• Conformity

• Informal pressure

• Normative pressure

• Shared knowledge

• Polarisation

WE- The team had fixed tasks within the game.

Philipp - “Team leader”

rest of the group (5 people) - “Players”

Communication was oral and on a basic level. It was a balanced conversation, where nobody tried to dictate people in what they are supposed to do. Before every round we agreed on our strategy and mixed it up depending on the taks given.

IT- The primary goal was to achieve the given task under 70 seconds. As a secondary goal the team leader motivated us to break the record of 35 seconds.

GLOBE- Click all of the 30 websites within 70 seconds. Everybody has to participate in the game. Only one person can access the internet at once. We had to click the websites in ascending order. And leave the room after clicking the 30th “website”. Additionally we were able to reconsider our strategy before every round.

Resource investigator: - not necessary for this task

Coordinator: team leader tried to clarify the goal and give instructions

Shaper: team members after first trial (everybody tried to beat the previous time score)

Monitor evaluator: team leader after first trial (tried to ask guiding questions)

Teamworker: everybody (letting everybody speak and active listening, open for new ideas)

Implementer: team members (when going to the internet Café)

Completer finisher: everybody (trying to find ways to beat previous time score, team leader tried to ask questions on how the team could save time)

Specialist: - not necessary for this task

This also helped with the polarization, there were no two opposing ideas and we were actively thinking together on the upsides and downsides of every input idea. Every idea was valued and I believe having sufficient time to do so was a key factor.

At the end of the first round the playing team had the same knowledge and that helped us validating the ideas in a fair way, while the leader without knowledge could only stimulate us into certain ways of thinking (what was more time consuming?).

I also believe there was no particular pressure on us, mainly because it was a game and we all had the same interest in trying to get a low time just for the sake and fun of it. No one was really pressuring the others into doing too much in a bad way. The whole team participated more or less equally in the discussions.

Also since it was a first time thing, informative pressure is not really applicable in this case.

• Small group, ne need for introduction

• Friendly and open atmosphere

• Quick rule introduction unsure of approach

• Clarified goal

Phase 2, Storming:

• Quick discussion of approach

• Role was already set, no hierarchy

• Partipant order ocurred naturally

Phase 3, Norming:

• Great collaboration, equal contribution

• Supporting each others ideas and task

Phase 4, Performing:

• Refining process after communicating with team leader after each try

• Discussing different approaches

• Celebrating results!!!!

Phase 5, Adjourning:

• Feedback for team leader

• Open mindness and collaboration in the team appreciated

• Team developed trustworthy relationships

• Ability to engage in dialogue

• Consultation skills

• Communication skills    

• Fluency

• Comprehension skills

Let's go through them one by one.

Regarding the first one, it is the ability to adapt to others during a conversation. In our case it was very relevant as it felt like we were all on the same level during the discussions, proposing ideas one at a time and listening at others, evolving the conversation into something useful for the team.

That touches the consultation skill as well, as a matter of fact we were able to advise one another how well we thought their idea would work in our opinions and give useful feedbacks or causes for reflection.

Regarding the communication skill, it was pretty easy to be listened by the others as we were a pretty small group and no chaos really came up. The subjects of our communication was also pretty straightforward so we just needed to explain verbally what was on our mind.

Then regarding the fluency I feel like every one of us is able to speak and understand english pretty easily in order to comprehend each other, so even if it is not our first language all the ideas were expressed clearly, also thanks to the fact that they were not particularly technical from a linguistic point of view.

Ending with the comprehension skills, which include the ability to understand others and being understood, that goes hand in hand with the fluency. Given a decent proficency with the language it was easy to understand each other. However I believe in other scenarios it could go even beyond that and having different backgrounds and cultures could have an impact on understanding some deeper concepts in the same way.

Face-to-face communication (spoken words, nonverbal cues)

This channel of communication was used the most in our serious game. Since we were all present in a room, it was the easiest and fastest way of communication. Considering the fact that none of us speaks English as their first language, the was also a considerable amount of body language whenever somebody was looking for a way to express their point of few, but was missing a vocabulary or two.

Print media (books, newspapers, magazines, flyers)

Even though we did not use any print media in the serious game, it is still a powerful and frequently used tool in our modern society. The biggest advantage of print media is the fact that you can revisit it as many times as you want, whereas a website for example can be taken down any time. In the case of taking down a website, all the information on the website is gone and can hardly be recovered.

Broadcast media (radio, television)

Broadcasting in any way of fashion plays a crucial role in modern society. It is an easy way to reach a large amount of people at the same time. It is a one way communication, but has a tremendous impact on public opinions. Considering the fact that a majority of the radio stations/television programs offer news updates in a frequent manner and a type of entertainment it was not of any importance for our serious game.

Digital media (social media, websites, email, messaging apps)

This channel becomes more and more important in modern society and most likely the number one way of communication for most people nowadays. The biggest advantage digital media is, that it can cover any distance in the world, which means we can communicate with the person next door just as fast as with a person in Australia. In a modern world of globalization, digital media is of highest importance. If we would have been in different rooms for example, I truly believe that digital media would have been our preferred way of communicating.

Telephone or telecommunication systems

This channel focuses a lot on voice-based communication, which makes it more personal, but also comes with its downsides. On of the downsides is, that in most cases you are only able to talk to one person at a time, which makes group tasks like our serious game more difficult. In our cases we would have had to call each other repeatedly to figure out whether one of us came up with a new idea on how to accomplish the task. The advantage on the other hand is that it keeps the personal element in tact, while being able to cover big geological gaps. Just as with digital media, we are able to talk to the person next door just as fast as with a person in Australia. Even though it would have been an organizational problem in our serious game, telephone or telecommunication systems play a crucial role in our modern time.

Visual media (posters, films, photographs, infographics)

Visiual media and communication is often use to emphasize and further deepen the meaning of what is spoken. For example PowerPoint presentations are often used as visual aid and complement what is being broadcasted. There are certain times when visual media stands by itself though. A classic example would be a poster for an event. The are often drawn in bright colors to grasp attention, but also deliver all the information necessary as to where and when the event takes place. In our serious game, our Team leader Phillip used visual media at the beginning, where he wrote down all the information that we have on the whiteboard. That helped us memorize the most important rules in the game. Other then right at the beginning, we did not use visual media again. Even though it is an important channel of communication nowadays, it was not of big use in our game.

Hidden (known to self – not known to others): At first, I felt unsure about whether our plan would work, especially since we didn’t know all the circumstances but once we started, I gained confidence. Some of us might have had ideas for improving speed but didn’t share them out loud. The motivation of each team member depends on how ambitious they are and how seriously they take such playful tasks. After the first attempt, the team leader had less information than the rest of the team, which may have made him feel uncertain.

Blind (not known to self – known to others): Difficult to judge ourselves, as we are “blind”. Perhaps there was a strategy that we did not think of, but which could be seen when observing us. We could give feedback to the team leader explaining the rules before the first round: he seemed a little unsure about the game which confused everyone, but since he had little information, we can't blame him for that.

Unknown Area (not known to self – not known to others): We didn’t know how quickly we could adapt until we were forced to change plans. Some might have hidden strengths in memory, coordination or leadership that they didn’t know about before. How quickly we can find and touch the parts depends on our physical abilities. We could analyse this through an agility and reaction test.