Topic > Personal Experience: Group Projects and Teamwork

The CESIM simulation game provided a forum for both practical and immaterial learning. I was a member of the Ubiquitous Mobile team. From the beginning I felt that we had a strong team and a good chance of winning the match. Jose and I majored together in Mechanical Engineering and knew Chico as a graduate student in the Mechanical Engineering department. Chico knew Lucho from a previous lesson. When you let us choose our own groups, we gravitated towards each other. Group projects in the MBA program can be miserable. I understand the purpose of working with other disciplines, but working with people you don't know and have no reference for their level of commitment can be frustrating. Unfortunately I have been on some miserable teams. I was on fighting teams and lazy teams. Fortunately, however, our team for this project was made up of equally focused people who shared tasks and supported each other. We chose to make decisions together rather than having one person in charge or rotating responsibilities. We each may have focused on an area we felt most comfortable with, but we discussed each decision and came to a consensus as a group. This was the first lesson I learned through this game. I usually take on more responsibility directly. Within the first few minutes of the first practice meeting, I realized that each of us would be able to lead the group. Groups with many leaders can sometimes trip each other up when people try to win their point. To avoid this type of counterproductive action, I decided to take on a role in the group more similar to that of a worker bee. When we were stressing direction or decisions, I would have spoken up if I thought we were getting… middle of the paper… an alistic experience with production that I hadn't been exposed to previously. In other lessons we learn to predict demand and forecasts, but there is a correct answer. The game had no fixed values, which is more realistic. I think exposure to this type of uncertainty is necessary and useful in my future career. Overall I like these types of games more than projects or presentations. I think working together against groups promotes positive competitive behavior. Kevin and I played a game with a similar style, but much less involved, in a marketing class. We won that match too. He and I are now joking about who would win between the two of us. I'm sure winning the game helps with my overall attitude towards this game, but I think it's a good way to get people working together and using learned but up to this point theoretical business skills