Group Leaders

In the systems class we are forming groups for the final project, which is, in practice, a fully formed and executable proposal. Not, mind you, a “I just thought this might be a cool idea” sort of proposal, but more of a “I’ve done a thorough literature review/benchmarking, am familiar with the best practices, have an IRB proposal, can slam dunk any criticisms” kind of proposal. In order to allow for uniformly high quality in the project proposals, I am allowing (erm, “making”) folks work in groups.

Everyone emailed me resumes and reasons for why they might or might not want to be appointed as group leaders. I will admit that I am surprised by how many didn’t want a leadership position. I suspect that this has a lot to do with experiences in which the leader did all the work for the group. If any of the leaders of the groups in this course end up doing all the work, they will have failed at their jobs. In fact, leadership is all about coordinating the efforts of the team.

The following people will be leading teams this semester: Croniser, Cunningham, Cywinski, Gianni, Kwiatkowski, Seibert, Tredo.

Each team will have three members, a couple will have four. The members of each team will not, as is common in many classes, be assigned randomly, or via informal processes. Each leader will be given 1000 points to allocate to closed bids on people they want on their team. They can allocate these in any way they like. If they are sure they want one person, they can bid all of their points for that person. If they want to spread those points across 10 people, ensuring that they get at least some of these, they can do that. Obviously, you want to be someone in demand…

Those of you who are not listed above as a team leader need to post answers to the following questions to your blogs by Monday (Halloween) night, at the latest. Remember: people besides the team leaders are going to see this, so be careful in crafting your self-advertisement.

1. What are you good at? Do you have particular talents or skills that would benefit a team? How have you demonstrated those skills? Be concise, but complete.

2. What do you most enjoy doing? What is your passion? What would you do if money were no object?

3. Think back to a project team you especially enjoyed working with. What about that team made it good? That is, what do you look for in a project team, its members, and its leaders?

4. Think back to your least favorite position. What is it that made it a bad fit for you?

5. What else is important for a team leader to know about you?

6. The end project proposal represents a proposed capstone project. Do you have some ideas — either general or more specific — for the form of project you would be most interested in working on?

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