1. Why is this class organized this way (“Team As Support”):

Research has shown that the teams that create real trust have higher levels of performance and innovation.  This system is very close to the teamwork design that Google uses to support amazing innovation and performance.  “Team As Support” will help your grades and also make class a lot more fun.  It will teach you how to be an effective leader and how to support others in meaningful ways. It will teach generosity, kindness, and the skills of collaboration.   It is also great training for teamwork in the workforce after graduation. In the world of medicine,

it can save lives.

• What is different about this form of teamwork and all the groupwork that I have done in other classes?

Groupwork is typically focused on accomplishing a project which is time limited.  “Team As Support is about building a powerful support system for every single student throughout the entire semester.

• Why are we sitting in small circles or going into breakout rooms?

Sitting in teams supports the bonding within the team.  You are not receptacles for the wisdom of this instructor; you are active, powerful teams focused on learning, performing, sharing, and support.

• How can this form of teamwork benefit me?

Teamwork will benefit your grades and your ability to keep up with your assignments.  It will support you through emergencies so that you will not have to drop out of class or miss an exam, etc.  It will train you for the workforce when you graduate and teach you how to think and act like a leader.

• What is my job as a team member?

Your job is to support the other guy; to help them get an “A” in the class; to notice, to respond to requests on the chat for an assignment or for help and even reach out if you think someone may need that extra bit of support.  And your job is also to make requests for help yourself when you need that help.  The idea is to make a difference! 

• What is my job as a Team Leader?

As Team Leader, you are the model of support.  You will text assignments to students who are out and reach out to anyone who may seem to be stumbling with empathy, with listening and an offer of help.  At the beginning of the week of your leadership, you will create a specific “Possibility” in a couple of sentences (to be handed in)  in which you will create an academic goal (a team zoom to prepare for an exam; a chat discussion about a reading; whatever you feel is most needed) and a team bonding goal (sharing about life outside the classroom, hopes and dreams, family, travels, holiday plans, etc.).  And you will write an “Outgoing Team Leader Report” at the end of the week of your leadership in which you asses the strengths and weaknesses of your team (paragraph one) and write about your own creative contributions to your team as Team Leader (paragraph two).

• What is my job as Chief Technology Officer?

Simple!  You are the go-to person on your team for anyone who has a tech issue.

• What if I prefer to work alone?

Teamwork is indicated on our syllabus.  It is part of what we are learning in this

course. Not negotiable. Be open to the possibility that this may indeed be  an opportunity to experience a new way of working, one that will be important when you enter the workforce and that your feelings may indeed shift.

• What is a “Possibility”?

As an idea in this course, “possibility” means moving beyond familiar limits in your ideas about yourself, your hopes and your sense of what is truly possible for you in this life you have been given!  

As a feature of this course, it is a few sentences that you submit at the beginning of your week as Team Leader in which you create 2 intentions or goals: one is academic (you will create a zoom on which your team will prepare together for an exam; or, you will make sure everyone is up to date with assignments). 

The second “possibility” is about the bonding, connection, and communication within your team.  Research has shown that the deeper the level of trust in a team, the higher the level of performance.  In the world of medicine, the deeper the trust, the less judgmental the team, the more willing members are to report error and thus, the more correction of error takes place, and the more lives are saved.  That is what the research has told us. So, this “possibility” will invite team members to share something about who they are, what they love to do, a place they visited, the challenges they face at this moment in their lives.  This is what we call, building the psychic infrastructure of the team, and it creates more fun as well as more learning!

1. What is an “Outgoing Team Leader Report”?

Simple!  This is a closing report that you submit at the end of the week of your week as Team Leader in which you write about 1. the strengths and weaknesses of your team and 2. your creative contributions to your team in that time.   It only need be two paragraphs.  Details, though, help.

1. What is a “breakdown?

Breakdowns are things that happen in life all the time:  you screw up an exam; you go to bed too late and are exhausted the next day; you have the wrong friends; your time management skills are a mess.  You rack up too many purchases on your credit card and must pay interest.  You are breaking up with a partner. Or, you are trying to discover a new vaccine and so far every attempt has failed!  But a breakdown is also, potentially, a learning opportunity!

1.  What is a “breakthrough?”

A “breakthrough” is making lemonade out of a lemon!  In other words, it is looking carefully at that breakdown – how did it happen, how can I make sure this does not happen again – and figuring out what you need to do to make sure that the “breakdown” does not repeat itself.  The point of a “breakthrough” is that the breakdown occurred once, but in creating a “breakthrough” you have created a whole new level of behavior and action for yourself.  You learned to move on after a failed relationship; you got your act together with respect to time management; you are now in a better position to put together the right chemical combination for that vaccine.  The payoff from a breakdown is huge. We call it a “breakthrough.”

1. What if a team member is absent a lot and even “disappears” from class and from our team?

This can be a serious and painful breakdown for an entire team. First: withhold judgment. If someone is not showing up, you know that something is going on.  Reach out and ask if everything is OK?  Offer support or even just a listening ear.  If you get no response to your attempts to contact this team member, the next step is to create a conversation among the remaining members of the team to discuss this “breakdown.”  Does one person pulling out have to affect your team and how the team functions?  Can you remain true to one another, supportive of one another at the same time that there is disappointment around the loss of one of your members?  Moving forward despite this breakdown is an essential life skill.  And when you and your team can reconstitute your power despite this loss, you will have created an important “breakthrough” for yourselves and for your team.

1. What if our Team Leader is not showing up?

This is a hard one.  Yes, it is rare, but it can happen.  Yes, it is a serious “breakdown.” Again, the first step is to avoid judgment.  Something is going on for this person.  What?  Can you reach out and make a difference?  Offer support?  

And in the unlikely event that your Team Leader “disappears,” can you just show up as Team Leader instead?  At least for the couple of days until it is the turn of someone else on your team to be Team Leader?   Can you take initiative, model support to your team so that they see that even though someone dropped out, the team remains strong, united, and powerful?   Perhaps more powerful than ever before?   That is your “breakthrough”!

1. What if I have an emergency in my life and cannot come to class or complete an assignment?  Or even must withdraw from class?   What should I do?

Wow!  That is a serious “breakdown.”  Recognize that your breakdown affects others and communicate with your professor and with your team.  Thank them for the support they have given. In being up front, in acknowledging the impact of your breakdown on others, you ease the loss that they will feel and you will be a model of grace. To remain generous under circumstances of breakdown is an amazing breakthrough.  If possible, stay in touch with your team, even if you have dropped the class.  They care about you.

1. What do I do in case I have a tech issue and I cannot submit an assignment?

Text your Chief Technology Officer to get help asap.  You can text others if that person is not available.  If the assignment will not be submitted in a timely manner, always inform your professor before rather than after the date of submission.

1. What does “support” really look like?

On one level support means responding on the chat, being part of your team, reaching out when you think someone is faltering or needs help, learning to ask for help yourself when you need help with an assignment or another issue.  It means social sensitivity and being there for your teammates.  On a deeper level, it means service, kindness, generosity, making a difference, taking initiative. In one class, a team member woke up from surgery, looked at her phone and saw messages from her teammates. “It made me happy,” she said.  In another, students on one team spent a semester nudging a super shy immigrant student to participate in all their activities.  When his performance in a team play blew away the entire class, the other teammates were singing with joy at the difference they had made in the life of that student.   Support of your team is a course requirement.  It is also your secret power!!!