To Team or Not to Team

My initial thoughts when first introduced this project was who I was going to work with or whether I was going to work with anyone at all. When it comes to collaborations on projects, who you work with really makes or breaks your final product. This week, with various activities and careful consideration, I finally chose whether or not I will be working with anyone.

            When working in a group, you have to keep in mind the different personalities or strengths/ weaknesses within the group. For example, person 1 is very disciplined and responsible but person 2 is lazy and doesn’t contribute to the final product. Do Person 1’s and Person 2’s personalities mesh well, and will they work together to make a great final product? Unlikely. Although different personalities may have a negative, ineffective impact on the effectiveness of the team, diversity can also benefit the team. As stated in “The Effect of Personality Type on Team Performance”, “The ideal team should be high diversified in the talents and knowledge each member contributes, while maintaining open, nonthreatening, communication.” When thinking of the possibility of working collaboratively, I was thinking about my strengths and my strongest area of knowledge. Since I am relatively a quick learner, and knowledgeable about photo editing, my group would have to be with people that have different strengths and areas of knowledge.

As I moved further towards deciding whether to work on my portfolio individually or with others, I reviewed my classmate Hailey’s social medias. By doing this, I can dig deeper to see what information I can deprive about Hailey to understand her. As I look through Hailey’s images, I see that her main hobby is cheer. Throughout her profile, she posts images and videos of her cheering in a gym among her team. This is shows me that Hailey is very passionate about cheer and has experience with being on a team before. Additionally, she posts multiple times with her friends, implying that she is very social and loves being around people. If I were to work with Hailey, these attributes such as being social, passionate, and easy to work with would be more then compatible with my personality. Although Hailey seems like the perfect teammate, prior to this activity, I hadn’t met or even spoken to Hailey. With that being said, us being unfamiliar with each other could negatively affect us working together. According to “Team building and group dynamics: creating and fostering a culture of teamwork requires trust, collaboration, and accountability Citation metadata”, “… They trust each other and understand how to have healthy conflict.” In spite of this, since Hailey and I don’t know each other, that trust that is needed for a team, will be more than absent. As another way of helping me with my decision, I did the “Lost at sea” activity. To do this activity, myself and a group of peers were given a list of items that we would have if we were lost at sea. After being given this list, we would have to rank the importance of each item individually then eventually come together as a group to rank them. Due to me being a remote student, it was difficult to complete with classmates, so as a substitute, I completed the task with my family members. When I initially ranked the items, my answers were a bit different from the rest of my group. I also noticed that I finished before everyone in my group. The reason for this could be, that I am very fast paced and eager to work. On the contrary, when it was time to work through the activity as a group, we spent more time on it and changed around some of our answers. This activity showed me a characteristic of myself that I didn’t even know I had. This also showed how working in group can change your prospective because of the different views and ideas being shared.

As I explored the possibility of working in a group, I also contemplated working individually. Although working in a group can be beneficial, I personally think working individually will best suit me. I love hearing other's opinions and ideas but when it comes down to a final product, I like to have the final say. Personally, I feel working on this myself will allow me to be fully creative and invested. By doing this, I am forcing myself to put in the work and effort to create a beautiful portfolio. According to “Songwriting loafing or creative collaboration?: A comparison of individual and team wrote billboard hits in the USA Citation metadata”, “Social loafing is the likelihood of individuals contributing less when working on a task as part of a group than when working on a task alone” If I were to work in a group I feel like I wouldn’t put as much work and effort into the projects as much as I would if I were to do it alone.

     In conclusion, after considering both options, I have chosen to work on my passion project alone. The activities and articles have tremendously helped with my decision. While also being remote and not being able to physically work with someone, this further exemplifies my decision of working on my portfolio individually.