Team Project Presentation Day

Throughout the semester we have learned how to work in teams and solve complex problems for my Team Building and Problem Solving class.  We’ve done lots of ice breakers and team activities; we’ve learned about ground rules and compromising; we’ve learned how to use critical thinking; and we’ve created lots and lots of different charts to analyze data, manage time, and organize thoughts. All of this semester’s work has been preparing us for our team projects. We had the opportunity to show what we’ve learned in class last Wednesday when each team presented their problem and solution.

The other groups analyzed issues such as high gas prices and roundabout intersection accidents. For my group, we chose to tackle the issue of emergency drill efficiency.

By reading books and doing lots of activities in class, we learned that the best way to solve problems is to follow a step-by-step process and never jump to conclusions. We started with a problem statement, listed our desired goals, and created flowcharts of drill procedures.

Next, we gathered real, quantifiable data. We created surveys to gather more information. We put them into tables and we made pie and bar graphs for illustration. Looking at the data, we were able to list possible causes of why emergency drill procedures weren’t 100% successful. We grouped the data into categories by using an affinity tool. From there, we were able to use other tools to identify the true root cause. Finding the root cause is important, because if you are just fixing a symptom of the root cause, you’re not solving the real problem. You’re just patching holes.

Before we started brainstorming solutions, we came up with a list of “needs” and “wants” for our solution. After all that work, we were able to come up with solutions to address the issues and improve effectiveness of emergency drills.

Our presentation to the class went really well. I think I spoke better this time than any other presentation I’ve given. I suppose since I’ve given quite a lot of presentations at MPTC, the practice is paying off. I really enjoyed this project, because I felt it was an authentic problem, and the solutions we came up with are reasonable and implementable. I’ve also gain some valuable skills in teamwork and critical thinking, which is important in the workforce and in life in general.