The group I recall as having been a part of my life was one in high school which comprised of seven members initially. This was the mathematics club. The aim of this group was to improve the mathematics performance of the students who had the willingness to do so. I was a member of this club from grade 9 up to 12. One of the behaviors that the group exhibited was the discipline of attending the meeting which was scheduled for Wednesday every week. As the team developed, however, there were other meetings that were scheduled for students who needed extra time to ensure excellence in mathematics. It happened at some point that some students had to attend mathematics’ practice where the senior mathematics teacher had volunteered to assist in improving the overall grade for students in the school. Part of the development entailed the attendance of mathematics contests that comprised of schools neighboring ours.
Absence of some members during the Wednesday meetings emerged as a problem at some point. The steps taken to address this problem included an announcement to expel those members who missed three consecutive meetings from the time the issue was discussed. This happened at a time when new members were joining the club due to the positive results it had depicted in mathematics’ improvement for members who were serious about everything that happened. Collaboration in seeking a solution played an important role in reaching the final judgment (Stanford University, n.d.).
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Leadership was a major aspect of our team and proved quite critical in problem-solving and decision-making undertakings. Our leader exhibited the transformational style of leadership with a willingness to lead individuals who would change their behavior to align with what the club needed (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014). The steps taken to resolve the problem at hand entailed the change of behavior for the individuals who had defected from the common norms of the club. The problem-solving model that encourages the definition of the problem, a search for alternative solutions, evaluation and selection of one appropriate solution, and then implementation and follow-up (American Society for Quality, 2018) could have worked better.
In my opinion, the team was effective because most members, if not all, benefited through the accomplishment of the set goal which was to ensure the improvement in mathematics performance. At no one point can I recall a member complaining that the club was not beneficial. The team also had a leader who facilitated the meetings and also guided others in the accomplishment of a specific mission, such as contest attendance. The ground rules included the observance of time during the meetings. We only had an allowance of five minutes after 5 pm to wait for members who arrive late for the meetings. One was never supposed to disrupt the meeting once it took off. The leader, therefore, had to shut down the door after 5.05 pm. Every meeting was never to go beyond one hour and, therefore, we were always through by 6.00 pm. As part of the group’s norms, those people who depicted little or no improvement had a meeting with the senior mathematics teacher who offered assistance and also counseling on how to succeed.
Communication was always a critical tool in enhancing cohesiveness. Diversity was a key characteristic (Huhman, 2013) that was utilized with opinions from various members being used to reach a decision or resolve a crisis. Everyone who joined the group was given a leaflet that contained the goal, mission, ground rules, and the norms of the club. Knowledge of the goals, roles, norms, and ground rules enable individuals to understand why they are in a group and what is expected from them for success to be attained. The goals, coupled with ground rules, roles and norms were key to the attainment of specific milestones and solving the problems that arose (Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2009). Our leader kept reminding us that we had rules to follow, a goal to accomplish, and norms to guide our way of tackling tasks and engaging in various endeavors.
References
American Society for Quality (2018). Problem solving. Retrieved from http://asq.org/
Huhman, J. (2013, May 6). 8 ways to build a cohesive team. Huffington Post. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/heather-huhman/
Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC (2009). Team building blocks: Norms, goals, roles, communication, leaders, and members. Retrieved from http://samples.jbpub.com/
Nanjundeswaraswamy, T. S. & Swamy, D. R. (2014). Leadership styles. Advances in Management, 7 (2), 57-63.
Stanford University (n.d.). Team-based problem solving. Retrieved from https://teachingcommons.stanford.edu/resources/
