Australian Engineering Practice: Reflective Writing Task on Teamwork and Lifelong Learning

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AUSTRALIAN ENGINEERING PRACTICE
Unit code: ENEG20001
Term 2, 2017
Reflective Writing Task 1
Student Name:
Student ID:
Week of Submission:
Date of Submission:
School of Engineering and Technology
Central Queensland University

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Learning Outcomes 6: Lead or participate collaboratively in teams
Engineers are required to play a role in managing people and make them to be more
productive and also work collaboratively in teamwork. Teamwork participation is necessary
whether it is in contractual, production, maintenance, technical or manufacturing obligations.
Group work involves some group of people working collaboratively to reach their common
goals. There must be considerations in making the team successful. A competent team is
supposed to be having people of different complementary skills and cross-functional
characteristics. The environment where the team is to operate should be underpinned by a
suitable communication channel together with being supportive and encouraging to the members
(Salas, Cooke and Rosen 2008, p.540). Practical ways of giving tasks to individuals are supposed
to be established with opportunities to everyone for feedback purposes and provide everyone
feedback and draw conclusions about a given project collaboratively. Working as a team has
numerous advantages in comparison to working on an individual basis. One of the benefits
includes seeking assistance where someone is stuck somewhere in a given task or obligation to
be carried out in the field.
Participating collaboratively in teamwork helps to ensure that the problems are tackled at
a faster rate, this is mainly through guaranteeing different skills from different people in the team
produce the necessary skills in their areas of expertise, experiences, and knowledge (Belbin
2012, p.44). The solutions which are proposed by the people in a team have high possibilities of
being accepted. Some proposals in a team can be thorough, by drawing of skills and experiences
of the group, working as collaboratively as a team helps the members to develop, share
experiences and ideas and also learn from each other to fulfill their set targets.

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Teamwork also encourages trust, support and effective communication to improve the
engineering practice. For the success of the complex engineering tasks, there should be the
combination of some sets of skills for the team members and their personalities and ways of
solving and approaching of problems. According to Barkley, Cross, and Major, (2014), the
performances in a team improves when the team pays attention to their members and individual
personalities. For a team to perform effectively, it is supposed to comprise of individuals who
have a wide range of personalities and relevant ideas even if takes longer for the organizations to
achieve efficient cooperation (Barkley, Cross and Major 2014, p. 24). The members should have
openness and should be ready to oppose any opinions that are raised and explore them from
different angles. When the members of a team take on the roles that are dysfunctional, they can
lead to ineffective behaviors in a team. Some examples of the practices include team members
being late to the team meetings or not doing work they are not supposed to do. As a team leader,
an engineer should ensure that the members of the team arrive early enough to proceed with the
tasks they are supposed to do. The team leader should also organize the team meetings in a way
they come up with the solution of a problem at the end of the session.