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Teamwork. references: Engineering by Design by Gerard Voland Creative Problem Solving, Thinking Skills for a Changing World by Edward Lumsdaine and Monika Lumsdaine. The Power of Teamwork. Why Work in Teams?. Brain dominance controls our thinking preferences
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Teamwork references: Engineering by Design by Gerard Voland Creative Problem Solving, Thinking Skills for a Changing World by Edward Lumsdaine and Monika Lumsdaine
Why Work in Teams? • Brain dominance controls our thinking preferences • Herrmann’s Four-Quadrant Brain Model of thinking preference
Teams Have Advantages When Creativity Is Sought • Teams combine the different backgrounds, experiences and thinking preferences of individuals • Interaction among team members – other’s ideas are used as stepping-stones to more creative ideas • Willingness on the part of a team to take greater risks
Effective Team Practices • Common goals • Equitable workloads • Mutual accountability • Collegial Environment
Common Goals • All members of a design team first must agree upon a single problem formulation and a set of initial expectations so that everyone will be moving in the same general direction as the work progresses
Equitable Workloads • Overall workload for developing a final design should be shared equitably among all members of the team • Work should be divided into general and then more specific tasks • Some tasks will require a coordinated effort by the entire team or a number of members, while the more specific or focused tasks can be completed by individual members • Recognize that the work will be dynamic in nature, ever-changing, and likely necessitating changes to the assignments over time • The design proposal and/or a Gantt chart can be used to assign tasks to team members and monitor progress
Mutual Accountability • All members of the team must share responsibility for the completion of all tasks and the development of the final design • Leadership and decision-making responsibilities should be shared among all members in order to increase each person’s motivation and commitment to the project and to enhance the quality of the final design • The team should establish expectations for individual and group performance • Use peer appraisal (see example form ) to provide each individual and the team with feedback on performance such that corrective actions can be taken in a timely manner
Collegial Environment • Teamwork is built upon the mutual trust and respect among all members • The working environment must be one in which everyone feels comfortable about sharing an idea or opinion • Each member must also realize that their idea may be justly criticized (and possibly rejected) by the team • All criticisms must be constructive in nature and respectful of the person whose work is being criticized