One for the teams!

Aristotle famously said “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. History is dotted with events brought about by great ‘wholes’ that changed the world, case in point, Independence revolutions, Apollo 11.

While my practicum project is not going to take down a government , neither is it going to land man on Moon, the success of it is surely going to improve safety for pilots in General Aviation. This brings me to the matter of the hour ( or 5 minutes) — Practicum.

As part of coursework for my master’s degree in business analytics, students collaborate with an Industry partner (MIP) on a year long project solving problems for the latter. I am working, along with five other classmates , in tandem with Air Safety Institute to create a safer flying environment for General Aviation Pilots. And I can gladly say, this has been my best team experience so far.

I have worked in the industry for three years. My first job required me to be part of a seven-member team. That’s when I learnt stress can get the worst out of the best and the first thing to crumble is team dynamics. 4 am code debugs, fast approaching deadlines and high stakes led to lack of coherence, internal feuds and ego clashes. However, the same people, during times of lesser pressure, would work hard and party harder.

For me, this was a time when I reflected on my behavior with others in a professional setting . I understood, early on in my career, the importance of shared values, patience and general empathy towards each other in working efficiently together.

Armed with this experience, I became the project manager of our team , which majorly consists of students with less than a year of experience in industry. First task we did was to take up ownership for different functions of the project. This ensured workload was shared as well everyone was equally responsible for the project — analysis vise and administration vise. We took this step to avoid being a ‘working group’

I personally choose to work as a practicum team than a practicum group, despite the trade-off between efficiency and shared goals. We share leadership roles and collective deliverable, openly discuss in hours long problem solving meetings and assess our success by our collective work-product than individual contributions.

We shifted roles in Winter quarter as I wanted to get into the technical depth of project while another teammate wanted to handle the operations. And I am not complaining about the shift. It has been an excellent opportunity for me to reflect on this key functional area, key takeaways being —

Final Remarks:

Even after having worked in two different firms, I have so much more to learn when it comes to team dynamics and productivity. These lessons will not only make me a better team player but also a leader.

References:

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