Week 6 Assignment: Reaching a Common Goal Through Collaboration
Due: Week 6
Points: 150
Skill(s) Being Assessed: Relationship Building – Collaboration, (Self and Social Awareness)
In Week 4, you created your Group Project Plan and began working on your common group goal. This week, you’ll analyze and reflect on the collaborative process.
Criteria for Success: In this assignment, you will:
- Provide clear and comprehensive documentation of the common goal the team has completed.
- Describe the team process, including each specific person’s role and responsibilities and how these were established.
- Identify collaborative tools (or potential tools used) and explain how they supported (or would support) work towards a common goal, with specific examples.
- Describe 2–3 effective collaborative approaches or strategies and how they were used by the group to accomplish the team’s goal, including concrete examples.
- Describe challenges and opportunities for improvement in collaborative teamwork, including specific examples.
What to submit/deliverables: A completed Reaching a Common Goal Through Collaboration Template [DOCX].
What is the value of doing this assignment? This assignment gives you the opportunity to practice your relationship-building skills, and further develop your interpersonal interactions and collaboration techniques. It will show that you can collaborate with others to resolve a problem and work toward a common goal.
Almost every job application lists communication as a requirement. We’ve all had experiences—whether on the playground, over text, or in a parent-teacher conference—where we know we could have communicated more clearly and effectively. This assignment asks you to use what you’ve learned in the course about interpersonal interaction, collaborating in small groups, and responding in the workplace to complete a common goal and reflect on the collaborative strategies or approaches used. Worried about where to start? The good news is that you’ve already established a foundation with these skills by reading Chapters 2, 5, and 20 in The Art of Public Speaking. You will use what you learned in those chapters to help you complete this assignment
Your goal for this assignment is to: Complete a common goal with a team and reflect on the collaborative strategies and approaches used.
What you need to complete this assignment: To complete this assignment, you will need the following resources:
Steps to complete: In Week 6, complete and submit your assignment in BlackBoard using the following steps:
STEP 1: Document your progress and the outcome of the common goal your team worked together on. This can be in the form of a picture, document, or other evidence of collaborating toward achieving the group goal. A few examples of documentation are a picture of the group collaborating, before and after pictures of goal completion, or a screenshot of group progress (calendar, list, tracking chart, etc.).
STEP 2: Download the Reaching a Common Goal Through Collaboration Template [DOCX] and complete all sections.
STEP 3: Upload the completed document to the Assignment 3 link in Week 6 of Blackboard.
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cf_Collaborative_Strategies_Template6.docx
COM200 Assignment 3
Reaching a Common Goal Through Collaboration Template
Student Name:
Common Collaborative Group Goal:
Updated Team Members and Roles: List each member of your group (3-5 people total) and identify their specific role and responsibilities within the group. Be sure to include any updates to group members or roles and responsibilities.
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Documentation/Evidence of Meeting Your Common Goal: Attach your documentation to the template or upload it separately. This can be in the form of a picture, document, or other evidence of collaborating towards achieving the group goal. A few examples of documentation are a picture of the group collaborating, before and after pictures of goal completion, or a screenshot of group progress (calendar, list, tracking chart, etc.).
Team Process: Describe the process the team used to work towards their goal. What was each person’s role and responsibility in the group? How were roles and responsibilities established?
Collaborative Tools: Describe any collaborative tools used by the group. How did these tools support the team in their collaborative work? If your team did not use any collaborative tools, describe potential collaborative tools that may have been helpful for the team’s work. Remember, collaboration tools can include Google Docs, Monday, Zoom, Skype, Smartsheet, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Microsoft Office 365, etc.
Collaborative Strategies: Describe 2-3 collaborative approaches or strategies used by your group to meet the common group goal. Remember, collaboration strategies or approaches can include in-person meetings, active listening, phone conversations, organization, sub goals, etc.
Challenges & Opportunities: What challenges did the group face in meeting the goal? What would you do differently next time to work through challenges or improve the interpersonal interaction and balanced teamwork of the group? If your group did not face any challenges, describe 1-2 common challenges that teams often face and how your group was able to avoid those challenges.
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USEFUL NOTES FOR:
Reaching a Common Goal Through Collaboration
Introduction
Collaboration is a great way to reach your common goal, but it’s only effective if everyone involved can work together and have realistic expectations. You need to know how to communicate with others and be flexible in order for collaboration to work out well. Having the same skill set isn’t necessary for collaboration either—it’s more about having similar interests and goals so everyone can do their part toward reaching those goals together!
Collaboration is absolutely a must when it comes to reaching a common goal.
Collaboration is absolutely a must when it comes to reaching a common goal. Collaboration is beneficial to everyone involved, and can be difficult at times (especially if you’re not sure where to start). But the benefits of collaboration far outweigh any drawbacks, so don’t shy away from working with others!
Collaborating on projects can feel like something new every time, but once you get used to collaborating with others in your team or organization, it will become much easier. As long as everyone understands what they need from each other and how they’ll achieve their goals through collaboration, then there should be no reason why anyone won’t succeed in reaching those goals together!
Those involved in the collaboration will have to be flexible with their ideas and goals.
Collaboration, like any relationship, requires flexibility. While you may be used to doing things your own way and having others conform to your plans, in collaboration you need to be willing to change your mind on the fly. You may want something different from the person who is working with you now; that’s okay! It doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t want it too—it just means that there are multiple ways for everyone involved in this project work together toward one common goal: getting results and making progress toward our shared vision of success as a company or organization.
So how do we accomplish this? By changing ourselves: by adjusting our goals, ideas and approaches when necessary (or even better yet: when possible!).
It’s important for each person to have realistic expectations of each other when collaborating.
It’s important for each person to have realistic expectations of each other when collaborating. This means understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are, as well as those of others in the group. It also means having an understanding about what goals you want to achieve, and how this goal relates to the work that needs to be done by all members of the team (whether or not they’re directly involved).
In addition, it’s helpful for everyone on a team who collaborates regularly together – especially if they’re working remotely – because it allows them time during their day spent working together without having any interruptions such as phone calls or emails coming in while they’re busy doing something else at home!
Everyone involved should be passionate about the common goal being reached.
When you have passionate people on your team, you can expect them to work harder and more creatively in order to reach the goal. Passionate people are also more likely to stay motivated during difficult times, which means they’ll be able to overcome obstacles that might otherwise cause them to lose interest or become discouraged.
The benefits here are clear: You get better results because everyone involved is fully invested in seeing the project through successfully!
Having a plan isn’t necessary when you’re collaborating with others, but it’s often helpful.
When you’re working on a project with others, it can be helpful to have an outline of the work that needs to be done. This will help you focus on the task at hand and avoid distractions. It also helps you prioritize your tasks so they are completed in order and allowed enough time for each person involved in the collaboration to do their share of the work.
When planning out what needs to be done next, consider:
What resources are available? If there is no one else available who can help out with this task, then it’s important not only for yourself but also for them (and everyone else) that this task gets done as soon as possible so we don’t waste any more time than necessary trying new approaches or coming up short because someone else didn’t complete theirs before moving onto yours!
In order for collaboration to work, everyone involved needs to have the same concept of time and deadlines.
In order for collaboration to work, everyone involved needs to have the same concept of time and deadlines. A good way to ensure this is by setting realistic expectations at the outset. For example:
Be honest with yourself about how long it will take you to complete a task or project and communicate that information clearly with everyone else in your team.
Set realistic deadlines for tasks and projects so that they can be met without sacrificing quality or taking too long (e.g., don’t say “I’ll finish this by Thursday” unless it’s true).
Be flexible with deadlines as well; sometimes things happen unexpectedly that require changes in plans – but if necessary, make adjustments accordingly!
Everyone working together should have a similar skill set, but not the exact same skillset.
Everyone working together should have a similar skill set, but not the exact same skillset.
Having a variety of skillsets is helpful because it allows for more creative thinking and problem-solving.
If you have too many people who are all experts at the same job, it can be difficult to find common ground with them on what should be done next.
Each person should be able to work independently in order for collaboration to work out well.
Collaboration is a great way to reach common goals, but it’s also important that each person should be able to work independently in order for collaboration to work out well. This means that there are different tasks for each person and if you can’t do them all yourself, then it will be hard for your team or group of friends or family members to work together effectively.
When people collaborate on projects with others, they often have their own ideas about how things should go down while they’re doing them too. If one person doesn’t care about something as much as another does, he or she may not feel comfortable sharing their thoughts on what could make things better (or worse). This can lead towards conflict between teammates who want different things from the project itself—and even though everyone wants success!
All of those involved need to be good at communication in order for collaboration to work out well for everyone involved.
Communication is the key to collaboration. It’s not just about talking, it’s about listening too. You can communicate with your eyes and body language, but you also need to be able to hear what others are saying if you want them to understand your own point of view.
When people work together on a project or task at work, they need to be able to talk openly without fear of being judged by others or punished in any way—including losing pay (or even getting fired). This kind of open communication can only happen when everyone feels safe enough within their workplace so that they feel comfortable expressing themselves honestly without fear of recrimination or retaliation from their superiors
Collaboration is helpful in reaching a common goal so long as certain behavioral factors are involved in how you collaborate!
Collaboration is a good way to reach a common goal so long as certain behavioral factors are involved in how you collaborate.
Collaboration requires communication, but it’s not for everyone. Some people just don’t have the skills or temperament necessary to work well with others. In other words, they may not be able to communicate effectively enough or understand what the other person is trying to say. This can make collaboration difficult or even impossible if one party doesn’t want this kind of interaction!
Some people also feel like they need more privacy when collaborating because it makes them uncomfortable sharing personal information about themselves or their business with someone else (even if that person is someone who has been working closely together for years).
Conclusion
I think it’s important to remember that collaboration is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Each person involved has different needs and expectations, which means you should always keep an eye on how your collaborators are doing, but also understand that they probably won’t always be able reveal everything right away. The best way to do this is by being really clear with each other about what they can and cannot do when it comes to reaching their common goal!