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Role-play and reflection

  • 3 min reading
  • 7 min activity

This is the final practice of the module. First, you take part in a team simulation: a small project group with very different people. Then you look at what happened in the team. Finally, you do a self-diagnosis of your own teamwork and plan your next step.

In this lesson
  • Use your teamwork skills in a group simulation.
  • Analyse team dynamics: who speaks, who decides, who does the work.
  • Diagnose your own strengths and one area to develop.

Step 1: The simulation

Example

You are a student at a vocational college in Rotterdam. Your group of four must plan a welcome day for 30 new students, in two weeks. Lars talks a lot and likes to decide quickly. Mina, from Syria, is quiet, speaks Dutch slowly and is very good at design. Tarek is friendly, but he works extra shifts and often forgets tasks. And then there is you.

Simulation

Planning the welcome day

Required 50 XP

First group meeting, Monday after class. Choose what you say. Watch how the team changes with your choices.

Step 2: Look at the dynamics

Think back to the simulation, whatever ending you reached:

  • Participation: who spoke most at the start, and who did not speak at all? What changed when everyone was invited?
  • Roles: who decided, who did the work, who checked? Were tasks written with names and dates?
  • Conflict: when Tarek forgot his task, was the conflict about the task, the process or the person?
  • Fairness: did anyone end up carrying everything?

Step 3: Your self-diagnosis

Answer honestly, thinking about your real teams at work, in class or at home. There are no right or wrong answers, and nobody grades you. The statements are based on the skills in this module: checking messages, asking questions, backing each other up, including others and sharing tasks fairly.

Simulation

My teamwork self-diagnosis

Required 30 XP

Think about your real teams at work, in class or at home. How often is each sentence true for you?

Step 4: Your plan

Reflection

Debrief and next step

Required 20 XP

Your answers are saved in your account. Other learners cannot see them.

Try it with someone

Play the simulation with three friends or classmates. Each person takes one role card: Lars, Mina, Tarek and the team member who tries to bring everyone in. A fifth person can observe and use the self-diagnosis statements as a checklist. Afterwards, the observer shares one thing that worked and one thing to try differently, then you switch roles.

In short

  • In a real team, skills work together: inviting, sharing tasks, writing them down, handling problems without blame.
  • Looking at team dynamics helps you see what you did and what the team needed.
  • A self-diagnosis shows your strengths and one area to develop.
  • One concrete action for the next two weeks is better than ten good intentions.

Sources

  1. Salas, E., Sims, D. E., & Burke, C. S. (2005). Is there a "big five" in teamwork? Small Group Research, 36(5), 555-599.
  2. Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.
  3. Sala, A., Punie, Y., Garkov, V., & Cabrera, M. (2020). LifeComp: The European framework for personal, social and learning to learn key competence. Publications Office of the European Union.