Working on a Team

Understanding Team Dynamics
Welcome to the teamwork course titled Working on a Team. In this course we're going to talk about what you can do to excel at working on a team. In the first module we'll talk about Understanding Team Dynamics. The second module talks about things you can do to contribute to the team and the third module talks about working with difficult people. Let's get started on Understanding Team Dynamics.

Tactics to Become an Excellent Team Contributor
In this module we're going to talk about tactics to become an excellent team contributor. Some of the information I share in this module might sound cliché, but I want you to take every tactic to heart. If you were on my team or you were my best friend and you just got put on another team and asked me for advice about how to contribute better to your team these are the things that I would share with you. This module should help you whether you're a newbie and you haven't had much experience working on teams or if you've been on teams for many years. These are principle-based ideas. I grouped the tactics we're going to talk about into three different categories. First we'll talk about attitude, then we'll talk about actions, finally we'll talk about awareness. Let's get started.

Working with Difficult People
In this module I'll share some ideas on how to work with difficult people. As we go throughout this module I want you to keep a few ideas in mind. First, I want you to think about authority and power. Where is it and who has it? Think about assumptions and where assumptions fit into the specific issue with the difficult person you're working with. Think about the other person's actions and reactions as well as your own actions and reactions, and finally, think about the role of communication in the relationship. Let's dig a little bit into each of these.