To Team or Not to Team

     After going through team building activities, reading articles about working with others, and weighing out the pros and cons, I have decided it is best for me to work in a group. For the social media teammate activity, I went through Ashlee’s Instagram page and I found that she posts nicely edited photos of herself, which is similar to what I post, but she also has a wider range of photos on her page. I think the fact that she knows how to edit photos is helpful to my group because sometimes editing can get quite confusing for me. For the lost at sea activity, even though I did get a higher score by myself, it was most likely because I remembered doing the activity in the past and it was in the back of my mind. Me and my group members, Ashlee and Elena, were able to have a good conversation about where we believed each item to be on the list, which tells me we will be able to talk out things we may have different opinions on without getting upset with each other.  

Another factor that contributed to my decision of working in a group was the articles we read on working with a team. For example, in the article by John H. Bradley and Frederic J. Hebert, they state, “The ideal team should be highly diversified in the talents and knowledge each member contributes, while maintaining open, nonthreatening communication.” This sentence supported my reasoning for working with a group because we were able to have good communication during the Lost at Sea activity. Also, we have several different talents with editing and filming. Another quote from that article that influenced my decision was, “Intrateam communication will be more natural for the extrovert than the introvert, the sensing than the intuitive, and the thinking than the feeling personality types. Extroverts are natural communicators.” This sentence explains that extroverts easily communicate, and everyone is an extrovert in my group, so I believe we will be able to communicate well without one person overpowering another or anyone’s ideas being left out. Adding on, in the article by Eli Becker, he states, "They've come to understand that they don't always have to say 'yes.' ... They trust each other and understand how to have healthy conflict when situations are off-loaded to us that really should not be our job in the first place. We're clear on what we're accountable for." This sentence proves that a group that works together well trusts each other and is able to have conflict without it becoming a problem. This relates to my group because we all already trust each other and feel comfortable expressing our opinions and ideas.  

Overall, I have decided to work with my group on the film after reading the articles and completing the team activities because they brought out our groups ability to conversate and communicate our ideas. We also found that we have several different skills like editing that can benefit us with our project.