Christi Gram

Module 1 Writing Assignment

College of Integrated Science and Arts,

Arizona State University

OGL 343: Social Processes

Professor: Dr. Edwin Jacob

May 21, 2023

Module 1 Essay - Prompt #1 - Essential Conditions for Successful Teams

According to Thompson (2014), the three conditions that need to be present for a team to be

successful are expertise, engagement, and execution. Expertise includes knowledge, skills, and

abilities, whereas engagement concerns itself with how to ensure team members are committed

and motivated. On the other hand, execution is the ability to coordinate the talents of the team

members to achieve its goals.

Under the broader category of expertise, five skills are essential for team members to possess:

conflict resolution, collaborative problem solving, communication, goal setting and performance

management, planning, and task coordination (Thompson, 2018, p. 115).

In addition to possessing expertise, unless team members are engaged and motivated it will be

difficult for the team to fulfill its assigned tasks. Lastly, execution provides the practical steps

needed for team members to synchronize their activities through communication to divide their

responsibilities, and properly time their efforts. (Thompson, 2018, p. 115).

I believe to properly execute a team project, a leader or coordinator needs to provide direction to

help the team see the big picture and how each of the members fits into the whole. In addition, I

believe there needs to be some sort of reward (whether intrinsic or extrinsic) or incentive,

particularly if it is a project that is above and beyond the scope of an individual’s job description.
There are three important behaviors to understand in group dynamics, social loafing, sucker

aversion, and free riders. Social loafing is where there are diminishing returns for each group

member as the size of the group expands. This makes sense as most group members might try to

slack off or not work as hard when their individual effort cannot be pinpointed. Sucker aversion

is when team members don’t want to be taken advantage of, so they sit back and wait for others

to do the work. When no one does the work it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Thompson

2018, p. 123). Lastly, Thompson states, “free riders benefit from the efforts of others while

contributing little or nothing themselves” (Thompson 2018, p.121).

When I reviewed the initial information about this course and saw that a group project was a big

part of this class, I immediately rolled my eyes and sighed, thinking, “Oh no, here we go again.”

Many times I have experienced difficulties with teams due to free-riding, or social loafing where

either I (or a few in the group) have done the majority of the work. The worst part is when the

“free riders” achieve the same grade when they do not contribute as much as other members. I

believe feedback and accountability need to be part of the equation so that there is fairness in

grading. Hopefully, that will be the case in this class given that we are all striving for the same

thing.

Prompt #2 Performance Criteria - Learning from Failure

The four performance criteria indicated in Chapter 5 to measure the success or failure of a

project are productivity, cohesion, learning, and integration (Thompson, 2018, p. 129)

After watching the TedTalk “Learning from Failure” the team was initially successful in

providing water sources to communities in Malawi, however, they failed to take into

consideration the long-term maintenance requirements of the systems.

It is not clear whether they were successful in conceptualizing and executing a plan to ensure the

water systems were maintained properly in the long run. Once they dug a little deeper, they

realized it was a very complex problem that donor money could not solve. Instead of funding

new wells, they needed infrastructure and local people to manage and maintain the systems to

continue to bring these water sources and treatment to the local populations. However, the local

population was not educated nor did they have the means to maintain the systems. Not only did

they have to educate the local populations, but they also needed to help them create viable

businesses so they could become self-sufficient. In addition, they had to work to educate their

donors to let them know that maintenance (software) is just as important as the system itself

(hardware) and they needed infrastructure to provide various ways for the local population to

maintain their own systems.

According to Thompson (2018), productivity is the most important element that helps to measure

the success or failure of a project. Productivity answers the question, “Was the goal achieved?”

In this case, the initial goal of providing water sources to communities in Malawi, Africa was
achieved, however, it was not sustained as they overlooked the maintenance aspect of these

water systems. (Thompson, 2018, p. 129)

Once they realized they had failed to achieve their long-run goals, they went to work on finding a

solution to the problem and showed that their biggest achievement was being able to admit

failure, so that solutions could be found. They also found that it was a more universal issue with

many industries and organizations and as such had the inspiration to set up a website where

companies could report their failures so that growth could occur.

Cohesion is also an important element that is used to measure success or failure. In this case,

there was cohesion in that the team came up with not only a solution for their own mistakes but

they used the information to help their industry, as well as, other industries come to terms with

their failures and learn from them.

Since learning is a big part of success/failure analysis, to say that they learned from their

mistakes is a huge understatement. Not only did they learn from their mistakes but they

embraced the concept of failure as a pathway to learning and this provided a foundation for other

organizations to follow.

Lastly, integration is also measured by how the concept, product, or idea is integrated into the

larger organization. In this case, it would appear that the larger organization benefited from what
the team produced, namely a deeper understanding of how failure can provide rewards through

learning opportunities if embraced correctly.

References

[Ted Talks]. Damberger, D. (2011, February 21). Learning from Failure [Video]. Youtube. https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGiHU-agsGY&t=780s

Thompson, Leigh (2018). Making the Team: A Guide for Managers, 6th edition. Pearson.