Having different opinions in a team can sometimes be a very good thing but some other times, it can be a curse. The main purpose of working in a team is to welcome ideas from different people which can make the work much easier but sometimes, that same ideas can make things more difficult. I personally enjoy working in a team only if it's made up of competent and reliable people. I have had my fair share of bad team composition and since I have only worked in a team during my days in the university, I will focus on that area.
The blessing
During my fourth year in the university, one of our continuous assessments involved compounding and formulating fish feed. That project was one of the worst ones I have ever seen in all the years I was in the university, every step of it was so confusing and filled with arguments on what to do next. You might think that it was embarked by just us the students but no, the lecturer in charge of the course was also there, he was even the one that is to guide us on what to do but even he was confused.
This is someone who is supposed to be an expert in this field, well, I shouldn't say anything more than this, I haven't collected my certificate yet 😂. Anyway, we contributed money to fix some of the feed-making machines which were abandoned for years but while using one of the machines, it broke down again. At that point, we were frustrated with the whole thing and our lecturer left us and said we should figure out a solution on our own (yes I know, I won't say anything 😑).
As soon as he left, chaos stepped in (not like it wasn't there in the first place). Everyone was spitting out ideas to remedy the situation, even though it was about something we were just doing for the very first time, we could only depend on trial and error, as well as theoretical knowledge.
The above picture was taken a few moments before things went bad
Some people suggested we abandon the whole thing, which means we will get zero in the continuous assessment. Some suggested we improvise a piece of equipment with materials around us, some said we should just contribute another money and fix the machine, while the last said opted for just taking the already mixed feed to a professional feed miller and completing the process there.
The class was unofficially split into 4 groups representing the 4 suggestions brought up and nobody wanted to agree to the opposing team. So what did we do? The feed was split amongst the 4 groups to do whatever they wanted with it 😂 one group used materials around the department to manually mill the feed and cut it into smaller pieces by hand, and the second group decided to take the feed to a professional Miller where it will be milled, cut and dried. The group that wanted to fix the machines changed their mind and joined the second group, while the last group that gave up on the project left their feed, they didn't ask for it in the first place.
To cut the long story short, we eventually ended up with a good enough feed that was also well-dried. Our lecturer didn't care about how we did it, he just gave everyone good marks (yes, including the people who gave up and didn't help in salvaging the situation!). Despite having diversified opinions, we still managed to complete the project using different methods.
This is the feed done by the people who used improvised equipments
The curse
This also happened in my 4th year (that was a very chaotic year) and one of our professors gave us a fish breeding project. Basically, we are supposed to collect eggs from a female fish and fertilize them with semen from a male, thereafter we will incubate the eggs and take care of the hatchings. The hatchings are very delicate and require constant care and attention, even at night.
The class was divided into 2 groups, each having a group leader and assistant. The 2 groups will each work on the breeding project separately and earn marks based on how well they do. Now, the plan was to assign the group members to both day and night shifts, which will rotate every day for 4 weeks. However, some members of my team didn't agree to the night shift and suggested we only look after the hatchings during the day.
Some added that rather than staying at the fish farm all through the night, we can just look after the hatchings up to 8pm and then head home, then the next set of persons will come very early the next day to start the day shift. The other members of the team countered and suggested we should stick to the usual way of doing things, which includes night shifts. The argument seemed not to be heading anywhere, so the group leader and assistant took the decision to stick with the night shift and came up with a roaster.
It looked like the people against the night shift also stuck to their opinion as most of them didn't show up for the night shift. Some of the members who initially agreed to the night shift also stopped going because they didn't want to continue doing all the work and still ended up with the same marks as people who did little to nothing. In the end, the whole project failed as all the fish that hatched died in less than a week. The professor was very furious and said we were all going to fail that course, but after begging him, he decided to give us a second chance.
Conclusion
One thing I have observed from both experiences is that humans are very difficult to control. Being a leader of a team can be very challenging because even if you're doing things the right way, some members of the team can end up jeopardizing all your efforts. And I also realize that the difficulty in managing a team increases; the bigger the team, the harder it is to manage. Smaller teams are a lot easier to deal with. The real strength of a team lies in the mix; the mix of diverse opinions but note that it can also be its weakness.
Thanks for reading
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First and second images: personal screenshot
Third image: Image by Freepik