One of the most interesting lectures of Comm 292 was the discussion of how groups and teams are different. I didn’t even know there was a difference until Professor Charlton pointed it out, and I began to read the textbook. I have been apart of teams all my life, whether it was in regards to athletics, or if it was during my part time jobs, but I never understood what makes a great team.

After years of analysis, Google has announced that what makes the best teams in their company’s, is simply to become nice. In class we learned about the 5 stage model which consists of forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. A lot of teams get stuck in the second or third stage of the model, as they do not spend enough time on the first stage. Google has now put an emphasize on team building, and relationship building in the workplace which has increased the cohesiveness of their teams drastically. As a team you should focus on stage 1 which is Forming for a long period of time so there is a sense of trust, and relationships are built upon one another. Only then will you be able to move throughout the rest of the stages and to become and extremely effective team.

One of the worst experiences I have had as a team, was during my time while I was working construction in the 10th grade. The group of individuals who I worked with always ended up finishing our jobs the slowest as we didn’t really like each other and their were conflicts on a regular basis. Whether it was repairing the dry walls or painting the interior, no matter how hard we tried, we could never finish in time and we never bothered getting to know one another. Looking back at the other groups on the job site, they looked like they were best friends. Each one of the counted on each other and they built an extremely strong relationship. They were extremely nice to each other, but they also worked together very hard and this allowed them to perform very well. Those other teams were able to quickly move on to the other stages of the model, but our team was always stuck. This made me come to the conclusion that in order to work in an effective team, the first step is the most important in order to genuinely build relationships with the other members and to trust one another.

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Works Cited:

Mohdin, Aamna. “After years of intensive analysis, Google discovers the key to good teamwork is being nice.” Quartz. Quartz, 26 Feb. 2016. Web. 06 Feb. 2017.