I have worked within many teams, teams from work, school and sports. I found it interesting to work with people you just met, I learned a lot from these teamwork experiences.
The first thing I learned is “Don’t assume your teammates understand you”. People working in the same team can came from different backgrounds, the way they speak could easily cause misunderstandings. So confirm with team, use email or graph to help is necessary. Secondly, “Ask the question by first description the problem you try to solve”. Sometimes, I think I found a solution but need help to implement it. So I ask how to implement this and that, but do not mention the real problem. Often times teammates can provide a better way or easier way to tackle the issue. Get to know your teammates is something really important to me, but is often times ignored especially in a remote setting. I think quickly get to know your teammates will definitely help not just you but the project you guys are working on to move smoothly.
Often times, I found myself more excited to find mistakes from my teammate’s work or present my disagreement rather than appreciated their work. I guess it is our natural to easily find the spots that irritate us, and ignore the rest. To appreciate and respect others work can set a great team environment, it also could lead to more discussion and improve the creativity for the team.
Of course, there are tons of topics around team work, but one of the most important thing is always communication. I have a lot to learn in my future career about communication, any experience whether good or bad, will become a valuable asset.
