TAMU's Winter Crash Course- The Value of A Team-Taking A Stand

Today was very productive! Even though we were brain-fried, my team proudly turned in our first part of our lengthy, research book project. For the past couple of days, my two friends and I have been working extremely hard to complete a marketing Advertising, Promotion, and Sales crash course.

At first, we did not expect to be overwhelmed this much as we are used to working ahead and staying on top of our work, so we did not have to be frustrated in classes. This being our first winter, 6 day crash course, the most important thing we learned was the value of a team. At the beginning of the course, my friend and I asked 2 peers, which we did not know very well, to join our team. We decided that each day, we would not leave until each individual in our group completed their part.

Each of our parts was very lengthy and complex, so it was important for us to put in extra, particular effort and pay attention to details. It was important for us to maintain one another's trust and put our heart in our work because it was going to affect our entire group's grade. We tried as much as we could to proofread one another's work and add to research where we best thought it was necessary, but each day it would be about 8 pm until we finished our own parts and then went to read one another's. The first night of class, our team was trying to edit our peer's response, but the system would not let us. This part of our research was pertaining to growth and trends, therefore citing and having clear facts was vital, but our peer did not take the time to read over, or cite his sources. Due to system glitches and peer carelessness, our group lost points on that aspect of the project. We then decided to get each part completed a day before, giving us time to work with technical issues and time crunches.

As a team, we expected equal input and will power from one another, but it was frustrating to see one member showing selfishness and neglect in his work. After trying to make it clear we all needed to be very careful and put in true effort in our work, our partner still acted as before, knowing that we would fix his errors and edit his work to make it meet the rubric and grade expectations. This couldn't carry on longer, so the rest of my team spoke to the professor and him, asking them to make sure each partner has a fair and equitable share of work. We began to ask our peer to do his part of work early, so we would all be able to look over it and have time to add any changes.

I soon switched from the team leader to a babysitter-like, frustrating boss who would monitor their employee's work every half hour. I kept the google drive open and asked this peer to have completed a certain portion of work before a specific deadline. When he constantly would get on his phone, I would point out that his work was not complete and he needed to get back to work. I would constantly remind him of the time and the group's plan, getting to a point where he clearly made it obvious he did not like me babying him. I would bribe him like a child, allowing him to go home earlier than the rest of the team if he submitted his work early. It got to a point where my team just accepted that we were going to have to do this project on our own. I realized that my leadership strategy was incorrect. I should have been more professional in my method of encouraging my peer to stay on the same pace. My tone may have came off demanding instead of convincing, making my peer feel intimidated. Since the very first day of class, my team had been making mistakes in solving our teams issues, but now it was time to fix it. When the professor asked to hold a meeting with him to discuss our group's work, we decided to solve the problem ourselves.

Thankfully, our team handled the issue professionally. Our marketing advertising project was a success, with a visually-pleasing design and credible research. Our entire team learned that we cannot always remain quiet and soft-hearted when a peer is not meeting their expectations.This crash course required the persistence of each member and without compatible team members, it was physically, mentally, and clearly impossible to conduct this project and its detailed aspects. Our team is proud to have successfully dealt with our issues and resolved conflict in time. It is important to stand up professionally when necessary and especially early on to prevent conflict. I agree that our group communication method was one that made it clear to me that getting each group member to have the same motivation always was impossible. In such cases, it is important to let each individual realize their contributions to the team's overall goals and how their efforts could make the whole team successful. I have learned that in the future, managing teams with people of various work ethics and motivations will require more work and patience than I expected.