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Introduction
Overview of Variables

Individual & Group Goals

Situation

Group Cohesiveness

Kahoot! Game
Group Reflections
Q&A

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A Team Leader is one who is part of a team but takes on the additional responsibility of coordinating, guiding and providing leadership for the benefit of the team. S/he monitors the progress of the group to ensure the team objectives are achieved. A team leader can either be appointed, nominated or take it upon themselves to take the lead

Skills: A Team leader communicates well, coordinates members by being sensitive to their needs, possesses interpersonal team building skills, is confident, desires to solve problems, is committed and manages time well.

Roles & Responsibilities: The team lead manages the team, is a strategist, keeps their eyes on the goal, communicates to both high level supervisors and team members.

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Variables Influencing Team Leadership and dynamics

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Variables Influencing Team Leadership and dynamics

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The factors that affect group dynamics in relation to group processes, inputted resources, and outcomes.

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The group's position, function and how group members communicate to achieve tasks and goals.

Group location

The physical arrangement, group size, location and setting of the group meetings can affect effectiveness & group cohesion

For virtual meetings: Is technology dependable? Do time zones affect meeting times? Does the group use microphones, cameras or chat?

Are there external and internal stress factors? (i.e. COVID, work, school)

Purpose

Does the group have a defined purpose, function, objectives and roles?

Leadership can help guide a group, but the group’s situation is a key factor in the group’s effectiveness

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Peace, Brittiany, Laycia, Chinelo, Kit, Lydia, Hana

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Group:

Requires a mutuality of concern between members where everyone shares a similar level of commitment to the tasks required of the group's goals, and is established in the forming stage.

The groups goals must be compatible with individual goals, or must offer some form of benefit to the individual to retain membership.

The function of a group is to transcend the individual goal to achieve something grander through a joint effort.

Groups now operate digital, thus enabling negative behavior such as social loafing are more commonplace.

Groups have three outcomes:

The group has no common ground, both group and individual receive no benefit.

While group goals are achieved the individual goals are neglected.

A fraction of the group will have their needs met at the cost of the group.

There is a fair balance between individual goals & group’s goals, everyone wins, and the group's goal is achieved.

Individual:

Individuals have a diverse range of reasons for choosing to join a group, reasons for joining may dictate demeanor to the group, commitment to tasks, and why they choose to join a group.

There may be a link between the level of dissimilarity between group member's individual goals and being dissatisfied with the team as a whole. Commonality or conscientiousness not only improves team satisfaction, but also performance.

Conclusion: Group & individual goals because of interconnecting social factors/needs are related to the Social Exchange Theory.

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The whole system in which the group functions
This is directly linked to Systems Theory and Social Exchange Theory

Involves group behaviour and communication, which is related to interdependence.

Group behavior and communication is related to rewards and costs

group cohesion can lead group members to feel satisfaction and accomplishment.

Changes can occur at any point in the group

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Kit:
I want to talk about barriers and contributions in that order because our group took awhile to really come together and that was mostly because of different barriers that existed, individually and in the group itself.
I believe the biggest barrier is the situation we find ourselves in now. Online is a challenging way to connect and meet and find common ground, it’s not impossible but it is challenging. We had changes in our group in the first few weeks and then using asynchronous communication to figure out when to meet and what we were doing proved complicated at times, the digital divide affects us in this program too, and there are internet issues and tech access that contributes to the difficulty.
I say all of that because I am immensely proud of us for keeping going and trying to figure it out even with all those barriers, as the group work progressed different contributions came forward and as we talked through issues and difficulties and tried different tactics for how to accomplish what we needed to do. I would be lying if I said I didn’t experience frustration with the project and the scope of trying to have seven people online together, sometimes in different time zones and with all the other noise in our lives that everyone has-not just background noise but internal noise too, personally mine was- Am I contributing enough, am I talking too much or too little, is what I am saying making sense and is everyone okay? The moments we came together and figured things out made the times that were frustrating worth it and I am glad to have had the group I did, barriers, contributions and all.

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Our team seemed large but everyone had their unique contributions to the team. Initially Kit displayed a great deal of team leadership qualities, she would prep us for meetings, take notes, lead the team discussions which we deeply appreciated. As the group evolved, I noticed Kit gradually let others take the lead to enable everyone participate. Laycia and Lydia took turns to lead the group sometimes in discussions and organising the resources. We all had our roles clearly earmarked though but no one was intentionally nominated to lead. Everyone who stepped up to coordinate at some point did so willingly due to the commitment they had towards the team. Towards the end of the preparations, I noticed our team leadership message was not clearly projected in our report which I pointed out to the group and tried to integrate. I faced a great deal of technical challenges with my laptop which contained my history, all my site passwords, papers and resources, till date I am unable to access my GBC Email. However, I was able to get another laptop to get back on track with the team.
I must confess that I do appreciate the community spirit that exists within the group. I could feel us even integrating Hana to make contributions and take on some roles just to ensure everyone participates. It was quite challenging but I am glad with the result and outcomes we have all achieved. In conclusion "WE ALL DID IT"

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Laycia

What went well in the group process.

Group process, Organizational strategy in situation variable: Having a note-taker kept those who didn't make the weekly meeting in the loop. And having an active google doc that members could review on their own time was helpful since we had members living in other countries. Not only did the google doc keep members informed on what happened in meetings, but it also played an important role in keeping us organized and on task.

Personal and Group goals: The Group's tasks were straightforward, and having them highlighted in meetings gave the team clear weekly objectives that were in line with our collective vision for this project. Members gladly volunteered for roles; we all wanted to contribute to this project. However, because of our current situation, we thought smaller goals would be more manageable for each member, given that we had other priorities, e.g., work, school assignments and family.

Communication, Norms and the Groups Situation:

I believe how we organized ourselves from the beginning made group communication easy and accessible. When we needed to contact team members to let them know what was happening with meetings, tasks, or chat and check-in, having a Whatsapp group contributed to the Group's cohesiveness.

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Cohesiveness/ Communication                                                              Team leadership demonstrated a high level of cohesion and communicated .I remember our first meeting when we delegated goals, the first goal of the group is to delegate goals according to our strengths and each of us chose roles that we are comfortable doing and this played a big role in our groups cohesiveness. Also, I will say that our members demonstrated professionalism. For instance, during the meetings we apologised when we talk over another person, no idea was considered dumb or awkward, we helped each other out and because of this I believe that all the team members have a sense of belonginness to the group. I will also say that the communication flowed easily, we utilized different platforms to communicate, at the beginning I opened a whatsapp group for our group to share, and we ended up using various other platforms like email and study cafe to communicate.Generally our group cohesiveness and communication worked very well and I will still chose our group again if we are asked to chose  

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Cohesiveness/ Communication                                                              Team leadership demonstrated a high level of cohesion and communicated .I remember our first meeting when we delegated goals, the first goal of the group is to delegate goals according to our strengths and each of us chose roles that we are comfortable doing and this played a big role in our groups cohesiveness. Also, I will say that our members demonstrated professionalism. For instance, during the meetings we apologised when we talk over another person, no idea was considered dumb or awkward, we helped each other out and because of this I believe that all the team members have a sense of belonginness to the group. I will also say that the communication flowed easily, we utilized different platforms to communicate, at the beginning I opened a whatsapp group for our group to share, and we ended up using various other platforms like email and study cafe to communicate.Generally our group cohesiveness and communication worked very well and I will still chose our group again if we are asked to chose  

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Peace

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Strategies for Success in a Virtual Space (What went well?)

Used a variety of communication & productivity tools

Padlet, Kahoot, What's App, Google Docs, Email, Blackboard Collaborate

Two main methods of communication (WhatsApp & Email)

Patience, openness, co-working, delegation, & common group goals!

Barriers to Group Work Process

Competing needs (school, work, life, pandemic)

Scheduling challenges (different time zones, other commitments, technology issues)

Technology challenges (navigating online space, internet issues, email correspondence through blackboard)

Responsibilities & Roles

Setting Agendas

Note taking during meetings

Communicating to others who missed meetings

Active Listening (Inclusion, Mediation & Summarizing)

Sending meeting reminders & scheduling meetings

Individual tasks & completing delegated work

Includes Initial Research, Summarizing, Editing & Developing content

Data Management (where to place all the info- bb, google docs, email, word)

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What were some things that each group member would change?

I feel that one thing we as a group would have liked to have changed would be being able to meet physically when doing our collaborative work and brainstorming during the early phase of this group assignment. Having that non-verbal feedback would I feel would have made communications more meaningful when compared to typing or talking to a screen.

What were barriers to completing the project?
I felt one barrier was being able to coordinate group meetings digitally had a lot of issues such as finding alternative means to contact group members who lack social media or technology, there were barriers such as technological errors with blackboard such as loss of access to collaborate, computers freezing, or accounts being suddenly logged out. Personal issues were also a factor such as work, or family obligations were also barriers.

What went well in the group process?

I would say what went well was how well everyone collaborated on the project, I felt that everyone had a chance to participate to the best of their personal strengths. There was a lot of positive encouragement, creativity, and a wonderful team dynamic over all that made working with this team a fantastic experience despite not being able to work in the same space physically.