Suggest at least one (1) scenario in which understanding the Five Stages of Group Development could help you to work more effectively in groups in the future. Provide a rationale for your response. Then, reflect on an experience that you had being a member of a team. Classify the good, bad, and tolerable characteristics of being a team member.

No man Is an Island

Cohesion is the keyword in any team where collaboration among the team members can achieve any goal whereas personal ego, bias, stereotypes and lack of communication may prove to be detrimental to any team work. There are proven five stages of team development which are- Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing and Adjourning.

There are three distinct characteristics- good, bad and tolerable which can make or break any team (Kim, Sikula & Smith, 2006). The good includes clear communication, commitment, punctuality and positive attitude among the members which can be provoked only when each member focusses on the common goal of the team beyond individual ego. The bad, herein, is lack of interpersonal communication, poor punctuality, rudeness, apathy to teamwork (Xiao, Parker & Manser, 2013).

Recently, I had been a part of a team which consisted of a team leader, coordinator, graphic designer, developer and a content writer. The team leader had been a jovial fellow who would really encourage every member to work hard, delegate tasks on time, take feedbacks and offer support whenever required. His friendly attitude and positive words worked wonders while meeting deadlines. He always put himself into others shoes before taking any decision. On the contrary, the coordinator was a rude lady, always boasting on personal skills and was never on time to any meeting. She was overtly critical about others during the brainstorming sessions. This made everyone dislike her and nobody wanted to work with her. The graphic designer was, somewhat, weird who tried hard to stylise his accent during conversations and never believed in self-help during tea breaks and asked others to serve him. Yet, he was a go- getter and had a solution to every problem. Although a bit eerie, he always lent a helping hand to everyone in the team and hence, was endeared by all. This person was tolerable because his peculiarities did never harm the team work.

Every team member should respect each other and be accommodating about the personal differences in order to perform a smooth running of a team process.

References

Kim, C.W., Sikula, A., & Smith, H.M. (2006). Perceptions of the Characteristics of Good, Bad and Ordinary Workers on the Job: The Influence of Work Experience and Culture . Marshall Digital Scholar, 1-22.

Xiao, Y., Parker, S.H., & Manser, T. (2013). Teamwork and Collaboration. Reviews of Human Factors and Ergonomics, 8(1).