Many of us have had amazing experiences collaborating with others and look forward to teamwork. And many of us have had abysmal experiences working with others and would choose to work independently rather than go through those encounters again. All of these experiences have an influence on our team mindset.
When
The very first thing!
Why
We bring a variety of experiences to our work together; we want to learn from these to make the current experience as strong as possible.
How Long
10-20 minutes as a team
What to Do:
This step is primarily a discussion-based exercise that draws from your past experiences to build a stronger foundation for your work together. This exercise is the start of the process of building a team identity.
SHARE
Share your experiences working in either school or professional teams.
- Individually identify an experience that made you feel successful in a prior team. Have each team member share and describe these experiences.
- Identify a challenge that you experienced working on a team. Were you able to resolve this challenge? If so, how did your team do this? Have each team member share and describe these experiences.
- What do you want to takeaway as a team from these experiences to apply to your current work? These will become your guiding principles.
TEAM IDENTITY
You have just identified a set of guiding principles for how you want to work together. Now, as a team, choose one or more of the following that captures these principles:
- team name
- slogan
- and/or meme
Use these on all of your team documents. Some students have even designed t-shirts and logos to capture their team identity.