Teams Start with Human Connections | Matt Eng | TEDxSanAntonio
Summary
TLDRThe speaker discusses the importance of building effective teams, drawing a parallel between golfers and designers who traditionally work individually. Highlighting Paul Azinger's strategy of pairing golfers by personality for the Ryder Cup, the speaker emphasizes the value of communication and connection over mere skill set. The narrative shifts to a design classroom where the teacher's initial focus on individual excellence led to low completion rates. By studying a successful student, Emma, who built a supportive team, the speaker illustrates how fostering human connection and collaboration can lead to better outcomes. The talk concludes with a call to educate students on the importance of teamwork and support networks for achieving lifelong goals.
Takeaways
- ποΈββοΈ Golfers and designers are traditionally individualistic, focusing on personal skill development rather than teamwork.
- π€ The 2008 Ryder Cup captain, Paul Azinger, demonstrated the importance of team dynamics by pairing golfers based on personality rather than skill set.
- π Paul Azinger's strategy led to a win, highlighting the impact of effective communication and connection on team success.
- π€ The speaker reflects on the traditional approach to team building in software design, questioning its effectiveness.
- π©βπ« In a design portfolio class, only a few students completed their portfolios, indicating a failure in fostering a supportive team environment.
- π©βπΌ Emma's success story shows the value of building a cohesive team with the right mix of skills, commitment, and connection.
- π‘ The speaker realized the need to shift focus from individual excellence to fostering team communication and collaboration in the classroom.
- π£οΈ Encouraging students to communicate and support each other can improve their performance and prepare them better for the job market.
- π The education system often overlooks teaching students the importance of human connection and teamwork, which are crucial for success.
- π By teaching students to build cohesive teams, we can influence how they contribute to the workplace and the world.
Q & A
What commonality does the speaker draw between golfers and designers?
-The speaker notes that both golfers and designers tend to work individually and are not naturally inclined to work together as a team.
What was the traditional approach to pairing golfers in the Ryder Cup before Paul Azinger's captaincy?
-Traditionally, golfers were paired based on their skill sets, much like how teams are built in professional environments.
What innovative strategy did Paul Azinger implement for the 2008 Ryder Cup?
-Paul Azinger paired golfers based on their personalities, believing that effective communication and connection could enhance their performance on the golf course.
How did Paul Azinger's strategy impact the outcome of the 2008 Ryder Cup?
-Paul Azinger's strategy led to the US golf team winning the tournament, demonstrating the power of personality-based pairing and effective communication.
What lesson does the speaker take from Paul Azinger's approach to team building?
-The speaker learns that fostering better connections and stronger communication among team members can lead to improved performance, even when individual skills are already high.
Why did the speaker initially struggle with building a cohesive team in their design portfolio class?
-The speaker struggled because they emphasized individual excellence and the importance of having the best portfolio, which did not encourage teamwork or collaboration among students.
Who is Emma in the context of the speaker's story?
-Emma is a student who successfully built a cohesive team to support her in job applications and portfolio completion, ultimately leading to her getting hired.
What was the key factor that allowed Emma to build a successful team?
-Emma's team was built on a solid foundation of shared skills, commitment, and meaningful connections, which allowed them to support each other effectively.
How did the speaker change their teaching approach after learning from Emma's success?
-The speaker began requiring students to communicate with each other by checking in with every class, encouraging them to ask for help and fostering a collaborative environment.
What is the main takeaway the speaker wants to impart about team building in educational and professional settings?
-The main takeaway is the importance of teaching students to connect on a human level, be vulnerable, offer value, and build supportive groups to achieve their lifelong goals, emphasizing that they cannot and should not do it alone.
Outlines
ποΈββοΈ Golf and Design: The Power of Teamwork
The speaker begins by drawing a parallel between golfers and designers, both of whom typically work individually. The speaker then recounts the story of the 2008 Ryder Cup, where US team captain Paul Azinger bucked tradition by pairing golfers based on personality rather than skill set. This innovative approach led to better communication and ultimately, victory. The speaker relates this to the challenges of building effective teams in the workplace, particularly in software design, where individuals with different skill sets must collaborate. The speaker's own experience in teaching design portfolio classes revealed that emphasizing individual excellence over teamwork led to poor outcomes. The speaker realized the importance of fostering connections and communication among students to build a cohesive team, which is crucial for success in the professional world.
π¨βπ« Lessons from Education: Building Cohesive Teams
In the second paragraph, the speaker discusses the shortcomings of the education system in teaching students to connect on a human level and to build cohesive teams. The speaker highlights the examples of Paul Azinger and a student named Emma, who demonstrated the importance of human connection and teamwork. The speaker emphasizes the need to teach students to offer value, be vulnerable, and build supportive groups to achieve their lifelong goals. The speaker concludes by advocating for a change in educational approaches to better prepare students for the workplace and to positively impact the world through effective teamwork.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Teamwork
π‘Communication
π‘Portfolio
π‘Skill Set
π‘Connection
π‘Competition
π‘Design
π‘Education System
π‘Vulnerability
π‘Goals
Highlights
Golfers and designers are often individualists, not inclined to work as a team.
In 2008, the US golf team captain, Paul Azinger, faced the challenge of uniting individual golfers into a team.
Traditionally, golf teams were paired by skill set, but Azinger paired golfers by personality for better communication.
Azinger's strategy led to the US team's victory in the Ryders Cup, highlighting the importance of team dynamics beyond skill sets.
The speaker relates the story of golf team building to the challenge of teaching students to design software collaboratively.
In design education, the focus is often on individual skill development and portfolio creation.
Only three out of 15 students completed their portfolio in the speaker's class, indicating a failure in fostering a collaborative environment.
Emma, a successful student, built a supportive team to help her with job applications and portfolio completion.
Emma's team was characterized by the right skill set, commitment, and meaningful connections.
The speaker learned that fostering communication and connection among students is crucial for success in team settings.
Education systems often fail to teach students the importance of human connection and collaboration.
Paul Azinger and Emma's stories demonstrate the value of building cohesive teams for achieving goals.
The speaker implemented changes in the classroom, requiring students to communicate and support each other.
Students need to be taught how to connect on a human level and offer value to others.
Teaching students to build teams can change how they enter the workplace and impact the world.
The speaker concludes by emphasizing the importance of teaching teamwork and communication in educational settings.
Transcripts
[Music]
thank you I have a question for everyone
what do golfers and designers have in
common
neither are inclined to work together as
a team
golfers train and compete as individuals
except for the occasional tournament
like the riders cup designers believe
they can design it all except for when
they're making software and today I want
to talk to you about how we build
effective teams and how that affects our
output especially in situations we group
together people trained as individuals
and we expect them to become a
high-performing team like we do in our
work environments and I came across this
story about golf when I was dealing with
my own failures with building a cohesive
team and it taught me lessons about
teamwork connections and communication
that I want to share with you today but
first the story it starts in 2008 and
the riders cup US golf team captain was
a man named Paul Azinger Paul had this
problem he had to bring together golfers
to become a team but he only had one
week and traditionally the teams before
him
paired golfers by skill set much like
the way we build teams but Paul had a
different idea he wanted to pair
personalities and he believed if they
could communicate a well-placed comment
a subtle facial expression they could
propel each other across the green for
the win and he was right they finally
won that tournament what Paul figured
out and the teams before him missed was
that the golfers understood skill set
they knew the goal when the riders cut
but what he gave them was an opportunity
for better connection and stronger
communication now what does this have to
do with designing software and teaching
students to design software like I do in
my day job where I work where
traditionalists and we think in skill
sets
para this visual designer with this
design researcher point them towards the
right goal and you have the best team
ever we know this is not true yet we
perpetuate this idea every day and I
brought this idea into my classroom well
I teach design portfolio and this is
typically the last class students go
through before they enter the job market
and I unwittingly hammered home in every
class you have to be the best designer
with the best portfolio to get a hint at
a job interview so it's no wonder that
out of the 15 students in my class only
three completed their portfolio three
this was a huge failure for me and as a
teacher I needed to get better I needed
to improve the situation for my students
and I started to focus on one student
who was actually so successful in the
class and she got hired right out of
right out of the class and let's call
her Emma and was my case study analyst
approach was simple yet none of that
none any other teachers including me
were doing it and from Emma's
perspective the task of looking for jobs
applying interviewing in finishing her
portfolio these were all so daunting
that she couldn't do it by herself and
so she gathered together a group of
design students who can help her with
these skills and build and support her
with these goals and over time some of
the students left because they didn't
have the right skill set others couldn't
commit to the same goals and some could
not or did not want to connect in any
meaningful way with the rest of the
group but what this left there with was
a solid team right levels skills right
level of commitment right level of
connection with each other and I went
further and I asked their current team
where she works why they hired her and
they said there's no doubt we knew Emma
was awesome and we knew she'd fit in and
I realized at that moment and his
ability to build a cohesive team
and be effective in it set herself up
for success now some of this can be
attributed to Emma but I can still take
these lessons and bring it into my
portfolio class to improve the situation
and I started requiring or getting my
students to communicate with each other
by requiring them to check in with every
class and this gave them permission to
get up from their computers help the
person next to them and get more
comfortable with asking for help and I
learned that students understand skills
they know the goal but we have to teach
them how to communicate better and sadly
this is where education system falls
short what Paul and Emma have showed us
is that we have to teach our students to
connect more on a human level with to
teach them to offer value to be
vulnerable to build skills and build
groups to support them with their
lifelong goals we have to let them know
they can't do it by themselves and
that's okay we can change how our
students enter the workplace how they
affect the world around them if we just
teach them how to build cohesive teams
thank you
[Applause]
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