Teamwork: a hated concept in business school

Students are often right to dislike teamwork. Typically, a group of 4 or more on a team will include a braggart and a laggard. Combine these two with a quiet follower and a passive aggressive scribbler and you've the recipe for disaster. Many factors enter into the development of a successful team. Seldom can one take a randomly created classroom of 25 or more students and find/create 4-5 successful teams. One, maybe. Moreover, few students, given their experiences with classroom teaming, want to devote the time necessary to even try to grow a successful team and risk failing--either the project or the course. Teaming exercises, however, even within the context of "teaming" for the purpose of completing projects, can lead to learning and to success. My own preference is to encourage partnering and teams of three. Read Bloomberg's Cory Wineberg's explanation for why American students are less interested in teaming than individuals from other nations.

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