Surviving teamwork
Team work whether it’s group assignments, department meetings that are supposed to have an outcome by a certain deadline or whatever the task, we all are hit with this tragedy of a challenge at some point or multiple points in our college or work life.
Arguably it’s one of the most life-changing experiences one can take part in simply for its lead in the development of personal growth and social skills but most importantly communication skills.
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a group of people ever sound so disappointed as I did when I was in college and we were told that in groups (our assigned groups mind you, to make it a whole lot easier) we were to create a module that would endure over a full year in a secondary school. Oh, and you have two weeks to complete it so find the time and good luck!
At the time I thought, why would they want us to hate each other? College is hard enough, but now in my job I’ve realised that I have to do this a lot more than I thought and actually still somehow like the people I work with.
I remembered about a seminar I had attended about the four different types of working attitudes you can come across and how they all can compliment each other.
The 4 types: Which one are you?
Understanding who you’re working with can help you to develop a sense of how the task is going to go. At the seminar, we split into each category and together, with people who were the same type as us, we had to plan an event. After a certain amount of time, we had to present out events for all DISC types and then share our experience of how working together went. The conclusion of it all was that it’s possible to work with people who are the same as you as long as you understood and communicated. Moreover, the most successful group is one that has one of each DISC type because they all bring something completely different to the table.
Taking some notes, I got some information that would help me to work with and understand the other types I may work with in future projects:
With Dominant people:
Build respect to avoid conflict
Focus on facts and ideas rather than the people
Have evidence to support your argument
Be quick, focused, and to the point
Ask what not how
Talk about how problems will hinder accomplishments
Show them how they can succeed
With Influential people:
Be social and friendly with them, building the relationship
Listen to them talk about their ideas
Help them find ways to translate the talk into useful action
Don’t spend much time on the details
Motivate them to follow through to complete tasks
Recognize their accomplishments
With Steady people:
Be genuinely interest in them as a person
Create a human working environment for them
Give them time to adjust to change
Clearly define goals for them and provide ongoing support
Recognize and appreciate their achievements
Avoid hurry and pressure
Present new ideas carefully
With Compliant people:
Warn them in time and generally avoid surprises
Be prepared. Don't ad-lib with them if you can
Be logical, accurate and use clear data
Show how things fit into the bigger picture
Be specific in disagreement and focus on the facts
Be patient, persistent and diplomatic
Boundaries
So although this is all well and good, you do unfortunately work with some people who won’t fit in line with your DISC plan! In doing my module project in college, I worked with five other people including myself. I usually fit into the ‘influential’ category, however, in this situation my inner dominant came out when I was forced into a position of leadership. Each team member had a different personality; one was a complete time-waster spending time distracting everyone, another was lazy and waiting to either be told what to do and act confused so that the person would just end up doing it themselves, a person who consistently panicked about deadlines, very sensitive and potentially would ban you from having food breaks for hours, and two motivated workers who spent most of their time clashing. To add to this, they all hated me because I was blindly trying to direct the project out of chaos and into the ‘group working together’... which just didn’t exist.
You have to set boundaries, some people have valid points and you have to listen.
You have to provide opportunities for the quiet/shy ones to contribute.
You are not always right. Damn.
You may learn a lot about yourself if you challenge yourself not to attend to your every urge and instead let other people or ideas intervene.
It’s one of the most excruciating exercises you’ll go through in work, so be that person in the group to liven it up, bring some fun, and never let the group depart on a bad note.
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