Team communication scenarios for discussion

1.      Sit in 5 groups.
2.      Each group discuss one of the following situations.
3.      Be ready to share your thoughts with the class.


Situation A:
Mark and his two teammates are meeting to discuss their oral presentation project for the first time. The three of them have not worked together before, and this is their first meeting. Twenty minutes into the meeting, Mark starts feeling frustrated because his teammates appear very quiet and don’t seem to have an opinion about anything. Mark, being a very vocal person himself, is wondering if his very quiet teammates are up to the task after all.

What is happening here?
1.      Why might the teammates seem quiet and non-committal?
  1. Personality: shy, new, introverted.
  2. Disoriented as meeting is disorganized.
  3. Nothing to say / add (Mark already said everything)
2.      What can Mark do to remedy the situation? What should he have done in the first place?
  1. Involve the person, Prompt them, Direct the question to them.
  2. Ice breakers (Build trust)
  3. GO EAT MALA TOGETHER (WITH PAIN.. THEY WILL BOND)
  4. Mark could’ve set an agenda that the teammates can follow
  5. Mark could stop and listen. (Maybe he too big mouth)



Situation B:
James has just formed a project team with 4 other students. As James engaged in his first discussion with his new team members, he realizes that the other 4 were already very familiar with each other as they had already worked on a couple of projects together in the past. James can see their camaraderie, and is beginning to feel like an outsider to the team.
  1. How should James handle this situation?
  1. Be positive :) Opportunity to make new friends. Do not be discourage
  2. Voice his opinions to get involved
  3. Tell them he feel left out
  1. What can/should the other 4 team members do to help James integrate into the team better?
  1. They should avoid small talks (Other things other than project) among themselves
  2. They shouldn’t use terms that are only understood by themselves.
  3. Involve James by directing questions to him
  

Situation C:
Kendra and her team have been discussing their product demo for more than an hour now, and are beginning to realize that they’re getting nowhere because none of them have read their notes, and so they can’t decide on an angle for their presentation because they don’t know what kind of information is available to them. They decide to call it quits after one hour and a half, and to meet again after they’ve each read their notes.

What would Kendra and her team have done to ensure that their meeting was productive?
  1. Set agenda before meeting
  2. Ensure notes read
  3. Send reminder email/message to members about meeting
  4. Plan and organise roles
AKA pre meeting meeting



Situation D:
Beatrice and her project team are meeting to discuss their team oral presentation. But they have encountered a roadblock. While Beatrice and Janice want to make the oral presentation as interactive and engaging as possible, and not do a conventional (aka boring) presentation, with Kahoots! and mini-games and prices for the audience; Natalie and Valerie think that they should stick to the conventional presentation approach and focus on strong content. They have spent an hour debating this but have yet to reach a decision.

What are your thoughts? Which type of presentation should they go with? What should they base their decision on?
  1. Disagreements are a common occurrence in group discussions
  2. List the pros and cons for each approach and present to opposition team, rather than debating headlessly
  3. Should decide also based on agreed conditions e.g. topic, time taken to do, allocated, effectiveness
  4. There should be a decision maker (usually the team leader) who make a rational decision based on the pros and cons expounded by the two groups.


Situation E:
There are 5 students in Samantha’s team. Every week, they each have to contribute one piece of work to the team’s project. If the team does not meet its weekly deadlines, the team does not get marks for that week.

Unfortunately, 1 student in the team, Jan, has not been doing her part. The other 4 have at first cover for her because they do not want to lose their weekly marks. But as the workload increases over the weeks, they find it increasingly more difficult to cover for Jan. So they sit down with Jan and talk to her about it, and Jan assures them that she will do her part for the next week. But she doesn’t. They talk to her again. She assures them again that she would put in the work. But she doesn’t.

What should the team do now?

  1. Since the initial discussion with Jan failed, it may be time to discuss the problem with the prof.
  2. Remind her that she had assured them that she’d deliver, but she didn’t
  3. Send her warning letter / threaten her / blackmail her / find out about her relatives who are vulnerable