When parts of a system do not function well in a small group, the group becomes less efficient and less likely to achieve its goal. One example from my own experience is the hockey team I play on. When everyone passes the puck and plays as a team, we have a lot more success than we do when one person becomes independent and tries to put the team on their back. Interdependence is a critical thing to understand in a team sport like hockey because everyone has different strengths, weaknesses, and skill sets. For instance, the skilled goal scorers that are good at shooting the puck usually benefit from the players on the team that are good at passing the puck and finding open players. To take it a step further, the forwards rely on each other as well as the defensemen to get the puck out of the defensive zone and move it up and into the offensive zone to try and score a goal. Another example would be in the defensive zone where the five teammates depend on each other to cover someone on the other team to prevent a goal. Each player out there relies on each other to be in the right position and cover any open player. When one person doesn't do that, the whole system is affected.
Another experience where understanding interdependence and interrelationships was important was during a group project last semester. It was a video project that our group did well on because we divided up the work evenly and gave everyone responsibilities that suited each person's strengths. One of the people in our group had good computer skills and was good at editing, so he put the video together. The more outgoing people in the group conducted the interviews for the video, and the other group member gathered background research and other tidbits to add to the video.
You are right! A team is made of players with different skills such that when players play together the team works as a whole. Like in your hockey team skilled players good at defense, offense, forward shooting and goal seeking all are equally important to get goals because they rely on each other for passes and strike. As per your second example, you guys did a great job at splitting work for your video project based on your strengths and finally presented it as a group. This proves that interdependency and interrelationships are an essence of successful group work. If the group members lack the sense of interrelationship and try to perform separately the group goes haywire and fails to perform effectively.
ReplyDeleteYou totally nailed that one on the head, you definitely need everyone to do their job to work as a team. I play on a basketball team and the same goes for us, if everyone isn't playing up to par, then we do poorly as a team, not as individuals. The same thing goes for school projects. I'm jealous you seemed to have gotten a great group for a project, or at least lucked out with people who were all good at different things so it was easier for you to divide up who did what. All of that leads back to being able to effectively communicate so that everyone is always on the same page.
ReplyDeleteHi Burgs,
ReplyDeleteI admire your breakdown of the way you divided your hockey team. You were very descriptive, which allowed your audience to visualize the game in their head. It made it easier for us to see how much better a sports team can function if interdependence and interrelationships are built within the team.
Using the same technique of distributing the roles in the groups based on capability of each person in your video group is also very effective. Knowing the skill of each member in the group and assigning the correct roles, makes the rest of the work for the project much easier. Great job!
Hey Burg! I really like your post! I think the two examples you provided from your own experiences really addressed the topic well. When parts of the system do not function well, small groups fall apart. It's part of human nature. According to Harris and Sherblom, "Living systems tend toward entropy - that is: disorganization, stagnation, and chaos," (31). Like you, I did gymnastics and understand the team aspect of small groups. Although gymnastics is more of a single players sport, there are still team aspects of it that rely on everyone. In my post I also used group projects from school. Unlike yours mine did not go well. I liked reading that yours went well. It seemed that your group had the perfect minx of people who worked well together and had a great end result. Mine on the other hand had a lot of extroverts and a lot of outgoing leaders who clashed heads a lot. When groups don't fully grasp the concept of interdependence and interrelationships they fall apart, it just happens. Great job on this post!
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