Teamwork Scenarios

1 Scenario 1

You were working hard during your first few weeks of the lab, but nobody in your group seemed to notice or care. After a few weeks you spent less and less time on the project and would arrive to lab unprepared. Unlike your other groupmates, you also had a part-time job to juggle. Nobody commented to you about the change, so you assumed that everything was going okay. Toward the end of the semester, a fellow groupmate approached you and said that you “did nothing to help on the project” and that they were going to report you to the instructors.

1. What are the issues the group is facing in this scenario?
2. What could have the groupmates done differently?
3. As a groupmate, what strategies could you use to assure that your team is contributing equally? Come up with at least three strategies for dealing with this situation.

2 Scenario 2

You were frustrated because your groupmate was not writing code that worked. While your groupmate had great enthusiasm for the lab, each lab period felt like a waste of time because they would insist on being the coder but did not know many of the commands, such as how to plot and fit the data. After weeks of discussions and patiently explaining how to code, you were ready to give up. The following week, you told your groupmate that they were too slow and that you will do the rest of the project by yourself.

1. If you were the groupmate, how would you feel?
2. If you were in this group, how would you have handled this situation?
3. What are some strategies to instill good habits when working collaboratively to avoid this situation? Come up with at least three strategies for preventing this situation.

3 Scenario 3

You started working with a new lab partner and you just can’t seem to get along with them. At the beginning of the semester they told you that you all should schedule weekly meetings to talk about the lab outside of the lab time. You are busy with your school work and you told them you did not think meeting outside of class was necessary. They insisted, so you agreed. At the first meeting, they seemed pretty unprepared and had nothing to talk about. It was a waste of time, but they still wanted to have these meetings. Recently, you have just been making up random excuses to cancel each week. You know that they are doing a lot of work for the lab, but you don’t think that level of effort is necessary. You fear that if you tell them how you feel they will think you are being lazy.

1. What other issues might be at play in this case?
2. What could the partner have done differently?
3. Suggest approaches to get things back onto the right track. Come up with at least three strategies for dealing with this situation.

4 Scenario 4

You have just spent the last month working with your lab partner. You both get along well and have been working productively. For the final project, you decide to split the work. You decide to make all graphs and your partner says they will write the descriptions of the results. You both work for over a week and then come back together to go over the final product. On Monday morning, they hand you their draft. After reading through the draft, you are forced to conclude that they do not understand what was done in the figures you made and it needs to be completely rewritten.

1. If you were the partner, how would you feel?
2. What can you do to address this situation?
3. How can you prevent this situation in the future? Come up with at least three strategies for preventing this situation.

5 Scenario 5

You have recently started a lab, but your lab partner seems much more experienced than you. They get started working on the project quickly while you struggle to even load the data. You asked them to explain what they did and they told you some complicated technique that they used. When they were finished with the explanation, they asked if you had any questions. You didn’t want to tell them that you were struggling with loading the data so you just said no. At the end of the semester, your lab partner ended up doing most of the work for the project and you both got a good grade. Your lab partner never complained and seemed happy doing the work themselves, but you felt like you weren’t able to work collaboratively or learn.

1. What can you do to address this situation?
2. What could your lab partner have done?
3. How can you prevent this situation in the future? Come up with at least three strategies for preventing this situation.

6 Scenario 6

You started working in a lab group with three other students. Two of them are fine, but one of your partners really bothers you. You feel like they are constantly interrupting you and ignoring your contributions to the project. After one lab you were feeling especially frustrated and asked if they would stay late to talk with you privately. They agreed. During the meeting you told them you felt that they were not listening to your suggestions and dominating the project. They got angry and said that you were “overly sensitive” and “no one else on your team seemed to care”. You do not want to escalate the conflict, but it is now awkward to attend lab and you mostly sit in silence and don’t contribute at all.

1. What could you or your lab partner have done differently?
2. What could one of the other group members have done as bystanders?
3. Suggest approaches to get things back onto the right track. Come up with at least three strategies for dealing with this situation.

7 Remember! Teamwork Strategies/Norms

Based on the teamwork challenges you have identified working through these scenarios, discuss and write down (in your Google Doc) two general group strategies or norms that will contribute to successful collaboration this semester.