5. Team dynamics and final projet#

5.1. Problem and solution trees#

We were asked to choose an existing project from previous years and make a problem/solution tree. At that time (lesson of October 1st) I didn’t understand well and chose I random topic that matters to me and did a Problem/Solution tree. It wasn’t really the duty asked from Denis but I think I understood the principles and able to reproduce it for the further works. Let’s see my trees:

Later on I chose a new issue and did a problem/solution tree of it on paper during class. I chose “Supermarkets making a profit on the backs of farmers “. Linked to this issue, we had to bring “an object that connects people” in conjunction with it for the class of October 21st. I chose to bring a bottle of milk which means the link between farmers and the customers.

5.2 Group formation and discussions on the issues (21/10)#

On this date we each brought our object related to the issue we care about and thanks to that we created some groups with people who have subjects that deal with the same issues. I ended up with Kate, Paula and Simon. A very interesting group because we come from different backgrounds and this creates a multi-disciplinary environment. We’re going to use this as a basis for building on each other’s strengths and bringing our group project to fruition.

It’s not yet clear where we’re going, but we’ve brought together a number of questions about agriculture and technology in general. We then ranked these questions from 1 to 5, depending on whether we absolutely did not want to work on this issue (1) or whether, on the contrary, we had an affection for it (5). This will enable us to sooner or later find our group problem.

Eventually we bumbed into the urban argiculture in Brussels. Everybody in the grou^p seemed happy with it!

5.3 Group Dynamics (4/11)#

On that date, a specialist (that works most of the time with the management engineers) came to visit us to show us some methods of running a group and some roles that would be interesting to distribute. The roles are such as the meeting leader, a time keeper,…It anables us to work on a efficient way and to move forward. You can find the Group Dynamics here for more explanations. We selected several tools that we found interesting to use for the further work:

• secretary: Thanks to the secretary, everything we do will be written and we won’t forget it for the documentation.It’s an essential role!
• Round table: We felt it was important to mention that everyone has the right to express themselves and give their opinion.
• …

5.4 Group charter#

We made aswell a group charter which we will follow throughout the process and which is supposed to guide us. You can find it on Paula’s Fabzero experiment because she scanned it and it is very clear!