For our first Design Studies assignment of 2011 we were asked to complete a survey to ascertain how we individually operate which will in turn aid us in better understanding how we work as a team. After answering a series of questions on subjects such as decision making and team work you were given moderate, low or very low for three categories. These were:
Activists, They involve themselves fully and without bias in new experiences.
Reflectors, They are ponderous about experiences and observe them from many different perspectives.
Theorists, They create complex, but logically sound theories from their adaptations and interpretations of observations.
Pragmatists, They want to see if ideas, theories and techniques work in practice.
My results: Activist - Moderate
Reflector - Moderate
Theorist - Low
Pragmatist - Very Low
Generally I'd say these results are accurate. I believe I am very much a reflector as I tend to work very methodically and tend to like to listen for quite a while during meetings before contributing. I don't think I am quite as much of an activist as indicated as I don't tend to like the "act first and consider the consequences afterwards" attitude. I feel that I might be more of a theorist than my result shows as I as I do like to think logically and work in a step-by-step way.
We guessed what the rest of our groups results would be and surprisingly we were all pretty much spot on. Our group turned out to have a good mixture of outcomes suggesting a good dynamic. Our strongest style was activist. The two aspects we lacked in slightly theorists and reflectors. Claire and myself turned out to have a little bit of the theorist in us and myself and Andrew had a bit of the reflector but we decided as a group that we needed to ensure that we tried a bit harder with these areas to make sure our team is at its most productive. We felt as a group that we needed to record more of what we do and actually review what we record to ensure that we fully understand it.
