The elements of high/performance are: work groups, teams, community and network.
A work group is where "each individual has specific responsibility within an overall group objective". A team has specific operational objective. A community has a domain of information or knowledge or activities of common interests, where as a network members want to stay in touch with each other.
In Baja, all of these apply. As being the electrical lead, I had the responsibility to make sure that the kill-switches, and break lights worked and that everything was connected properly. Without that we wouldn't pass tech-inspection during competition. Other girls had responsibilities too, as breaking, steering, chassis, etc. When it comes to being a team, we agreed on that finishing the car and making it run during competition was our main goal. Being a part of Baja means that you have the same interests in learning how to design, build, test and drive a car and we had to meet all of the goals together. During the time we are a part of the team, we all stay in touch. But when we are done and people leave, it's only natural to stay in touch with some people and loose contact with others.
As mentioned earlier, some shared values within the group are to work hard and have a finished and working product before competition, mutual respect no matter sexuality, ethnicity, religious believes and personal interests. These are the key values for our team to function efficient and great as a team.
I will start with the negative experience first. This year, we had a problem with leadership and our teamwork. The communication wasn't there and the captain wasn't a leader. It got so bad we had to have a talk with advisors where we had to talk about our team and what we wanted to do. If we wanted keep working on the car and go to competition and still be a team. It was sad that we came to that point, but it helped us as a team too, getting closer to each other and our communication got better. There's not really much I could have done in this situation, it is ultimately up to the captain to take control and be in charge. All I could do was support her as best as I could.
I have many positive experiences with the girls. Having fun in the shop, going to a cottage in West Virginia to bond, going to competition and seeing that our teamwork has ended in a fantastic car. I told my team about my depression so that they knew what I was going through, and they were all so supportive!
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