Blog 6 Fall 2019: Team Dynamics

Goals:

• What are the personal goals of each member on this team? (Team Member #1,#2, #3, etc)
  • Jessica – I want to learn how to use Adobe Premiere better and get fancy with the editing software. I also want to be able to complete a documentary film with a story that I developed. 
  • Grace – I want to further develop my filming and editing skills, and get “real life” experience working on a film. I also want to make a difference and raise awareness about an issue that I’m passionate about.
• What is the Project GOAL (big G) we’re all committed to achieve together?
  • MAKE IMPACT! REDUCE MATERNAL MORTALITY! We’re doing this through spreading awareness of the issue and appealing to emotions through film. 
• Is our Project Goal scaled to our resources (dreams, materials, skills, differences, etc.) and constraints (assignment, time, skills, etc.) 
  • Our project goal is harder to measure than others – it is hard to quantify the impact of films. However, we have the resources available to us and are aided by professionals who teach us the skills we need.
• What are the metrics for success for what we’re producing?
  • Views? Website traffic?

 

Roles:

• Who is responsible for which deliverables?
  • Our team tries to divide work as evenly as possible – we are all responsible for deliverables. When we were in Sierra Leone, we all filmed and we all conducted interviews. This is important to us, because we feel that if we assigned roles, we would not all gain individual skills in filming and interviewing. We are each responsible for producing one short film this semester, however, the process is collaborative and we will help each other and share ideas and skills as necessary. 
• Which deliverables that require collaboration, subgroups & individual work? Who does each person depend upon to succeed?
  • Filming and interviewing is a collaborative process. We all planned questions and interview topics, as well as talked about what shots to take as b-roll. 
  • Editing is an individual task, but during our meetings we all give feedback. The work itself is individual, but the stories and final outcome are collaborative. 
• Do we need a project manager to coordinate? 
  • We do not need a project manager in our team. Michael sort of acts as our project manager because he holds us accountable for deliverables and is a good mediator. 
• What are the deliverables each person is accountable to produce? 
  • Each team member is accountable to produce a short film by the end of the semester. 
  • As a team, we need to decide how to build our website/what content to put on it.
  • We are all responsible for presentations/making slides/etc.

 

Procedures:

• Decision Making – What process shall we use: consensus, majority rules, deference to expert, default to the loudest, or?
  • We will discuss our problems and raise our concerns so that we can all have a voice in the matter before coming to a consensus.
• Effective Meetings – Focus on key, timely decisions together vs. status/update (offline); 
  • For the most part, we work on our independent short films and when we meet with Michael, we go over our progress together and give feedback so that we have a new assignment for the next week. 
• Meeting roles: scribe, facilitator, time keeper 
  • All of us are responsible for providing feedback and helping answer any questions on how one should edit our documentary. This is a collaborative project and all of us have the same role of storymaking and working on presentations. 
• Communication – FTF: frequency, time, location; type of technology: (Googledocs, Hangout, etc.); expectations for responsiveness; ‘best time to work’ (AM, PM, weekends?)
  • We have a group chat on iMessage and we respond as needed usually in the afternoon. 

 

Relationships:

• Team Diversity – What is the diversity on our team? Disciplines to tap for solutions;  individual earning styles for the stages of invention; overall team learning style strengths and places to supplement;  cultural backgrounds , work experience, dreams to leverage for scope & impact of goals, new roles, better procedures; languages for more diverse customer set, bigger market;
  • Our team is diverse in academic interest as well as upbringing. We are all different majors: Griffin interested in philosophy and history, Jessica studying anthropology, and I’m an english major. We’re all from different parts of the US as well. These aspects contribute to diversity of thought on our team, which is very important.
• Team Name–What’s a team name that captures who we are and what we’re going to do?
  • Safe Motherhood Documentary team