow all team members a similar experience.

[Add picture to be found at this link: http://madewithangus.com/portfolio/equality-vs-equity/]

Source: ANGUS MAGUIRE // INTERACTION INSTITUTE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE [1]

Role Switching: The Student becomes the Teacher

In many academic and industry settings, the professional hierarchy is quite strong. In Active8-Planet, we aim to allow for each and all experiences to matter. This means that, if you are a student, you will sometimes have to step out of your student role and step up to the teachers’ role, to share your expertise and experience. At these times, the other team members will have to take the role of student, independently of their profession. For many in the team this will be a new experience and therefore it might not come naturally. It is however important to enable this capacity to shift perspectives because it facilitates every team member to bring their own valuable input to the project, for instance following the principles of intervision [add link to intervision wiki]. The Servant Leader plays a key supporting role in allowing this to happen [add link to servant leader wiki].

Exercises 

Team Design Canvas (for Team design)

This tool is designed to guide the recruitment of members prior to the formation of a Team. Those in charge of forming the Team ask themselves the following reflection questions:

• What complementary knowledge, skills and attitudes do we require to tackle the identified challenge/described case?
• What roles do we foresee and how are these interrelated?
• What kind of students fit (some of) these roles & why?
• What kind of academic supervisors would these students require & why?
• What kind of industry professionals would complement the team & why?

The filled in canvas can be used to brief the person(s) who recruit team members.Once the Active8-Planet 7+1 teams are formed, the content of this exercise can facilitate Team building through shared reflection and decision-making on different roles among members. For instance, the content of this exercise could be used as input for the Strengths Game or the Team Charter tool (scroll down for details).

[Add link to canvas in miro: https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lz2jCzo=/]

Strengths Game (for Team building)

Time: +/- 60 minutes 

Step 1 Introduction (5 min.) A facilitator (for instance, the Servant Leader [link to Servant Leadership wiki]) shares the rules of the game with the team. 

Step 2 Card round strengths (20 min.) Each participant picks five cards out of a pack of “strength” cards. All remaining cards are shuffled and placed, face down, on a shared stack. In turn, participants pick a sixth random card from the stack. Each participant then chooses the card that least represents their strengths and either places it in front of another participant whose strengths they feel that card represents, or places the card on a discard stack containing the cards that do not match any of the participants. The participant explains his/her choice to the group and the receiver of a strengths card can also ask questions. Participants continue picking new cards until all cards are either distributed among participants or in the discard stack. Each participant then discusses with the group the cards they have ended up with. The game closes with every participant making a final choice of the two cards that most represent their strengths.  

Step 3 Card round weaknesses (15 min.) Repeat the same game as above, this time using a pack of “weaknesses” cards. 

Step 4 Evaluation (10 min.) End the game with an evaluation round in which every participant shares their experiences of identifying their own strengths and weaknesses and those of other participants, as well as which round they found easier and why. 

[Freely adapted from: Edelbroek, H., M. Mijnders & G. Post. (2018). Interdisciplinary Learning Activities. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press: pp. 67-70]

Team Charter (for Team building)

The Team Charter is a Team building tool that facilitates fruitful collaboration by helping members become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. In addition to making these explicit, this tool also allows participants to discuss shared vision and goals. It is particularly indicated for shared assignments, such as a team-based research project.

Time: +/- 60 minutes 

Step 1 Introduction (5 min.) In the above picture, you see a charter with four boxes. In this exercise, a facilitator (for instance, the Servant Leader [link to Servant Leadership wiki]) explains to the group with the meaning of each box:

My success - what each participant sees as success in a project;

What others need to know about me - each participant writes their points for improvement;

What do I need - what each participant needs from other team members to successfully contribute to the project;

What do I add - each member writes their strengths and what they can add to the project. 

Step 2 Example (5 min.) The facilitator starts the exercise by sharing their own filled in charter as an example and, if possible, explains to the group how it helped collaboration in a previous project.

Step 3 Individual charter (15 min.) The facilitator asks participants to individually write down their input for each box in the charter. 

Step 4 Shared charter (15 min.) The facilitator invites members to share the content of their individual charters with the group and to create one charter containing combined input from all members. 

Step 5 Agreements (20 min.) The group makes decisions about how members will work together as a Team. Agreements may cover, for instance, communication styles, ways of giving feedback to each other, as well as shared and individual tasks, deadlines, etc. 

Step 6 Follow-up (n/a) The group gets together on a regular basis to assess progress on the last agreements and to make new ones for the work ahead. Alternatively, progress can be monitored using the next exercise, Retrospective Scrum Method.

[Freely adapted from: Edelbroek, H., M. Mijnders & G. Post. (2018). Interdisciplinary Learning Activities. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press: pp. 63-67].

Retrospective Scrum Method (for Teamwork)

The Retrospective is a Teamwork tool from the Scrum method that helps monitor progress in Teamwork and ensure that the group remains aligned to the roles and goals of all participants. The benefits of this tool are that its essence is very simple and quick. You can build on this basic structure, depending on your needs. 

Time: +/- 40 minutes 

Step 1 Introduction (5 min.) In the above picture, you see six stimulating categories. In this exercise, a facilitator (for instance, the Servant Leader [link to Servant Leadership wiki]) asks participants to write down their input for each of these categories on post-it’s and stick them underneath each category. There are no wrong answers. It is good for participants to have a frame to work with, such as: “your experience in this team the past two months” OR “the scientific level of this project.” This frame will help steer participant input to the topic set by the facilitator. 

Step 2 Sharing (20 min.) After everyone has put up their post-its, the facilitator reads each of them out loud to the group. This is a moment for people to elaborate on their input or ask for elaboration from others.

Step 3 Follow-up (15 min.) The facilitator invites discussion with the group and decisions about any concrete actions that need to be taken based on the session. Concrete actions are written down, and pictures of the post-its with each category are taken and shared with the team for later reference. 

[Freely adapted from: https://vitalitychicago.com/blog/improving-your-retrospectives-part-3-techniques/ ]

References

• Edelbroek, H. M. Mijnders, G. Post. (2018). Interdisciplinary Learning Activities. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press.
• Twente Education Model: https://www.utwente.nl/en/tom/
• VU Learn Academy, Mixed Classroom Principles: https://vu.nl/en/education/learn-academy