Scott Behson, PhD
Professor, Author, Speaker, Consultant
Building Better Workplaces
That Work for Everyone
We get it - you've been burned by team projects before. This book provides practical advice and easy-to-use templates to help you avoid common team problems, do better work, have less stress, and have more fun.
With our help, this will be the semester you won't hate your team project!
A Letter to Professors
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It is likely you assign team projects in at least some of your classes.
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In some, you are trying to develop your students’ teaming skills. In others, team projects are simply a means to learning concepts or analyzing cases. Sometimes, you provide structure and guidance to student teams.
Sometimes you stay uninvolved, believing students should learn by trial and error in managing themselves. Some of you are expert in or teach classes involving team dynamics. Others have different areas of expertise and may not have the background or inclination to help manage student teams.
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Whatever your situation, you probably have come to share the view that most student teams are not as effective as they can be, and a significant number of student teams end in disaster. This turns students off and prevents them from getting the most out of their projects.
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We all want our students to succeed. That’s why I wrote this book. Assigning this book should give you more confidence that your students will have a useful and friendly guide for the road ahead.
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This guidebook provides a quick review of key concepts of team dynamics, applying them to the specific situation of student project teams. It also contains examples, assessments, and templates students can use to manage their team dynamics.
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You can use this book in a few ways:
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If having students develop their knowledge and skills in teamwork is a learning objective for your course, I would assign teams most, if not all, of the readings and templates in this book.
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If, instead, your priority is that teams manage themselves well, and you want to be kept up-to-date on team progress and/or problems, I’d require students to provide you with documentation of the “top 10 list” in the student letter. The templates come in handy for this.
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If you simply want the teams to use the principles and templates of this book on their own, please encourage them to do so, multiple times and with enthusiasm.
Whatever your approach, I strongly recommend you do the following:
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Once teams are formed, give teams some time to get to know each other and discuss how they want to operate
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A few times during the semester, allocate 15 minutes of class time for student teams to have quick check-in meetings. You can allow them this time to work or can assign them specific templates (like the halftime assessment) to work on together
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This small donation of class time will help your students be more successful in their projects, and will communicate to your students that you support their success. The fact that you care means a lot to your students.
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Have students give you feedback on how much their teammates participated in their projects, and use this information to adjust individual grades within the team.
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Be approachable if/when teams are experiencing problems. You don’t have to intervene or solve their issues. Lending an ear and directing them to Chapter 5 can do a world of good.
Finally, you may want your students to use this book in multiple classes throughout your academic program. For example, you may, like I do at my college, have a sophomore-level course in your major in which you emphasize teamwork, and then have students use the tools and techniques from that semester in selected junior and senior level classes. In this way, this book can be a help create consistency in how team projects are assigned, managed, and scaffolded within a program. Feel free to reach out to me for more information.
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A Letter to Our Students
In your careers, you will need to be able to work effectively in teams.
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However, in my years of experience teaching classes that involve student teams, it is clear to me that most of the team projects you get assigned to are not helping you develop the team-related skills you need, and, more often than not, are turning you off from future teamwork.
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This is why we all hate team projects!
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You may hate team projects because, all too often, some get stuck doing all the work, and since no one is in charge, there is little you can do about it. Further, because many professors stay “hands-off” when dealing with student teams, you get little day to day guidance on how to navigate tricky situations and develop successful team processes.
I’m tired of seeing students struggle. That’s why I wrote this book.
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In these pages, you will find lots of usable information about team dynamics that are specifically applied to the challenges faced by student project teams. You’ll read about success and disaster stories our students have faced, as well as advice about what you could learn from them. Finally, you’ll see lots of easy-to-use assessments, templates and forms you can use in your teams to set yourself up for success.
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Ultimately, I want you to succeed in your team projects – and having better team process will help you get there. Better team process will make your projects more enjoyable and will help you gain skills you will absolutely use in your careers.
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Here’s how I recommend you use this book: read the content, and, more importantly, use the templates to keep your team on track. If you can’t cover everything, the following “Top Ten” team activities should be most helpful:
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Hold an initial meeting to get to know each other, using an ice-breaker and discussing past good and bad team experiences
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Decide on formal and informal roles and responsibilities (The team strength assessment and roles and responsibilities templates may be useful for this)
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Develop and agree to a set of team ground rules
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Hold a meeting at least every two weeks, using the agendas and minutes templates. Make sure at least a good number of your meetings are in-person.
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Over the course of the project, have each team member fill out two accountability reports (or check-ins, or start/stop/continue) to share with the team
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Plan out your project using the project map template, making sure to set short-term goals and clear lines of responsibility
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As a team, fill out the halftime assessment form and hold a meeting to discuss it
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As a team, fill out the after-action review
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If the professor wants peer feedback for grading, provide your honest assessment
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After you are done, do something fun to celebrate!
I wish you good luck this semester, and am confident that, if you use these concepts and templates, you are much less likely to hate your team project!
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One Last Note
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I would be happy to discuss this book further with you, and to work with you on incorporating the book in your class or academic program.​
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