Why Is This Important?

Your college experience will likely include many teams, and not just for sport. Being able to work well in a team is a valuable employment skill. For this reason, college courses are often designed with opportunities for students to develop their teamwork skills. Beyond being an important employment skill, working well with your peers to complete group assignments, work in lab classes, form study groups, and more can help to build relationships and sense of community throughout your time in college.

Being a Team Player

Almost every posting for a job opening in a workplace lists teamwork among the required skills. This is because every employer’s business success absolutely depends on people working well in teams to get the job done. A high-functioning, cohesive, and efficient team is essential to workplace productivity.^[1]

Work Distribution

Teamwork is a compound word, combining team and work. The word team refers to the forming of a group normally dedicated to production or problem solving. The word work refers to the tasks that the team will complete. Each member of the team has skills, talents, experience, and education. Each is expected to contribute. Work is the activity and while it may be fun or engaging, it also requires effort and commitment, as there is a schedule for production with individual and group responsibilities. Each member must fulfill their own obligations for the team to succeed, and the team, like a chain, is only as strong as its weakest member.^[2]

Leading a Team

Teamwork allows individuals to share their talents and energy to accomplish goals. An effective leader facilitates this teamwork process. In college, you will work in a team and at some point may be called on to lead. You may emerge in that role as the group recognizes your specific skill set in relation to the task, or you may be appointed to a position of responsibility by yourself and others. Know that leading and following are both integral aspects of effective teamwork.^[3]

As a group leader in a college setting, there are certain expectations that you must strive to meet. Your group members will expect you to arrange and facilitate group meetings, and they may turn to you to manage conflict if it happens.

Arranging Meetings

It is the group leader’s responsibility to arrange group meetings. This includes formulating an agenda, determining whether the meeting will be online or in person (and finding an appropriate meeting space if it is in person), and then inviting group members to the meeting.

A meeting agenda includes a list of topics to be discussed. Note that it is always a good idea to leave time at the end for additional questions and points that group members want to discuss. Sharing the agenda before the meeting allows for group members to prepare, for the meeting to start with ease (because the first topic of discussion has already been chosen), and for group members to stay on topic during the meeting.

While meeting online can be a convenient and time-saving option, there are many advantages to meeting in person. People communicate not just with words but also with their body language — facial expressions, hand gestures, head nodding or head shaking, and posture. These subtleties of communication can be key to determining how group members really feel about an issue or question.

Facilitating Meetings

To facilitate an effective meeting, it is important to start promptly, follow the agenda, guide the conversation, encourage participation, take breaks, and capture and assign action items.

While social time makes people happy and relieves stress, meetings cannot only consist of social time. It is essential to keep to the agenda so that all topics are discussed during the allotted time. If your group members get off topic or social time is going on too long, use signposts to indicate where you are in your agenda. For example, “It looks like we’ve got 25 minutes left in our meeting, and we haven’t discussed who’s going to complete the final revision of the report.”

If you’re in charge of the meeting, that doesn’t mean you’re responsible for everything people say in it, nor does it mean you have to personally comment on every idea or proposal that comes up. Let the other members of the group carry the discussion as long as they’re on topic.

All group members should be heard. As a leader, it is important that you encourage participation. There are a few strategies you can use to help group members contribute, including having all group members respond to the same question, using names to ask questions directly, and taking breaks. Taking a break during a meeting gives group members a chance to prepare for the next topics on the agenda, including preparing questions they may have. This is an especially effective strategy if you have group members who are less confident with speaking English.^[4]

Team Conflict

Conflict is an expressed struggle between interdependent parties over goals that they perceive as incompatible or resources that they perceive to be insufficient. There are some circumstances in which a moderate amount of conflict can be helpful. For example, conflict can stimulate innovation and change. However, conflict can also affect the social climate of the group and inhibit group cohesiveness. If this happens, it is helpful to know how to manage that conflict.

Strategies for Managing Team Conflict

1. Emphasizing group goals and objectives. Focusing on group goals and objectives should prevent conflict. If larger goals are emphasized, group members are more likely to see the big picture and work together.
2. Providing clear tasks. When steps or tasks are clearly defined, understood, and accepted, conflict should be less likely to occur. Conflict is most likely to occur when team members are unsure of what they need to do or who is responsible for each task.
3. Sharing openly. Misperception of the the abilities, goals, and motivations of others often leads to conflict, so efforts to share information among group members should help eliminate conflict. As group members come to know more about one another, greater teamwork becomes possible.
4. Seeking support. In some cases, it is necessary to ask for support. In college, you can reach out to the instructor who assigned the group task. If your group cannot overcome the conflict, invite your instructor to a group meeting to discuss the issue.^[5]

Valuing Diversity

Decision making and problem solving can be much more dynamic and successful when performed in a diverse team environment. Multiple diverse perspectives can enhance both the understanding of the problem and the quality of the solution. Yet, working in diverse teams can be challenging given different identities, cultures, beliefs, and experiences. 

Challenges of Diverse Teams

People may assume that communication is the key factor that can derail multicultural teams as participants may have different languages and communication styles. There are three key cultural differences that can cause destructive conflicts in a team. The first difference is direct versus indirect communication, also known as high-context vs. low-context communication. Some cultures are very direct and explicit in their communication, while others are more indirect and ask questions rather than pointing out problems. The second difference that multicultural teams may face is trouble with accents and fluency. When team members don’t speak the same language, there may be one language that dominates the group interaction — and those who don’t speak it may feel left out. The next challenge is when there are differing attitudes toward hierarchy. Some cultures are very respectful of hierarchy and will treat team members differently based on that hierarchy. Other cultures are more egalitarian and don’t observe hierarchical differences to the same degree. This may lead to clashes if some people feel that they are being disrespected and not treated according to their status.^[6]

Developing Cultural Intelligence

Cultural intelligence is a competency and a skill that enables individuals to function effectively in cross-cultural environments. It develops as people become more aware of the influence of culture and more capable of adapting their behaviour to the norms of other cultures.

Cultural intelligence is an extension of emotional intelligence. An individual must have a level of awareness and understanding of the new culture so that they can adapt to its style, pace, language, nonverbal communication, and so on in order to work together successfully with the new culture. A multicultural team can only find success if its members take the time to understand each other and ensure that everyone feels included.^[7]