Lessons on Teamwork from Miracle

For our topic of Many, Logan and I will research teamwork. I really couldn't be more excited about our topic because I think that it is universally important no matter what job you are in. I have been on teams my entire life, starting when I was four joining my town's youth hockey program. Since then, between 3 different sports, I have been on countless sports teams on different levels (youth, high school, college Division 1 and club). Every single one of these sports teams along with the other organized teams I have been on in my life has been extremely unique. When I think about a good example of a great team, I automatically think of the 1980 Olympic Hockey team. If you've ever seen the movie Miracle, this is the team I'm referring to. Admittedly I've seen this movie enough times to quote the entirety of it so I am not even sure where to start for those of you who have not seen it. It even features Ralph Cox, a UNH alumni that was cut from the team at the last minute.

 

The team is comprised of players from all of the most competitive colleges in the country, which means many of them are rivals. Their biggest issue in the first half of the movie is even being able to tolerate each other let alone actually work together. In the picture shown above, the players are gathered in a circle. Cox actually says this because he knows whatever school he says hes from hes going to make an enemy. Eventually they actually come together to be a family. The big turning point in the film is this scene : Miracle on Ice. When they are pushed to their breaking point, they finally come together for one common goal, to play for the USA instead of as individuals. While most team environments may not have a goal that is easy to rally around (like winning a gold medal for your country) what I took away from this team and this movie was that having a defined goal or purpose is essential for any team. People knowing why they are there and what they are working towards creates motivation and creates a common bond among team members. If you haven't seen this movie, I would very much recommend it as it shows the journey of one of the greatest teams the world has ever seen.

Lightning Does Strike Twice

This semester we are enrolled in a class called Health Research I, essentially it is a data analytics class. Every other week or so we turn in a problem set, which is a small project that encompasses one topic of the class. This week we worked on forecasting and had been warned in the past that this was the problem set that ended up having the most output and also would be much easier to start early when learning the different forecasting techniques. I got started on it as we went along each method and then unfortunately, lost the entirety of my data around 10am on Wednesday (the day before it was due). This was mostly my own fault for forgetting to save my progress as I went along. I pretty much locked myself in my apartment and ended up getting back to where I was. Then again, at 9pm, my computer shut down. Of course I didn't learn my lesson and again didn't save my progress. I panicked and knew as soon as I turned my computer on I would be back to where I was at 10am. I ended up staying up until about 2am to finish the problem set and lost most of my sanity in the process. However, I was the most productive during this time. This got me thinking about procrastinating. While I did not intentionally procrastinate, I may as well have. I was wondering why I was the most productive the closest to my deadline. I may have been more productive because I had already forecasted this data twice so I had my bearings at this point. I have become much better about procrastination since high school but I remember the cycle of putting things off then scrambling to be productive in the last night. Now, I tend to start things much earlier and try to get ahead of my assignments.
I found an article on Business Insider about how procrastinating can make you more productive . A professor from Stanford University talks about his use of "structured procrastination". He says "

'Procrastination means not doing what you’re supposed to be doing,' he says. 'Structured procrastination means you don’t waste your time. When you’re avoiding another task, you do something else instead.' " I thought this was a really interesting concept. Putting things off to the last minute is really never a good strategy, but I think if you take something away from his strategy it should be that if you really are avoiding one project, at least get your work done on another one. Don't just sit and watch Youtube videos or scroll through Facebook. He also made the point that as long as you weigh your priorities you can still be efficient. Every person works differently when it comes to time management, the most important thing is finding a strategy that fits your personal style but still is a strategy that gets your work done on time and with a high quality. This is a very different way of time management from anything I have ever seen but I found he did make some good points.
At the end of the day I learned from this experience 1. I hate working right before a deadline so procrastination is just not for me 2. SAVE YOUR WORK multiple times as you go along on big projects 3. If it comes down to it, you will still be able to meet your deadline so just work hard and be productive.

 

Final Thoughts on Listening

I really enjoyed presenting on yesterdays topic. The presentation itself actually got me thinking about listening even more than my research did. While presenting, I noticed something I'm sure a lot of our professors deal with on a daily basis, the way electronics can create such a barrier for listening. I noticed throughout our presentation a lot of my classmates on their computers or from time to time, phones. While other classes computers may be essential, they really aren't in ours. I must mention that I certainly have also done this in our class more than I would like to admit. But I wondered how our class would have gone if we had asked everyone to put their technology away and actually actively listen. With how much participation we had, I think that everyone listened much more than I had realized. But there were certain people that stuck out to me that were really giving the presentation their undivided attention. Going off this in the future, I am definitely going to strive to keep my technology away during this class and follow the example of my other classmates. I think that participation is really the way to get the most out of this class whether that is in class or through this portfolio. I don't think that banning technology necessarily creates a class full of active listers. However, I feel it is our responsibility as students to not allow technology to be a barrier to learning and participation. 
Telephone was definitely my favorite activity of the class. I was actually kicking myself for not realizing this was a great listening activity earlier in my research. I also loved this video of Dwight learning active listening. I learned a lot about my own habits through my research. My mind tends to work extremely fast so when I am listening to a friend telling a story I tend to interrupt with clarifying questions because I like to have all of the information and if I don't ask when it comes to mind, I will forget the question all together or just focus on the question so I don't hear the rest of the story. Clearly this is a bad habit and something I need to work on. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed presenting this topic and will work to use my knowledge to become a better listener.

10 Steps to Effective Listening

Today I read an article from Forbes called 10 Steps to Effective Listening while doing research for my presentation. I think that listening is possibly one of the most important skills to have. Being an effective listener is essential for communication. There is also nothing that annoys me more than people who are terrible listeners. When working tonight, I asked someone a specific question. Because they likely didn't value our interaction and were clearly not listening, they answered another question that I didn't even ask them. One thing I really liked from this article was that it mentioned being present. This is something I strive to always be. I think that this is important in listening and just in day to day life. If you are too busy at work worrying about your issues at home, how can you be productive? The same goes for a conversation. If you are stuck in your own head thinking about something else you are not fully engaged in the conversation. It also mentions keeping an open mind. You can learn something from everything you meet. I remember in class someone saying "everyone is an expert in something". We all walk different paths and have different experiences and through listening to others we can gain new perspectives. I've really enjoyed my research so far and am excited to present to the class.

Evaluating Performance Evaluations

Today's class really got me thinking about how my organization uses performance reviews. What I like about our environment is that feedback is constantly expected. Instead of making it one formal sit down, we constantly give it throughout each shift. I think this creates a really unique environment because its much less awkward to ask someone to sit down and talk about how they are doing. It also is important that there is meaning to the physical performance review sheets. We use them in deciding who will work playoffs especially when it comes down to the important games. That's one of the traits I noticed today that I think is important in a performance review. I don't necessarily agree with firing a certain number or percentage of your lowest ranking employees but I think that if you're going to take the time to do a performance review, it should have meaning for both the employer and employee. Something I may look to add would be to justify scores that are not 3's because I know I tend to give out more 4's and 5's than I probably should. We had these on our peer reviews and I thought this was really effective in stopping people from inflating scores. I am curious if there are any alternatives out there as opposed to the traditional methods. I know there are many people that argue that performance evaluations overall are extremely ineffective and may not really be benefiting us at all. Maybe they are, but what is the alternative? Doing nothing at all?

Performance Evaluations

Tomorrow Carly, Regan, and Caroline will be presenting about performance evaluations. I am actually really excited for this because this is actually one of the key components of my job at UNH. I would consider evaluation and risk management the two major things that I do on a day to day basis. Being so young in my career I do think it is unique that I am in a position where I am constantly evaluating and providing feedback to employees. My job is to evaluate referees as they officiate games in broomball, ice hockey, and floor hockey. While I am allowed to do it in regards to any sport, these are the sports I usually run and feel the most competent in and therefore can give the best feedback. I am excited to learn more about what makes an evaluation effective because I have also received a promotion at my job. I will now be at the highest position that a student can reach in my organization. It will almost be an administrative position where I will deal with scheduling employees, event scheduling, some data entry, ordering all of our supply needs, etc. In my interview, I was asked what one thing I most wanted to change if I was given the position. This is something I have been thinking about since then. What can I do to leave the program in a better place than it was when I came in? I think there is always room for improvement and I wonder if the evaluations we have now are the best that they could be. Our assigned pre-work for the class is as follows:
1. What characteristics do you think would make a good performance evaluation?
2. What characteristics do you think would make a poor performance evaluation?
3. What type of categories do you think would be found on a performance evaluation? 
4. If you have any experience with performance evaluations, come prepared to share in class. 
When researching performance reviews, I found this cartoon that I thought was funny:

I understand why some people might find performance evaluations awkward. I think because I have been exposed to it for a while in a somewhat low risk environment, they do not bother me at all whether I am on the receiving end or giving one. Evaluation is a key component for growth. I think that a good performance evaluation is fair. It must be well thought out and detailed enough to encompass what is expected of a position but not too nit-picky to create an environment where employees are set up to fail. They also should contain a portion that is dedicated to comments so managers can leave ideas in their own words. I think poor evaluations are very vague. I also think if the person giving the evaluation is uncomfortable, as shown in this cartoon, it will not be effective. The categories found in our performance evaluation are mostly focus professionalism, productivity, and competency. I think that this would be similar to what you may find in a professional setting. Ours rank various categories on a scale of 1-5. I don't have any specific situations about performance evaluations that come to mind. All experiences that I have had with it have been extremely positive. I have never received a bad evaluation. Any time I have ever had to deliver one, I feel that I did it in an effective way while still considering the employees feelings. One thing we often talk about at work, in the context of officiating, is first asking "What did you see there?" and giving the employee an open ended question to explain what they saw in their own words, and why they made the call that they did. I have found this to be extremely effective because a lot of the time they even realize what they missed before I even have to bring it up. Instead of just telling someone they are wrong, we should understand why they were and how to improve that. We are also extremely encouraging and do not shower employees with criticism. Creating an environment where employees expect feedback and know that even if they are critiqued, they are still supported has been really effective for our program. Our organization is much different though. We are much more lenient than a professional career will be.

Reflection

It's hard to believe we have already concluded the "One" section of this course. This class has been extremely valuable to me so far. Beyond the academic portion of having to write a contribution to a primer, teach a class, and write these blog posts I feel that I have learned so much about myself in the past few weeks. Especially through blogging. This class has sparked a lot of self-reflection for me. I find myself often thinking about what we have discussed outside of the classroom. I also feel like I really am absorbing the material instead of just learning it for a test and then forgetting it as soon as I don't need it anymore. The way we have been running the class is really engaging. Being in such a small group also creates a really unique classroom environment. In an interview with an HMP alumni, she asked me what classes I had done well in and enjoyed. I immediately gushed about how much I really am enjoying this course. And I feel that it is going to really help us all professionally especially this summer. Creating multiple pieces of work that we will be able to show after the class is also really fulfilling. I am really excited to see where "Two" will take us.