What it means to work as part of a team.
During a project, I was placed in a group with randomly selected people. This not only gave me the opportunity to work with other students, which built my confidence to be able to work as part of a team, but also gave me the chance to see how others work and how this could enhance my working skills. The project, named Discover Huddersfield, meant participating in field work, using photography and observational skills to gather information about local and historical transportation around Huddersfield, and then being able to collectively bring this information back to present to the rest of the students and lecturers.
Due to a wide range of data collected throughout the research process, the activity was successful and the participants, including myself, were able to bring forward sufficient information to be able to present, with missing out only minor or irrelevant information. In addition, we were able to answer all of the given questions during the presentation, therefore, I felt the group benefited my work ethic to aid my part of the study, as they all placed their point of view forward.
When presenting, I felt confident occasionally taking the lead in the speech as I was aware of the background information surrounding transportation in Huddersfield. By doing so it gave me the individual opportunity to present and become self-reliant on what I had gathered.
Alternative ways of completing the task, would be to include physical models of the locomotive bridge and how it operates to ensure that the viewers were able to envisage the engineering behind the mechanism. This however, could only have been included if more time was given, or to have been produced as part of a group by building different sectors and placing this altogether.
The presentation of the document was debatable as to what type of design, font and features were suitable. Seen as we agreed to do a sector on each part of the presentation, writing this up in a document proved difficult with a wide range of designs being placed forward. However, to help this, incorporating different elements from each design meant that there wasn’t a set design from one person. Although, to avoid this in the future, I would be inclined to set someone to place and design the presentation, therefore avoiding confusion and a clash at the end.
Altogether, the group presentation was successful and I took away the confidence to work with other people and to be a team leader as part of a group and by doing so, improving my own self-confidence.