Building Community in Professional Education: Team Learning by Design

Abstract

Raising his hand, Solomon sought to make an exchange, “Professor Connell, our team RASNER is willing to trade two shapers for a plant and a coordinator.” Sarah answered back, “Team TQM (Total Quality Management) will trade you one coordinator. We are also looking for a Networker, if you have more than one.” The two teams—RASNER and Team TQM—were attempting to create well-rounded teams, made up of individuals who had specific skill areas lacking in the current team configuration. The process is called rebalancing. To understand what team skills they possessed and what skills they still needed, all team members had taken a team roles assessment test that allowed them to understand their individual role preferences and those of their team mates. In fact, there was only one self-defined “networker” in the class: a member whose specific skill was communicating with the world outside the team to obtain scarce resources to complete team activities.