Teamwork

By Joshua D. Glawson
Originally Published: https://tinyurl.com/y3a4tr6w

Teamwork pushes us as individuals to accomplish things we would not have been able to without the coordination of others. Teamwork, and its respective outcomes, is a small-scale example of the things that can be accomplished by people as a model for understanding the grander division of labor.

Voluntary teamwork, as opposed to mandatory teamwork, naturally utilizes particular skills and builds those in order to improve and encourage further successes. The end results of the team effort incentivizes continued collaboration should other opportunities arise. The results could be internal sentiments or external rewards, each person has their own subjective values to appreciate.

When teamwork is thrust upon a person, as a mandatory means of collaborative efforts, incentives are lessened and the burdens heightened. The brain reward system is not activated the same if coerced as opposed to non-compulsory.

In university or high school, when many of us were forced into group assignments with people that would not help take on the tasks of the assignment, and they were to get the same grade without even half the amount of effort, we often felt burdened as opposed to encouraged.

I recall humorously thinking to myself in university,

“I hate Communism for the same reasons I despise group work!”

Of course, not all team efforts are forced or coerced. Not even the ones we are told we have to do in university or in the work place, since we are there on our own volition. Yet, the approach to those group assignments still differs from those that we do voluntarily without external rewards such as pay or certification.

Finding that personal inner value and sense of reward is crucial to removing barriers that get in the way of the biological reward system, and understanding that of others is imperative for utilizing and influencing their optimal, natural, psychological strengths.

What is gained from voluntary teamwork is invaluable, and the lessons learned are immeasurable. Some of the gained skills from this type of teamwork includes, but not limited to:

1. Enhance Communication
2. Share Responsibility
3. Strengthen Moral Gauge
4. Improve Listening
5. Ameliorate Empathy
6. Boost Collaboration and Network Capacity
7. Revamp Awareness

As we progress in our capabilities to better teamwork, our connections within the team grow exponentially as more communicative members join the network efforts. As the image above demonstrates, with 3 active and responsive members to a team that creates 3 lines of triangular communication. As that number increases eventually to 14 people, as the example illustrates, those 3 simple lines of communication becomes an intricately woven mandala, a spirographical display of 91 channels of conveyance!

If personal success is valued, engaging in and improving one’s capacity to teamwork is imperative, as the reduced workload is distributed and the utilization of specialization is capitalized on within this microcosmic example of the division of labor. The amplified skill set for public display encourages and invites others to network and collaborate, augmenting even further lines of communication, perpetuating the cycle.