Team Work

I think we are pretty familiarized with the term “teamwork”, it has been involved in our life since we were kids. At really young ages we are encouraged to work along with others to achieve certain tasks or goals and that continues for the rest of our life, working and interacting with a team I can say are human characteristics. But this is only my definition of it and how I do perceive teamwork, but what does a more elaborate definition have to say about it?

Group work: Form of voluntary association of members benefiting from cooperative learning, that enhances the total output of the activity than when done individually.

The definition already is giving us one of the reasons why we should learn, practice, and improve in terms of group work skills. Working along others can drastically improve results, deliveries, and quality when compared to working all by ourselves.

As mentioned previously, group working not only involves developing tasks with more people but also evolving and improving in certain areas that help us provide better results. These areas can be some as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking which are really important in order to achieve and even surpass the results we are expected to.

How should we try to improve on those areas? What can get we get done to get better at them? Let’s try to figure it out.

The ability to communicate in an effective way is not easy for all of us, we each have different personalities and this can affect the way we share our thoughts with others but also how do we listen and perceive others' opinions. As a way to improve there a couple of points we can try, such as asking for constructive feedback, practicing many communication habits we are accustomed to doing, and seeking out opportunities to communicate. While asking for constructive feedback gives us an inside on what do we need to focus in order to strengthen our set of skills, practicing and seeking out opportunities to communicate are the way to enhance them.

Collaborate with others to accomplish a common goal is not always an easy task. We all like to do things in certain ways and have preferences for different situations and all of this due to personal experiences. Many options we have to get better at collaborating with others are understanding the team’s strengths and weaknesses, actively listen to others' opinions while also providing ours, taking responsibility when mistakes were made, and giving credit to others' contributions.

We are used to performing multiple tasks as a team, from everyday situations such as getting a stuck car out of the mud to one of the best things humanity has achieved in history like putting a man on the moon. This absolutely cannot be accomplished or can be really difficult to do if we don’t collaborate with others.

I do certainly believe that humanity has accomplished many of the things we have now thanks to our ability to coordinate with others and work towards a common goal. Keeping this in mind makes me want to work every day towards improving my teamwork skills and who knows, we may have the opportunity to leave a legacy for the future.