Analysis

Paper

The group service project we were tasked with was beneficial for me not

only as a student on a path to a degree in communication, but also as an active

member of society. This project gave me the opportunity to work with my group
members Shelsey, Austin and Victoria at a local nonprofit organization called
Camp grace. This camp hosts mainly groups with disabilities, but the particular
groups we worked with in our time there was called Outback America and they
helped couples of family members build and strengthen their relationships.
Camp grace relies solely on volunteers to run their programs and help with all
activities, without those volunteers things could not run. My group not only
volunteered so they had enough people to run the camps, but we also came up
with a system to organize the safety equipment being used for the ropes course.
As a group we worked together to see out and complete a project we planned and
more importantly we made a significant improvement for a group that needed
our help.

According to our book, Group Dynamics by Donelson R. Forsyth,

teamwork is the process by which members of the team combine their

knowledge, skills, abilities, and other resources, through a coordinated series of
actions, to produce an outcome. A group could have extremely skilled people that
work well, but the most important part of a group is that they can work together
and coordinate to get the best possible outcome for the whole group and their

end goal. All interactions that people in a group have with each other are vital.
Teamwork runs most efficiently through team processesMichelle Marks, John
Mathieu and Stephen Zaccaro came up with a teamwork process model that
includes transitioning, doing, and the relationships within the group. They say
that groups work through phases such as these. Transition processes are finding
your main task, identifying goals and sub goals to complete that task and then
coming up with other ways to complete this task or these subtasks. These
processes focus on the immediate tasks, resources and environment. Next, action
process is monitoring progress towards the goals youve created, monitoring the
resources and environment that are involved and coordinating the group and its
actions by making sure everything goes together and is working within the group.
The last team process discussed is interpersonal processes. This is the most noted
and typical. These processes include positively managing conflict within the
group as it arises, keeping all individuals motivated and sure of themselves and
the group so that everything is done in a positive atmosphere, and managing
everyone in the groups emotions throughout the time working together. The
While going through these processes a group will start with a plan, next go
through a transition phase, followed by an action phase to then, again, end in a
transition process. There are many processes that contribute to team functioning
and they all will help a group not only reach their goal but work together well to
do it.

We did not get to choose are groups, but luckily Austin, Shelsey, Victoria

and I fell right into the swing of things. The first meeting we had was in class and
is where the transition process started. During the mission analysis we discussed
that we needed to do a service project and that we needed to first decide what
service we would like to do. While we did that we each talked about our extra
curricular activities to see if we could come up with an idea through that. The
next process we needed to complete was goal specification, so we went through
many options of ideas we could do but eventual set our goal to volunteer at camp
grace as much as they needed and as much as we could. Seeing as we all have
busy and conflicting schedule we had to formulate a strategy so that we could
reach this goal no matter what. We decided that if we could not all go every time
we would at least go in pairs if possible. To monitor progress towards goals we
would meet at every free class we had the chance to and discuss where we were
at with our project. We also constantly kept updated through a group message we
started to keep in touch. At first we started out slow but because we monitored
our progress we quickly realized it and knew what needed to be accomplished.
We did not have many resources or environmental conditions to factor in to our
goals, but we always were in contact with camp grace to be aware of when we
could come and when they needed us most. Working in groups there is always a
chance of members not working to their full potential. Through team monitoring
and backup behavior definitely made a difference, not because anyone was

lacking, but because we worked efficiently and well together. Austin was the best
at this, he constantly encouraged and gave the rest of us feedback on how we
were working throughout our time at camp, and if help was needed he would
immediately jump in or take over if necessary. Our coordination with each other
was one of our strongest group dynamics, we made sure that we were always in
sync, and our actions meshed well together. The interpersonal processes, conflict
management, motivation and confidence building and affect management all help
a group reach a goal. My group was prepared for conflict and would have
managed it well, had we encountered it, but we did not experience any significant
conflict throughout our time together. As previously mentioned, Austin was an
extremely positive encouragement throughout this project. This motivation and
confidence building, also displayed by the rest of the group, kept our group
cohesive and set on track for our goal. Reaching a goal and the process of doing so
is much easier to do when you want to do it.

The structure of a team and the processes they use and go through are

directly correlated to the success of that group. My groups actions and processes
followed the taxonomy of team processes shown in my book, which I think is why
we were so successful in our service project.