Working On Teams

Posted by Susanna.

Although my experience as a patternmaker was that of an integral member of a tight-knit team, with a big project due every season (seemed more like every minute!), there was a clear hierarchy that made it quite different than working on a team of equals. I was a bit apprehensive about teamwork before coming to business school, because my only experience had been a couple of projects in undergrad where there was the archetypal free rider.

I asked all the schools I applied to how their study groups are built, and was wary of the ones which were self-selected. I was happy when Kenan-Flagler told me that the teams are engineered to have the optimal mix of backgrounds/abilities. I could just imagine me and bunch of other liberal-arts types slugging through some Statistics group project! Actually, in ASW, a few of us did try to study Finance together and it wasn’t nearly as effective as working with someone a little more capable. We only have designated study groups for the Fall term, and after that we can pick our own groups, which has also worked out well. I’ve been able to bring a lot more to my groups on research papers & case studies, as writing is one of my strengths.

This week we got our grades back on teamwork,which I passed and generally received positive feedback from my study group. However, I was rated a bit low on my ability to deliver value/work to the group. This makes sense, given that I am the weakest member in the math realm, and the majority of our Fall classes were quantitative. But I learned a lot from my teammates, even when it wasn’t what I wanted to learn. Most of all, I learned that I am capable of working with a team of equals, and that we could get along and get the job done without having to form a hierarchy or anything like that.

My big group project for Spring is the STAR Practicum, a real consulting job for a real company, led by a faculty advisor with consulting experience. It has been an amazing experience so far, even though we’ve had some rough patches. But more importantly, the client has been really happy with our work. For Introduction to Entrepreneurship, I grabbed a couple of friends and we interviewed one of my new heroes, Phil Harvey, a Tarheel who’s done incredible things. More about that later, or just Wiki him. In Global Context of Business, I worked with a group on a hypothetical position statement on global warming for the CEO of Duke Energy. I now know more about the utility industry than I ever wanted to!

Between group projects and case competitions, we have opportunities to work with many different classmates, which is a great way to get to know each other and to keep in mind who you might want to work with when you’re picking teams for a new business or department…