Teaming

In this class you'll be working on a team of ~5 people. This might be the largest team for a class project many of you have been in! Working in a larger team is exciting and provides the opportunity to tackle larger and more challenging problems, but also introduces more overhead in organizing and ensuring that each team member can contribute effectively.

Below are some optional but highly encouraged readings to help you start thinking about how to manage your team and work well together.

Design Thinking and Process

• Design Thinking, Explained (MIT Sloan)

Holding Effective Meetings

You will be meeting with your team periodically during the semester and while meetings are an important opportunity to share information and take advantage of everyone's expertise, it can be tricky to ensure that everyone is heard while avoiding endless discussion.

• How to Run an Effective Meeting (New York Times)
• How to run a meeting that is useful, enjoyable, and effective

Making Decisions as a Team

Throughout the semester, your team will have to make important decisions about the design of your system. These decisions will not always be clear-cut, so it's important to think about how your team will move forward when not all members agree. What happens if there is a tie or if certain people are not present? Often, no decision is worse than a sub-optimal decision.

• A Good Meeting Needs a Clear Decision-Making Process (Harvard Business Review)
• The Decision-making Process is a Team Sport (Slack Collaboration Blog)

More references on teams and working in them

Carter, A. and Phillips, K. “The double-edged sword of diversity: Toward a dual pathway model”. May 2017

Coutu, D. “Why Teams Don’t Work” (HBR, 2009)

Duhigg, C. “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team” (New York Times, February 28, 2016)

Dweck, C. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. summary

Edmundson, A. The Fearless Organization. November 2018.

Eyal, T., Streffel, M., and Epley, N. “Perspective-Taking Doesn’t Help You Understand What Others Want”. (HBR, 2018)

Galinsky, Adam, A. Todd, A.C. Homan, Katherine Phillips, Evan Apfelbaum, Stacey Sasaki, Jennifer Richeson, J.B. Olayon, and W. Maddux. "Maximizing the gains and minimizing the pains of diversity: A policy perspective." Perspectives on Psychological Science 10, no. 6 (November 2015): 742-748.

Gallo, A. What is Psychological Safety (HBR, 2023)

Haas, M. and Mark Mortensen, M. “The Secrets of Great Teamwork” (HBR, June 2016)

Haidt, J. The Happiness Hypothesis. 2006

Pentland, S. “The New Science of Building Great Teams” (HBR, 2012)

Schien, E. Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness, and Trust. August, 2018.

Smith, C. “What Do We Risk If We Don’t Speak Up?” (TED Radio Hour, April 7, 2017)

We All Think We Know the People We Love. We’re All Deluded. (March, 2018. NPR.org: Invisibilia)