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My Interest In Collaboration

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Introduction Now that you know why you should be interested in collaboration, how do you do it? Many of you have probably been in a situation where collaborating didn't work out very well. Was the problem the project, or was the problem with the team? It could be that the problem was both. Knowing how to organize your team and the project can make the difference between a successful collaboration and one that fails. In this lesson, you will learn how to organize your team to maximize the potential that the team will be successful. You will also see how to break down the tasks of the project so that everyone is clear about what he or she needs to do. Figure 7.2.1. As a student, you're asked to collaborate on many projects in school. …show more content…

As a student, you know that your job is to learn everything given to you. That's easy! Your job is clearly defined, and you've been practicing it for years. But what do you do if you don't know what your job in a group is? For every single collaboration, the members of the group must know what is expected of them in order to be successful in the project. In many situations, the expectations are very clear. However, sometimes they are not. Let's say your teacher puts you in groups of four or five students and gives the class a project the group must complete by the end of the class. Do you recognize any of these situations? Everyone stares at each other and nothing gets done. Some students will start working on the project on their own while other students entertain themselves with something else. The group starts to decide how to complete the task, but two or more members fight over how it should be done and nothing happens on the project. Most of the members of the group start working together, but one or two members refuse to do anything--causing frustration in the group or causing the other members to ignore them. In all of these situations, either students didn't know how to work together, or chose not to do so. Know Your …show more content…

Every person in a group provides a piece of the puzzle that will make the project successful. If one piece is missing, the whole project will be incomplete. Know Yourself One of the important skills necessary for successful collaboration is for each team member to know him- or herself. Let's say you're assigned to a team. What are you good at? What can you contribute to the group? You may know that you don't make a good leader. That's okay! Not everyone has that particular talent. However, you may know that you are a pretty good artist and can help in that way. Or maybe you're very organized, and can help keep the group on track as a time keeper. Learning what you're good at and what you should avoid sometimes takes experimenting to see how you do. Be willing to try different things (and fail!) now, while you're in school, so that you can learn what natural talents you may have that may be make you successful later. Once you learn your strengths and weaknesses, be willing to share your strengths. Getting Your Team

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