Professionalism

For most of the term, you will be working on a group project. The success of the group depends on the participation of the members. Poor team members cause dysfunction and strife. Here are some characteristics of poor team members:

  • Inconsideration
    • missing deadlines; missing or being late to meetings; being unprepared for meetings; not doing what you were supposed to do; not contributing your fair share of the team's workload; being unavailable or unresponsive to communication; etc.
  • Rudeness
    • being disrespectful to advisors/teammates; brashly reject the ideas or opinions of others; lack of appreciation for other team members' contributions; etc.
  • Apathy
    • not taking an active role in team discussions; show little or no interest in the team's activities; rely on others to make decisions and carry out the work; failing to listen, consistently asking teammates to repeat information; lack of focus and disengagement; etc.
  • Domination
    • dominate team activities and seeking control over every aspect; do as many of the tasks as you can without seeking input or support from other teammates; being possessive of your work and refuse to listen to teammates about ways to improve it; take credit for every success of the team without sharing credit with team members; etc.
  • Irresponsibility
    • failure to own a mistake or accept responsibility for a missed deadline; blaming others for a mistake occurred due to a decision or activity on the team's part; unwillingness to receive feedback or respond to instruction from advisor/instructor; etc.

Failing to deal with poor members can lead to low morale and, ultimately, team failure. In the work environment, this incompetency will not be tolerated. When a worker displays a poor work ethic or isn't doing his/her job correctly, an employer will typically call it to their attention through a verbal warning. If that didn't work, the next steps are a written warning (Letter of Reprimand), suspension, and finally, termination.

In this course, we use the notion of Yellow cards 🟨 in place of a verbal/written warnings.

  • The first yellow card triggers immediate (short) reflective exercise and the development of a personal action plan.

  • The second yellow card requires an individual meeting with the instructor. Also, as a penalty, you will be dropped a letter grade. (So, if your total score grants $A-$ for instance, you will get $B-$).

  • The third yellow card will result in failing the course irrespective of your individual score.

The entire team may receive a yellow card if thy exhibit unsatisfactory professionalism such as those listed above. (The most common of those for teams are being unavailable or unresponsive to communication when the advisor/instructor reaches out to them; missing or being late to meetings, or leaving the meetings early.)