We discovered a few common themes between our ideas while performing the SKS exercise. One thing that we both wanted to start doing was meet with our group more. Because our project is not actively doing work this semester, it is not necessary for us to meet in a professional capacity. We want to meet with our group even if there is no work to be done. Doing this will improve intergroup relationships and help prepare us for working together during fieldwork. It will also allow us to update our team members on work done during class. Something else we would want to start doing as an extension of these meetings would be to start meeting in person when possible. As the world recovers from the COVID pandemic and more amenities open up, meeting in person would be a powerful improvement to team synergy and mental health. Especially since we need to be COVID 19 vaccinated to go to Sierra Leone, meeting in person becomes more possible every day. We will reach out to our group members and try to set a meeting time to accomplish this change.

 

One thing that we determined that we want to keep doing as a team is putting forth effort into the blog posts, which require us to think differently about our project and our place in it. Working as a team on the posts also improves team synergy. Blog posts often require us to write down plans and motivations of the project. By writing down our goals and how to achieve them, we advance our project and give ourselves a better idea of our place in it. The blog post on gaining institutional review board approval was also very relevant to our project and required us to learn about and summarize the process. IRB approval is something we will work on in the near future, and writing down how we can go about the process will help. Future blog posts will probably ask us about Sierra Leone and our fieldwork. The more that we plan for our fieldwork, the better, and future blog posts can help with this. It would be easy to put the bare minimum amount of effort into every post, however that does not benefit our overall project. Although more work can always be put into these posts, we are satisfied with the work that we do and plan to maintain the current level in the future. 

 

One thing that we want to stop doing as a team is work in isolated teams. Partly because of the pandemic and partly because of the nature of our project, our work last semester and over the summer before it divided the team into subgroups. This meant that we were able to work more efficiently, but it also meant that communication between the two subgroups was limited. In the future, when dividing into smaller groups, we want there to be more communication between them. This could be accomplished through more consistent overall team meetings or more frequent check ins with our faculty advisor. Doing this will be especially beneficial if we go to Sierra Leone. While working in the field, we will most likely have to divide ourselves into groups and go to different locations. Ensuring proper communication between groups will be very important. Taking the steps described above will go a long way towards improving teamwork within our project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Build Your Collaborative Plan

At a team meeting, recall the critical success factors of your best Team Experiences from your Individual Profiles as you discuss your Goals (small g and BIG G), Roles, Procedures & Relationships, using the prompts you see below.  Document your discussion and agreements by filling in this Collaborative Plan Template, removing each prompt as you respond to it, or using the blank template that follows as a guide. The template expands: use as many pages as you need.

Team Name: ___Diagnosing Autism in Africa__________________________________   Date: ___03/28/2021______________
Goals	Kelsey: My main personal goals are to improve my research experience and experience conducting research outside of the U.S. Ted: My personal goals are to conduct research that has a tangible impact while improving my ability to do qualitative research and work in a group setting outside the classroom. The project goal we’re committed to achieving is to contribute to the research and effort of developing a culturally appropriate autism screener in Sierra Leone.  Although fieldwork was delayed due to Covid-19, our project goal of developing the screener, training teachers, and putting the screener into use still seams feasible. Our team is very compatible as well as dedicated to the project. We also have funds available to help with the venture.  The metrics of success for our venture is ultimately the amount of children screened for autism in Sierra Leone.
Roles	All of our team members help contribute in almost every aspect of the project. We delegate tasked equally between us all. Specifically, during the fall 2020 semester, we worked in groups to screen articles for our manuscript. Between our larger group, we frequently split zoom meetings into two separate group meetings to make the most of everyone’s time.  We depend largely on the graduate students in our group as well as Dr. Morin.  Dr. Morin and the graduate students both serve as project managers. Everyone is expected to complete their assigned task by the deadline, and communicate if you are unable to. Also to always ask if you need help.
Procedures	During decision making we usually come to a consensus as a group. Sometimes we also listen to Dr. Morin’s advice on how to proceed.  During the active work on our project, we used bi-weekly or weekly group meetings to discuss updates and assignments. Now, we use more of an offline approach to updates about the project.  Meeting roles: Meetings are generally led by the graduate students in our group. Then, the meetings become discussion based.  Communication: Weekly (while actively working on the project), Usually in the afternoon on a day everyone could meet Type of Technology: GoogleDocs/Slides/Excel, Covidence, Library Database, Zoom Expectations for responsiveness: Work needs to be submitted by midnight prior to the next days meeting.
Relationships	Our team is made up of a variety of majors and specialties. This includes psychology, education, behavioral neuroscience, international relations, and more Our unique mix of graduate and undergraduate students ensures that there are many different ideas for how to approach problems Being from different majors and backgrounds means that we all have different learning styles. Some of us prefer to research and read about information while others of us prefer to go out and find it ourselves. Both these styles benefit our project in different ways.  Everyone on our team is very collaborative and listens very well. We have had no issues with rankism or anyone completely taking over. Our shared passion for the project ensures that our team works together and generally gets along.  The team name that captures who we are and what we do is simple: Diagnosing Autism in Sierra Leone. This project is what brings us all together and the success of this project is our ultimate goal. This team name reflects this, and it does not need to include anything else.