My Experience of Teamwork in a Charity Event

In a previous assignment (P2) I did A report on own contributions to a specific team activity relating to health and social care. The activity that took place was comic relief day in school. It was a school fundraising day where many different activities took place to raise money for children in need that are unfortunate and need help in the most basic needs, for example providing water, food and shelter. The charity event was able to raise £960 to help vulnerable children.

The different activities that took place were raffles, sponging teachers, cake sale and clothes sale. My contributions to the activity were

Effective communication

Selling clothes

Collecting money

Teamwork can have great success and within the event that I will be discussing which was a fundraising for comic relief all the members within the team where able to influence the success of the activity.

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The main success of the activity was the mass amount of money we raised which was £960.

This was such an achievement and the whole team was overwhelmed when they realised all our contributions put together allowed us to achieve more than we expected.

There are however many barriers that do come in the way of when teams work as a group that can have implications of the success of the activity. But the issues can be overcome through full cooperation and also if I adapted my contributions I could also make a difference and enhance the success of the activity. During the activity there where many changes that I could have made to enhance the success of the activity. When all the individuals in the group put together their contributions they are easily able to show that the activity can be a success. However sometimes the contributions do need to be altered a little to make a further succession.

Effective communication

In assessing the first contribution in influencing the success of the activity communication is one of the most influential parts in working as part of a team. Effective communication needs to be effective in creating an understanding for everyone within the team. I was able to show effective communication through being clear and making sure I do not create any barriers of communication such as making team members amuse my information. Also understanding the different forms of communication and interpersonal interaction helped me in being able to break any barriers of communication.

Being able to flow the communication cycle helped me in having a precise aim and a precise outcome that helped in the communication being clear and effective. This had a great success on the activity as I was able to show that I understood information given to mere and was able to give the right feedback. This also stopped me in mumbling or not getting all the information across during team get together or when interacting with people during the activity. The communication cycle this theory that was found by Charles Berner is an excellent way of showing how a person makes sense of communication in the mind.

However in assessing how my communication influenced the activity in a negative way was that I was unable to show full effective communication due to having a lack of eye contact with individuals and also not holding a good posture. Also my first impressions on the team did have an effect on the success of the team and my contributions due to me not being on time on the first team gathering.

Following the theory of communication found by Michael Argyle (1925-2002) would have helped me in overcoming these communication barriers. Making a first impression is very important as studies have shown that within the first 2 seconds of meeting a person an individual makes their judgments on how they see them. Michael Argyle stated that information can be conveyed through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behaviour this shows that first impressions are always important in how the team would see me and is also a form of effective communication.

Due to me having a shy personality this affected the posture I held when I was participating in the activity. Postures can send a variety of messages. Posture can be used to determine a participant’s degree of attention or involvement for example standing slouched would show that the individual does not care. Posture can also show the openness of an individual standing with arms flowed can stand for a barrier in the way of them being able to communicate effectively. Unfortunately I was holding my hands together and had my shoulders low in other words I was very closed off from all the other team members.

The recommendation that could be given in the contribution of providing effective communication to make it success would be to give team members training to understand the ways information is conveyed in the most effective way. Training would allow me to be able to understand the importance in effective communication and how much it can affect the success of the activity. For example if I had better communication skills I may have been able to draw more people in to the stalls and this would have encouraged individuals buying more items that would have raised more money.

Also flowing Argyles nonverbal communication would also be another recommendation that would allow me to influence the activity in a positive aspect. Nonverbal communication is the process of sending and receiving messages from another person. These messages can be conveyed through gestures, engagement, posture, and even clothing and hygiene. Nonverbal communication can convey a very different message than a verbal conversation and therefor needing to prefect both forms is a great importance. Effective communication can be very difficult to achieve however once the barriers are overcome and understood in how to overcome them communication can be extremely effective and be able to help the group achieve the most they can.

Selling clothes

In assessing another one of my contributions to the group was sell clothes that had been donated to the school by the pupils and staff. I had to sell the items for different amounts of money depending on what they were worth. The lowest the pieces went where 50p and the highest was £5.00. At first I did think it would be difficult and was apprehensive about whether or not people would by the clothes that where collected. However the generosity of people was overwhelming as a majority of people bought a least one item.

There were great benefits in selling clothes as I was able to raise £57.00. another benefit of selling clothes is that it did not only benefit the charity through money but the individuals who bought them also benefited hugely as some of them where less fortunate and having good standard clothes for a maximum of 5.00 helped them hugely. Also the individuals who donated the clothes also said that they felt so happy that they could donate these clothes to the charity and help raise money rather than through them away. Selling clothes also helped me in building my confidence in money and talking to individuals.

However in another assessment of selling clothes there were also negative issues that did affect the amount of clothes that where purchased. Even though £57.00 is a lot, more could have been achieved. The clothing sold where not varied and therefor this did cause bad influence on the success of the activity. Also due to the school being multi-cultural there were issues that there was not a variety of cultural clothes that did lead to a form of discrimination. Also the way that I had placed the clothes around the stall did not show any presentation which also may have deterred individual’s way from the stall.

In assessing another issue that was create through the conflict of the clothes selling was the conflict between student and staff as the pupils wanted to go around to all the activities but there was no time left. Another bad point is that some of the clothes were not clean and therefor this could have also been a health and safety hazards. This led to some team members feel secluded due to not having there say. At first we were able to show that they were able to get together and decide with the clothes that would be sold however as the activity went on some individual began to feel a lot more distant with the team and this did cause problems. This is a similar issue stated by Bruce Tuckman (1975) who created the theory of stages of group development. Tuckman believed that groups go through 4 different stages that allow the group to be fully formed.

However the Tuckmans theory allows the group to see that after the barriers and the problems they can come together and preform in the task. Linking this with my contribution of selling the clothes it is clear that once the group came together and overcame the issues for example not having a variety of clothing or having them too expensive or to cheap would have a positive influence on the success of the activity.

The recommendation that I would have on my own contributions is that I would have tried and putting different clothing in my clothes stall that consisted of different cultural clothing. For example a changshan, qipao which are Chinese clothes or langa/paawada Indian clothing. This would have benefited in promoting anti -discrimination and also may have given me a better chance in raising more money with having a variety of clothing that would appeal to all cultures. Clothing can be a very nice way to get individuals to see and experience wearing different clothing.

Collecting money

Another one of my contributions to the activity was to collect the money that was needed to be given in by every child that wore their own clothes. I went to every class room from year 1 to year 6 and made sure that all the pupils wearing their own clothes did pay a minimum of £1.00. This task was not difficult at all as the money was already placed in an envelope and the resister was ticked if they had paid and a cross if they had not.

In assessing this contribution I was able to make sure that every person who wore their own clothes did bring in £1.00. Also having this contribution helped me in being able to support the staff in being organised. Another benefit of collecting the money is that it made sure the younger children in the school did not lose the money so I started this contribution at the start of the day.

In another assessment of this contribution is that some people within the team did not feel trustworthy on me and believed that I could take the money. The reason behind this was because individuals felt that they did not know me and therefor how could they trust me with their money. Therefor I should have been with another person to create more trust with the pupils and also this would reassure them that I would not take the money.

However once the money was collected I was astonished with the amount of money collected just due to the students wearing their own clothes. This showed great commitment level we were all able to succeed as we worked hard in committing to the team and being reliable. When all the money was collected I felt so enthusiastic about how much it would help children in need and due to being part of the team I felt that I had a part to playing in being able to gain that amount of money. The humanistic approach shows the way that I felt. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow came up with the humanistic theory (1934) that shows that a healthy mental attitude is dependent on taking personal responsibility, recognising the existence of free will, and striving towards personal growth and fulfilment. Feeling fulfilled is a human instinctive.

The recommendation that will fit nicely with this contribution would be planning. If I planned how to collect the money and get another member of the group to help me in collecting the money I would have had better success with this contribution. Planning would allow me to set out the priorities and make sure that I as fully organised. Planning is fundamental during an activity and I should have planned how to collect the money that would have allowed me to reduce the risk of some students feeling unease about giving their money to me. Also getting resources such as a locked charity box would have helped me in breaking the barriers of me steeling the money and also making sure that none of the money was lost.

Another recommendation made for my own contributions in being reliable I would in the future try to show my reliability. As some members of the group did not relay on me as much due to feeling that I was not available because I never told them that I could do certain tasks. Also having the right posture and communicating in the right tone would also have a profound effect on the success of the activity due to breaking down any barriers that I would feel. Remembering to go through the stages in all the theories mentioned above would help in reaching self-actualisation which is the overall outcome of achieving the goal of the activity.

Overall assessing my contributions to the team there clear understands that there are positive and negative influences on the activity. When working as a team I have learnt that to achieve the success of the teamwork and the goals there are some process seen in the theories such as the Tuckman’s theory or Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are fundamental to be able to achieve the activity to the full potential. This activity was a great event that allowed our team to grow in teamwork and be able to raise a huge sum of money for children in need.

The recommendation mentioned are there to be done in the future when I will come across a teamwork effort again. Making targets for the future such as the recommendations allow me to understand in the parts of the activity that I lacked in and parts that I did success in so in future events I am more capable in achieving the task or the event.