Reflecting On Individual And Team Performance: An After Action Review

Related learning outcomes

One of the effective learning activities that were undertaken after the completion of the assignment is the manner in which teamwork can be established. I had been involved in a four-member group in which each of the people had been skilled in their own way to go about and help in the development of the team. Members of my team rose to the challenge that was presented to them and thereby a balance was made while undertaking the assignment. My team was named Passion Pavers the store manager of AMART furniture was interviewed in order to understand the management hierarchy that was followed as well as the responsibilities that were undertaken by the members of the organisation. However, there were certain issues as well that had made it difficult for the continuation progress of my team. The analysis of my and the team assessment score show that we had a mediocre run as a team.

As stated by Scarborough (2016, p.23) one of the key activities that is needed for the development of a team is that it requires team work as well as proper planning. In the case of our team, the teamwork was quite good, as we had managed to work together as a team in a proper manner. Every member of our team had contributed strongly for the development of the project. However, one member failed to contribute as per the expectations of the team as there occurred personal problems at the time. The movement of the team was swift and during the initial stage, it had set a series of goals that were needed to be achieved. Most of the tasks delegated to the team members were based on the strengths and weaknesses that they possessed. For example, I have good knowledge of retail industries however; my team management skills were not up to the mark. Therefore, after the analysis of this ability I was given the responsibility of a delegator and a scheduler of all meetings for the team. Therefore, in this very manner, the teamwork was carried out and the success that we received was mainly due to the application of the strength of the team members.

Rudansky-Kloppers and Strydom (2017, p.44) is of the opinion that communication is required in order to maintain an effective team performance as the information from one source need to move about quickly within the members of the team. In our case, the communication between the team members was excellent as the group was small and this provided an opportunity to exchange information as quickly as possible from one source to another. In this case, the team had taken the help of Brooke whose strength was to be effective in communication along with editing any information for the convenience of the other group members. However, despite this there was one important thing that was still missing in the group. This included individual contribution to the communication as it was necessary that every team member remainder alert for any type of development. As stated by Burns and Dewhurst (2016, p.88) without effective communication it can be difficult for team members to understand the strength and weakness of each of the members. For example, one of the mistakes that we had made during the project was that I had been allowed to take the interview instead of Sonya. This proved to a negative decision as my strength is mainly to research and organizes schedules. In the future, this can be considered one aspect that I need to develop as a team leader.

Draw on the theory of POLC

My aim is to always set a high standard for myself and expect that either I will follow people with ability to maintain good quality work or I will inspire people to follow the type of work that I perform. As stated by Schwartz (2017, p.122) it is important to put a good quality in terms of performance as it is necessary for a team to continue with the work and ensure that it gets the required success. However, in this case, the quality that I had provided was not up to the mark and this proved as a costly reason for the failure of the team. The overall team performance of the quality management was good and can be considered as a good performance in terms of understanding the quality of work. I needed to improve my performance in terms of raising the quality by ensuring that I had done enough research before putting together the questions that I had in mind for the store manager. I needed to set a benchmark that could have enabled me to continue maintaining the consistent quality of my team.

The overall assessment of the team show that the team did not do well. There was deviation from the original line of work mainly because of the absence of an important team member. Despite our best methods and efforts, little mistakes in terms of decision had resulted in the loss of points for the team. However, all the goals that we had set to achieve had been fulfilled and this provided us with the opportunity to progress with confidence. Some of the decisions that were made by the team as a whole affected the overall decision. For example, my selection over Sonya for conducting the interview was one of the bad decisions that were taken by the team. Another bad decision that was taken is the scheduling of the meetings. Although I was provided with the task of scheduling the meeting, in my opinion certain changes in the schedule such as, conducting the interview face-to-face instead of using Skype could have helped in proper assessment of the store manager and the responses provided by him. Therefore, it can be said that in the future this can be considered as one of the essential decisions that need to be kept in mind.

Ni and Van Wart (2015, p. 175) is of the opinion that working in a team can provide individuals with an opportunity to gain knowledge from diverse sources. This is mainly because every member of a team has diverse skills and abilities that can be used to gain confidence and a sense of knowledge and value for self. In the case of our team the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities had been of mediocre. This is mainly because of the excessive limitations that the team members had and the problems that occurred for one of our team member. Even my own KSA area was not up to the mark as I had failed to encourage the team in maintaining a benchmark based on my performance. Therefore, it can be said that the overall KSA of the team was that we needed to complement each other in terms of the abilities possessed. For example, the team could have gained knowledge from the skills of Natalie in terms of working with technology and making proper communication along with research.

Establishing teamwork

After having analysed the condition of the team and the overall impact it had on the development of the team, it can be said that room for improvement presented itself quite openly for the team. One of the tools that we had used was that of the team charter. This helped us in maintaining our vision and the mission so that every goal set out by the team members can be achieved. According to Shamir (2017, p.321), it is necessary to set a goal for the team members so that it can maintain a sense of balance in the team. At the same time, another recommendation that can be made for the team is that every team member can impart the knowledge and skills they have so that the other team members can learn from the strengths. In our case, this was not done effectively and it is for this reason that the team performance had not been up to the mark. In case of my assessment, I can say that I had also failed to provide the required motivation for the completion of tasks and therefore, I need to encourage my team members in the future while undertaking such challenging tasks.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that as a team the performance had been poor mainly because as individuals we had failed to live up to the expectations that were set for us. In my case I had failed to provide the required motivation and quality performance for the development of the team and thereby part of the blame for failure of the team can be attributed to my responsibility. On the other hand, the team had failed to utilise the strengths of the members and therefore, this led to another failure for the team. However, certain strengths can also be gained from the participation. The fact that experience in conducting an interview was gained can help in the future development of the skills and abilities of the individuals.  

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