Preparing To Collaboration Plan And Formulating Discussion Questions

Submitted By chaos14
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Chapter four, Preparing to Collaborate, kept my attention throughout the chapter. The chapter discussed how to develop a discussion plan while formulating discussion questions. This will prepare the group for discussions and allow the group to be more productive. When working within groups, it’s important to get acquainted with the members of your group, taking the time to develop relationships that will help the team to be more productive in the long run. After a group settles in and gets comfortable with one another, it’s important to stay on top of the progress of the group. If the team has an unclear vision and what’s to be accomplished, the group must come to terms with a strong, concise plan. Roles should be clarified so no-one gets off track and slows down progress. A clear plan of attack must be in place so there is little or no confusion about the task at hand. To avoid conflict, teams need to focus on developing trust and managing tension before completing the task. Then the group should develop a plan for gathering information and analyzing issues. Assessing the group’s knowledge about a certain situation will narrow down who does what and who has interests in the different tasks at hand. Assign members to begin the research. It is important to make tasks clear so members can focus on the project, meet the timeline that has been set in stone, and periodically review the project together as a team. An agenda is important when working on a project. An outline is useful for organizing the group and the task at hand. The most basic outline for a group is: identify and define the problem, analyze the problem, generate several possible solutions, select the best solution or combination of solutions, and test and implement the solution. By following these steps, the group will stay on track as a unit. The discussion questions are of fact, of prediction, of value, and of policy. These questions will serve as a valuable function in providing direction to group deliberations. This week’s readings are extremely beneficial to me and to my career. I work within groups daily and having an outline will help to stay grounded, focused and successful. The most important information that I can take from this week is the information about group-discussion questions. It was interesting to see the different types of questions that are given. Question of fact is something I should use every day when dealing with colleagues. Facts are important and normally it’s confusing on how questions are