1. Do you think Learning Team #28 should operate as a team or a work group? Why?
I think that Learning Team #28 right now is working more as a work group, and many of
the members have noticed that it is not the most efficient way of learning the material and
working through case discussions. As it stands, each team member is doing their own
individual work while sharing information with each other, notably sharing their notes
and spreadsheets with Harry as he struggles to digest the more complicated parts of the
subject. While Dick and Jane seem to be very happy with this setup and doing well, the
other four members of the group would argue that they could be doing better. As a work
team the members would be helping each other work towards a common goal instead of
just sharing information with the other group members. Working as a team would be
more helpful for the struggling Harry, who has ideas to offer to the group and to the class
but feels so overwhelmed by all the new material that he lacks the confidence to do so.
Working as a team would also be better for Mark, Rajesh, and Svetlana. Neither of those
three are having trouble with the concepts, but they believe that the team can work better
if they took more time to collaborate and help each other out. Mark specifically states that
“the learning team was not helping either Harry or any other member as much as it
could”. Dick and Jane, however, are more concerned with succeeding in the class and
spending time with their families than the other group members, and they might be more
inclined to work as a group because they know that they can pull their own weight and do
not wish to spend extra time tutoring Harry. But in order to achieve the most efficient end
goal, each team member needs to be able to understand the subject matter and be able to
contribute to the conversation and collaborate with the other group members, and the best
way of doing that is by working as a team.
2. What do you think Learning Team #28 should do moving forward?
I think that Learning Team #28 needs to compromise more and start working together as
opposed to working adjacently. Dick and Jane seem to be acting mainly out of selfinterest in this scenario, initially willing to spend time helping their teammate but soon
after they complain about not being able to go home early and begin to discuss plans of
dropping their struggling group member. Mark has been very supportive of his friend and
has taken extra time to help him better understand the material, and while Rajesh and
Svetlana are willing to help Harry, they are unwilling to stand up to Dick and Jane and
tell them that it isn’t the best course of action to just leave Harry to his own devices. Even
if they spend just a little more time helping Harry after each meeting, it will help him a
lot better than just piling on more notes and spreadsheets for him to sort through. Dick
and Jane may see it as just wasting time, but if they spend time helping Harry out now
then he will be more prepared to shoulder more of the workload as he starts to gain his
footing, and the team will be able to work all the more efficiently.