Teamwork as support and contribution to others:

                            the quality of relationship predicts academic outcomes.

                                                  Teams save lives and hearts!

                             Choose generosity!   Create trust!  Take initiative!

             Support of your team is a course requirement.  It is also your secret power!!!

           IMPLEMENTATION: IT’S SIMPLE!

This method uses Permanent Teams, a rotating Team Leader, social media and group chats to facilitate teams as support.   Teams also have a Chief Technology Officer to support team members with tech issues.  You may be Team Leader once or even a few times a semester.

Your job as Team Leader is to support and model the values of support, generosity, and making a difference.  As Team Leader, you are the energetic center of your team for the week of your leadership.  Some students may not used to the role of leader and it is the job of team members to support the greatness and risk taking of their Team Leader!

Every Monday the new Team Leader will hand the “Possibility” (an intention) they will create over the week of their leadership.   The following Monday, the Team Leader will submit their “Outgoing Team Leader Report.”   See below for details.

The stronger the team and the stronger the relationships within the team (generosity, sensitivity, safety, having each other’s back), the stronger your academic performance.  That’s what the research says.   And it’s a lot more fun.

KEY IDEAS OF THIS APPROACH TO TEAMWORK

1. Support:   

This approach to teamwork is built around and focused on support.  It is your job, as a member of your team, to find ways to support and help your teammates.  It is their job – all the members of your team – to support you!   You need to let your teammates know how they can best support you.  And you need to find ways to offer your listening and support to your team members. 

2. Possibility:  

Once upon a time the electric light was not possible.  After two thousand wrong turns and mistakes, Tom Edison hit the jackpot and the electric light became a possibility.  What was not possible in your life that is possible today?  What is the possibility for yourself that you would like to create?  For your team?  For this class?  For your life? 

3. Breakdowns create the possibility for breakthroughs:  

A “breakdown” is when something does not work out.  In class, this can mean a disappointing grade on a quiz.   At home, it can mean the breakdown of the washing machine or a fight with your brother.   In world affairs, it can mean the breakdown of an important treaty.   Whenever there is a breakdown, ask yourself what opportunity has been created by the breakdown.  

Each breakdown has the power to create a breakthrough.  What actions do you need to take to create a breakthrough?  You may finally learn how to study more effectively after the poor grade on your quiz.  You may learn a great deal about yourself when you listen to your brother and understand the issues underlying your fight.  A broken treaty makes possible the writing of a new and better treaty. 

Learn to see breakdowns as opportunities. Learn to create breakthroughs with the actions you take on.

 CLASSROOM DESIGN:  The “How To”

1. Permanent semester-long teams:   You will sit in a circle with your team for most classes.   You will have team discussions (and breakout rooms on Zoom) on issues we are studying, team quizzes, graded team presentations and more.

2. Team Name:   Like sports teams, teams will create a team name.  All written work will include your team’s name. 

3. Team chats:  Teams communicate over chats on their platform of their choice and on their team video platforms, also of their choice.

4. Rotating Team Leader; Chief Technology Officer:   The Team Leader position rotates alphabetically by last name so you will always know when it will be your turn to be team leader. The Chief Technology Officer is someone on the team who is savvy with tech and whose role it is to support the members of their team when they have a tech issue.

5. The Team Leader Possibility:   When you are Team Leader, you will hand in your “Possibility” on the first day of the week of your leadership (usually on a Monday).   What can you do in the course of the week of your leadership to make your team stronger, to help out a member who may be struggling, to foster relationship within the team, to support better attendance and timeliness of assignment preparation?   The “Possibility” is only three or four sentences, but it is really about your vision for your team.  It is ambitious!  

Importantly, the Team Leader Possibility has two parts:

1. A focus that is academic (on an upcoming assignment, reading, etc).
2. A focus that is social and deepens the bonding within the team (sharing about holiday plans, challenges with work and school, etc).

6. Outgoing Team Leader Report:  You will hand in your “Outgoing Team Leader Report” on the first day of class that follows that week of your leadership.  The report will provide two paragraphs:

1. the first will assess what you see as the strengths and weaknesses of your team.

2. the second will describe the creative interventions (actions taken) you have made to make the “Possibility” you created at the beginning of the week of your leadership really happen.

 WHAT DOES SUPPORT LOOK LIKE?

1. Contact Information, Group Chat and Zoom:   You will share contact information with the members of your team.  This will allow the team to set up a group chat on a platform of their choice.  Students will also organize their own video meetings on zoom or any video platform of their choice.

2. Relatedness:   What do you have to do to get related to others on your team?  Relatedness to others on your team will eventually benefit and empower you.   Avoid judgement.  Text and ask a teammate, are you OK , before jumping to a conclusion about someone who does not get back to you or who disappoints you in some way.  Choose generosity!   Create trust!  Take initiative!

2. Team Chat and Zoom:  These are important tools of teamwork. We use social media to create communication among team members, to create a 24/7 support system, to allow teams to prepare group assignments together and so much more.  If you are absent or will be late, let your team know on the chat so they can tell me!   If someone is absent, the Team Leader will send them the assignment on the chat.  The “Chat” allows you to get clarification of an assignment that is not clear to you, to discuss class materials and to create friendships along the way.  It allows you to share things happening in your lives and to share humor (laughter heals)!  One instructor learned toward the end of the semester that one team in her class had used their chat to set up regular lunch meetings to prepare for class.  This also happened to be the team that had gotten the highest grades all semester. No matter what may be going on in your life, you will always have support and assignments at your fingertips.

3. Absence, lateness, incomplete work:  These issues can be very destructive to the achievement of the student during the semester.   We have seen teams made a critical difference in all three of these issues.  The job of a team is to be sensitive to where team member is struggling and find ways to support them.  If you are struggling, learn how to request help.  Sometimes, this can be hard.  But it can also make all the difference.  Team leaders, stay true to your mission.  Keep all members of your team up to date.  Avoid judgment and choose to be generous in your thoughts about others as well as in action.