After reading the
assigned articles, it made me more aware of growing up with your siblings as an
example of teamwork. Personally I grew up with 3 younger sisters and in ways, I
really see how this better prepared me to work with others today. Specifically
with the sibling who is closest to me in age, one of my sisters is two years
younger than me. Thinking back to my childhood, there were a lot of scenarios
where my siblings and I were forced to work as a team. For most of us, these
experiences from a young age serve as the building blocks for teamwork later on
in life. From my observations, people who are only children don’t work in teams
as well people with siblings. This might be a unique result of the only
children I know, or could be a more common occurrence.
Building on the
belief that people’s teamwork skills benefit from growing up with siblings, we
are faced with ample opportunities to both work on and use these skills in the
real world. From playing team sports in middle/high school all the way up to
the jobs we will work for the majority of our careers. The success of a high
school football team relies heavily on the ability of the players to play as a
team. One team could have a handful of elite players, but not perform as well
as a team with comparatively worse in skill players who play as a cohesive
unit. The team that is willing to work well together is rewarded with the
ability to be victorious. In college a lot of the classes we take require us to
work in small groups. This can be for group projects, homework assignments,
etc. If a few students decided not to participate and pull their own weight and
“Let George do it,” then the group will probably not perform as well, directly
effecting the result of the group’s work. How well the group does is reliant on
how well the members work together. After college, a lot of us will be required
to work as part of a team for our jobs. In certain divisions of the business,
people are often required to work with a variety of coworkers on a project. On
a larger level, each division of the company is required to work together. For
example the HR must work with the Sales and Finance divisions. At the end of
the day, the success of the company is in large part reliant on how well the
individuals are able to work together. A common theme behind these examples is
that the success of the team is related to how well the teams work together.
Success can be seen as an incentive to work well with your team members.
I believe that
being able to work well with others in a team is a valuable skill to have in
order to lead a successful life. From a larger level and applying this
belief to the readings, it seems that for the most part the concept of working
as team can be applied to individuals making up our complete society. If every
individual decided to act selfishly, then at the end of the day the success of
the society might not reach it’s complete potential. We have to assume that
most people are going to act in their best interests. However, it is crucial
that parts of our society work together in order for continued success.
William,
ReplyDeleteGreat post and I liked your example of siblings even more than the example I used in my post. Growing up I only had one older brother but I also had 9 cousins that lived near my house so it was like all of them were my siblings growing up. I absolutely agree with you that growing up with siblings naturally prepares you for working with others later on in life because siblings are pretty much a team. I remember growing up, every Saturday morning my mom would leave my brother and I a long list of chores to complete by the time she got home but the chores were not individually assigned to me or my brother. We had to work as a team to complete the lists of tasks and as we got older we got better at completing the chores in an efficient manner because we became a better team. Being the younger brother I naturally listened to my older brother as the leader and we would go from room to room finishing all the things that were asked of us as a team and not individually. This simple experience helped me learn invaluable lessons in life because I gained knowledge on what is like to work as a team and the roles of a team. Watching my brother in the leadership position taught me how to be a leader when I would be in a group peers and something needed to be accomplished. It also taught me selflessness and accountability because if all the chores did not get done we would both get in trouble regardless if one person did more work than the other. All these life lessons were presented to me at a young age which I can now attribute to successes I have had while working with teams as an adult.
You are the first student to bring up siblings in this context. I appreciate that because it is an example, especially when you were younger, where the abilities will be different. You have to find a solution that works in spite of that difference. I wonder what you might do to expand on your story that way.
ReplyDeleteOn a slightly different note, since you were the oldest you had responsibility for your younger siblings. The teamwork lessons might be learned different (or not at all) depending on where the kid is age-wise with respect to the family. Maybe the youngest of the lot doesn't learn these lessons the same way. I don't know, but it would interesting to speculate on this one.
The last point I'd make, I wonder if this is true for you, is that when we were young kids the parents imposed the obligation, but as we got older the parents didn't need to do that as much, eventually not at all, and the sense of obligation was still there, now coming internally. I think some families teach this, but not all families, and perhaps some family members learn this more than others. I wonder how this sense of obligation works for you.
Getting at your assumption that each member my family possibly received different teamwork skills based on age, I would have to agree. A lot of the time I was left in charge and did carry more responsibility than the others. I believe this was critical in helping to develop the leadership skills that I have today. I would also say that the youngest probably got much less out of this as us older siblings are pretty much out of the house now so there is two going through junior high/ high school with a completely different dynamic.
DeleteOn the last part, I would have to agree that my parents definitely imposed an obligation on myself and the other older sibling. As we all got older it was stressed less, but did become more of an instinctual role.
Bill,
ReplyDeleteGreat post, good to hear that you and your siblings had a good, productive childhood learning the intricacies of teamwork and group motivation. Furthermore, your point about sports teams and a team that works as a cohesive unit would perform better than a team with a few elite players I definitely agree with. From my own experience when I won a club state soccer title in high school- this is a direct explanation of our team. By no means did we have any individual player who was an absolute stud, we had just been playing together for years and everyone in the lineup had a specific niche they knew they had to fill. Throughout the state cup tournament we played teams that would go on to have kids play division 1 soccer afterwards, but we beat them all the same through scrappy, team-oriented play. The success of the team was the only goal and no one cared if they were the one to make the play vs someone else because it did not matter. Also your point touching on society is interesting- if everyone only acts in self interest, how do things get done at all? Obviously this is not the case in real life but it is how we are told to approach economic scenarios, interesting dichotomy.