To Team or Not to Team

 After carefully considering the options of working with teammates or working by myself, I have ultimately decided to work on my Cambridge submission by myself. This is in no way a personal attack at my classmates, after reading articles on teamwork and completing the “Lost at Sea” activity I feel it would be more efficient for me to work alone. I have a perfectionist personality, that combined with experiences of working in groups in the past has led me to make my final decision.  

In “The effect of personality type on team performance” Bradley et al. discuss a study that revealed the importance of cooperation on the effectiveness of a team. I’m not normally an uncooperative person, but because I want to do a magazine and I’m very specific about graphic design I feel it would be more work mentally for me to have a partner. Bradley et al. states, “there is a need to reflect on personality compositions of members to better understand not only themselves, but other members as well.” My personality type is that of an achiever, I want to get an A in this class, and I want to pass the AICE exam for this course and I feel uncomfortable leaving part of that under the control of anyone other than myself. In another article I read, “Team building and group dynamics: creating and fostering a culture of teamwork requires trust, collaboration, and accountability”, the author focuses on the importance of teamwork and collaboration training in the workplace. I feel the amount of time I would lose collaborating with someone in this class to learn if we would be good partners could be used working on the actual magazine and would be a waste. My decision might be different if I was close with someone in this class but I don’t know many of my classmates so it would ultimately save more time to work alone. 

The activity “Lost at Sea” solidified the idea that I should be working alone. I completed the activity with my coworkers, who I already knew I worked well with because I’ve been working alongside of them for two years, and I scored slightly better than them. Even though our rankings were similar, I was closer to the coast guard ranking when I worked by myself than when I worked with others. Specifically, I ranked the opaque plastic sheeting and 160 proof rum higher than my group did. This proved to me that even when working with people I know I work well with I still performed better when I did the activity by myself. The “Social Media Peer Account” activity was the one activity I did that didn’t fully support my viewpoint on working alone. I felt completing this activity didn’t give me a good or bad feeling of my classmates. I looked at Haley’s Instagram, I enjoyed the layout and coloring of her photos, but I don’t feel that social media is a good judge of someone's work abilities. After researching and completing multiple activities, I have finally decided to complete my magazine without a team.