To Team or Not to Team

            When working in a group on a very important project, many factors come into play.  These factors which become a major piece of the project include collaboration and work share, personalities, and personal preference.  Through select types of activities, which included group projects on the “Lost at Sea” activity and working by ourselves on the “Social Media Peer Account” I was able to discover more about my strengths and my weaknesses when it comes to working on these major projects.  

When working in a group activity, collaborating required different social skills, discovering the different types of personality and workload one another shares, while also taking a short glimpse at the different types of people who are leaders, and those who are followers. Working in these groups taught me how difference in personalities can create. As found in “Team building and group dynamics: creating and fostering a culture of teamwork requires trust, collaboration, and accountability,” proper execution of the task is reliant on not how well the chemistry of the group is, but rather how they react when faced with adversity. While collecting our data in these groups, I found that egos were very conflicting, but by putting our heads together we were able to achieve the end mission. After a few bumpy steps in deciding who would take reign as leader, the “road” was smooth, and was actually enjoyable and fun to participate with others. As stated in “Songwriting loafing or creative collaboration?: A comparison of individual and team written billboard hits in the USA,” work loafing was a major component, in where the leader had to put in the most effort in collecting data whilst other members slacked and did only part of what they were asked. 

In comparison to group work, the individual activity “Social Media Peer Account” taught me more about myself and my work ethic. As found in “Team building and group dynamics: creating and fostering a culture of teamwork requires trust, collaboration, and accountability,” group dynamic is essential to proper execution of the task, and when working by yourself, it is imperative that solving the problem required my own way of thinking, instead of the influence of others. Analyzing the different social media accounts from students in my class, I found it was easier for me to write very quickly and that I could efficiently complete the project in a quick manner. However, the downside of working individually was not having the opinion and bias of another or other person/people. As though I was able to efficiently analyze different photos and accounts, I found that not getting feedback from other people didn’t allow for me to have a full grasp on what was really being asked, and that though I had done my best, I could not fully understand without the help of someone else's opinion.   

My solution to an individual or a group-based project? By far the best way would go in the direction of a small group. With a small group, limited in number from 3 to at most 4 people, I would be able to work with the group dynamics in a centralized way, and analyze and work with each other in an efficient way where we collaborate in the most effective manner. By having different opinions, creating the portfolio can be successful through the means of constructive criticism, where we can each deconstruct the project to the greatest extent, and find success in completing our portfolio.