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Establishing Group Goals
Every team works toward common goals; without common goals there
is no team. Existence of common team goals does not imply that individual
students have no individual goals. For example, a team may agree
that one of its goals will be to build the most accurate Ping-Pong
ball launcher for the assigned project. However, two team members
may be individually aiming for As in the course, a third member
may be focusing on a B, while the fourth may be content with a C.
Without open, honest, and explicit conversations about goals, team
members may have difficulty understanding the actions of other members.
Without common goals the team does not generate energy to work together.
Understanding that different students have different goals can
be eye opening. A member concentrating on getting an A may realize
that other members have set their sights on lower grades while focusing
on other campus activities, and vice versa. Such situations are
likely to arise in teams in which instructors, in assigning teams,
have emphasized heterogeneity in prior academic performance and
skills. Further, members aiming for an A may feel more comfortable
when they see other members doing less if they have realized others
will be satisfied with a lower grade. However, the instructor should
establish grading policies that may assign different grades to different
members of the team.
Unrecognized differences in individual goals are one source of
potential conflicts as the course progresses. Failure to establish
common goals reduces commitment of the individual members to the
team effort. Therefore, providing opportunity and structure to assist
each team in constructing group goals to which all can be committed
is important.
Team exercise: Ask each team to develop
a set of goals for its activities during the course. A team may
want to use the following process for developing a set of group
goals.
On a sheet of paper, create a column for each team member and
a column for the team. Ask each member, in turn, to state one of
her/his goals for the course and record the goal in the appropriate
column. Repeat a few (for example, five) times. Ask the team to
select one goal from each column and synthesize the individual goals
into a goal to be placed in the team column. Repeat to construct
a small number of goals in the team column. Revise the goals in
the team column to create a set of goals for the team. Each team
should then submit its goals to the instructor.
After a few weeks have each team revisit its goals to determine
if changes are necessary.
For further information: See material on group goals.[9]
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