Our group is investigating the design and implementation of a motorized wheelchair. Since the inception of our group, we have held a meeting to brainstorm on the design problem at hand. In the meeting, we managed to split the workload amongst ourselves. The team has also discussed the probable research areas and has highlighted the suitable sources for the project. During our deliberations as pertains the project we have encountered a few obstacles. Of critical concern are the value of responsiveness from some members and the lack of direction in the group. This memo proposes two key solutions to these problems: the selection of a group leader and the undertaking of anonymous surveys on the group’s progress after meetings and at the end of every week.
The cause of concern is the action of a group member who has not contributed their opinion as concerns the allocated portion of work. In addition to their unresponsiveness, they have provided sources that are a duplicate to those of other members. In lieu of our intention to avoid overlapping sources, we feel that intervention is necessary. The actions have signified a communication problem in the group.
In light of this, I would like to propose two courses of action. Foremost, I would recommend the selection of a project leader who will instill a sense of direction to the group. The leader should be popular with all the members of the group, and have a record of accomplishment of exemplary performance. The leader should constantly remind the group of the objective of the project, follow-up on progress of each member, and analyze the health of group participation.
The second approach is to have anonymous survey at the end of every week to identify potential pitfalls of the group’s activities. Members, at the every meeting, should couple these surveys with an anonymous reaffirmation of the group’s decision. In order to avoid the occurrence of group thinking, we request that you take the role of an independent evaluator of each member’s activities.
I have presented this approach since I feel that there lacks a sense of leadership in the group. Additionally, some group members seem to have either outlier or hidden-agenda attitudes. The existence of a sound leadership will ensure that the members meet their set quotas and that the group sticks to a stipulated plan.
