Traditionally I have always viewed teamwork as a superior alternative to individual work. This is because I think minds that work collaboratively will always be more creative, effective, and efficient, compared to its individual counterpart. In week 5, we engaged in a survival activity to demonstrate the power of teamwork. This activity changed my view of teamwork.

The Activity

In class, we were given a list of items and placed a survival scenario. Our job was to rank the importance of each item. We were to do this twice: once as an individual and once collaboratively as a team. At the end of the activity, we would compare our answers to a survival experts, and see if our choices together were better as individuals or as a team.

The Results

My individual score from this exercise was significantly better than my team score. In fact, in this scenario, if I were to work in a team, I would for sure die. Don’t get me wrong, I love my team to death (intended pun) but sometimes, when you work in a team, you no longer stick with your original ideas and you can get easily mislead. In my case, I changed the items I prioritized originally in order to adapt and fit the views of the overall team.

This exercise showed me that although I love working in a team, sometimes teams can hinder your individual ability. Some members of my team had a higher survival chance in working as a team but for myself, I was better off making decisions alone. Another soft skill this lesson taught me was to voice my opinions louder. My team may have been better off had I been more firm on what I believed in but I hesitated as I was going against the majority vote. Teamwork is great in many ways, however, it is not always the best way to complete tasks.