Robotics Procedures for Team

Preseason 4255 should:

Train programmers for longevity (Bruce, and Jaden)

Time needed to test code on functional robot

Work out programming glitches and use version control

Can sign up online for this; also, “ bug” reports

Make a sheet of duties for team and class.

Do community outreach and film it.

Do presentations and demonstrations for the community.

Everyone has a job description and responsibilities clearly outlined to ensure jobs get completed effectively.

Plan the theme for the team

Presentation materials Examples of codes Scripts include comments for clarity for judges 

Overall idea before prototyping

Overall design before building changes to follow

Fast mechanical build (four weeks)

Two weeks minimum for drive and test, three ideally

Safety Captain is needed before kick off

Assign People to jobs and back up jobs.

Kick them off if they don’t do their job well

Prototype first week of kick off

Jobs

Safety Captain

Lead Welder

People certified to work Machinery

Wiring, Mechanics, Chassis, motors, different parts, etc….

Inventory Management (They will ask Coyne for Parts)

Team Leader-manage each team member in their role

Fund Raising- whole team

Media specialist ( film the pre-event planning, practice and event)

Team members- from robotics class or team member at large from campus or the community.

Mentors- always needed and always very much appreciated!

Time management- track progress on each process and attendance and team member performance

Get all cell #s make everyone set up their phone to receive messages TEXT

Calendar for signups for team member hour and day commitment

Attendance calendar

Software specialist

Team members must work at their highest level

Food should be eaten at a specific time (continuous unless monitored closely)

All team members must clean each day of work for at least 15 minutes.

Clean up as you go so there is less work for others

Darius will direct filming and do post production for team video.

Mascot- We have a Toreador and a Bull (Got Bull?)

Community Outreach The whole team is responsible to set up community outreach projects such as trips to middle school to demonstrate the robot and talk about class and FIRST.

Five Factors of Team Success

When you view your small business as a team environment, it’s important to establish a winning attitude. Critical factors for team success can include team leadership, shared vision, attitudes and commitment, mutual trust and team collaboration.

If applied and monitored consistently and judiciously, the critical factors of success will allow any team to achieve a high level of capability. Each has an impact on the major processes of: innovation, problem-solving, decision-making and implementation.

These processes are the way the team applies its capabilities to get the desired results.

Leadership

Every team needs a leader who is able to focus its members on a project’s mission, purpose and goals. This individual must be committed to the team’s results and must be willing to be held accountable by the team’s sponsor and other stakeholders for leading the team through processes that ensure its goals are attained.

The job of the team leader is to get team members to successfully evolve through each successive phase of a project life cycle. This implies that a keen awareness of the state of the team must be monitored and maintained. In addition, the milestones and long-term goals must be consistently reviewed with the team as a whole.

A good leader makes sure that progress becomes the “property” of the group.

Effective team leadership is one of the most important factors for team success and positive results. This is because it tends to have the strongest impact on all aspects of team performance. Team leaders are responsible for engaging each team member in the processes of the team and building a platform of mutual trust that leads to open debate, collaboration, individual commitment and personal accountability.

Team leaders set the tone of the team and create the environment within which team members interact and do their work. In addition, they also support and influence key success factors that shape the team’s internal environment and structure. This in turn determines the team’s capability or capacity.

Some key success factors may be beyond the control of the team or the team leader, such as higher authority may select the team leader. Or, senior management may determine team size, arrangement, and perhaps technology and resource support. However, most of the success factors fall under the team’s control and can be developed by it.

Shared Vision

A shared vision is held together by a sense of passionate interest and value. At the same time it needs to focus on practical aspects such as:

·         Everyday problems

·         New tools

·         Ideas

·         Developments in the field

·         Things that work and other things that don’t

The first step in establishing a shared vision is to identify a related goal that makes a strong impact for and on change. This goal must be more complex than a simple definition and contain:

·         A challenge

·         An appeal to personal pride

·         A sense of needed camaraderie

·         A call to action that provides an opportunity for the team to make a real difference and know it

Only if this can be done effectively will the goal become a powerful vision.

Attitudes and Commitment

Attitudes and commitment are what make a significant difference in the eventual success of an assigned team project. It is the collective membership of a team that literally decides to succeed.

This takes a positive attitude and a strong sense of commitment on the part of all team participants. However, once this mindset is attained it becomes a self-directed impetus for forward movement and goal attainment.

A genuine desire on the part of the team to be successful comes through the evolution of a shared attitude and commitment among the team members that the project will succeed no matter what. This attitude is both powerful and sustaining.

An example of this belief comes from Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, who stresses: “If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Teams that think they can are able to sustain their levels of commitment and positive attitudes by actually visualizing the project at its successful state of completion. In essence, team members are able to create the frame of mind necessary to get them through the inevitable obstacles that can be expected to emerge during every complex development stage and effort.

Conversely, teams that lack positive attitudes and commitment effort will be stopped dead by seemingly impenetrable obstacles. It all comes down to the difference between doing difficult, creative thinking when it is necessary, or to simply accept defeat because the solution tends to require too much effort.

Mutual Trust

Mutual trust is considered to be the most important element of successful teamwork. As part of a team’s self-direction, it is trust that enables the team to engage in open debate and decision making that leads to “a commitment of action” on the part of individual members of the team.

At times it is easier to instill and establish trust than it is to sustain it. Building high levels of trust requires an openness that allows team members to know and understand the beliefs and behaviors of all members of the team, so that team actions can be structured to take advantage of each member’s uniqueness and talents.

As part of the process it is important for team participants to develop an understanding of how individual members of the team view themselves and how each responds to others within the team.

Teams thrive on trust. One of the main dynamics of a self-directed team is that part of its structure, practice and principles require that members ask for and offer help to one another to initiate and maintain mutual caring and sharing. Having open, frank and supportive discussions generates a strong bond and a sense of connection and trust among members.

Sometimes elements of trust become formalized within team guidelines and standards, which helps to sustain it. But often these elements simply remain “what everyone knows” about good and positive team practice. In the course of helping each other and sharing ideas, and collectively solving problems, “everybody” tends to become a trusted group of equal peers.

Team Collaboration

An effective team consists of team members who are actively involved and engaged in the work and focus of the team. This requires all team members emotionally commit to actively and openly participating in the team’s processes and in the pursuit of the team’s goals.

Each separate team member must willingly commit to carry out action plans that are necessary for the team to reach its defined goals. Each must also be dependable and willing to carry the full weight of personal responsibility to complete his or her individual commitments according to deadline.

An actively engaged team member tends to enthusiastically support others, which adds greater value to the team itself. When enthusiasm becomes combined into a high level of synergy, it is much easier to prepare and implement team processes.

Because of the team’s ability to engage everyone in a positive manner, it also becomes part of the team’s self-directed focus to find solutions to issues and challenges, both from an individual and team standpoint. All members will constantly seek to improve themselves for the benefit of the team and will refuse to quit or give up until the goal is attained.

The power of teamwork dynamics is engaged when team members come together to focus collectively on goals, issues, challenges and problems. Team leaders must carefully manage the processes of team meetings in order to maximize the power of the collective knowledge and skills of the team members.

As part of the collaboration process, more effective teams tend to follow a meeting methodology that both focuses on dealing with issues requiring the team’s attention and maximizes the power of collective knowledge and the skills of the team members.

VIP! Collaboration works to help establish personal accountability. Team goals will usually not be realized until individual commitments are completed and team members embrace a discipline to complete their commitments as scheduled.

Through personal collaboration, team members must agree to hold each other personally accountable for completing the commitments each person has made to the team.

Barriers to team and individual progress will occur in every team effort. However, collaboration works to effectively remove barriers and hurdles to ensure progress toward team goals and keep the team running smoothly and proactively.

A highly collaborative team will make certain that each team member continuously reports the status of their open commitments to the team, so that barriers to completion can be identified early on. This allows the team leader and other team members the opportunity to deal with certain issues before overall milestones, timelines and deadlines are impacted.