Dear Colleagues What can we do in team projects in our classes that will help students learn to manage teams in the outside world? For example, many students who participate in team projects complain about a fellow team member who doesn't contribute his/her share of the work of the team. Most responses I've seen to this solve the problem for the team in the class. There are suggestions of having students rate each other's contribution at the end of class, for example. But in a way, this teaches students to rely on whoever is designing the team. Solutions like that don't address the real problem of teaching students how to manage team problems in the workplaces. In their workplaces, students won't necessarily have someone design a system for all the teams they work on where team members rate each other's contributions. What skills can we teach students in our classroom team projects that they will also be able to use in their workplace teams? I assume there is something else beyond teaching them assertive communication, I-messages, and conflict resolution. Am I wrong? -- - Don ------- Don McCormick, Ph.D, Associate Professor University of Redlands School of Business 1200 E. Colton Avenue, Redlands, CA 92373-0999 (909) 748-6249 [log in to unmask] http://newton.uor.edu/FacultyFolder/DMcCormick Come to the 2004 OBTC (Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference) at the University of Redlands! For more information, go to www.obts.org