A
community is a type of method for working together. I found this to be a
positive experience during tech school training within my military career. This
community was self-selected in that it was a self-formed study group for my class.
This community stayed together so long as we all had the same interested in
doing well within our class. Much like penguins work together to keep each
other warm, we all worked together to keep each other smart.
I do
however have the occasional negative experiences with a certain type of method
for working together. Sometimes I may be a part of a good team, other times I
may be a part of a bad team. On occasion throughout grade school the teacher
would for students to work in teams, not of their own choosing. The negative
experience comes when not everyone in the group has the same motivational
levels and everyone gets the same grade. When someone in the group doesn't care
to do any work, everyone else in the group has to make up for the slack, which
causes tensions to rise and fights to occur.
So what
could I have done to influence better outcomes with my negative experiences
with teams? Well it really depends on the type of person causing the problem.
If they truly don’t care about their grade, then there’s really nothing I can
do but to suck it up and deal with it. However if they do care about their
grade, then this is where game theory comes along. If they’re lazy but care
about their grade, then it’s better for me to assure mutual destruction of our
grades if they don’t pick up their end of the deal. However this only applies
if we’re forced to work with one another over an extended period of time. If it’s
just for one assignment, then perhaps the best thing to do would be to
negotiate who will do what early on and just trust that they’ll pick up their
end. If not, then it’s really up to me to see if it’s worth picking up their
slack to ensure a good grade.
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