Reflection Essay

Question: Discusses several other factors that can be improved for better group outcome in the future? Answer: This reflective essay summarizes my personal contribution towards success of the teamwork and my learning eventually with the team in terms of skills and conducts gained by me. The paper also discusses several other factors that can be improved for better group outcome in the future. My team of four has a purpose of carrying out a research and the writing a research report. All the four team members contributed very well towards the group success. In terms of my contribution, I would say that I possessed some skills that helped me to work collaboratively in this research project while some of the skills I learned eventually as the research work progressed. I was assigned as the group leader. Since the very first day, I understood the end goal which was to deliver best research project work. As it is rightly said that one must begin with the end in mind, I did exactly the same thing and my actions were in line with the attainment of that ultimate goal. Apart from certain collaborative works in the group, I decided to take on a specific role in the group to find out all relevant literature work, both primary and secondary work done by several authors, which I clearly understood. I also recognized my interdependencies on other group members so I worked accordingly. My communication skill helped me a lot in this research work. I have the ability to recognize the strengths and limitations of the other group members so I divided the work accordingly. I would encourage my team members to give their best to the team. I encouraged having a comfortable, relaxed and informal atmosphere so that no one takes unnecessary stress that could affect the teams performance. Other team members perceived my role to be an important and well managed one because they could find a productive environment to work their own way yet collaboratively. I could learn a lot in this team work. I learnt to welcome negative feedback from the others when they disagreed upon certain points given by me. I learnt not to take disagreements in a negative way but actually it is a way to improve my thought process to generate better ideas. All the points of disagreements in the group were negotiated, resolved and that actually helped me and the group as well to improve our overall performance. I also learnt that while working as a team, it is important to watch words, actions and behaviors as they can have significant effect on others and can alter the performance in a destructive way. I learnt to divide the work according to the skills and interests of the team members and this elevated the teams performance. For example, Aaron was given the work of data collection as he loves to travel and communicate with others without hesitation and he has the capability to take out the hidden information smartly. Had I given this responsibility to other t eam members who are somewhat introvert, then may be the quality and quantity of the data had to be compromised. These skills are going to work in my professional career as well. Irrespective of the fact that every step of the research process went out well but at the end of the project, we had discussed several issues that cropped up in between. For example, we had to adjust the deadline more than five times because we did not consider the pragmatic scenarios while researching (data collection can be time taking) and chose unattainable deadlines. Secondly, we should have incorporated more and more promotive interaction to encourage and facilitate each other, instead of meeting just once or twice in a week for discussions with solicit agendas. We worked upon these issues so that in future they do not arise and we could improve our performances manifolds. I enjoyed working with my team and it was a great learning experience.