# Effective Team Dynamics

## August 21st, 2020

-   So, we're doing a workshop on how to work with people - hurrah, confetti, joy and excitement.
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-   Alright, the workshop is being hosted by Dr. Mary-Lynn Realff, another GT professor - "Leveraging Team Strengths"
    -   My 5 strengths, from the survey:
        -   Belief
        -   Context
        -   "Connectedness"
        -   Deliberation
        -   Intellection
    -   "So, have your 5 strengths ready to go and, for this class, download the 'Effective Team Dynamics' app"
    -   Why are we here?
        -   Well, oftentimes students are on teams that...well...aren't the greatest, with teammates that are (or seem to be) arrogant, stubborn, shallow, and so forth
        -   We often tend to think about the negatives of our teammates, but instead, let's try to turn that around and think "what's GOOD about what this person is saying? How can this be turned into a strength?"
            -   This comes from the school of positive psychology, of focusing on what's good about people instead of negative
            -   The idea here is that, in the survey, one strength isn't "better" than another - they're ALL valuable, and it gives you a shared vocabulary to talk about what you're good at and what you can uniquely contribute to the team
        -   So, hopefully you read the survey report and you can say "yup, this part is accurate" and "nope, this part is off the mark"
    -   Alright, so discuss one of your strengths with your teams and how that's helped you in the past, and talk about something you DON'T like and what you can do as a team to avoid that
-   A last note: Georgia Tech students tend to be pretty good about dividing-and-conquering for team projects, and making each team member responsible for a different piece of the project
    -   A reminder: that does NOT mean that person has to SOLELY responsible for the entire user interface or something; you can still work "across boundaries" and should coordinate with your teammates

-   Alright, hopefully that was useful, and have a great semester with your team!
    -   "We now expect flawless interactions from all of you"