What Makes The Best Group?

Through out life people need to interact with one another. When humans work together people can do many wonderful things, for example putting a man on the moon. Prior to that event the idea of putting someone on the moon would be ludicrous idea. This came from great team work and a collaboration of great minds. This brings up the idea of what makes a good team? Is the ideal team based on smarts, personality, work ethic, or is it something else? There are several things that go into what makes a good team but I’m going to talk about two things that I think make a team successful.

            The First, to me, is time management and using time wisely. Time management is something that most people struggle with on a daily basis. The importance of meeting a deadline and accounting for ones actions is hard. Through effectively using the time allocated and not wasting it is important. Most people complain about time wasted in meetings during a project. Some groups talk about how they meet all the time and never get anything done. It might be a matter of quality not quantity. Through having quality meetings with the best people from a team you could save time wasted. Through having a large quantity you may just waste time as many people tend to complain about.  I know I constantly go to meetings where things are not organized and there is no agenda that happens and then my time and the time of my fellow team mates is wasted. I found that people tend to think that we need to meet all the time and that will solve the problem. That might not always be the case it is more about what you do during the meetings and what you as a group get out of the meetings planed. This is a time management thing that is important to gain quality in every action when meeting a deadline.

            The second is having motivation to do the job right. In most groups people may not have all the right skills needed to do the job. The important part is that your group members have the right attitude and also that they do the job right the first time.  In some groups people just do the job to complete it and not put quality in their work. In a case study that was conducted the personnel that you have can have an effect the group as a whole.  If someone seems to be depressed, apathetic, or argumentative all the time this can have a huge effect on the entire team. It could cause the team to not do as well of a job as they could have done with everyone motivated to do the job right the first time. The members in the team can have a great effect on one whether or not a team will be successful. It isn’t just about having the right people for the job but also having the right attitude for the job.  

            In conclusion there are many factors that can be defined in having a successful team. Through time management you optimize the time that is allotted to you to complete the project. It also will minimize the amount of wasted time that happens in so many groups. Secondly the attitude of our members is important. The importance of having the right attitude for the job can make or break a team. Especially in engineering where quality of work is so important having the right members is very important to success. If there is one “bad apple” this could hurt the team and in effect cause the project to go off as planned.
-M.G.