La Vida Robot Joshua Davis

Teams are very important aspects of business. If a team can perform well then the business will thrive and perform more efficiently. It is therefore important to know how to build cohesive teams that perform well.

In “La Vida Robot” and Steve Jobs a team is meant to have a balance of work. Different teams have different ways of working. Both authors think that a team should always keep a balance on how much someone does.

The features of effective team performance is set up through positive leadership, this is something which is developed and nurtured. An effective team will work together, be focused and all the time supporting each other along the way to achieve and reach goals. For a team to be effective, each team member needs to be clear on their roles and responsibilities relating to their job. Team performance will be more effective if there is respect for the leader/manager and an understanding towards their job role and responsibility. The leader/manager should also be aware of the skills or weakness within the team and be able to provide support were necessary and also utilise their

According to the video, the characteristics of an effective team are, “size of the team, diversity of its members, and roles. Teams of seven or less are generally more effective. Smaller teams: reach agreement, share opinions, and ask more questions. Larger teams: disagreements, less participation, and more demands on the team leader. Successful teams require a diversity of knowledge, skills, perspectives, and experience.” (Chapter 18 Teamwork at Cold Stone Creamery)

Kreitner and Kinicki (2013, pp. 307, 323) also wrote that effective teamwork depends on clear purpose, informality, members’ participation, listening, civilized disagreement, consensus decisions, open communication, clear roles and responsibilities, shared leadership, effective external relations, style diversity, and self-assessment, while high-performance teams are created through participative and shared leadership, alignment on purpose, effective communication, future-orientation, task-focus, creative talents, and rapid response. In addition, some industry articles suggested the following criteria for effective teams: diversity, clear goal, effective communication, trust, ownership, job competencies, leadership competencies, morale, and operations metrics (“Characteristics,” n.d.; “Evaluation criteria,” n.d.).

“Many of us are more capable than some of us but none of us is as capable as all of us” said Tom Wilson, a musician. It means one individual may be better than another but together they are better than just one. Within these two articles, “La Vida Robot” and “Steve Jobs”, teamwork is the key. Students from Carl Hayden High School worked together and they all had different roles during this project. Jobs and Woz used each other’s strengths and weaknesses to make something from being so simple to being so grand that it’s still popular to this day. In the two groups, each team member was a separate puzzle piece for a complete puzzle because when on e member of a team isn’t familiar with a topic, a different member can fill in.

The features of effective team performance is set up through positive leadership, this is something which is developed and nurtured. An effective team will work together, be focused and all the time supporting each other along the way to achieve and reach goals. For a team to be effective, each team member needs to be clear on their roles and responsibilities relating to their job. Team performance will be more effective if there is respect for the leader/manager and each other. They must have a good understanding towards their job role and responsibility.

Teamwork is important because in “La Vida Robot” by Joshua Davis teamwork was required because in order to make the robot they were going to need some help. In the same way Isaacson showed teamwork Steve and Wozniak had each other help instead of having a team.Davis and Isaacson share the same perspective as both believe that people must work together in order to build a strong team.

Searle presents an incredible argument to be sure, especially with the Chinese Room thought-experiment. In the end, I would have to concede to it, if I was trapped in a room with only the barrels of symbols and the rulebooks, I would not know the meaning of the Chinese symbols from simply arranging responses from these symbols. However; that does not mean that the argument is perfect. The premise that semantics cannot be derived from syntax alone can be challenged with an extension to the Chinese Room experiment. Let us assume that we put a digital computer into a robot, which has visual cameras, touch, taste, and smell sensors, and microphones to gain external data from the outside world, which would go into the computer as additional syntactical data. Let us also assume that the robot looks and acts like the average human, and also that each and every action that the robot takes is taken in the same way as the Chinese Room experiment, as syntactical data turning into new syntactical data due to the implementation of programs. Therefore, in the same respect as the

Kreitner and Kinicki (2013, pp. 307, 323) also wrote that effective teamwork depends on clear purpose, informality, members’ participation, listening, civilized disagreement, consensus decisions, open communication, clear roles and responsibilities, shared leadership, effective external relations, style diversity, and self-assessment, while high-performance teams are created through participative and shared leadership, alignment on purpose, effective communication, future-orientation, task-focus, creative talents, and rapid response. In addition, some industry articles suggested the following criteria for effective teams: diversity, clear goal, effective communication, trust, ownership, job competencies, leadership competencies, morale, and operations metrics (“Characteristics,” n.d.; “Evaluation criteria,” n.d.).

Of course, skill, direction, and other conditions mentioned are essential for an effective team. However, the social aspect can make or break a team. A skillful member that is unable to earn the minimum respect of the team is not going to have the chance to exercise her skills. An executive that does not care for another executive in a committee, will be compelled to flex his muscles and bring his best to the table just for spites of

An effective team makes use of the skills and potentials of each member and synergise it to develop

What is good teamwork, and what tributes are needed to work together and cooperate to excel in what they are doing? The two texts, La Vida Robot and Steve Jobs both show teamwork but in different ways, and they show the different things that can be accomplished with teamwork. The authors both represent teamwork in different ways, although they both show teamwork, they contrast the different effects of the way they cooperated.

Martinez stated that in her past and current position, her goal has been to always lead by example. Martinez adamantly stated she would never ask an employee to do anything she herself was not willing to do. She stated she did not follow a particular leadership style, but has read several leadership and management books, articles and studies to become more effective. Martinez stated the book she references the most is Carl E. Larson and Frank M.J. LaFasto’s Teamwork: What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong. Through their research they explored the eight properties of successful teams: a clear, elevating goal; a results-driven structure; competent team members; unified commitment; collaborative climate; standards of excellence; external support and recognition; and principled leadership. (Larson & LaFasto, 1989, p.8) Their insights into what makes a team successful have been used by countless leaders as a model for efficient and effective leadership.

In “Alone Together: The Robotic Movement,” Sherry Turkle explains some of the negative effects that robots are having on our lives. She also explains how they can have a negative effect on our daily lives without us even noticing. I am someone who knows a great deal about technology, however I had no idea that close human-robot interaction was happening at such an inappropriate level. There are many different examples Turkle uses in the article, however, I will only talk about two. I agree with Turkle not only that there are ethical problems with human-robot interaction but also that a lot of other forms of technology might be doing more harm than good.