Advantages of collaborative efforts: Achieving more together

A team is when the members of a group work together collaboratively and

independently, each contributing their unique skill, knowledge, experience, and
expertise towards a shared goal to achieve a common goal or objective. What
creates an effective team requires cooperation, coordination, and communication
between team members which emphasized by Laal and Ghodsi (2011) results in
higher achievement and greater productivity. However, for a team to be effective, it
requires greater team unity such as those who can openly respect trust and
communicate with one another. Collaborative learning is an educational approach to
teaching and learning that involves groups of learners working together to
solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Laal and Ghodsi 2011). To
achieve our tasks, we undergo a complex process of peer reviewing, peer teaching
and feedback giving.
In my experience with working with others can enhance innovation and creativity due
to sharing a variety of ideas, opinions, and perspective. This has broadened my
horizons, broke out of my rigid mindset, and developed critical thinking skills. I have
also understood consistent productivity resulting in an overall improved productivity.
As a team we execute our respective assigned tasks, allowing us to complete more
in a short amount of time. Personally typing, conducting our task whilst being
collaborative and supportive can lower stress levels and enhance a work
environment to sustainable degree allowing refined productivity. Not only that, but it
also left time over to look over what we have done and make improvements in areas
we glossed over improving the quality of our work.
Of course, a team is not without the impending conflict or argument. When an
individual in the team does not contribute equally or at all in a task, this results in
discontent and frustration as having more workload leads to less time to yourself and
in turn more stress. On the other hand, others dispute the work they have done
causing resentment toward the "free riders", I have at times, not done the tasks at
hand due to ignorance and laziness, and I have seen others not carrying out their
task however, I understand that I shouldn’t blame them as people it doesn’t help get
the task required to completion. Compromises are normally conducted within a team,
but a portion of individuals do like having more control and to have less control due
to everyone within the team being equals, disrupting that harmony leads to bad
tension and harder cooperation. as having your own ideas sometimes unanimously
shot down as a team leads to frustration as the ideas does not align with your ideas
and a sense of disempowerment leading to a lower self-esteem. In my personal
experience, I understand that I will not always right and seeing my chosen vision or
even parts of it accepted is discomforting however, I have developed better self-
control from the experience. It is understandable that those individuals who work
alone as negative feelings accumulate leads to a negative perception on teamwork
and doubts its effectiveness, but it should not be rejected as teams vary and
therefore experience varies.
For all projects, there is a deadline to evaluate an individual’s time management and
if that individual has bad time management, this leads to increased stress levels,
less enthusiasm and overall decrease in teamwork success. I believe that
developing and deepening your time management skill can maximise success as
prioritizing workloads, setting self-deadlines, and managing task effectively ensures
the meeting of team goals. Furthermore, it allows error correction and supporting
individuals in their respective tasks. Another skill that is important to develop is
adaptability as that allows an individual to respond to a variety of situations however
is harder to develop due to the individual requiring both flexibility, open mindedness
and exposed to a wide range of circumstances. Adaptability is significant as not only
can it allow an individual to adapt to changes made both externally and internally in
project assignments but also willing to modify your approach to meet the needs of
the team. From my experience, adaptability has allowed me to adjust my
communication style and approach with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures.
Collaborative learning, which involves students working together in groups or teams
to achieve a shared learning goal, can provide several benefits. First, it enhances
social skills by providing opportunities to practice teamwork, communication, and
collaboration when students work together, they must learn to listen to each other,
give and receive feedback, and negotiate solutions to problems, furthermore, these
are essential for success in the workplace and other areas of life. Secondly, it can
increase student engagement and motivation by providing opportunities for active
participation and interaction with peers, additionally, when students work together,
they are more likely to be more invested in the learning process and take ownership
of their learning outcomes. Thirdly, critical thinking skills encourage students to
evaluate and analyse information in a collaborative context as well as when students
work together, they challenge each other's assumptions and ideas and engage in
productive debates and discussions. Lastly, diverse perspectives expose students to
ideas and perspectives they may have not encountered on their own unless students
in the group share their own experiences and perspectives, which can broaden their
understanding of the subject matter and provide new insights. Together, these
benefits make collaborative learning an effective and valuable approach to
education.
In conclusion, collaborative efforts have proven to be an effective way of achieving
more together, whether it is in the workplace, in communities, or society, working
collaboratively can lead to a range of benefits such as increased efficiency, better
problem-solving, and improved creativity. My role in my team I would say is that of a
co-ordinator, monitor-evaluator, and completer-finisher where I want everything in
my control so that we can execute our tasks with almost perfection by delegating
tasks that are appropriate to the strength of my teammates whilst being within the
conditions laid out in front of us. However, because of this, I can be described by
Reed et al (2003) as not a good motivator, often less creative or intellectual than
others in the group and obsessive about details; may wish to do all the work to
control quality.