Definition: Working with others is engaging in a collaboration of efforts to achieve a central goal while using respect, trust, and commitment as the basis for all effort.

 

Criteria:

• One’s ability to work with others measures their willingness to seek new perspectives and learn from others in the process.

• While engaging in a group, one should be attentive to other members and be self-aware while sharing thoughts or opinions.

• It is also important to maintain a certain level of accountability between all members of the group, where each person is aware of his or her responsibilities. 

 

Artifact:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation of Artifact: 

       

       As a junior in college, I applied to be a chair for my sorority, Pi Beta Phi, in the annual Songfest, which is a philanthropy event put on by Chi Omega Sorority. I was selected as one of the three chairs in charge of choreography, along with a logistics chair and a costume and props chair. We all had the common goal of wanting to lead our organization in a manner that was effective, productive and most of all, fun. This was indeed a challenge, as we were faced with instructing over a hundred girls. We wanted to make this experience worthwhile to everyone that was putting in their time and effort to participate in late night practices on school nights.

       One of the most difficult aspects of the whole process was choreographing various dances and trying to agree on every detail of the performance. I found that having patience for one another and actively communicating our thoughts benefited us the most while working together. However, it took us a little while before we got to the point where we felt that we completely trusted one another. There were moments of confusion and there was even a time that we had to have a serious meeting, addressing our lack of communication. These moments of fault and error, however, were the ones that I believe made our team stronger in the long run. We faced our issues head on and handled them with grace and understanding, which definitely had a lasting impression on me. 

      Looking back, I know that there are things I could’ve done differently and things I still need to improve on while working with others. Nevertheless, I will definitely use this experience in future times when I work with others, either on a project or in a leadership position. One of the most valuable things I learned during this experience is to treat others with the same respect that you would want to have from them. This approach is crucial to ensuring that others see how much you value their perspective and opinion. When making decisions with other people in the future, I will choose to see both my view and their view prior to coming to my conclusion. Doing this will do one of two things: it will either further clarify my own opinion or it will change my opinion. Neither of the options is a bad thing, which is why I think that working with others is one of the greatest opportunities we have to grow.