Team or Working Group?

The bunch of people I am working with definitely seem to have formed a working group (Katzenback & Smith, 2001). However I think this is inevitable with this particular project. With all of the different disciplines and all of the fields needing to be addressed for the project it is unavoidable for everyone to do their own thing by themselves.

Our strategy seems to be to work together during the tutorial times particularly in charette times then the specific person can use everyones ideas and thoughts if they wish to further develop their area. After the charette on a specific displace, the person is left to work alone and come up with the final resolved solutions. Of course questions can be asked via the Facebook group, but it seems members are too engrossed in their own work to be too interested in other peoples areas.

I think our initial concept presentation was evidence of our "working group". The visuals were not consistent and they lacked connection across discipline. It was very clear the separate elements which each person had done. They were all different personal styles, which is not necessarily a bad thing but they just did not work well together.

For the final presentation I think if we are able to finish it a few days early to allow time for maybe one person or even the whole group to go through and make everything coherent and appear as if they belong together. This will at least make our work appear as if we have worked as a team. But doing this throughout the process will bring the group together so that we are actually able to complete the project as a team not as separate disciplines. Solving problems together and inspiring each other should be an ongoing part of the project not just once in a tutorial class for a charette. We are at present parts of a working group but we should definitely aim to become more of a team to achieve maximum results at the end of the project.