Reflective Essay on Team Building Activities

Reflective Essay
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The team building activities had taken place in Fall Barrow. It is situated in the district of South
Lakeland in Cumbria and is one of the heritage buildings in Fall Barrow Road. Gibbs Reflective
Cycle was started by Graham Gibbs in the year 1988. This cycle motivates people’s systematic
thinking about a specific task, situation or activity. It often makes people reflect upon the
experience, task or activity in more detail, and brings a sense of awareness regarding their
activities. It enables them to adjust and modify their behavior in a better way. In the team
building activity, I, along with my team, was involved in different activities: leadership,
communication, teamwork, and conflict and time management. A leader is successful when he
can direct the team members in the right direction. Communication is one of the most essential
skills for an effective leader. Teamwork is a collective effort of the group to complete the task in
the most efficient manner within a given time frame. Time Management is basically the ability to
organize the time spent on various tasks.
On Day 1, the activity of sheep and shepherd was conducted. In this task, I undertook role of a
coordinator and delegated the plan of action to the teammates. As per Belbin results, I have 80%
natural role as a coordinator. My teammates accepted the plan and they applied it in the activity
which eventually helped us succeed. My role as a team leader was very much important as the
group members were dependent on my directions during the task. I put in all my efforts and
made sure that the target of the team was achieved. Being easily approachable and motivating the
team members from time to time, I believe I was an asset to the team (Daft and Lane, 2015).
As the task began, I planned everything systematically and considered various implications of
this task. I was able to extract work from each group member and had adequate resources. My
vision towards the task was clear and I was encouraging my colleagues to perform better (Chen
and Rybak, 2017). The task was successful as we had executed the plan efficiently and
completed the task on time. Even though my test results showed that I had attained 40% in
completer, I believe I was capable enough in leading the team and paid a lot of attention to the
task at hand.
After the completion of this task, our group was assigned a maze task where teamwork played a
significant role (Salas et al., 2015). I was assigned for the role of a guide. Working together on
this task increased the interest in myself and fostered information to both me and the team. It was

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essential for me to understand the purpose of this task for effective teamwork. I had achieved
60% in my test results as a team worker and was very clear about my role in the team.
In my group, my leader opposed the plan which was given by me. I noticed that our group
members were not able to agree on a common purpose of this task and failed to provide clarity to
the team. I got 80% in the plant according to my Belbin’s team role. As I was too preoccupied to
communicate effectively, so my imaginative thought failed to convince my team members. I did
not follow the directions of our group leader due to difference in opinions and failed to accept
each other's views (Elizabeth, 2018). We could not finish this task on time as we did not have
proper planning before starting the task. Although I and the team had played vital roles in this
task, due to different viewpoints of the team members and lack of coordination, we failed in
completing this task on time (Scholl, 2018). I felt that I was not able to convince my plan at
beginning of this task and could not consider the various implications of this task.
On Day 2, the task was about auction of resources. We were given three opportunities in the
auction to fulfill our resources. These resources were supposed to be used in the construction of a
ball to reach the endpoint. We had finished the task successfully as we had sufficient resources.
The vision that I had towards the auction was clear. I was very organized in my planning and
considered various implications of the auction (Wallensteen, 2018).
I felt that communication was one of the vital aspects of this task. Good communication is the
key to effective teamwork. A group works well if the group members communicate well among
themselves and with the leader (Boies, Fiset and Gill, 2015). My test result indicated that I had
80% capability as an implementer in this task. I observed and planned to use the given budget in
a proper way. We had purchased the resources in the auction. I found this task to be similar to a
business deal, and it will be considered a success if the project is assigned to us. One key aspect
was sharing ideas with other members of the team during our task (Hodge and McLain, 2015).
The tasks performed by me showed that I attained 80% as a coordinator. I had learnt that creating
and executing the auction on time and also making each group member conscious of their roles
had helped them in acquiring the resources on time and so, the auction was successful. My test
result indicated that I had 10% capability as a resource investigator in this task.
There was a conflict between the group members and me regarding the resources as each
member had a different point of view. As per Barrett value test result, I got 6 for environmental