Cuyamaca College Stages of Team Development Business Exercise

Step 1. There is a file on our blackboard page titled “How far is it” (ATTACHED). Download this.

Step 2. This assignment asks you to rank cities from closest apart to farthest apart. Do this on your own without the help of the internet (this is just a fun activity so don’t be a jerk and cheat). You also need a group (minimum of 3 other people, ideally with 5-6 other people) to do this on their own without the help of the internet.

Step 3. I suggest doing this with your family or friends/roommates. You don’t need to be in the same room (although it would be fun to do it together). If you are not in the same room, you can be on the phone together and it will work just fine.

Step 4. Once everyone has ranked the cities as an individual, rank them again as a group – i.e., after you do it as an individual, work together to come up with a group/team ranking.

Step 5. Only after you have done this as an individual then as a group/team, look up the actual answers online. Once you have the actual distances in front of you, calculate your individual and group/team accuracy score. You’ll need these scores to answer question #1 on the HW.

Again, this is just meant to be a fun activity to get us thinking about the implications of group/team work.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:

1. What was your individual accuracy score on the “How far is it?” activity? What was your group/team’s accuracy score?

2. Based on this activity, what would you say are some of the advantages of working together with other individuals to complete a task assignment? What are some of the disadvantages of working with other individuals to complete a task assignment? Would you find these same advantages/disadvantages in a more professional setting (i.e., an office environment)? Explain your answer.

3. Are the assignments that you have in other classes (in which you must work together with other students on projects, papers, etc.) team assignments or group assignments? Note. This question is not asking what your professor calls these assignments. It is asking whether it is a team or group assignment based on what the differences we discussed in class (i.e., the voice-over PowerPoint slides posted on our Blackboard page). Please explain your answer.

4. Unfortunately, in many of the group/team assignments we have in school, some team members engage in social loafing. What are three things your professors could do to limit the amount of social loafing that takes place in group/team assignments? Hint. Watch the PowerPoint slides for these chapters and/or do a little research on your own.