If you fail to plan...

The episode yesterday regarding my decision to quit a group project because of complete and utter disconnect, disrespect and discouragement between one of my teammates and me (plus the fact that no one else had done any work on the project), prompted me to think about how I think about teamwork and executing group projects. It's called metacognition; i.e. thinking deeply about thinking.  I just learned that in grad school. (Sidebar: My 9 year old came home last week and told me I wouldn't be able to read his "metacognition" because he was going to read it to me at the parent-teacher conference. Huh?? )

So thinking about it, the caption above pretty much captures what I know to be true: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." I assumed a grad student would know that. Idiot me for assuming that in the first place.

Something else I know:  if you plan on being random, i.e. "I'll get it done whenever," your execution will pretty much tank. In the toilet. Suckeroo. But I guess they don't teach that to some undergrads.

Got me thinking about an old, old argument against minority quotas and college entrances on the base of color, creed or sports ability rather than merit.  It's really a form of discrimination that race and ethnicity specific tracks for admission even exist in this country, but they still do. They work in favor of those with lesser abilities and as a suppressive measure to those with merit. It's unfortunate that this incident got me thinking that they only way this young woman has made it this far is due to a favorable quota situation. Her attitude, work skills, ability to collaborate are anything but the high standard of her cohorts, as exhibited by her class participation throughout the semester and in particular, as a project team member.

And one last thing I know: never drag your colleagues or teammates down. Being part of a team is about helping those around you rise, together. It's about support, active listening, collegiality, comaraderie.

So I've learned my lesson: count me out of any team that fails to plan and plans to fail.