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The Importance Of Informal Roles And Communication During Collaboration Essay

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Participating in teamwork in preparation for a presentation emphasizes the need for informal roles and communication during collaboration. Ewashen (2015) argues that groups with few members do not use explicit “formal groups roles” of leaders and followers, but instead have fluid “informal group roles” based on the overall goal (p. 247). Therefore, my role was informal and switched between necessary “task functions” and “maintain functions” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). My task function was to research additional theories to support for our analysis as an “information seeker” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). In addition, I acted as a “compromiser” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247) when there was disagreement about the necessary depth of our systems level analysis. Consequently, collaborative practice can be challenging due to diverse perspectives present, but these differences are invaluable during teamwork (Doane and Varcoe, 2014, p. 401). My informal role was successful as my flexibility supported the other diverse group functions which ultimately meet the goal of developing an evidence-based presentation. However, I could have had more of a maintenance function as a “standard setter” (Ewashen, 2015, p. 247). Our group frequently met late and got off track in our discussions due to individual differences in expectations. I could have been better at enforcing punctuality and keeping everyone on topic by explicitly modeling these behaviors. Overall, collaborating and learning with

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