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11 Benefits of teamwork in the workplace (with examples)

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Teamwork is one of the most important tools when it comes to organizational efficiency. Though we can all agree that teamwork is important, not everyone realizes just how impactful it is in the workplace. Teamwork in the workplace is when a group of individuals work together toward a collective goal in an efficient manner. When multiple people work together toward a common goal, your business can flourish. 

We’ve rounded up 11 top benefits of teamwork in the workplace, with examples throughout to help you better understand just how important teamwork is. Ready to work on teamwork? Let’s dive in.

What is teamwork?

Teamwork is the process of working collaboratively with a group of people to achieve a specific goal. It involves the combined efforts of individual members who bring their unique knowledge and skills to the table. Effective teamwork in the workplace relies on key components such as active listening and open communication, and ensures each person's input contributes towards reaching the team's goals.

Why is teamwork important?

Teamwork in the workplace is important because it supports an organization's operational efficiency. Strong team dynamics enable individual members to divide complex projects into manageable tasks, which enhance productivity and enable an organization to function more effectively. Moreover, successful teamwork creates a supportive network that can significantly enhance job satisfaction and employee morale.

Benefits of teamwork in the workplace

1. teamwork cultivates effective communication.

Effective teamwork in the workplace starts with solid communication . In order to work together—whether when ideating or working on a new project—you need to communicate to create cohesion and clear goals.

Teamwork cultivates effective communication

Communication starts by building camaraderie and team synergy . A great way to do this is by organizing team building activities. This could be a quick icebreaker at the beginning of a meeting or a whole day spent solving fictional problems with teammates. 

A successful team that demonstrates clear communication is more efficient and productive. Not to mention it creates an enjoyable work environment. 

Communication example: Daniella and Kabir are working on a project task together. Kabir is confused when reviewing the project notes so he messages Daniella to ask for help. They hop on a quick call and work through the problem together. By working as a team, they effectively communicated and were able to complete the task the same day. 

Tip: Take communication one step further by keeping tasks and collaboration in a shared digital space. That way, everyone can stay on the same page, no matter where they are.

 2. Teamwork improves brainstorming

Brainstorming is a powerful method that helps teams think outside of the box. It involves individuals working together by communicating ideas for a number of initiatives. These could include projects, processes, products, and services. 

Good teamwork means your team communicates and feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. Without teamwork, your brainstorming sessions could suffer, and, in turn, so could your team’s quality and performance. 

Ultimately, the success of brainstorming sessions relies on solid teamwork in the workplace. By investing time to foster trust and open communication, every individual’s potential can be maximized, benefiting the whole team. You can do this by connecting in a one on one setting regularly and encouraging team members to share their insights. 

Brainstorming example: Kat needs to come up with three design ideas for a new landing page. Instead of ideating by herself, she asks the team to join in on a brainstorming session. Since there are many team members sharing ideas, Kat receives more than enough ideas to get started. 

Tip: Check out 29 brainstorming techniques to help spark creativity within your team. 

3. Teamwork encourages a common goal

Having a common goal in mind is essential when it comes to prioritizing projects and new initiatives. With multiple team members working on individual tasks, a project goal helps keep deliverables aligned and ensures objectives are met. 

There are a number of ways you can communicate a goal in a way that both encourages teamwork in the workplace and promotes collaboration. These include:

Business case : A business case is a document that details the value of a project or initiative. This ensures each team member has the same starting point before diving into a project.

Team meeting: Meetings are a great way to get your team in one place to communicate expectations and work together. Having an initial meeting—as well as a post mortem meeting once the project is over—can help determine deliverables and ensure objectives were met. 

Timeline software : Timeline tools can help your team visualize the work you need to complete and how you’ll hit your project goals. Clarifying task due dates and dependencies unlocks teamwork and allows team members to thrive. 

Goal-oriented example: Kat is leading a meeting on a new process that’s being put into place. Kabir asks what the purpose of the process is. Kat explains that they’ll be adding a new tool to their scheduling process to automate some of the team’s work, like tedious and time consuming tasks. Now, the team understands the underlying goal.

Tip: Align tasks to goals using goal-setting software that helps you achieve progress and keeps team members on the right track every step of the way.

4. Teamwork in the workplace improves problem solving skills

Problems can be difficult to solve on your own. That’s why working together as a team can offer quicker and often more effective solutions. 

Teamwork improves problem solving skills

Not only does this help create an efficient process for problem solving, but using teamwork creates shared goals.

Problem solving example: Project manager Kat finds out there is an issue with image implementation that’s postponing the project launch date. Instead of trying to solve it alone, she enlists her team in a brainstorming session to come up with solutions. Because she asked her team for help, she was able to co-create a solution in just an hour, as opposed to what could have taken days by herself. 

Tip: Practice problem solving as a group by using team building activites to motivate your team members to feel confident in their solutions. 

5. Teamwork helps build trust

Trust in the workplace is something that is built over time. It takes transparent communication, one-on-one sessions, and support to build that trust with team members. 

A team that trusts each other feels comfortable communicating ideas, collaborating in the workplace , and growing individual strength. Not just that, but they also feel a sense of belonging within the group. 

The absence of teamwork in the workplace can lead to a breakdown in trust. This can result in team members feeling isolated and turning competitive, focusing on individual achievements over team success, which can undermine both morale and performance. 

Trust example: Ray has a task that’s overdue. His manager, Kabir, offers to sit down with him and offer support. Afterward, Ray feels relieved and has the confidence to complete the task. Next time he has an issue, he knows he can reach out to Kabir for support. 

Tip: Building teamwork in the workplace goes beyond the daily tasks; it's about connecting with your team members on a personal level. Figuring out what makes them unique is a great way to build trust over time. 

6. Teamwork improves company culture

Most companies strive for a good organizational culture , but it’s not as easy as having chats at the water cooler or a monthly pizza party. Company culture involves making your team members feel heard and empowered to do their best work while offering them work-life balance and an overall enjoyable work environment. 

To build culture, encourage camaraderie and teamwork in the workplace. Spending time with one another can help build this bond and, in turn, improve working relationships and the culture around the (virtual) office. 

Culture example: Kabir’s team has a huddle every Monday where they share what they did over the weekend and any upcoming projects for the week. Since they get to talk about both personal and work-related topics, the team enjoys their Monday meeting. In fact, communication and overall culture have improved since the team began meeting on Mondays. 

Tip: Build shared values by giving team members the opportunity to share the values they think are important. 

7. Teamwork creates efficiency

From communicating effectively to improving company culture, teamwork drives many benefits, including creating team efficiency . An efficient team works together to quickly manage problems and daily tasks. As a result, efficient teams use resources more effectively and reach their deliverables faster. When it comes to organizational growth, few strategies are as impactful as cultivating streamlined efficiency through teamwork in the workplace. Such cohesion is instrumental in fostering innovative solutions while maintaining consistent quality.

Efficiency example: There’s a new project on the horizon for Ray and his team. Ray’s first instinct was to ask Kat, his senior specialist, to tackle it since she’s the best fit to handle the task. After analyzing the difficulty of the project, he decides to have his entire team tackle it together. To his surprise, they completed the project in just half the initial timeline.

Tip: To encourage efficiency across projects, align your team using one work management tool. That way, everyone can clearly see the goals you’re working towards, the timeline for that work, and who's responsible for what.

8. Teamwork increases employee engagement

A little known secret to fostering long-term happiness and engagement is to nurture teamwork in the workplace. When team members feel part of a supportive group, they're more likely to be content and involved, which naturally boosts their work satisfaction over time. 

To increase employee engagement, encourage teamwork inside and outside of work. Schedule time for your team to connect about more than just work. Your team will feel more open when working in a group, which leads to a higher retention rate. 

Engagement example: Kat’s team has been working hard on a top priority project. Unfortunately, issues arose and now they have to stay late to finish the project before the weekend. Kat knows that she needs to do something to keep the team’s spirits and energy up. She decides to start the evening with a team building activity. This immediately engages the team and gets everyone excited to put their heads together and finish the project off strong.

Tip: Make your virtual meetings more engaging by starting them off with a quick ice breaker question to lighten up the mood. 

9. Teamwork motivates high performing teams

Accountability is a powerful motivator, and teamwork in the workplace is a surefire way to instill this sense of responsibility. It spurs team members not just to meet expectations, but to exceed them and willingly contribute their best ideas to the group's endeavors. The higher performing each team member is, the higher performing your overall team will be, meaning you can create high quality work more efficiently. Not only is a high performing team good for your company, but it also helps job satisfaction, as doing well will motivate individuals to continue growing their skillset.

High performing example: It’s team review time and Kat gets a shoutout at all hands for implementing a new process to increase productivity. Kabir, a new team member, feels empowered to work hard and will receive a superb review next quarter. 

Tip: High performing teams are usually made up of individuals who seek motivation from within, otherwise known as intrinsic motivation . 

10. Teamwork in the workplace develops individual strengths

Teamwork isn’t just about team success—it also supports individual development as well. Team members who grow their individual knowledge can then share that with others during future projects. 

Teamwork develops individual strengths

The result: Individual team members grow their own strengths as well as the strengths of the team. These could include your ability to problem solve, effectively communicate , and combat procrastination—all of which are important skill sets to develop in the workplace. 

Individual strengths teamwork example: Kabir is new to the team and working on his first task. He’s a little stuck so he reaches out to a team member for help. Kat shares her tips on how she works on a similar task. She even shares a tool that Kabir didn’t know about. This helps him complete the task more efficiently.

Tip: If a team member can complete a task just as well as you could, delegate it without intervening. This allows your team members to grow their individual strengths and skills. 

11. Teamwork improves decision making skills

While problem solving and decision making sound similar, decision making skills are all encompassing. To be good at decision making, you need the confidence to make quick decisions based on the knowledge you’ve gathered in your role. 

Teamwork in the workplace is invaluable for improving decision-making abilities. It creates an environment where team members are encouraged to tackle questions and make decisions promptly, which is essential for real-time problem-solving.

Decision making teamwork example: Kabir is leading his first team meeting for a new project. As he’s explaining the upcoming timeline and deliverables, an executive asks who will be working on the project. Kabir is quick to answer confidently, as he’s already brainstormed with his team on who will tackle what. 

Tip: Encourage teamwork in the workplace by inviting team members to actively participate in important meetings, such as by presenting their solutions. This gets them used to explaining their thought process in front of other team members. 

How to improve teamwork in the workplace

Improving teamwork in the workplace is about fostering an environment that values the contributions of all team members and encourages collaborative efforts towards shared goals . It involves enhancing teamwork skills across the board. Here are seven steps you can take to foster great teamwork.

Clarify roles and responsibilities. Assign clear goals based on desired outcomes, allowing employees to understand their objectives. For instance, a designer might be tasked with improving user experience, as measured by customer feedback, rather than just completing a set number of designs.

Establish outcome-based expectations. Shift the focus from processes to results, which urges team members to think strategically about accomplishing their objectives. For example, this method could lead a sales team to prioritize closing deals that align with long-term business strategy over merely hitting short-term numbers.

Set standards of excellence. Define what high-quality work looks like for each position and establish performance benchmarks. A customer service rep, for example, would aim for swift resolution times and high satisfaction ratings, setting a clear target to strive towards.

Provide time for self-reflection. Allocate time for individuals to assess their strengths and passions. A software engineer might discover their knack for algorithm optimization, steering them towards new learning opportunities.

Align strengths with tasks. Give individual team members roles that capitalize on their strongest skills. When a marketing analyst with a talent for data visualization is tasked with creating campaign performance reports, their skill set directly enhances the value of the work produced.

Foster an atmosphere of trust and openness. Cultivate an environment that values teamwork in the workplace through sharing and open communication between colleagues. By establishing regular "open floor" meetings, team members can freely exchange innovative ideas and feedback, bolstering team performance.

Encourage continuous improvement. Establish a routine of constructive feedback, supporting personal and professional growth. This approach might involve quarterly performance discussions that not only review past achievements but also set actionable objectives for skills and career development.

Teamwork in the workplace FAQ

What are the benefits of working in teams .

Working in teams is beneficial because it allows for the division of difficult tasks, making complex projects more manageable and enabling solutions that leverage diverse skill sets. Teamwork in the workplace fosters a collaborative environment where each person contributes different perspectives, which can lead to more innovative solutions and shared success.

How do you demonstrate teamwork skills at work? 

Demonstrating teamwork skills at work involves actively listening to colleagues, contributing ideas, and showing reliability. Being part of a team means collaborating effectively, whether in person or virtually, and supporting others in achieving shared goals. Teamwork in the workplace is about being adaptable, communicative, and committed to the team’s success.

What makes a good team? 

A good team operates with a strong sense of unity and shared purpose. Its members possess complementary skills, and there's a balance of roles that ensures all necessary tasks are handled efficiently. Strong teamwork in the workplace embraces open communication, respects each other's contributions, and is focused on achieving collective goals.

Why is teamwork important in business? 

Teamwork is important in business because it brings together different viewpoints and improves problem-solving capabilities. It fosters efficiency and productivity, as tasks are completed faster with collaborative effort. The importance of teamwork in the workplace is also evident in driving innovation, as employees are encouraged to brainstorm and contribute ideas in a supportive setting. Plus, when teamwork is strong, it can lead to improved employee morale and job satisfaction.

Drive teamwork through communication

Teamwork is a valuable tool to use in the workplace that comes with a multitude of benefits. From building trust to encouraging problem solving skills, teamwork brings your team together and creates clear communication. 

If you want to encourage teamwork in the workplace, try work management software. Make working on common goals easier and keep communication streamlined.

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22 Important Teamwork Skills (With Examples)

  • Most Common Skills
  • What Are Soft Skills?
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  • What Are What Are Hybrid Skills?
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  • What Are Communication Skills?
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  • What Are Critical Thinking Skills?
  • Presentation Skills
  • What Is Accountability?
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  • Verbal Communication Skills

Find a Job You Really Want In

Teamwork skills are usually at the top of hiring managers’ lists of requirements for job candidates. Because of this, if you’re applying for a job, you need to know how to highlight your abilities in this area on your resume.

In this article, we’ll go over some of the most common teamwork skills and how to include them in your resume.

Key Takeaways:

Teamwork is essential to any successful endeavor, whether the goal is creating the next great innovation in environmental technology or running a profitable farm.

Having a variety of soft skills related to working effectively on a team can increase your odds of being hired, and exceeding expectations as an employee.

Some of the top teamwork skills are communication, active listening, and accountability.

teamwork assignment

What are teamwork skills?

Types and examples of teamwork skills, team roles: where do your teamwork skills shine, how to highlight teamwork skills on a resume, how to improve your teamwork skills, teamwork traits faq.

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Teamwork skills refer to your ability to work well with other people , in both a one-on-one capacity and in a group setting.

You’re probably familiar with team-building from when you played soccer in high school or participated in a club. The introduction of these skills early on is for good reason. They’re needed for practically every interaction, professional or personal, you’ll have in the future.

Employers seek to hire applicants with teamwork skills because they want to advance their community, as opposed to disrupting it. Listing examples of your teamwork skills in your resume can greatly improve your chances of getting a job .

Teamwork skills involve everything from communication to self-awareness. Being a team player isn’t just one distinct quality: It’s a collection of many soft skills that may come naturally to you or that you can improve on to make yourself a more competitive applicant and competent employee.

Teamwork skills examples include:

Communication. Good communication skills are arguably some of the most valuable skills team members can have. Businesses need effective communicators on their staff for projects to run smoothly and for clients’ needs to be met properly.

Communication is more than simply being confident in your conversational skills. It’s the summation of many good communication habits.

Effective team communication relies on:

Active listening skills

Being friendly

Email communication

Paying attention to body language

Understanding your audience

Accurately express your ideas

Asking questions when needed

Conflict management. Facing conflict happens at some point at every level in the workforce. How you deal with conflict speaks volumes about your skills as an employee in any field and can greatly improve your career growth.

A candidate with strong conflict management skills looks at disagreement on your team as an opportunity for further clarification and collaboration.

Constructive conflict management techniques include:

Always being open to discussion

Remaining unbiased

Addressing issues immediately

Actively listening before a response

Effective negotiation

Solution-based strategic thinking

Active listening. Many of the abilities needed to be a great team player are based on listening skills. The concept of listening isn’t nearly as exciting for most people as speaking and expressing their own views, but it’s vital to a functional team.

However, active listening involves more than just sitting back and collecting the general idea of your team’s input. It’s a process of connection where both the speaker and the listener can leave the interaction feeling satisfied with their understanding.

Active listening skills include:

Giving your undivided attention to the speaker

Paying attention to nonverbal cues

Making eye contact

Repeating points for clarification

Asking questions

Reliability. Your team needs to know wholeheartedly that they can rely on you. Being a reliable part of a team means accomplishing the job requirements and finishing assignments before their deadline.

If employers find your reliability skills questionable, they may doubt your ability to be an effective team member. This can result in landing fewer positions or not being trusted to handle leadership roles .

Being reliable usually involves:

Being on time

Staying organized

Taking notes

Meeting deadlines

Double-checking your work

Asking questions if you don’t understand something

Respectfulness. Being respectful to everyone at your job makes for a much more comfortable work environment. This is a quality you should carry to all your professional interactions, whether you’re a supervisor giving constructive criticism to an employee or collaborating with a co-worker .

Respectful employees are sought after by hiring managers because they create a better work atmosphere, and that makes for increased productivity.

Here are some examples of how you can demonstrate respectfulness:

Graciously accepting feedback

Asking rather than demanding

Explaining the “why” behind your decisions to your employees

Believing the best about people until proven otherwise

Staying professional even when you’re upset

Complimenting more than you criticize

Politely taking your concerns to your boss in private rather than arguing with them in a team meeting

Ability to build rapport. Rapport in your professional life can be summed up as working in productive harmony with your supervisor and coworkers. In addition to working professionally with your team, you can also have enthusiastic conversations with them.

Being able to openly exchange dialogue like this is important for a team to meet its full capacity. Having rapport with coworkers allows for dialogue and a healthy exchange of ideas. This can lead to better planning, innovation, and an overall more enjoyable workday.

Techniques for building rapport include:

Maintaining eye contact

Friendliness

Being honest

Asking coworkers questions about themselves

Finding commonalities

Displaying empathy and interest

Following up on past conversations

Accountability. Holding yourself accountable for your work is a desirable teamwork skill. It allows your coworkers to trust you. Nobody wants to deal with team members who shift blame for faults or can’t acknowledge their mistakes.

Accountability is important for employers building a team because if you hold yourself accountable, you won’t want to present anything other than your best work.

Here are some examples of accountability skills in the workplace:

Immediately owning, apologizing for, and addressing mistakes

Being honest about your abilities

Setting and reaching goals

Graciously receiving feedback

Creativity. It’s always possible for a company or project to succeed by sticking to the norm for how things are done. However, building a team of creative thinkers can greatly improve your chances of advancing. Hiring managers seek out creative applicants because their outside-the-box thinking can drive innovation in their organization.

Here are some creative skills to hone:

Networking with a wide variety of people

Listening/observing

Problem-solving

Decision-making. Decisiveness can make you a competitive job applicant when supervisors are considering who will make their team run more effectively. This doesn’t mean making decisions for the whole group without considering alternative input, but instead being able to contribute to decision-making on a team.

Decision-making skills include:

Gaining a complete understanding of the project or problem

Considering various plans to reach goals

Using critical thinking

Effective communication

Implementing solutions

Delegating. Functional teams often have leaders with powerful delegation skills. Delegating means clearly assigning tasks and deadlines to the team members best equipped to handle them.

Unless everyone knows exactly what they’re responsible for, there will be chaos. Being a successful delegator is very important for team dynamics because, without it, tasks can often be mismanaged.

Strong delegating skills involve:

Clearly explaining guidelines and expectations

Communicating well

Defining roles

People management

Setting reachable goals

Collaboration

Encouragement. People like to be recognized for their accomplishments .

Part of being a supportive team member is being able to encourage your coworkers for a job well done. Encouragement can also be an important skill to use for team motivation when things need to improve. Constructive criticism isn’t supposed to be mean or harsh: It’s meant to encourage your team towards improvement.

Encouragement skills include:

Complimenting

Communicating areas for improvement in a positive way

Giving recognition for accomplishments and growth

Supporting coworkers or employees in reaching their goals

Innovation. We exist in an ever-changing world. Part of being successful in it is continuously progressing. Being innovative can make you a more desirable employee because it means you’ll be bringing in new ideas and ways of doing things to the team.

Being innovative requires:

Keeping up with new industry technology and best practices

Using critical thinking skills

Creative problem-solving

Strong research skills

Optimizing systems and processes

Organization. At some point or another, every employee has let their organizational skills slip, and their work likely suffered as a result.

It can be a time-consuming headache to correct oversights made by poor organizational skills . Being organized is especially important when it comes to being a team player because everyone can be affected by your mistakes. A team that seamlessly organizes their work in coordination with each other will have much better results than one operating in chaos.

Being an organized team member involves:

Keeping track of deadlines

Planning ahead

Adhering to a set schedule

Time-management skills

Attention to detail

Setting and meeting goals

Persuasion. Persuasion isn’t a slimy, underhanded way of getting people to bend to your will. It’s actually a very reputable skill that plays a key role in good teamwork and management.

Persuasion is described as getting someone to change, do, or consider something different. Within your team, persuasion can be useful in providing motivation and communication.

Persuasion can look like:

Convincing team members to use a more efficient project management software

Motivating underperforming team members to work harder on a project

Encouraging a team to support a new company policy or project

Leading a team to meet their goals

Project management. Being successful in your projects is the goal for all organizations. Project management skills are important for leaders building a strong team.

They want to know that the work they assign will be handled well and promptly. In addition, project management skills mean that you can effectively organize and delegate tasks.

Project management skills involve:

Strong communication

Giving feedback

Maintaining a positive attitude

Organization

Being detail-oriented

Prioritization

Project planning. Having skills in project planning is all about being ahead of the curve. Unforeseen events can occur. Issues can and probably will arise.

However, thanks to your forethought, there aren’t any overly negative consequences that can’t be fixed. Planning skills can greatly improve the effectiveness of a team and the success of an individual project.

Here are a few planning skills to work on developing:

Time management

Risk management

Adaptability

Receiving feedback. One of the most valuable tools a team has for resolving problems is giving and receiving useful feedback . The ability to utilize relevant feedback from your coworkers and supervisors to improve your job performance is beneficial for an entire team’s function.

Even though getting positive feedback may feel great, hearing suggestions on how you could advance your work can be even more essential to your success. Being able to take negative feedback and turn it into improvement in work is an extremely valuable asset to have in any job.

Here are some skills this practice requires:

Self-awareness

Goal setting

Presentation. Presentation skills are something you’ll eventually need when working on a team. Presentations can bring up a bit of performance anxiety for a lot of people.

The truth is, presenting doesn’t have to be a performance and isn’t nearly as scary. A good presentation comes from a place of authenticity. Having presentation skills means being able to accurately and concisely articulate points and plans.

Utilizing presentation skills can help:

Motivate and connect a team

Outline detailed plans for success

Stimulate customer relations

Improve workplace confidence

Reach goals

Self-awareness. For a team to work in cohesion, each of its contributors must have skills in self-awareness. It’s difficult to be a helpful member of a team when you don’t understand yourself and how you come across to others.

It requires enough mindfulness to see yourself in a realistic light — both your strengths and weaknesses. When each member of a team applies self-awareness, it can have beneficial impacts on their productivity and coordination.

Here are some signs you have strong self-awareness:

Articulating your needs and feelings in a constructive way

Recognizing other people’s needs and feelings

Understanding how your actions and behaviors affect others

Asking for help

Learning from your mistakes

Actively developing your skills

Supportiveness. A professional team should care about each other as much as they do the project at hand. A supportive environment is easier to work in. That’s a setting leaders want to foster.

Being a supportive team player involves:

Listening to your team members

Giving relevant resources

Asking questions and being curious

Good rapport

Offering advice and help

Time management. We have a lot to balance in the time we’re given. Social lives, family priorities, and work can end up feeling like they need more than 24 hours in a day to be fully tended to.

Being good with time management can have ripple effects on the quality of work you produce. Being able to efficiently balance your time can improve your team skills by making you a more reliable coworker.

Time management skills include:

Setting realistic goals

Maintaining a strict schedule

Knowing and meeting deadlines

Prioritizing tasks

Immediately addressing issues

Trustworthiness. Trust within a team is essential for working well together. It’s an all-around important skill for employees to have no matter if they’re the boss or a recent hire.

A supervisor needs to trust their team to get a job done, and employees need to trust that their boss is looking out for their best interests. Without trust, many other skills associated with teamwork can’t be done effectively.

Trust within a team is needed for:

Communication

Supportiveness

Conflict management

Teams are naturally made up of individuals with different strengths and weaknesses. Part of honing and showcasing your teamwork skills is leaning into your natural role on a team and avoiding elements of teamwork that aren’t in your wheelhouse.

Modern companies often break down teams based on “Belbin Team Roles,” a framework devised by Dr. Meredith Belbin that helps organize teams more effectively.

Three categories (social, thinking, and action) are broken down into nine total team roles:

Coordinator. This is the big-picture person who keeps everyone else on the right track. They recognize strengths and weaknesses in others, create goals, and delegate tasks. Coordinators have to be careful not to over-delegate, leaving themselves without any further contributions to make to the team.

Resource investigator. This individual is outgoing and enthusiastic. They are constantly curious about learning new ways of doing things and always bring fresh ideas to the table. Their biggest weakness is that they have trouble following through on a plan once the initial excitement has worn off.

Team worker. Think of this as your auxiliary team member who’s always willing to step in to help when needed. They’re perceptive, cooperative, and great listeners.

Team workers’ only weakness is that they can be hesitant about making unpopular decisions because they’re too focused on avoiding conflict.

Monitor evaluator. This is your team’s logician; the person who’s constantly looking for the best strategy for a project. They’re impartial and fair judges.

Monitor evaluators’ most significant flaw is “paralysis by analysis” — they’re often slow to come to a decision because they spend a lot of time verifying that it’s the right one.

Plant. A plant is your team’s creative powerhouse. They’re great at brainstorming and coming up with innovative solutions to problems. Plants might struggle to communicate their wild ideas and can become forgetful about small, but important, details of a project.

Specialist. This team member is an absolute expert in one particular aspect of their field. They’re the go-to person when an issue relating to their specialty pops up.

A specialist’s biggest flaw is that they struggle to think outside their narrow view of things. They might also be the type to present massive amounts of information without providing adequate context to make it useful.

Complete finisher. This is the team member who makes sure that the final product is 100% perfect and error-free. They’re the quality control types who will never stop looking for ways to improve things.

Complete finishers can fall victim to perfectionism and struggle to trust others to complete tasks up to their standard.

Implementer. Implementers are practical people who do the heavy lifting in getting a team from Point A to Point B. They take ideas and turn them into highly efficient actions.

These team members don’t like it when a plan changes halfway through and can be a bit inflexible about changing what they saw as the best course of action.

Shaper. This is the “get things done” person on your team. They provide motivation and vision for the team and lead by example with tireless energy and momentum.

Shapers need to be careful that they don’t become too aggressive in putting a project’s success over the team’s well-being.

To highlight teamwork skills on a resume, pay attention to the teamwork-related requirements in the job description and incorporate the ones that describe you into the work experience and skills section of your resume.

When you’re reading a job description, pay attention to words that indicate teamwork in the workplace like:

Collaborate

Relationship-building

Team-player

Seeing as most large companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to screen resumes for keywords, it’s imperative that you mimic language from the job description to describe your accomplishments and skills.

Let’s take a look at an example:

Teamwork Skills on a Resume Work Experience SectionExample Work experience Collaborated with Sales and Product teams to develop marketing campaigns, resulting in increased annual sales of new products by 51% Developed and managed a cross-functional team to find cost-saving measures, saving over $50K in overhead costs each quarter Worked with an international team of 12 contractors virtually to design, write, and code landing pages that exceeded our 20% conversion goal

You can also include “Teamwork” or one of its related words in your skills section . However, it’s always more powerful to show examples of your teamwork throughout your resume. If you can include quantifiable results of your using those skills, that will have an even greater impact.

But, if you need to put some of them in your skills section, here’s an example of how you’d do that:

Teamwork Skills on a Resume Skills Section Example Skills Project management Strong communicator Organized Conflict management

Teamwork skills are made up of soft skills, which are less straightforward to improve than hard skills. However, it’s still possible to start honing your teamwork skills today.

Practice at work. Start volunteering to help your team out more and learn where your skills are most needed and valued. Look for opportunities to work with new people so that you can practice building interpersonal relationships with a diverse set of individuals.

Get feedback. One of the easiest ways to develop goals for your teamwork skills is to ask your team members for feedback. Ask a friend, coworker, mentor , or supervisor to evaluate your ability to work with a team. Try to get honest feedback on both your strengths and weaknesses, so you know where to direct your efforts.

Observe your team. There are probably people on your team who you admire for their ability to collaborate. Observe their behaviors and words to learn what exactly you find so admirable about them. Then, try to incorporate those same qualities into your life at work.

Set goals. After you’ve identified areas for improvement, set concrete goals for your teamwork skills. Check in early and often with your teammates and supervisor to get continuous feedback on the adjustments you begin to make. Others will recognize your enhanced collaborative abilities, which will provide motivation to keep becoming a better team member.

What are three important skills for teamwork and collaboration?

Three important skills for teamwork and collaboration are communication, conflict management, and active listening. In addition, reliability, respectfulness, and accountability are also important teamwork skills.

What are good teamwork questions?

Some good teamwork questions include:

Tell me about a time you worked successfully as a part of a team.

Give me some examples of your teamwork skills.

Tell me about a time you’ve dealt with a difficult team member.

Do you prefer working independently or as a part of a team?

What does teamwork mean to you?

How do I say I have good teamwork skills?

You say you have good teamwork skills by sharing examples of your skills in your resume and interview. This means using action verbs like, “collaborated,” “partnered,” and “networked.” It also means sharing examples of when you built relationships, led a team, or helped out a coworker.

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Sky Ariella is a professional freelance writer, originally from New York. She has been featured on websites and online magazines covering topics in career, travel, and lifestyle. She received her BA in psychology from Hunter College.

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15 Ways to Radically Improve Teamwork in the Workplace

Logan Derrick

While everyone knows teamwork in the workplace is important, the hard part can often be getting everyone to work together. Whether someone runs a Fortune 500 company or a local coffee shop, there are common pitfalls to watch out for. From role uncertainty to unclear team goals, these problems can quickly get in the way of successful collaboration.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

If you want to get people working together, you need to give them clear, understandable goals. Your team has to know what they need to do in order to actually do it. In addition, you need to clarify roles, so your team members know who is taking care of which task.

A good leader understands the different talents and skills represented by the team. This helps the leader determine who gets a certain task. Each task assignment should be based on the individual’s specific abilities and skill level.

Teamwork is also based around trust. As a group, everyone must complete tasks together, make decisions as a team, and rely on each other’s work. Because of the importance of trust in teams, many team building tasks focus extensively on this skill.

Lack of participation and disengagement are also fairly common problems. A team needs direction and a clear goal for everyone to stay motivated. If the team members can’t understand the larger picture, they find it difficult to get engaged or want to participate.

Teamwork makes the dream work, right? But seriously, if you want to improve your team's productivity and satisfaction at work, you need to improve teamwork in the workplace. Here's tips to try now! #teamwork #work #productivity #managertips

What Is Teamwork in the Workplace?

Teamwork is an essential part of any company’s success. It involves multiple people at the company working together to achieve a larger goal. The team leader communicates the team’s goal, and then everyone works together to accomplish it.

Learning how to implement teamwork is the hardest part. Part of the leader’s job is to make everyone feel included and accepted by the team. This may mean offering diversity training or creating inclusiveness policies.

At the very least, the team leader should work to engage team members who seem shy or uncomfortable taking part in the team. Everyone has great ideas, but some team members may be uncomfortable expressing them with the pressure of a group listening in. Learning how to recognize communication styles , deal with team conflict, and move on are simply additional aspects to getting along as a group.

Why Is Teamwork in the Workplace Important?

Many managers are unaware of how teamwork benefits the workplace, so they avoid using teams. In other cases, managers avoid teams because they are afraid groups will be ineffective or even lead to conflict. But the reality is that teamwork in the workplace is extremely useful if leaders learn how to help their teams do it properly.

Why is teamwork in the workplace important?

With a team, workplaces can improve employee retention and morale. It allows employees to learn from each other, gain feedback, and collaborate to build new ideas. Plus, peer pressure helps to increase accountability for everyone involved in the project.

So once you’ve determined why it’s important, the real question is how can teamwork be improved in the workplace? Managers can encourage new ideas, drive innovation, and find success by using any of the following 15 ideas.

1. Set Clear Roles

If you want to improve teamwork in the workplace, start by setting clear roles. Otherwise, multiple team members may end up doing the same tasks, or no one will do them at all. Plus, if people feel the roles are unclear, they may begin to think the workload is being unfairly delegated and become resentful.

For everyone to work together, they need to know their specific role. Ultimately, this will prevent hard feelings and possible confusion for everyone involved.

2. Encourage Teammates to Visit Socially

When everyone has a close relationship with each other, it is easier for them to get the job done. Rather than force relationships through team building, try to encourage team members to organically build these relationships outside of work. Managers can help the process along by budgeting for activities like social meetups or lunchtime potlucks.

3. Ask for Help

Sometimes, team members and team leaders forget a team exists to make the entire project easier. To become better at teamwork, everyone has to reach out for help when they need it. Whether the individual needs expertise or moral support, the rest of the team is always there to lend a hand.

fostering teamwork in the workplace

4. Communication Is Key

Nothing is worse than finishing a task only to realize someone else has already done it. When working as a team, it is important to communicate continuously about the workflow, upcoming tasks, and team roles. Otherwise, some of the tasks won’t be finished and others will be finished twice.

Luckily, tools like Toggl Plan make communicating among team members easier than ever before. The platform allows you to have a visual overview of what everyone is doing, so you can easily delegate and review tasks.

5. Ask Everyone for Feedback

Good ideas can come from anyone in a team. If you want your company to be successful, ask everyone for their ideas and always listen to their feedback.

Try holding brainstorming sessions among team members. For shy team members, a one-on-one meeting with the team leader might be a more comfortable environment for speaking up.

6. Make the Right Choice in Team Members

You could try to train everyone to be a good team member, but it will always be easier to start with a talented, team-oriented group of employees instead. If you are involved in hiring, work to choose people who will be able to take part in a team. At the very least, try to recruit team members who have the skills and personality type to do well in a team environment.

teamwork assignment

7. Create a Shared Vision

If you want everyone to do their best work, they have to know the bigger picture and where you want the company or department to go. Rally your team members around a common goal, mission, or vision. Set milestones along the way, so team members can easily tell if they are measuring up.

8. Develop a Review Process

Sometimes, team members fail because they don’t realize what they are doing wrong. Without constructive feedback, individuals don’t have an opportunity to improve. Try creating review meetings for everyone on the team.

These review meetings can help bring the team’s goals into focus. It allows team members to become better at their jobs and helps the team catch problems they may have missed otherwise.

9. Celebrate as a Team

Team members have to fix problems and work together to reach shared goals. They should also take time to celebrate achievements as well. From thanking each other for putting in extra work to celebrating milestones together, there are many ways team members can congratulate each other on their successes.

teamwork assignment

10. Share the Workload

High-achieving employees have a tendency to take on more and more tasks. Meanwhile, low performers may be more than happy to give up a task to someone else, which can lead to resentment. For a team to do its best, everyone needs to learn how to share the workload.

If you want to help your team members, delegate tasks fairly and accomplish major goals using a program like Toggl Plan. This software makes it easy to track what each person on the team is doing and to delegate upcoming tasks.

teamwork assignment

11. Stop Micromanaging

This tip goes hand in hand with the last one. While a team leader may need to delegate different tasks, they should never micromanage them . Employees are adults and should always be treated as such.

People tend to resent micromanagers, and micromanaging tends to discourage people from taking the initiative. If you want your team to succeed, give team members the deadlines, tools, and goals they need to get started. Afterward, step back and let the team handle everything else.  

12. Set Ground Rules

With so many different people trying to work together, there is always the potential for conflicts along the way. Set some ground rules before working together for the first time or any time someone new is added to the team. This will help everyone know how to act as a group and what to do if there is a problem later on.

13. Be Willing to Steer the Conversation

Brainstorming sessions are a great way for team members to contribute new ideas and find better solutions. Sometimes, these team meetings can end up going off on a tangent. When this happens, try to steer the conversation back to the main topic, so you don’t end up wasting precious time.

teamwork assignment

14. Improve Transparency

Sometimes, managers try to jealously guard information because they intuitively feel like knowledge is power. When it comes to a team, information is truly made to be shared. Without the right information and a clear, shared goal, the team will be unable to make any headway.

Toggl Plan’s project management software can help you boost transparency among your team members. You can constantly keep all your team members informed of who is assigned to which role and how much each person has accomplished.

15. Never Assume Problems Will Go Away

When a small problem develops, people have a tendency to ignore it and hope it goes away. But most small problems spiral into major issues over time. When you see a problem developing on your team, take action and fix it before this has the chance to happen.

Ready to Help Your Team Work Better Together?

The importance of teamwork is often underrated. By encouraging teamwork in the workplace, managers can inspire innovative ideas and different approaches to common problems. As people develop teamwork skills and relationships with one another, they become more committed to both the group and the company.

To achieve a team-oriented environment, it only takes a few simple changes. From choosing the right team management programs to encouraging feedback, managers can help team members achieve their goals.

Get your company, team, or department on the right track with Toggl Plan’s project management software. Sign up today to start your free trial and see what it can do for you!

Logan Derrick

Logan Derrick is a full-time business writer and content marketing strategist. For years, he has worked closely with several project management professionals, learning from them and increasing his own knowledge of the industry. Having held multiple management positions in fields ranging from customer service to marketing, Logan has found a passion for helping others learn about project management, marketing, and the powerful tools available to professionals today.

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Master these 7 essential skills to level-up your teamwork game

Use these strategies to align expectations, streamline communication, and crush your goals.

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5-second summary

  • Building “soft skills,” such as effective communication and collaboration skills, are vital components of a team’s success. 
  • Making sure everyone is aligned on goals and responsibilities may seem like a no-brainer, but research shows that team members do not always have the clarity that leadership assumes they do. 
  • Using formal procedures to make decisions and solve problems can help ensure that teams don’t get sidetracked by predictable bottlenecks. 

Teamwork is powerful. You can tap into people’s individual strengths, collect diverse perspectives and ideas, and get projects across the finish line more efficiently.

Here’s the catch: those perks only pan out if your team works together effectively. And as a leader, you’ve probably seen firsthand that successful teamwork doesn’t just happen . 

It requires that you make strategic decisions, encourage positive behaviors, and cultivate an environment where people can get their best work done – not just individually, but as a unit.

That all starts with ensuring that your team has mastered these seven essential teamwork skills.

1. Communication

“We never listen when we are eager to speak.” – Francois de la Rochefoucauld 

Communication is a non-negotiable teamwork skill. A large portion of team or project failures (just take the untimely explosion of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter , as one example) arise from miscommunication. For teams to work well together, they need to communicate well and be on the same page. 

The ability to openly share information, align expectations, and offer feedback is essential in the workplace. However, communication isn’t only about sharing messages – listening plays an equally important role. Active listening , in particular, enhances shared understanding and helps teams avoid crossed wires. 

Help your team communicate:

  • The extroverts on your team are more than willing to jump in with suggestions and opinions, but that can mean they end up steamrolling their colleagues. To make sure everyone’s voice is heard, send an agenda to all participants beforehand so people have time to gather their thoughts. Then, be sure to check in with each person during the meeting to make sure they’ve had a chance to speak. For in-depth guidance, run the inclusive meetings play to make sure that everybody’s input is considered when your team meets.
  • Communication isn’t one-size-fits-all, and your team will be better equipped to communicate information and ideas if they know other people’s preferences . Having each member of the team create a user manual gives them a low-pressure way to share their ideal conditions for getting work done — from their favorite communication channels to how they prefer to receive feedback.
  • Host a regular team stand-up to avoid siloed information in the workplace. This is a short, dedicated huddle where you can discuss team goals, progress, and obstacles to keep everybody in the loop and aligned. 

5 data-driven ways to tackle the challenges of virtual teamwork

5 data-driven ways to tackle the challenges of virtual teamwork

2. collaboration.

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller

Collaboration and teamwork are synonyms, so it makes sense that you’d see this teamwork skill high on the list. Even so, simply putting people on the same team doesn’t inherently lead to effective collaboration.

Instead, clarity needs to take priority. Team members should understand their unique roles, responsibilities, tasks, and deadlines, as well as how their individual pieces impact the whole. That broader focus increases accountability and empowers people to find answers or proactively solve problems themselves.

Help your team collaborate: 

  • Who does what shouldn’t be a mystery on your team, however, people may not always have visibility into what tasks their coworkers have to do. Try creating a shared document that details everyone’s regular tasks and current projects. You can also run the roles and responsibilities play so that there’s no doubt or confusion about what’s on each person’s plate.
  • Team collaboration falls apart when people don’t have a grasp on dependencies. For example, Team Member A might not think missing a deadline by a few days is a big deal – until they realize that it means Team Member B can’t start their assigned tasks. Dependency mapping gives you and your entire team a better sense of how things fit together, so you can proactively manage bottlenecks and other issues.
  • There are certain norms that play out on your team on a daily basis – like muting yourself on Zoom when you aren’t talking or using bullet points in emails – despite the fact that they might never be formally discussed. Consider creating a shared doc that spells out the “rules of the road” for your team. Encourage people to add to it regularly. It’s a great way to help newbies on the team get up to speed quickly. Running the working agreements play can help your team iron out a list of those previously-unspoken expectations and avoid misunderstandings. 

3. Goal setting

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter

Teamwork is all about working your way toward a finish line together. But first? You need to be in agreement about what that finish line actually is. While managers might like to think that goals are already obvious and widely accepted, team members may disagree. Proof: 72% of employees admit they don’t fully understand their company’s strategy. That’s why having this teamwork skill is so important.

In order to reap the benefits of effective teamwork, team leaders need to not only explain team and company goals, but also actively involve employees in the process of setting those objectives so that they can take ownership over the outcomes. 

How to help your team set goals: 

  • Use a defined goal-setting framework like objectives and key results (OKRs) or goals, signals, and measures so that everybody understands what you’re working toward and how you’ll know when you get there.
  • Store your team goals somewhere centralized and accessible in the workplace (like Confluence ) so that everybody on the team can refer back to them when needed. 

4. Decision making

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are very few times when teamwork is more frustrating than when you need to make a speedy decision. With so many perspectives to manage, reaching a consensus can be slow. That’s why decision-making is a teamwork skill that’s vital in a team environment, especially in collaborative cultures where the manager isn’t always the one with the last word. 

To get their best work done, people should be able to listen to other opinions and suggestions with an open mind but then come together collectively to choose the best way forward. 

Help your team make decisions: 

  • Sometimes a consensus isn’t possible. In those cases, who has final say on a project? Who’s contributing but not necessarily a key decision-maker? Those roles can get murky. Use the DACI framework so that your team knows who fits where and is able to make more efficient group decisions.
  • Does your team suffer from decision delay? Try setting a deadline for your team to make a choice. Psychology says that while deadlines can be stressful, they can also increase focus. 

The importance of teamwork (as proven by science)

The importance of teamwork (as proven by science)

5. problem solving.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein 

From a project that’s running off the rails to a conflict between a couple of colleagues, you and your team are bound to run into your fair share of roadblocks. In those moments, your team’s problem-solving skills are what will carry you through. 

Successful problem solving isn’t just about slapping on a band-aid or identifying a quick fix. Some stumbling blocks can be deceptively complex. To truly address and prevent issues, people need to start by digging deep and understanding all of the factors that are at play using this teamwork skill.. 

How to help your team solve problems: 

  • Use problem framing to step back and understand the who, what, why, and where of a problem before jumping into solutions.
  • The 5 Whys Analysis is simple on the surface – it essentially involves asking, “Why did this happen” five times in a row. This exercise helps your team uncover the root causes of a problem rather than acting on assumptions and surface-level symptoms.
  • The first possible solution to a problem isn’t always the best one, and that’s one of the many benefits of a team: everybody has access to an assortment of ideas and experiences to find the most suitable answer. Sparring helps your team get quick, honest feedback from each other in a way that feels structured and approachable. 

6. Emotional intelligence 

“Emotions can get in the way or get you on the way.” – Mavis Mazhura 

Emotional intelligence is the ability to read the emotional state of yourself and others, then act accordingly. EQ might not be your typical teamwork skill, but it’s important nonetheless.

Your colleagues can’t always check their feelings at the door (and you can’t either). Emotions come into play in our work lives – they bias our perception and influence how we relate to one another. And, research shows that team emotional intelligence has a significant impact on effectiveness, as well as how much conflict the group experiences. 

How to help your team be emotionally intelligent:

  • As the leader, one of the best things you can do is to model appropriate behaviors. Even seemingly small changes, like regulating a big reaction to customer criticisms or asking a coworker if they’re in the right headspace to receive feedback, can show your team how emotional intelligence plays out.
  • People can’t always control their emotions, but they can control and improve their reactions and behaviors. Unfortunately, emotions can easily become confused with personalities. Try to model and encourage people to switch from “I am…” language to “I feel…” language to keep those lines clear. For example, “I am anxious about this deadline” becomes “I feel anxious about this deadline.” It’s a small but significant shift in how the message comes across.

7. Growth mindset  

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Teams don’t always deal with smooth seas, and a growth mindset is what helps them power through obstacles and find creative solutions. 

To state it simply, a growth mindset is a teamwork skill that sees problems as opportunities. They’re chances to reflect, learn, and improve. A growth mindset helps your team use past experiences to drive better collaborations – and it also means they won’t bristle at perceived failures or criticisms. 

How to help your team have a growth mindset: 

  • Run a retrospective regularly or at the end of project milestones so that your team can honestly discuss what worked, what didn’t, why, and how you’ll use that information moving forward.

Prioritize regular and frequent constructive feedback for all team members. These candid conversations help them understand how they can improve themselves – which, in turn, helps them improve the entire team. 

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Tips for Sharing Examples of Teamwork at an Interview

teamwork assignment

What the Interviewer Wants to Know

  • "Give Us Examples of Your Teamwork Skills"

Examples of the Best Answers

  • Examples for Student Job Seekers
  • Tips for Answer Questions About Teamwork

What Not to Say

Possible follow-up questions.

Maddy Price / The Balance

There are few jobs that can be done in isolation. This means that a person in any role—from an entry-level assistant to a retail worker to management-level employees—needs to be able to collaborate productively with others. Therefore, expect  job interview questions about teamwork  when interviewing for almost any job.

A typical interview question about teamwork is, "Give us some examples of your teamwork." 

An employer will ask this question to learn how you have worked with other personnel in the past. This will give the hiring manager an idea of how you might get along with colleagues at his or her company. Employers want to hire people who are team players, so respond in a way that will show the hiring manager that you're able to work well with others .

How to Answer "Give Us Examples of Your Teamwork Skills"

Use the STAR interview technique.  The question "Give us some examples of your teamwork" is a  behavioral interview question . Employers are asking you to reflect on your past experiences in order to show how you might act at the new job.

When answering a behavioral interview question, your best bet is to use the  STAR interview response technique :

  • Situation.  Provide a bit of context about the experience. You want to let the interviewer know a bit about the team. You can mention the number of people on the team, your specific role, and so on. While you do not need to go into a great deal of detail, providing a bit of background information is helpful.
  • Task.  Explain the team's goals – in particular, what project you were working on. If there was a specific challenge that your group faced (and overcame), explain that problem.
  • Action.  Explain the steps taken (including your own) to meet the team's goals. Perhaps you were all very good at delegating specific tasks and accomplishing them. Maybe you all had strong  communication skills , and avoided conflict by expressing any concerns quickly. If you mention a problem the group faced, explain how the team solved the problem. This will demonstrate your effective  problem solving  within a collaborative work setting.
  • Result.  Conclude by explaining the results of the team's actions. Emphasize what your team ultimately achieved. Did you meet or even surpass your goal? Did you complete the assignment ahead of time?

Don't Focus Too Much on Yourself:  While you might mention an action you took to solve a problem or help the group, don't focus too much on your own achievements. Emphasize how the group worked together as a whole. You want to demonstrate your ability to work with others, and that includes sharing your success with the group.

Express Confidence and Positivity:  You want to convey that you do well working with others and that you enjoy it. Therefore, try to sound positive during your answer, especially when you discuss your successes. Similarly, avoid anything that might sound negative about your team – don't place blame on others, or complain about another person's failure.

Review examples of the best ways to answer interview questions about your teamwork skills.

Example Answer #1

In my last position, I was part of a software implementation team. We all worked together to plan and manage the implementation schedule, to provide customer training, and to ensure a smooth transition for our customers. Our team always completed our projects ahead of schedule with very positive reviews from our clients. Our ability to communicate effectively was what made us such a good team. People expressed concerns clearly and openly, so we resolved issues as soon as they arose.

Why It Works: This response clearly establishes the project, along with the positive outcomes (completing ahead of schedule and receiving positive feedback) and the reason the team worked together smoothly. 

Example Answer #2

I was part of a team responsible for evaluating and selecting a new vendor for our office equipment and supplies. The inter-departmental team reviewed options, compared pricing and service, and chose a vendor. We once had to implement the transition to a new vendor, which was difficult because each team member suggested a different vendor. However, we held a brief meeting where each member made a pitch for his or her suggested vendor. Everyone thoughtfully listened, and we ultimately voted on a vendor. That vendor has now been working successfully with the company for years.

Why It Works: This candidate establishes a common challenging aspect of teamwork, along with how team members were able to move past it. 

Example Answer #3

At my current position, I'm part of the team that coordinates the company's lunch-and-learn sessions. Each week, we meet to brainstorm who will be our upcoming guest speaker. We all work together to ensure a diverse mix of speakers, aiming to appeal to a wide swath of people in the company. Because everyone on the team comes from different areas within the company, we've all learned so much about big ideas, from marketing to tech.

Why It Works: Often, people struggle to work with others in different departments. In this response, it's clear that the candidate can work smoothly with people from other teams. 

Example Answer #4

As part of a software development team with tight project schedules, there were always fires that needed to be put out. Perhaps the greatest challenge we faced together as a team was when our project lead was suddenly hospitalized, ten days before our final rollout. Even in her absence, we overcame this challenge by working overtime and making an extra effort to ensure that all team members were "in the loop" regarding daily project statuses. The release went off without a hitch.

Why It Works: This response has a clearly stated challenge, along with the steps taken to overcome it.

Examples of Answers for Student Job Seekers

Here are sample answers for student interviewees who don't have a lot of formal work experience.

In high school, I enjoyed playing soccer and performing with the marching band. Each required a different kind of team play, but the overall goal of learning to be a member of a group was invaluable. In college, I continued to grow as a team member while on an intramural basketball team, and through my advanced marketing class where we had numerous team assignments. In particular, I have learned the value of recognizing and celebrating each team member's strengths. This allows the team to more easily delegate tasks to the appropriate people.

Why It Works: As this candidate deftly demonstrates, experience playing team sports is a good stand-in for on-the-job collaborative work. 

I have had many experiences working with a team as a member of my high school athletic program. As a member of my sports team, I understand what it means to be a part of something bigger than myself. Team sports have taught me how to work with a group to accomplish a shared goal.

Why It Works: Companies want to hire candidates who are interested not just in personal glory but working toward something bigger—this mention of the big picture is quite appealing to interviewers. 

As captain of my debate team, I acquired many different team-building skills. I have learned how critical it is to make every member of the team feel important, included, and motivated to be the best that they can be.

Why It Works: In this response, the candidate is able to show off important leadership skills, as well as an understanding of the factors necessary for a smoothly-functioning team. 

Over the summer, I interned at Just Practicing Law Firm in downtown Detroit, and six of us teamed up to research a particularly difficult case. We decided to split up the research and meet twice a week, and then pool our research results. I discovered that I could never have completed the work on my own, but working together we got the job done. I enjoyed the shared experience in which each of us used our best skills and talents to produce one cohesive result.

Why It Works: This response walks through many of the advantages of teamwork in a personal and thoughtful manner. 

Tips for Answering Questions About Teamwork

  • Prepare for this interview question by reflecting on times you have worked as part of a team in a work situation.  Try to think of at least two examples from your recent work history (ideally, from the past couple of years). If possible, think of examples that relate to the type of teamwork you would be doing at the new job. For example, if you know the job requires a lot of team project work, mention some examples of successful team projects you have completed in the past.
  • Turn to school projects, volunteer work, or extracurricular activities for examples  if you are an entry-level employee. 
  • Keep it positive.  Don't include any experiences that ended in conflict, or experiences where the team failed to complete its goals.

Think of at least one example where your team met and overcame a challenge. This will help show your ability to solve problems with a team.

  • Negative results. Did the team fall apart in conflict or fail to deliver? These can be powerful learning opportunities, but during an interview, you're better off focusing on something positive. 
  • Long, rambling responses.  It can be hard not to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty details of a project. But in your response, try to give the background, and any results, in broad strokes. Avoid talking too long, using company-specific jargon, or getting lost in your storytelling. 
  • How do you feel about working in a team environment?
  • Tell me about a rewarding experience on a team.
  • Describe a time you worked with a team, and the project did not go as planned.

Key Takeaways

You can share examples that didn't occur at work.  Look to volunteer work and extracurricular activities if you do not have on-the-job experience. 

Just about every job will require teamwork and collaboration.  Even roles that seem solitary (such as an artist) require a person to interact and collaborate successfully with others. 

Use the STAR technique.  Avoid rambling and frame your answer effectively with this tactic. 

3 masked students in lounge setting discussing lesson

Teamwork and Collaboration

Teamwork and collaboration are active learning strategies in which students work and learn together in small groups to accomplish shared goals. Effective teamwork and collaboration are considered important to the students’ learning process. Working in teams assists students in developing their problem solving, communication, and critical thinking skills, and allows them the opportunity to work with and learn from their peers. However, the online environment presents unique challenges for many online instructors who use teamwork. The resources below offer information for faculty about getting started with instructional groups, designing group assignments, and using groups successfully.

How to Design Team Projects

Different types of teamwork.

Team projects could be used to build a learning community. You can use group discussions, group presentations, and group sharing activities in your course. When you design the team projects, think about the following components: 1) the team projects should be aligned with the learning objectives. The topics you provide to your students should be interrelated to the learning objectives. 2) The team project is complex and beyond the individual work, so students can divide the task to each member. 3) It is important to provide clear expectations for the team projects. 4) It is recommended to design authentic team projects that provide the real-world scenarios to engage students to apply what they have learned into the assignments.

In the online environment, you could put students in the zoom breakout rooms to ask them to work on a collaborative project. In the hybrid course, you can change this into an asynchronous online group discussion. Some ideas for the team projects could be:

  • Role playing
  • Group Presentations

You may incorporate external tools such as Google Docs , Padlet , and more to encourage active participation in your courses.

Team Size Recommendations

Based on Bean (1996), three to five students as a team seems to work effectively in an online environment. Small group size makes students easier to collaborate and facilitate. It also can maximize the involvement of the projects.

Timing of Project Submission Process

Start the team project at a manageable level. For the complicated team project, it is recommended to organize the projects into several stages. Identify the milestone deadlines and provide students with the feedback to make sure they are on the right track. For example, for a team research presentation, you may consider making the project as four stages: 1) the team introduction, 2) proposal for the team research project, 3) final team research project and 4) the team presentation.

Strategies for Effective Teamwork and Collaboration

  • Set guidelines or norms for student-student interactions and student-instructor interactions during teamwork.
  • Facilitate communication with team members. At the beginning of the semester, ask team members to exchange contact information and preferred ways to communicate. Providing them with resources or reviewing communication skills may also be helpful.
  • Help students assign team roles. Students can be assigned to specific roles by instructors or be allowed to choose by themselves. Either way, students should be clear about their roles within the teams.
  • Monitor group progress through observation, check-ins, and suggest resources that can be useful to groups. View this checklist for managing and supporting groups to help you manage and support student groups.
  • Require periodic progress reports. To monitor how effectively team members are working together on a project, ask students to submit a progress report periodically. The report may include the time log or contributions of each member.
  • Provide students with the necessary resources to succeed.

Facilitating Online Group Presentations

Now that students have done the work, how should they present their learning? In an online learning modality, group presentations can be tricky. Ultimately, there are two options for facilitating online group presentations: a synchronous presentation, or an asynchronous presentation.

  • Groups present live via Zoom to the rest of the class
  • Create a presentation schedule ahead of class time so groups know when they will be presenting.
  • View asynchronous group presentation recording instructions using Zoom or Voicethread
  • Share recording links in a Canvas discussion thread, on a Padlet , or within a Voicethread to encourage peer critiques

Evaluating Online Teamwork

Teamwork and collaboration involve students working together one-on-one or in small groups. When evaluating teamwork, there are two things to evaluate: the final product of the teamwork and student participation. Typically, an instructor will assess teamwork based on the final project instead of evaluating contributions from each student. However, students in the online environment frequently express concern that not all members contribute equally when working in groups.

Therefore, developing a transparent assessment process that evaluates both individual and team-based learning can encourage student collaboration. Some of the strategies to effectively assess teamwork involve using student self-evaluation and peer evaluation. Using the combination of individual assessment and team project assessment can provide the instructor with valuable information on how teams function and how to provide feedback and grading.

Here are some strategies to effectively assess online teamwork:

  • Assessing the Final Product: When assessing the final product, it’s important to take into account the final product and the individual contributions of the team members. In this instance, it’s helpful to evaluate the process by having students document and submit tasks and timelines throughout their time working together. Additionally, utilizing rubrics to evaluate teamwork ( sample rubric for statistics project ) helps make the grading process more transparent.
  • Assessing Student Participation: To assess student participation effectively, it’s important to include opportunities for self and peer evaluation. To engage students in self-evaluation, it’s advised to provide prompts to help students analyze their experience ( prompt example 1 ) ( prompt example 2 ). When asking students to evaluate their peers, typically a form response or other ranking worksheet ( worksheet example 1 ) ( worksheet example 2 ) ( worksheet example 3 ) is helpful.

Tools to Support Teamwork

Google drive.

Google Drive is a helpful resource to collaborate with group members on documents and presentations. When using Google Drive, creating a shared folder is the best way to coordinate with team members and work together on resources for a project. You can learn more about using Google Drive by viewing the ITDS Google Drive Training , taking a look at the ITDS Google resource page , or visiting our Collaborations page in our Canvas Faculty Orientation .

Canvas Groups

Groups in Canvas are a subset of a course with a course-like environment. Groups include their own discussion space, calendar, and collaborative tools; it’s a fantastic space for teams in a course to work together. Groups come with some advantages for an instructor as well. For example, creating a group discussion assignment will create an identical discussion topic for each group and allow students to converse more intimately with each other. Additionally, creating a group assignment will allow instructors to quickly score all members of a group at the same time. Learn more about Canvas Groups by visiting the Canvas Faculty Orientation Groups page .

Collaborative Tools

There are many tools students can use to enhance collaboration and teamwork across learning modalities.

In the brainstorming and planning stage of teamwork, students can utilize mind mapping as a strategy to organize their thoughts and resources. There are multiple available free online mind mapping tools for students to use, or if teaching F2F, students can create a physical mind map on paper.

Padlet can be used as a space for teams to share resources and leave feedback for one another. Students have the ability to embed various types of media and link out to files as necessary. Alternatively, it can also be used as a space for teams to share their final products with one another and elicit feedback and comments.

When students are ready to present their findings, they can utilize Voicethread to create an asynchronous presentation. Team members can upload their presentation materials, and then add voice or video commentary for each “slide” of their presentation. Voicethread can also be used as a virtual gallery of final project submissions and students can view and give feedback to peers’ work.

  • UNSW Sydney. (2020). Facilitating and Monitoring Group Work. UNSW Sydney Teaching . https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/facilitating-and-monitoring-group-work
  • UNSW Sydney. (2020). Develop Students’ Group Work Skills. UNSW Sydney Teaching . https://www.teaching.unsw.edu.au/develop-students-group-work-skills

Building Teamwork Process Skills in Students

teamwork assignment

In the engineering disciplines, educators and employers alike place high value on teamwork skills.  Project teams are an important part of our work culture, so student teams are frequently assembled for course projects, especially in laboratory, design, and elective courses.  While the concept of effective teamwork is highly valued, few instructional hours and resources are typically devoted to specifically developing this skill within the canonical undergraduate engineering education.  Providing the opportunities and training for students to develop mastery in teamwork skills requires careful thought and course design.  A recent workshop I attended, led by Dr. Denny C Davis ( http://www.asee.org/public/conferences/20/papers/5944/download ), invites educators to give more focus to the  process , not just the product, in student teamwork. 1   In this blog post, I describe the ways the teamwork process takes center stage in the final course project in CBE 185, Technical Communications for Chemical Engineers. CBE 185 is a junior-level required course for all chemical engineering undergraduate students at UC Berkeley.  The course is offered in sections of about 30 students each, and takes an active learning, workshop style approach to developing written, spoken, and interpersonal communication skills for the chemical engineering workplace.  As much as possible, I like to use multiple-draft assignments with a high degree of authenticity, such as cover letters for entry-level chemical engineering jobs, or videos to explain a chemistry concept to a real audience of seventh graders (more details about our collaborations with non-expert audiences: http://www3.aiche.org/proceedings/Abstract.aspx?PaperID=262953 and http://chemicalengineering185.wordpress.com/ ). 2   Students work with each other on short in-class activities and on major course projects such as the P3 proposal project described below. In my first years as an engineering educator, I was introduced to an eloquent book on engineering teamwork by the eminent Professor Karl Smith ( http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith/ ), Teamwork and Project Management ( http://www.amazon.com/Teamwork-Project-Management-Engineering-Series/dp/0073534900) . 3   Featuring illustrative examples, accessible language, and reviews of teamwork research, this book has been my foundation for instructing engineering students in how to function effectively in teams.  Professor Smith describes the five characteristics of effective teams:

Promotive Interaction:  Members do real work, usually face to face

Positive Interdependence:  Members focus on a common goal, with complementary contributions

Individual and Group Accountability:  Everyone takes responsibility for their own work and the overall work of the team

Teamwork Skills:  Each member practices effective communication, decision making, problem solving, conflict management, leadership

Group Processing:  Team periodically reflects on how well the team is working  In 185, I try to create opportunities for students to engage with and learn about the process of teamwork by providing opportunities to develop each of these five characteristics of effective teams, using the following approaches. Enabling success through smart team formation I use the free online program CATME Team Maker ( http://info.catme.org/ ) to generate student teams. 4  Students enter information about their schedule, commitment level, leadership styles and more.  I set preferences for grouping (similar schedules, similar commitment levels, complementary leadership styles, etc), and the program randomly creates and ranks 20 full sets of teams, then selects the set that is optimized for the criteria.  For me, it has been wonderfully effective.  It enables  promotive interaction  by helping to ensure student teams have available time to work face to face on their project. Assigning a challenging and multidimensional project The major team project for CBE 185 is a ten-page proposal for the US Environmental Protection Agency's P3 (people, prosperity, planet) Sustainability research and design student competition ( http://www.epa.gov/p3/ ).  Students are also required to give a 12- minute oral presentation on the proposal, and sometimes are required to create an item for a generalist audience, such as an infographic or a blog post on the topic area.  Student teams rally around their proposal topic area and develop through multiple drafts and deliverables throughout the semester.  This assignment is demanding for engineering students, who are still developing skills in creative problem solving and persuasive argumentation.  A project like this promotes  positive interdependence  and  individual and group accountability  as students take ownership of their ideas and develop in complementary tasks or roles, such as: facilitator, brainstormer, technical expert, audience specialist, and design specialist. Coaching teamwork skills When I poll students in class on what they think are important characteristics of effective teams, aspects of what Professor Smith groups as teamwork skills  dominate their responses.  Communication, leadership, and sometimes conflict management and decision-making top their lists.  To enhance student teamwork skills, I spread multiple opportunities for teamwork skill building throughout the semester using mini lectures and practice exercises on topics including constructive feedback (articulating and contrasting the characteristics of constructive and destructive feedback, followed by peer review of a draft writing assignment) and active listening (a quiz and discussion on which of five active listening habits each person wants to improve, followed by reporting and committing on their intent to their group. Building in time for group processing Halfway through the project, I take time out of lecture for teams to do  group processing .  Students rank their team into one of Smith’s four team types:

Pseudo team  performs below the level of the average member

Potential team  struggles slightly above the level of the average member

Real team  has complementary skills; is committed to common purpose, goals, approach; holds each other mutually accountable

High-performing team  is deeply committed to one another’s personal growth and success

(Students usually give a chuckle when they realize that they are probably not a high-performing team yet.)  Groups reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and make plans for changes or corrective action to keep their project moving forward.   It is deeply satisfying to watch students hone their teamwork skills during their semester in CBE 185.  I hope that they transfer and build on these skills in upper division coursework and in the workplace. 

What techniques are you using in your engineering, STEM, or other types of classrooms to promote student learning in the  process  aspect of teamwork?

References:

1          “Building Student Capacity for High Performance Teamwork.” Denny C. Davis ,  Ronald R. Ulseth. American Society for Engineering Education National Conference and Expo, June 25, 2013. Atlanta, GA

2          “Chemical Process Videos: A Long-Distance Partnership for Outreach and Communication Skills Development.” Shannon Ciston, Lindsey Own.  American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual meeting, October 31, 2012.  Pittsburgh, PA

3          Smith, K.A. with P.K. Imbrie. 2007. Teamwork and project management, 3rd Ed. New York:

McGraw-Hill. BEST Series.

4          Layton, R. A., Loughry, M. L., Ohland, M. W., & Ricco, G. D.  (2010).   Design and validation of a web-based system for assigning members to teams using instructor-specified criteria Advances in Engineering Education , 2 (1), 1-28.

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Assessing Teamwork/Group Work

What is effective teamwork.

In well-designed courses, teamwork does not refer to short-lived team-based activities (such as within a single lecture) or “patchwork” projects where students divide tasks, work mostly independently, and combine it together in the end. Rather, in well-designed teamwork projects, students work over the long term (more than during a single class) and know what they are meant to do, what their roles are, and have expectations of their teammates.

Why use teamwork in a course or program?

  • learning at a deeper level, by explaining their reasoning to others
  • engaging more with material, leading to longer information retention (Davies, 2009)
  • promoting problem-based learning and active vs. passive learning (Davies, 2009)
  • improving their collaborative skills, including negotiating, communicating, and project management (Fellenz, 2006).

What is the best way to assess teamwork?

How you assess any project communicates your learning priorities to students. Assessment keeps students accountable to your expectations and lets them know what they should spend their time on. For team-based projects, assessment should take place throughout the collaborative process. If you only assess the final product of a team’s efforts, the students may complete the task but pay little attention to team functioning, and learn very little about the process of becoming a team (Hillier & Dunn-Jensen, 2012). It takes thoughtful assessment design to reap the benefits of teamwork and to assess students as fairly as possible.

This section suggests some ideas for assessing teamwork that could be combined or adapted for your course. These approaches demonstrate the importance you place on working in a team, as well as helping students to stay on track, and supporting them in openly discussing team functioning. An overarching theme is that fair assessment of teamwork evaluates both the final product and the process. However, given the specifics of the team assignment, it is up to the instructor to decide what charcteristics to assess at various points in the process.

8 ideas for assessing teamwork

1. provide rubrics and assessment details when you hand out the assignment tasks., 2 require students to compile and submit an individual contributions record or reflection., 3. use peer- and self-rating to adjust final grades based on individual citizenship., 4. incorporate information from assessors beyond the classroom., 5. require and assess team building activities., 6. assess students on project management., 7. create intermediate milestones and deadlines., 8. provide frequent feedback to allow opportunities for team improvement., examples and resources for assessing teamwork, peer assessment for teamwork.

  • Peer and self-rating of team members: Students peer and self-rate on criteria related to citizenship. Their ratings are used to adjust the final grade for each student, using an autorating system. See: Team Member Evaluation form (Oakley, Felder, Brent, & Elhajj, 2004, p. 29-30).
  • A system for anonymous and repeated peer rating: Students peer rate each other anonymously at a number of points throughout the course. They can see their own ratings and the aggregate ratings, but only the aggregate ratings are used to foster discussion about team functionality. See: Team Effectiveness Feedback form and a Formal Team Assessment form   (Hillier & Dunn-Jensen, 2012)

Team building worksheets

  • Worksheets guide students to put their expectations of each other in writing, and to revisit team functioning part way through the course. See:  Evaluation of Progress Toward Effective Team Functioning form (Oakley et al., 2004, p. 28).
  • Worksheet with prompting questions to discuss team roles, responsibilities, and expectations. Hillier & Dunn-Jensen (2012, p. 722) suggest wording for a Team Charter worksheet , to help students discuss team expectations and functioning.

If you need further assistance with assessing teamwork, please contact us .

Davies, W. M. (2009). Group work as a form of assessment: common problems and recommended solutions . Higher Education 58 (563–584), doi: 10.1007/s10734-009-9216-y

Hewitt, A. (2016). Developing Canada’s future workforce: A survey of large private-sector employers. Ottawa : Business Council of Canada.

Hillier, J., & Dunn-Jensen, L.M. (2012). Groups meet… teams improve. Building Teams that Learn , 37(5), 704-733.

Oakley, B., Felder, R.M., Brent, R., & Elhajj, I. (2004). Turning student groups into effective teams. Journal of Student Centred Learning, 2 (1), 9-34.

Wilson, K.J., Brickman, P., & Brame, C.J. (2018). Group work. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 17 (1). Retrieved from http://lse.ascb.org/evidence-based-teaching-guides/group-work/

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Top 10 Teamwork Interview Questions (Example Answers Included)

Mike Simpson 0 Comments

teamwork interview questions

By Mike Simpson

Updated 9/7/2022.

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” That’s what the late Henry Ford had to say about teamwork.

Hiring managers understand that teamwork makes the working world go ‘round. What does that mean for you? That you’re almost guaranteed to face off against some teamwork interview questions when you’re trying to land a job.

Do you want to make sure you’re ready for the inevitable? Great! Then let’s get going.

What Is Teamwork?

Before we dig into the teamwork interview questions, let’s pause for a moment to consider what teamwork even is. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, teamwork is “work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole.”

To put it in simpler terms, teamwork is when a group comes together to accomplish a task, and their main priority is the quality of the end result. It isn’t about shining as an individual. Instead, it’s about having the best outcome possible through the use of cumulative effort.

Alright, now you understand what teamwork is, but you’re probably wondering, “Why do hiring managers ask teamwork interview questions?” After all, everyone on the planet has likely been part of a team at some point. Shouldn’t that mean essentially any candidate could do well in this department?

In reality, not everyone is as great at teamwork as you’d expect. Some people may be slackers, letting everyone else do all of the work and getting credit just because they were there. Others are my-way-or-the-highway types, digging their heels in and ignoring everyone else’s ideas.

Just because you have team-oriented experience doesn’t mean you’re great at teamwork. Since teamwork is fundamental in manufacturing, customer service, healthcare, and so many other industries, hiring managers favor candidates who shine in this area.

Why Is Teamwork Important?

At this point, you probably have a general idea of why teamwork is important. It ensures colleagues can work well together, achieving critical joint goals.

But the importance of teamwork goes deeper. Through teamwork, companies can create a more supportive, positive culture. Plus, teamwork can make overcoming obstacles easier. Coworkers are more respectful of each other’s perspectives in team-oriented environments. They’re also more likely to take a back seat when the situation requires it or step up when circumstances demand it.

Ultimately, teamwork lets people share ideas, benefit from each other’s strengths, compensate for one another’s weaknesses, and otherwise flourish. In the end, that’s the importance of teamwork.

How to Answer Teamwork Interview Questions

Now that you have a solid idea of what teamwork is – and why hiring managers are going to grill you about it – let’s take the next step. If you’re going to shine during your meeting, you need to know how to answer teamwork interview questions effectively. That means it’s strategy time.

First, it’s important to understand that nearly all teamwork interview questions are behavioral interview questions . Hiring managers are going to ask you to “tell them about a time…” or “describe a time when…”

Why? Because the hiring manager wants to hear examples. They are looking for insights into your capabilities and how you put your skills to work.

Luckily, that means you can develop a single approach that can help you showcase yourself as a great candidate. First, it’s time for the STAR Method . That lets you take your example and craft it into an engaging story. Your answer will have the flow of beautiful prose without getting long-winded. That’s a win.

But, if you really want to impress, integrate the Tailoring Method , too. With that, you’ll increase the relevancy of your responses, ensuring you are speaking directly to the needs of the hiring manager. Double win!

In fact we we wanted to let you know that we created an amazing free cheat sheet that will give you word-for-word answers for some of the toughest interview questions you are going to face in your upcoming interview. After all, hiring managers will often ask you more generalized interview questions!

Click below to get your free PDF now:

Get Our Job Interview Questions & Answers Cheat Sheet!

FREE BONUS PDF CHEAT SHEET: Get our " Job Interview Questions & Answers PDF Cheat Sheet " that gives you " word-word sample answers to the most common job interview questions you'll face at your next interview .

CLICK HERE TO GET THE JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS CHEAT SHEET

Top 10 Teamwork Interview Questions

Alright, enough strategy talk. If you want to see how you can grab teamwork interview questions by the horn, nothing helps quite like some examples. With that in mind, here are the top ten teamwork interview questions and answers for your consideration:

1. What are the advantages of good teamwork?

With this question, the hiring manager is learning more about your perspective and mentality. They’re hoping that you see the value in teamwork, as that could mean you’re better suited to a team-oriented environment.

EXAMPLE ANSWER:

“I believe that good teamwork offers up a range of benefits, including improved efficiency and productivity. However, one occasionally overlooked advantage is better problem-solving capabilities. In my last job, I was working with several colleagues on a project, and we hit a roadblock. Alone, progress likely would have ground to a halt. But since we were working together, that wasn’t the case. We collaborated and brainstormed, bouncing ideas off of one another. Our differing viewpoints and expertise ultimately proved valuable, allowing us to navigate a complex situation and find a solution, all because of teamwork.”

2. How would you connect with a new team member?

Here’s a question that aims to see how you bridge the gap when a new person enters a team environment. Generally, you need to show that you’re welcoming and supportive, outlining those traits with a solid example.

“If there is a new team member, the first step I usually take is to quickly introduce myself and offer them assistance as they get their footing. By making a genuine offer, they know they can come to me, and that makes a difference. Beyond that, it depends on the environment. In my last job, our lunch breaks were long enough to head to a nearby café. Since that was the case, I’d invite the new team member out for lunch, my treat, creating opportunities to get to know each other socially. After that, I’d simply touch base with them whenever possible to see how they were doing and what they thought of the workplace. Usually, that approach was enough to get them comfortable.”

3. What do you enjoy about working in a team?

When asking interview questions about teamwork like this one, the hiring manager isn’t just looking for a great answer; they also want to see some enthusiasm when you respond. If you openly exhibit your excitement to work with a great team, you have a real chance of standing out.

“My favorite part about working in a team is the learning opportunities. In my last role, we were regularly on cross-departmental teams when handling critical projects. Along with contributing my expertise, I had a chance to learn from others. For example, in my last project, one of the team members was selected due to their familiarity with a newer technology that was critical for the project. While working on joint tasks, I had the opportunity to get some instruction from them on that technology. The experience was outstanding, and it turned me into a more valuable employee, all because I had a chance to work on an amazing team.”

4. What do you dislike about working in a team?

Here, the hiring manager is really looking for an answer to two interview questions regarding teamwork. First, they do want to find out what you dislike. Second, they want to know how you deal with it, ensuring it doesn’t hold you back. By tapping on both points, you’re usually in good shape.

“While I generally like working on a team, I do find it frustrating when a team member isn’t meeting deadlines for their contributions. It can hold the entire team back and potentially derail the project. Fortunately, I’ve found a way to address that problem. I make it a habit to check in with other team members solely for the purpose of offering support and assistance. I ensure that it seems like requesting my help is doing me a favor, making them more likely to accept. Then, if they are behind, we can catch up together.”

5. Are there any personality types you struggle to work with?

This is another of the teamwork interview questions that’s really two rolled into one, like the sample above. Again, you’ll want to discuss a personality type you struggle with, as well as outline how what you do to work with them effectively.

“While I appreciate getting along with team members, I think I have the hardest time working with colleagues who view every meeting as a chance to socialize instead of focusing on the task at hand. It slows down the project, and the distraction can cause important details to get missed. However, I’ve learned a technique that can avoid that issue. First, I find another convenient moment in the day to connect with that colleague socially. For example, we may chat while on a break, or I’ll invite them to lunch so we can bond. After that, I often find that they’re more focused, as their social needs have been met. But even if they aren’t, the fact that we’re closer makes it easier for me to steer them back on course, allowing us to remain focused.”

6. What would you do if you were working on a team and, without notice, a group member left the organization? How would you help the team adapt?

With this question, the hiring manager is gauging your ability to manage change and ensure not just your success but the success of your colleagues. Ideally, you’ll want to describe how you would reassess the group’s responsibilities and equitably divvy out the work.

If you have an example from your past that relates to this scenario, you can certainly discuss it. However, you can speak in purely theoretical terms, as well.

“If I was working as part of a team on a project and a member left without notice, my first step would be to assess the workload of the person that was no longer there. I’d work to create a list of their responsibilities – either based on my own knowledge or by working with the project manager – and would try to estimate the time commitment and needed expertise for each duty. After that, I’d sit with my remaining team members to outline a plan for dividing up the tasks. This allows us to find ways to divide up the work as fairly as possible. If we weren’t just dealing with a project but a person’s regular workload, I would coordinate with my manager about the person’s past duties. My goal would be to take on my fair share of the work, ensuring there was some coverage until the position was filled. That way, if other team members did the same, any burden was spread out, reducing everyone’s stress as much as possible.”

7. How would your former team members describe your project work?

This question requires you to consider another perspective when assessing your teamwork capabilities. Hiring managers ask this question because how a person views themselves and how they’re perceived by others can differ, and they’re hoping to gain some unique insights regarding what others value in you.

“When discussing my project work, my former team members would describe me as organized, diligent, and always willing to lend a hand. I’m a big proponent of planning. By breaking down complex tasks, I effectively estimate the time required for each activity. By ensuring resources and materials are in the right place, I can easily find information, and my colleagues can do the same. Along the way, if I experience challenges, I do what it takes to solve them. Whether it’s research, tapping into another person’s expertise, or any other approach, I’m happy to keep digging until issues are resolved. Also, while working on projects, I strive to support my fellow team members as much as possible. I’ve assisted with research, taken on extra duties if a team member became overwhelmed, and otherwise have done everything I could to assist to ensure the success of the group.”

8. How would you rate your collaboration skills?

In many ways, teamwork and collaboration go hand-in-hand. Since that’s the case, the hiring manager may ask questions like this one to assess your capabilities.

“Overall, I’d say I’m a very effective collaborator. I frequently rely on active listening while working as part of a team, which allows me to better understand the perspective of others. With that, I use techniques like paraphrasing and asking clarifying questions to ensure I fully understand, only responding to an idea once I’m certain I’m clear. I’m also highly agile, which assists with collaboration. I can step up as a leader when needed, but I’m also comfortable taking a step back and supporting another. Since I’m comfortable with change, I remain open to ideas and can pivot when the situation demands it. In the end, that all helps me collaborate effectively.” 

9. Which of your characteristics make you a better team member? Why?

Here, the hiring manager wants you to discuss traits that help you effectively work as part of a team. Make sure to name the characteristics and outline why they’re beneficial.

“I have several characteristics that I believe make a difference. First, I have a generally calm demeanor, even when under pressure. Often, this makes me more effective when group projects encounter challenges, as I’m not easily frazzled. Second, I’m a strong verbal and written communicator. As a result, I have an easier time coordinating and collaborating with team members and sharing information with various stakeholders. Finally, I excel at time management. I use specific techniques to break down large projects into smaller tasks and estimate the time requirements. That allows me to create a functional calendar outlining what I’ll handle when, giving me a roadmap toward success and ensuring I meet critical deadlines not just for the project as a whole but for any deliverables that my colleagues need in order to handle their responsibilities.”

10. If you have personal and team-related responsibilities, which do you prioritize and why?

In some ways, this teamwork interview question might seem a bit tricky. However, by outlining an approach that takes other factors into account – such as looming deadlines or the needs of colleagues – you can answer it effectively.

“If my workload involves individual and team tasks, I use several strategies to determine how to prioritize my work. First, I’ll consider any deadlines, using that as a foundation. Next, I’ll look at various dependencies on my end, as that can play a role in ordering the responsibilities. Then, I’ll consider how any of my tasks impact others. For example, if a colleague can’t handle one of their responsibilities until I complete an activity, I factor that into the equation. Once that’s complete, I generally know how to best order my tasks. However, if two activities are largely equal – with one being independent and one team-oriented – I’ll typically handle the team task first. That ensures that I’m properly supporting my colleagues. Plus, based on my approach to planning, I’ll still have time to handle my independent work, so it makes it a win-win.”

40 More Teamwork Interview Questions

  • Tell me about your teamwork experience.
  • Have you ever had trouble working with a coworker?
  • Tell me about a time when you disagreed with your manager. How did you handle it?
  • Describe a challenging workplace situation. How did you deal with it?
  • What positive impact would you make on the team’s culture?
  • If a team member started taking credit for your contributions, what would you do?
  • What steps would you take if a colleague refused to do their fair share?
  • Do you enjoy working in a team environment?
  • How do you perform when working on team projects in a fast-paced environment?
  • Tell me about a time when a team experience was frustrating?
  • Can you tell me about a time when a team project you worked on failed? What happened, and what steps did you take to move forward?
  • Tell me about a time when you stepped into a leadership role.
  • When a project requires input from several levels in a company, how do you approach it?
  • What approach do you take to communicate effectively with a diverse team?
  • How would your manager and colleagues describe your teamwork skills?
  • If you and a team member disagree about how to proceed with a group project, how do you come to a decision?
  • Describe your experience mediating disagreements.
  • How would you feel about this position if it became more team-focused in the future? What if it became less team-oriented?
  • Tell me about a time when your teamwork skills were put to the test.
  • Do you have any weaknesses that hinder your teamwork capabilities?
  • What makes a team successful?
  • What motivational strategies do you use to promote team success?
  • How do you make sure that team members get credit for their contributions?
  • When it comes to group dynamics, what do you think hinders teamwork the most?
  • Are there any personality types you can’t work with well?
  • Which of your traits make you hard to work with, and why?
  • What does teamwork mean to you?
  • Describe a time when you worked well as part of a team.
  • Can you tell me about a time when a lack of teamwork hindered a project? How did you address the situation?
  • Do you prefer to work as part of a team or independently?
  • When you’re in a team situation, what role do you usually play?
  • If a team member was disengaged, what would you do to motivate them?
  • In your opinion, does teamwork come with any drawbacks?
  • Describe your ideal team dynamic.
  • Tell me about your most challenging teamwork experience. How did that make you a better team player moving forward?
  • If you were on a dysfunctional team, what steps would you take to improve it?
  • How do you ensure that your colleagues get proper credit for group work?
  • Have you ever been criticized by a team member? What occurred, and how did you respond?
  • What does collaboration mean to you?
  • If you had to pick one characteristic that was critical for a strong team, what would it be and why?

Putting It All Together

As the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work. Hiring managers prefer candidates that are exceptional at working as part of a group, usually regardless of the role. Luckily, you’re a great candidate, and by reviewing the teamwork interview questions above, you can showcase your teamwork skills with ease. So, what are you waiting for? Start preparing today!

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teamwork assignment

Psychology: Research and Review

  • Open access
  • Published: 10 February 2022

Teamwork skills in higher education: is university training contributing to their mastery?

  • Elena De Prada 1 ,
  • Mercedes Mareque   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-8927-5323 2 &
  • Margarita Pino-Juste 3  

Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica volume  35 , Article number:  5 ( 2022 ) Cite this article

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Teamwork skills are considered essential for personal, academic and professional achievement, so universities are increasingly integrating them into their syllabuses. However, little is known about how some specific features of students and their educational development can affect their acquisition. Accordingly, this study aims to fill this gap and describe higher education students’ mastery of teamwork skills and its relation to certain socio-academic variables (gender, academic year and grade point average—GPA). With the aim of determining the level of teamwork skills among university students, an observational, transversal descriptive study was designed with an intentional sample of Spanish university students. The sample is made up of 615 social science degree students. The results suggest significant gender differences, highlighting that female students outdid their male counterparts in most teamwork skills, except leadership. Likewise, students’ skills improved as they progressed in their studies, particularly those skills related to adaptability and decision-making. Finally, a positive relationship was observed between teamwork skills and GPA, except for interpersonal development. A regression analysis confirmed the influence of both academic year and GPA for women whilst no effect was detected in the case of men. Based on these results, it is suggested to make changes in university education programmes to compensate for the influence of socio-academic factors and benefit from the most positive features of each gender regarding teamwork to achieve an equal and fair higher education.

Introduction

Today most higher education institutions highlight the necessity of including both hard and soft skills in their syllabus to meet the required personal, academic and professional demands for a successful career. Hard skills are considered to be the technical knowledge and experiences needed to carry out a job, whilst soft skills are interpersonal qualities, also understood as an individual’s set of social skills and personal attributes. Therefore, soft skills refer to a broad group of skills, behaviours, and personal qualities that enable individuals to function efficiently in their environment, have effective relationships, carry out their work professionally, and achieve the goals they are set (Lippman et al., 2014 ). Soft skills are considered excellent complements to traditional hard skills at university due to their significant role in the current context. However, although soft skills are considered important as hard skills, there is a lack of consensus regarding their characterisation and implementation (Yan et al., 2019 ).

Universities are aware that having an adequate level of education and training not only implies a certain mastery of the contents of a given syllabus; students also need to fully develop the necessary skills to access the job market (García, 2016 ). According to Robles ( 2012 ), in fact, employers consider social skills to be a significantly important attribute for job seekers, demanding that their new employees’ soft skills are as well consolidated as their hard skills, given that current job positions require additional qualities that were previously not demanded (Pitan, 2017 ). Thus, both employers and academic institutions are slowly becoming aware of the need to equip individuals with the competencies, skills and knowledge that will not only facilitate their incorporation into the job market after their studies but also support their professional development throughout their career so that they can successfully adapt to changes in the job market.

Within this context, teamwork skills have been gaining close attention, as they are considered essential competencies in an increasingly more globalised, dynamic and complex world. New employees are asked if they have teamwork skills, can resolve specific work issues or have the required skills to handle the new challenges posed by today’s society (Baneres & Conesa, 2017 ). Universities are not oblivious to society’s needs, specifically to the demand of companies for students and future workers to be trained in soft skills. Over the past few years, universities have manifested their concern with students’ mastery of soft skills, specifically those related to learning to work in teams, given their correlation with employability. Recruiters are looking for employees with soft skills, as they are aware of the link between the former and the successful maintenance and execution of a job (Blaszczynski & Green, 2012 ). Therefore, in the present day, job adverts frequently list soft skills—including teamwork—as a requirement (Clares et al., 2019 ).

Little research focuses on students’ acquisition level of the different teamwork skills, which will aid ongoing learning throughout their careers. The same happens with research focused on establishing the relationship between teamwork skills and students’ specific socio-academic features. In this sense, studies such as the ones carried out by Al-Alawneh and Ashour ( 2011 ), Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ), Beigi and Shirmohammadi ( 2012 ), Chamorro-Premuzic et al. ( 2010 ), Chapman and Van Auken ( 2001 ), Ilias et al. ( 2012 ), Lozano-Rodríguez et al. ( 2020 ), Park et al. ( 2015 ) and Rodríguez-Gómez et al. ( 2018 ) have tried to establish the possible relationships between teamwork skills and gender, academic experience or academic performance.

The objective of the present study is to describe higher education students’ mastery level of teamwork skills and its relation to certain socio-academic variables, to introduce changes in university training programmes that can respond to the demands of companies and strengthen their employability. In order to carry out this objective, an observational, transversal descriptive study was devised and tested with an intentional sample of Spanish university students, using the Teamwork Skills Questionnaire (TSQ) (O’Neill et al., 1999 ), which measures an individual’s skill level to work efficiently in a team. This research contributes to the existing literature offering new empirical evidence about teamwork skills levels in Spanish university students on the one hand and adding new insights about the influence of gender and academic factors on teamwork skills on the other.

Soft skills for teamwork

Soft skills are considered essential elements of employees’ development. The acquisition of these skills enables attitudinal and behavioural change in workers, as well as increased productivity and well-being (Sitthisomjin et al., 2014 ). Soft skills facilitate effective teamwork, which is an integral part of the execution of many professions (Vaughan et al., 2019 ).

Therefore, students in both compulsory and further education need to be trained in these skills if they are to become graduates capable of competing in the variety of situations they may come up against in the workplace (Ali et al., 2017 ). Following this line of research, several works have tried to identify the most relevant soft skills that the job market demands from the point of view of students and company supervisors. Durán-Aponte and Durán-García ( 2012 ) highlight the relevance of ethical commitment, personal skills, teamwork and professional responsibility. Clemente-Ricolfe and Escribá-Pérez ( 2013 ) include analysis capacity, problem solving and teamwork. Freire et al. ( 2011 ) confirm that the most valued skills in the job market are responsibility, learning capacity, motivation, concern for quality and teamwork. Accordingly, we can observe that the common denominator of this research is that teamwork is one of the key soft skills that students have to acquire for their future professional success.

Furthermore, soft skills may contribute to their success in many academic and personal situations. The evidence has demonstrated that soft skills promote a series of tangible benefits for health, welfare, relationships, education and work. Given the variety of soft skills, we have turned to the systematic reviews in this area to determine which are the most frequently cited in education and the professional sphere (Gates et al., 2016 ; Lippman et al., 2014 ). Thus, we have observed that the highest valued soft skills by employers are integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, social skills, positive attitude, professionalism, flexibility, teamwork, creativity and work ethic.

It is worth pointing out the varying approaches to the definition of teamwork. Thus, in line with Hare ( 2010 ), our study interprets teamwork as a group of individuals with (a) commonality of goals across members, (b) synergy that emerges from members’ interdependence and (c) size, with at least two members viewed as sufficient. In addition, we should bear in mind that “teamwork” is sometimes considered a skill in itself; in this study, however, our focus is on measuring the soft skills that enable good teamwork, along similar lines as Bonavia et al. ( 2015 ).

The literature has considered many techniques and measurements for evaluating teamwork skills (Bonavia et al., 2015 ). For this study, we have chosen to use the test designed by O’Neill et al. ( 1999 ), a multi-dimensional scale analysing various dimensions of perceptions of teamwork. It includes the measurement of six key soft skills for teamwork: coordination, decision-making, leadership, interpersonal development, adaptability, and communication.

Finally, it is essential to note that studies designed to observe teamwork skills should consider the country’s social and cultural context since socio-cultural features can determine individuals’ behaviour and attitude towards teamwork. For example, one of the dimensions of culture, collectivism versus individualism, has been demonstrated to influence teamwork since the two positions will approach group work in a different way (Galanes et al., 2004 ).

Teamwork skills and socio-academic factors

Previous studies have identified a relationship between student attitudes towards teamwork skills and specific student characteristics such as gender, academic experience or academic performance. However, it is important to mention that research is scarce in the last two variables mentioned. It should also be noted that there is some controversy regarding the results of the studies consulted, especially concerning the academic experience and academic performance, probably due to the diverse cultural and educational contexts and the different measures used, as previously stated.

In what follows, we will describe relevant research about the three variables under consideration, including the context, instrument and data used.

Regarding the possible influence of gender on teamwork skills, it is essential to consider that male and female differences are present in all societies in many spheres (Ellemers, 2018 ), with degrees of variation created by various cultural influences. Economic-social development and religion, among others, can determine variations in gender (Best & Puzio, 2001 ). For this reason, providing information about participants and the contexts where studies are conducted is fundamental to interpret the results correctly and advance in the field.

Rodríguez-Gómez et al. ( 2018 ) analyse ten essential competencies in Spanish university students, including teamwork. They found significant differences in six of these competencies, indicating that women obtain a higher average score than men in five of the six competencies, teamwork being one of them. They emphasise the greater degree of statistical significance in the difference of means in teamwork competence. Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ) investigate whether there are statistically significant differences in teamwork skills ratings in Jordan university students. For this purpose, they analysed six competencies related to teamwork (coordination, decision-making, leadership, interpersonal development, adaptability, and communication) and reported significant differences in communication skills and interpersonal development, the latter showing a higher average score in the case of women. Other studies also highlight gender differences in specific teamwork skills, although they do not clarify if those differences favour men or women. In this sense, Ilias et al. ( 2012 ), in a Malaysian context, or Al-Alawneh and Ashour ( 2011 ) for graduates of career and technical education institutions in Jordan, study the same six teamwork skills as Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ). The former revealed significant differences between genders regarding adaptability and leadership, whilst the latter found significant differences in coordination, communication and interpersonal development.

Academic experience

Academic experience has been positively related to teamwork skills development, emphasising that final-year students are more likely to possess the required competencies for teamwork (Burdett & Hastie, 2009 ). However, as previously indicated, the research conducted in diverse contexts using different measures presents some inconsistencies in its findings. The related literature generally uses two indicators, the students’ age or the academic year. In our study, we have used the second indicator.

Rodríguez-Gómez et al. ( 2018 ) aimed to describe students’ perception of their level of competence in ten basic competencies related to assessment, including teamwork in a Spanish university context. They pointed out significant differences in teamwork for the academic experience variable, using the academic year as an indicator. They observed a substantial increase in teamwork competence from the second year onwards. Final year students reported the highest degree of development of teamwork competence (in the last year, the mean of the competence is \( \overline{x} \) = 5.24 compared to the mean of \( \overline{x} \) = 4.85 in the second year). In this way, students perceived that they improved this competence at the end of their university training. However, in a different context, Jordan, Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ) did not find significant differences between students’ study level and the six analysed teamwork skills.

As indicated, other researchers use the age of university students to determine the academic experience and associate it with attitudes towards teamwork. In this respect, Payne & Monk-Turner ( 2006 ) found moderate relationships between USA university students’ age and some aspects of their attitude towards teamwork skills; specifically, older students considered contributing to other group members’ learning. Something similar happens with more senior students’ willingness to take on leadership roles, as Burdett and Hastie ( 2009 ) reported. Finally, regarding favourable or unfavourable attitudes towards teamwork, Beigi and Shirmohammadi ( 2012 ) concluded that age was not relevant in an Iranian context. Concerning this cultural context, it is essential to consider that the authors highlight that Iranian organisational culture focuses on individual work rather than team collaboration and report that Iranians, compared to other nationalities, are considered less effective in teamwork activities.

Academic performance

Academic performance is an indicator of the learning level achieved by students, and, for this reason, the education system considers it of particular relevance (Reyes, 2003 ). Academic performance has been defined in different ways (Alcaide, 2009 ), and two measures are normally used for their assessment, academic grades or objective tests (Matas, 2003 ). Following Cascón ( 2000 ), our study will use students’ academic performance GPA (grade point average) as the measure. This author found that the grades obtained in successive assessments and their corresponding point average are good criteria for measuring students’ academic performance. The different ways of measuring academic results must be considered to interpret research findings correctly.

In this sense, Lozano-Rodríguez et al. ( 2020 ), in Mexican universities, observed a significant correlation between teamwork skills and academic achievement, calculated using the grades obtained at the end of the academic term. Park et al. ( 2015 ) obtained similar findings in a South Korean context. They highlight that teamwork learning can improve academic performance.

Regarding students’ attitudes towards teamwork, it is important to consider that different cultural and educational contexts can organise and assess teamwork differently. Accordingly, students’ attitudes can vary depending on the perception that teamwork affects their marks (Burdett & Hastie, 2009 ). Likewise, it can be influenced by universities’ focus on teamwork skill training. It has been emphasised that assigning teamwork activities without guidance is not enough. Specific team-building skill training is required to be effective and achieve academic success (Cox & Bobrowski, 2004 ). The described factors can condition research results, as we can see in the following cases.

In an Iranian context, Beigi and Shirmohammadi ( 2012 ) observed no significant differences among students with diverse GPA regarding their attitude towards teamwork. Chapman and Van Auken ( 2001 ) in North America found a significant but small correlation between student attitudes towards teamwork and GPA. They concluded that students with higher GPA had less positive attitudes towards teamwork. However, in the Spanish context, students’ attitudes towards teamwork based on their previous experiences led to higher academic performance (Martínez-Romero et al., 2021 ).

Accordingly, although research highlights that teamwork exerts a beneficial influence on academic performance (Lozano-Rodríguez et al., 2020 ; Park et al., 2015 ; Martínez-Romero et al., 2021 ), specific training on developing effective teamwork skills can determine students’ academic success (Cox & Bobrowski, 2004 ). Considering the results mentioned above and the mixed findings for some variables that previous literature has yielded, the following hypotheses are put forward:

H1: There is a relationship between teamwork skills and gender.

H2: There is a relationship between teamwork skills and academic year.

H3: There is a relationship between teamwork skills and GPA.

This study aims to describe higher education students’ mastery of teamwork skills and its relation to certain socio-academic variables (gender, academic year and grade point average—GPA).

Participants

With the aim of determining the level of teamwork skills among university students, an observational, transversal descriptive study was designed with an intentional sample of Spanish university students (autonomous community of Galicia). Students are enrolled in social sciences degrees (Education and Business Management). These two degrees have been chosen for two reasons: firstly, they are part of the degrees with the highest number of students in this university, and secondly, their programmes include teamwork as a basic competence to develop.

The Spanish university system includes 82 universities (50 public and 32 private). The total number of students enrolled in 2020-2021 is 1,679,518. Undergraduate students represent 79.8% of enrolled students aged between 18 and 21, and only 5.9% are from other countries, mainly from the EU (2.6%) and Latin America and the Caribbean (1.4%). In the case of universities in the region of Galicia, the percentage of international students is even lower (2.6%). Women represent 56% of the total number of students enrolled (MEC, 2020 ).

The present sample consists of 615 students from the three public universities of the Region of Galicia. The cultural context of the study is homogeneous, primarily individuals sharing the same cultural background, languages, customs and religion. Male students make up 33% and female students 67%. The average age among participants is 21.52, the minimum being 18 and the maximum 43. The degrees are structured in four years. 31.4% of the students were in their first year, 26% in their second, 25.5% in their third and 17.1% in their final year.

Socio-academic factors

The proposed questionnaire included a series of variables related to certain socio-academic factors displayed by the participants:

Gender: this was measured by asking the participants to indicate whether they were men or women.

Academic year: students were also asked to state which academic year they were in (Spanish degrees are structured in 4 academic years).

Academic performance: this was measured by asking students to indicate their GPA.

  • Teamwork skills

As stated in the previous literature, there are different tools for measuring teamwork. In our case, we chose the Teamwork Skills Questionnaire (TSQ) (O’Neill et al., 1999 ), which evaluates the general skill level of an individual in order to participate effectively in teamwork (TSQ) as well as the different components that influence this competence. Despite being a self-reporting tool, it is an excellent way of measuring these cross-curricular skills, given the difficulties in using direct measures (Marshall et al., 2005 ).

The questionnaire has six sub-scales: (a) adaptability; (b) coordination; (c) decision-making; (d) leadership; (e) interpersonal development; and (f) communication (O’Neil & Mashbun, 1997 , 413). This instrument was selected because it measures the most relevant competencies for teamwork.

Adaptability (items: 15, 21, 26, 30, 34) refers to being able to recognise problems at work and respond appropriately. Coordination (items: 6, 11, 17, 23, 32) is understood as an individual’s ability to organise team activities in order to complete a task on time. Decision-making (items: 3, 7, 12, 18, 24, 28) is the ability to use the available information to make team decisions. Leadership (items: 1, 4, 8, 13, 19, 25, 29) refers to the ability to lead a team. Interpersonal development (items: 5, 9, 14, 20, 33, 36) is related to the ability to interact cooperatively with other team members. Communication (items: 2, 10, 16, 22, 27, 31, 35) is the global exchange of clear, precise information.

The Teamwork Skills Questionnaire (TSQ) was chosen because of its reliability rate; the scale has good reliability, offering a range from .84 to .97 (Marshall et al., 2005 ; O’Neil et al., 2003 ). The results of our study suggest an adequate level of internal consistency, given that Cronbach’s Alpha ranges from .695 to .868 (Sijtsma, 2009 ) (Table 1 ). The psychometric properties of the scale confirm the factor structure of the original questionnaire composed of 36 items and its six factors ( χ 2 /gl = 3.67, CFI = .937, NNFI = .890, RMSEA = .056) and a very high internal consistency ( α = .938) (Portela-Pino et al., 2022 ).

The questionnaire was distributed to the students as a form sent through the university platform, thus enabling anonymous, voluntary and confidential participation. Ethical research protocols were respected, emphasising confidentiality and following the ethical rules outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki (AMM, 2017 ).

Data analysis

The data analysis procedure has varied depending on the study objective. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the basic features of the data. The next step was to conduct a means analysis using the Student t-test for dichotomous variables and the analysis of variance (ANOVA), followed by the Bonferroni post hoc test for polytomous variables. The effect size was calculated via Cohen’s d . In order to establish the relation between the scale variables, Pearson’s correlation was also calculated. Pearson’s chi-square was used to ascertain the association among categorical variables. Finally, a multiple linear regression analysis was carried out to identify the predictors of overall competence on teamwork (TSQ) according to socio-academic variables (method: enter). All the analyses were carried out with a confidence level of 95% through the statistical package SPSS 25.0.

Descriptive and univariate analysis

The students’ levels of competence in each of the factors measured are relatively high, except for leadership ( \( \overline{x} \) = 2.71) and coordination ( \( \overline{x} \) = 2.99) (Table 2 ). Thanks to the confidence interval, we can estimate between which values any real population value will fall, with a 5% margin of error, and as we can see, we are very close to the mean.

Hypothesis 1, evidenced in Table 3 , which established a relationship between teamwork skills and gender, is accepted. We find that the male students score higher in leadership, whilst female students score higher in adaptability, coordination, interpersonal development and communication. There are no differences in decision-making.

The effect size was also calculated through Cohen’s d ( d = standardised means difference); the effect is small for all variables except for decision-making, which is large.

Hypothesis 2, evidenced in Table 4 , where the academic year is a significant variable in skill level, is partially accepted. It would seem that the further along in their studies a student is, the greater their skill level, especially regarding adaptability and decision-making. Nevertheless, the differences are scarce in the other skills. The effect size was also calculated through Cohen’s d ( d = standardised means difference); the effect is small for variables.

Multivariate analysis

Table 5 analyses the correlation between different factors and the independent variable GPA, put forward as hypothesis 3. A positive relation between skills and average academic marks can be found, except for interpersonal development.

Given that the variables gender, GPA and academic year influence teamwork competence, it is necessary to establish whether there are differences in GPA and academic year for gender. It is observed that women obtain higher GPA than men (see Table 3 ). Based on these results, we have designed a regression model to explain the socio-academic variables that influence teamwork development according to gender.

Based on the overall objective of this research, a linear multiple regression analysis has been estimated. The results are presented in Table 6 . On the one hand, the expected sign for each variable in relation to the dependent variable (overall competence on teamwork—TSQ) is included. On the other hand, both the model’s estimated coefficients (non-standardised) and the typified coefficients (standardised), referred to as β , are included. The fourth and fifth columns present the values of the statistic and its significance ( p -value < .05). The last column shows values VIF, which are lower than 10; this suggests no multicollinearity or internal correlations between the independent variables.

For the total model (men and women), results show a statistically significant relationship between the dependent variable (overall competence on teamwork) and the academic year and GPA of 1% and, with the variable gender, of 5%. All the variables have the expected sign coefficient. Out of this group of variables, the one with the greatest specific weight over the response variable is the academic year ( β = .119). Accordingly, the regression analysis results show that although the independent variables are significant, their incidence to explain teamwork skills is limited.

In order to find out the academic variables that explain teamwork skills, a model was designed for each gender. Results confirm that both academic variables (GPA and academic year) influence teamwork skills mastery in the case of women, whilst no influence is found in the model for men. Additionally, in the model for women, all the variables have the expected sign coefficient, there is a statistically significant relationship between the dependent variable (overall competence on teamwork) and the academic year and GPA of 1%, and GPA is the variable with the greatest weight with respect to the dependent variable (teamwork) ( β =.152).

Discussion, conclusions and implications

University graduates should be efficient in their workplace. For this purpose, not only solid hard skills are required, but competencies that allow them to solve real-life problems. Universities are expected to provide specific training on skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking, cooperation or soft skills (Pöysä-Tarhonen et al., 2016 ), as the latter would appear to have a close relation with employability. However, training students in these skills is problematic because this type of instruction has not been traditionally contemplated in academic culture (Hirsch, 2017 ).

For these reasons, having a valid and reliable instrument to measure these skills is of great importance, not only for employers but also for university teaching staff. Results show a strong positive relationship between all the scale factors that vary between .179 and .733, and fundamentally between each of them and the total scale score. In the research carried out by Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ), the range varied between .43 and .69, whilst in Brungardt’s study ( 2009 ), the correlation varied from .242 to .679. Therefore, this corroborates that the results obtained in our research are similar to previous studies.

Teamwork skills among students

We can confirm that social science students’ teamwork skills level in each of the soft skills measured is relatively high, except for leadership and coordination. However, it is essential to highlight that some studies have noted that graduates expressed the differences perceived regarding the soft skills acquired at university and those that are actually applied in an organisational context. To this respect, Pereira ( 2013 ) confirmed that there were significant differences between students’ perceptions of the soft skills acquired at university and companies’ perceptions. This discrepancy might point to a structural imbalance in the interaction between universities and companies, given that universities do not seem to address the skills demands of the workplace.

Differences in students’ level of teamwork skills based on socio-academic factors

The results of the study confirm the existence of significant differences in teamwork skills according to gender, academic year and GPA of the students.

Teamwork skills and gender

The male students were confirmed to have only obtained higher scores in leadership skills, whereas the female students scored higher in adaptability, coordination, interpersonal development and communication. No differences were noted in decision-making skills.

Our results are in the same line as other studies, such as the one carried out by Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ) with Jordan university students. These researchers found significant differences in gender, indicating that women have better interpersonal skills since the mean scores of interpersonal and communication skills were higher for women. According to these authors, this result can be explained by considering Jordan women’s psychology, described to be more serious about their responsibilities and commitments with their families and society in general than Jordan men. It is also worth noting that, although not significant, men obtained higher scores than women in leadership skills. This result is explained by taking into account cultural differences since men are reported to have more opportunities to lead and make decisions than women. Conversely, other studies such as that of Beigi and Shirmohammadi ( 2012 ) conducted among students at the University of Iran confirmed a significant relationship but having male students slightly better attitudes towards teamwork than their female counterparts. The results of these two studies should be interpreted considering the cultural context where they occur. It is crucial to consider the influence of gender regarding culture (Galanes et al., 2004 ) and how it affects teamwork. These differences also could help explain the contradictions found between gender and teamwork performance (Schneid et al., 2015 ).

Considering the results obtained in our research, we can conclude that there are differences between genders regarding teamwork skills since female students scored higher in all analysed skills, except for leadership. From the point of view of training, these results are highly relevant as teamwork skills are considered fundamental for students’ integration into the job market and their professional development. However, as we have indicated, teamwork skills show significant gender differences.

On the one hand, women seem to show higher self-efficacy in teamwork (Peinado et al., 2015 ). In this respect, it is worth noting that self-efficacy beliefs influence academic success and students’ motivation to achieve their goals (Saunders et al., 2004 ; Vera et al., 2011 ). Equally, several studies confirm that women obtain better academic results than men at university (Khan et al., 2012 ; Wan Chik et al., 2012 ). Accordingly, teamwork gender differences seem to affect other highly relevant aspects for academic success, such as GPA.

Teamwork skills and academic year

The academic year has also proven to be a significant factor in skills development. It has been shown that the higher the academic year being studied, the higher the level of adaptability and decision-making. This evolution indicates that as students progress through the courses and gain more experience, they develop their skills more efficiently. In addition, First-year students’ reflective capacity, maturity, and commitment may be less developed than in later years (Burdett & Hastie, 2009 ). Our results align with the study by Rodríguez-Gómez et al. ( 2018 ) since they also observed that the students’ teamwork competence level improved as the courses progressed due to students’ perception of more significant development of their acquired skills in the last academic years. As could be expected, this evolution will depend on the specific training methodology employed in different universities and countries. The differences are not as evident as some studies have reported in some cases. For example, in a Jordan context, Al-Alawneh et al. ( 2011 ) found no significant differences in the six analysed teamwork skills (coordination, decision-making, leadership, interpersonal development, adaptability, and communication). Nevertheless, these authors also highlight that second-year students obtained higher scores than first-year students, which is consistent with research that recommends teaching generic skills in the second year (Aarnio et al., 2010 ).

Teamwork skills and GPA

Regarding the relationship between GPA and teamwork skills, the results of our research are consistent with other studies. Park et al. ( 2015 ), with South Korean university students or Lozano-Rodríguez et al. ( 2020 ), with Mexican ones, also found that teamwork skills were positively related to academic performance. In the Spanish context, Martínez-Romero et al. ( 2021 ) confirm these findings.

On the other hand, Chamorro-Premuzic et al. ( 2010 ), in their study carried out for undergraduate and post-graduate students from UK universities, point out that the scores in these skills are predictors of academic achievement. In this way, developing students’ teamwork skills can transcend all the positive benefits of such decisive competencies and improve their academic scores. Emphasising this connection is highly important, as some education systems neglect teamwork due to the consideration that it interferes with academic achievements (Lau et al., 2014 ). However, when institutional efforts are made, and specific training on effective teamwork skills is developed, students are more likely to achieve academic success (Cox & Bobrowski, 2004 ).

As exemplified here, teamwork is not only an essential transferable skill highly valued by employers but a strategic means to obtain better academic results. Students frequently underestimate this connection because they do not usually get grades for teamwork skills (Strom & Strom, 2011 ). The findings presented are highly relevant as they suggest teamwork can improve not only teamwork skills but also academic performance. Men might need to improve most of their teamwork skills to get higher academic marks and become professionals with more resources. On the other hand, women could consider being open and receptive to lead, trying to change their roles and testing their qualities and strengths. In this way, they could have the chance to transcend any barriers that might limit their capabilities.

Universities provide ideal environments for developing teamwork skills since these skills can be fostered from formal instruction, curriculum design, and non-formal perspectives. From the formal perspective, educational institutions can promote the organisation and implementation of teamwork training programmes. Specifically, teachers can include these skills in the design of their subjects. Some research has emphasised the role of specific innovative teaching techniques in the classroom, such as the micro flip teaching model (Fidalgo-Blanco et al., 2019 ), Project-based learning (Vogler et al., 2018 ) or experiential activities (Marasi, 2019 ).

Likewise, curricular elective subjects and extracurricular training courses have proven to be highly effective for teamwork skills acquisition (Cox & Bobrowski, 2004 ), so they should be promoted and included at an institutional level. In this way, students can acquire and develop teamwork skills through curricular, academic practices, and university extracurricular or free time leisure activities. Previous literature has observed that extracurricular activities have been shown to positively impact the acquisition of teamwork skills (Sherrod et al., 2002 ; Zaff et al., 2003 ). In this sense, Arat ( 2014 ) points out that university students also acquire these skills when engaging in activities such as sports, volunteering, art and design projects, long-term workshops and courses, travel, or learning to play an instrument. De Prada et al. ( 2021 ) observe that students who participate in musical activities, carry out multidisciplinary experiences in volunteering and participate in international workgroups have better teamwork skills.

Therefore, given the importance of teamwork skills for students’ academic performance and future employability, higher education institutions should endeavour to support and develop teamwork skills training from the first year at university (Burdett & Hastie, 2009 ; Cox & Bobrowski, 2004 ; Martínez-Romero et al., 2021 ) in order to guarantee students’ educational, social and professional success.

Limitations and future research

Among the limitations of this research, we should indicate that a self-assessment instrument, tested with an intentional sample, was used, so in future research, it would be advisable to carry out a qualitative analysis through interviews or discussion groups to help explain these results. For this reason, results are internally valid, i.e. applicable to the group under study; they cannot be generalised to other groups unless they share the same features. Accordingly, future research should include other degrees to check the differences among the different university training areas. Additionally, the study is based on a specific cultural context, the Spanish one, so replicating this study in other cultural contexts could be helpful to observe the potential effect of culture on teamwork skills.

Lastly, the list of socio-academic factors included in the questionnaire was limited and centred on students’ objective academic experience at university (year of study and GPA). Including new variables and using different analysis models would be interesting to study other factors and activities that might impact teamwork skills acquisition and development. In this sense, variables such as the cultural context, intercultural experiences, students’ field of studies, the presence of specific courses on teamwork training in the curriculum and students’ participation in team-based extra-curricular activities related to sports, music, or volunteering could add valuable insights.

Abbreviations

Grade point average

Teamwork Skills Questionnaire

Variance inflation factor

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mrs. Rebecca Ramanathan for her help in the translation and correction of the English version. To our colleagues in RED-IS (Red Educativa Docente-Innovar en Sociedad) for their critical comments on this study and support.

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M.M., E.P and M.P. conceived and designed the study, analysed the data, and wrote the paper. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Elena De Prada. Department of English, French and German. Faculty of Business and Tourism. University of Vigo. Campus Universitario, 32004 Ourense, Spain. Email: [email protected] .

Ph.D. in Applied linguistics, specialist in TESOL (Trinity College London, England) and Professor. Her publications and research guidelines are focused on foreign language learning, teacher training, innovative teaching, learning methods, multilingualism, interculturality and creativity.

Mercedes Mareque (corresponding autor). Department of Financial Economics and Accountancy. Faculty of Business and Tourism. University of Vigo. Campus Universitario, 32004 Ourense, Spain. Email: [email protected] .

Ph.D. in Financial Economics and Accounting and Professor. Her publications and research guidelines focus on the fields of financial audit, accounting and recently in the fields of creativity and educational innovation.

Margarita Pino-Juste. Department of Didactics, School Organization and Research Methods. Faculty of Education Sciences and Sports. University of Vigo. Campus A Xunqueira, 36005 Pontevedra, Spain. [email protected] .

Ph.D. in Educational Sciences and Professor. Her publications and research guidelines are focused on the fields of design and evaluation of programmes, the evaluation of needs, inclusive education and social disabilities.

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Correspondence to Mercedes Mareque .

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De Prada, E., Mareque, M. & Pino-Juste, M. Teamwork skills in higher education: is university training contributing to their mastery?. Psicol. Refl. Crít. 35 , 5 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-022-00207-1

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21 Team-Building Activities for Students [Plus: Free List of 45+ Activities]

Creating connections in your classroom will ensure your students are engaged. Use these team-building activities to lay a solid foundation for learning.

teamwork assignment

Top Hat Staff

21 Team-Building Activities for Students [Plus: Free List of 45+ Activities]

Team building isn’t just for the corporate workplace — it can also be used in the classroom to encourage collaboration, problem-solving and decision-making. And it doesn’t have to involve awkward activities such as a ‘trust fall.’ Engaging, relevant team-building activities for students can energize your classroom and take learning to a new level.

By accomplishing group tasks, students learn to listen, trust and support each other, while developing life skills such as communication and collaboration—skills that can’t be learned from a textbook, interactive or not. Learning to get along with peers, for example, isn’t something you can pick up through memorization.

Sara Keinath, Youth Leadership Educator at Michigan State University explains the value of team-building activities for students: “Guiding group members through intentional games can help them improve their communication skills with each other, which will transfer to their work or club projects later. Many team-building activities incorporate such skills as active listening, questioning assumptions, giving clear directions, problem-solving or learning how to ask effective questions.”

Facilitate your team-building games and activities for students over the course of a semester (rather than a one-off event). Here are 21 examples of fun team-building activities for students you can use in the classroom that won’t make everyone cringe.

Help your college students connect and collaborate. Download 45+ Team-Building Activities for College Courses and build community in any classroom.

Table of Contents

Fun leadership activities for college students.

  • Group activities for in-person classes

Community-building activities for college students

Adding some fun and levity to your classroom helps your students build informal connections with peers.

1) Pub quiz

Group size: Groups of 3–7 students 

Course type: Online (synchronous), in-person

You don’t need to hang out in an actual pub for this team-building activity; the idea is to mimic a trivia pub night, fostering teamwork in a fun environment by encouraging participants to work towards a common goal. For online courses, instructors can make use of Zoom rooms to organize teams or groups. The ‘host’ asks a multiple-choice trivia question, and teams are given 60 seconds to discuss and agree upon an answer. You can use generic quiz questions (from the board game Trivial Pursuit, for example), or you could relate questions back to the course material. The team with the most points wins (consider giving bonus marks on a recent quiz as a prize).

2) Idea building blocks

Group size: Groups of 5–10 students

Course type: In-person

Divide the class into teams and present them with a problem related to your course material. One team member writes down a solution and passes the sheets of paper along to the next team member, who builds upon that idea and then passes it along to the rest of the team. The paper is passed around until each team member has added to the original solution. When their time is up, a spokesperson can present their ultimate solution to the rest of the group or to the class. This activity helps develop students’ problem-solving and collaboration skills, with learners working towards a common goal.

3) Spaghetti tower

Group size: Groups of 3–10 students

Divide students into teams and provide them with ‘building’ materials, such as dry spaghetti, marshmallows, string and tape. Set a time limit for designing and building a spaghetti tower (one that’s structurally sound, of course). When their time is up, the tallest freestanding tower wins. Prizes can range from bonus points on a recent assignment to a short extension for their next paper or report. There are several variations on this, such as building a pyramid with paper cups, but the idea is to promote communication and collaboration in a leadership exercise—and provide a little incentive as well.

4) Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts aren’t just for kids. While this icebreaker game requires some preparation, it encourages students to be collaborative: planning a strategy, dividing up tasks and communicating progress. Split your students into teams and give them a time limit to find as many items as possible on a list you’ve provided. You can make this more challenging by offering clues or riddles rather than the names of items.

5) Newspaper fashion show

Group size: Groups of 6–8 students

While this team-building game is ideal for art and design students, it can be used in any classroom to get learners out of their comfort zones and allow for team bonding. Divide students into teams of six to eight, and supply them with newspaper, tape and scissors. Participants are given a time limit to design and create an item of clothing out of a newspaper, which requires group brainstorming and delegation of tasks. Bonus points if their article somehow relates to your course material. One person in the group could ‘model’ the finished product when their time is up.

Group activities for online and in-person classes

These activities are also great as icebreakers or retreat exercises.

6) Shark Tank

Split students into small groups and have them develop a product, logo, brand name and marketing strategy before presenting their idea to a panel of ‘sharks’ (those who will judge their ideas). Once each group has presented, the ‘sharks’ all vote on their favorite project with the winner getting a special certificate or an extension on their latest assignment. This activity gives students the opportunity to exercise creative thinking and work on presentation and public speaking skills.  

7) Pipeline

Group size: Groups of 3–5 students 

Teams are given the task of carrying a marble or ball from a start line to a finish line, without it ever touching the floor—or students’ hands. Here’s how it works: Each team member is given a PVC pipe (though they could also use paper and tape, or paper towel rolls). Allow five minutes of planning time, so teams can strategize how they will transport the object as a group; if it falls to the floor, they must start over. This helps to promote problem-solving, communication and great teamwork.

8) Classify this

Group size: Groups of 3–5 students

Arrange random objects on your desk—anything from paper clips to an umbrella to jewelry (aim for about 25 objects in total). Teams of students must then categorize these objects on a piece of paper or sticky note, even when no obvious connections exist. You can decide on the number of categories they must fit the object into or let each team decide. When their time is up, a participant from each group presents their list and explains the logic behind it. This team-building exercise helps students think outside the box.

9) Goodie bag skits

This might take some students out of their comfort zone but it encourages teamwork and collaboration. Divide the class into teams of up to ten people and provide each team with a ‘goodie bag’ filled with random items. Set a time limit (five-to-ten minutes) for each group to create a short skit tied to course content, based on the items in the bag. Teams then present their skits, and a group vote can be held to declare the winner. Winners can get bonus points for their grade on this activity or their in-class participation grade at the end of the school year.

10) Deserted island

Course type: Online (synchronous or asynchronous), in-person

In this icebreaker, small groups of students imagine they’re stranded on a deserted island. This activity can help students build on their leadership skills. After dividing students into teams, provide them with a list of items for survival. Students must prioritize and rank those items—first on their own, and then as a group. Not only does this test their problem-solving skills, but it also helps them differentiate between the needs of the individual and the needs of the collective. 

11) Think-pair-repair

Group size: 20 students (minimum)

Change up your usual think-pair-share activities by posing an open-ended question to your class and asking students to come up with their best answer. Next, pair peers up and encourage them to agree on a response. Combine two pairs and have a group of four accomplish the same task. Continue until half the class goes head-to-head with the other half, defending their stance. This way, students benefit from hearing their peers’ perspectives, as well as getting to practice their debate skills. If your students are online, breakout rooms on Zoom or Microsoft Teams allow you to replicate this experience with virtual team-building. 

12) Why am I here?

Group size: 15–20 students (maximum)

Have students draw a picture that represents why they enrolled in your course. Encourage them to think beyond the fact that they may need your course credit to graduate. They could think about wanting to learn more about your field or simply that their friends were enrolled in your class, too. After five minutes, have students share their picture with the larger group if they’re comfortable—a fun way to help students feel like part of one interconnected community, particularly in the back-to-school season.

→ Download Now: 45+ Team-Building Activities

13) Improv games

Group size: 20 students (minimum )

Improvisational (improv) games encourage students to think quickly and step outside their comfort zone to connect with their peers. Here are a few examples: Pair up students and ask them to figure out the most unexpected things they share in common (this can also be done online in breakout rooms). Or challenge your students to count to 20 as a group with one person saying each number—but no one is assigned a number, and if two people talk at the same time, everyone starts again at one. 

There are literally dozens of in-school activities for college students that can be used in the classroom—you can even ask students to create their own. By incorporating group activities into your teaching, you’re providing students with an opportunity to learn essential life skills they’ll carry with them long after they graduate.

14) Socratic seminar

Ask students to prepare for a discussion by reviewing a course reading or group of texts and coming up with a few higher-order discussion questions about the text. In class, pose an introductory, open-ended question. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with evidence from previous course concepts or texts. There doesn’t need to be a particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with their peers.

15) Concentric circles

Group size: 20 students (maximum)

Students form two circles: an inner circle and an outer circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. Pose a question to the whole group and have pairs discuss their responses with each other. After three-to-five minutes, have students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of the next student. Pose a new question, and the process is repeated, exposing students to the different perspectives of their entire team.

16) Absurd questions

Group size: Groups of 5 students

Course type: Online (synchronous or asynchronous), blended, in-person

Pose a fantastical, outrageous or fictitious statement to the entire group. Statements can be tailored to your discipline such as “what if everyone lived to 150” for a developmental class or “what if there was no such thing as evolution” for a biology class. Students are asked to develop as many answers to the question as they can by considering all political, social, economical and psychological angles. They can then share the answers out loud or, if you’re teaching remotely, on a discussion board, which is a great option for introverts as well.

17) This or that

This activity allows students to see where their peers stand on a variety of different topics and issues. Instructors should distribute a list of provocative statements before class, allowing students to read ahead. Then, they can ask students to indicate whether they agree, disagree or are neutral on the topic in advance, using an online discussion thread or Google Doc. In class, use another discussion thread or live chat to have students of differing opinions share their views. After a few minutes, encourage one or two members in each group to defend their position amongst a new group of students. Ask students to repeat this process for several rounds to help familiarize themselves with a variety of standpoints.

18) Snowball discussions    

Group size: Groups of 2–4 students

Assign students a case study or reading to discuss with a partner, then have them share their thoughts with the larger group. Use breakout rooms in Zoom and randomly assign students in pairs with a discussion question. After a few minutes, combine rooms to form groups of four. After another five minutes, combine groups of four to become a larger group of eight—and so on until the whole class is back together again.

19) Make it personal

Group size: Groups of 2–8 students

After you’ve covered a topic or concept in your lecture, divide students into small discussion groups (or breakout rooms online). Ask the groups questions like “How did this impact your prior knowledge of the topic?” or “What was your initial reaction to this source/article/fact?” to encourage students to reflect on their personal connections to the course concepts they are learning, which is particularly beneficial to educators around the first day of school.

20) Synthesis

Course type: Online (synchronous), in-person 

This discussion activity can help students connect course concepts by leaning on prior knowledge and other learning experiences. Consider asking questions such as “How can this idea be combined with ________ to create a more complete or comprehensive understanding of _________?” Then, students can discuss these questions in their small teams (or online breakout room) in order to learn more about one another’s experiences inside and outside the classroom. 

21) Gallery walk

Start by setting up stations or posters in a few locations around the classroom (like on the walls or on tables). For online classes, students can complete this activity in breakout rooms. Divide students into small groups and have them rotate between each station together, performing some kind of task like sorting their observations into categories. Ask them to write down a list of questions about the source material they are viewing or respond to a discussion prompt related to the course material to generate conversation.

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Teamwork, weather challenges and rare fish finds – join us on a bottom trawl survey in the North Sea

A person hands over a binder to another person on a ship.

We would like to say a big thank you to Barbara Bland who is now ending her assignment as expedition leader for IBTS (International Bottom Trawl Survey) on board SLU's research vessel R/V Svea and handing over the assignment to Annelie Hilvarsson.

Barbara has been the expedition leader for IBTS since 2014. The aim of the expeditions is to produce data that is used for stock assessment of a number of target species such as cod, haddock, whiting and herring in the North Sea.

– As an expedition leader I plan the route and supervise the fishing, and I have various instruments that help me and show where the trawl is and what it is doing, says Barbara.

The first IBTS of the year was conducted at the end of January. It was also then that Annelie made her first trip as the new expedition leader.

– I've been on previous expeditions and before I took over the assignment as expedition leader, I also took the opportunity to follow Barbara in her work. During my first week on board, Barbara was there as a safe support and we had the opportunity to help each other, says Annelie.

The entire expedition is based on good cooperation and teamwork among the crew.

– I get very good support from the experienced crew and the captain. On board we have, among other things, two trawler masters who handle the work with the trawl on deck. The Swedish Maritime Administration is manning the boat and SMHI (the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) is involved in collecting hydrographic data such as salinity and temperature on each trawl occasion. In the lab, we have staff from the Institute of Marine Research at SLU Aqua, and lab manager Jan-Erik Johansson leads the work with sampling and sorting of fish. I would never have been able to do this without this fantastic team, it would have been impossible, Annelie continues.

During the expedition in January, the crew experienced winds of up to 25 m/s.

– You're not so fresh during the first day if you go out in bad weather. But seasickness pills usually help in the beginning and before the body starts to rock in and get used to it, says Barbara. – Svea is also an extremely stable boat, so that makes it easier, says Annelie.

Barbara looks back on her time as an expedition leader and remembers a few times when the trawl survey offered unusual finds.

– It's fun with fish! And of course, we have had some special catches over the years. A couple of times we caught Greenland sharks. They weren't that big though, but still. Another time we caught a rather spectacular fish called dealfish. It is flat and silvery with red fins. At night, we fish with the caterpillar trawl and then we also get unusual finds, one time we caught a seahorse. We have also caught John Dory fish that actually live in more southern latitudes. But sometimes they pop up where we are, the same thing with sardines, says Barbara.

The expedition goes out during the first quarter and preferably at the end of January and the beginning of February. It is the spawning period of the cod fish that decides when.

– We'd rather not be out in bad weather, it's a safety issue and we risk getting poor data. As an expedition leader, you need to keep an eye on weather forecasts at all times and try to plan the expedition based on the weather. You check weather forecasts all the time and these days we have so much good information, in the past you could easily end up in trouble, Barbara continues. – We also don't want to go out too early in the year, as the days are short and we have less time to fish. The fish stay in different places depending on the light. When it's dark, it stays higher up in the water mass, and when it's light, it stays close to the bottom. That's why we carry out the trawl surveys during daytime, says Annelie.

Finally, Barbara shares her best advice with Annelie, who is now taking over as expedition leader for IBTS.

– Being an expedition leader is a very fun assignment and everyone plays an important role in getting everything together. My best advice is to keep track of the weather, the time and make sure to take advantage of the daylight. "We run a very smooth operation" when we are out, we don't waste any time but focus on getting as much done as possible. I am convinced that Annelie will do a good job as expedition leader. I myself will soon retire, I mean, you have to give in at some point, otherwise this assignment has been a lot of fun, Barbara concludes.

Two people standing in front of a screen on a ship

New expedition leader Annelie Hilvarsson and her colleague Barbara Bland monitor the sample trawls from R/V Svea. Photo: Johanna Kozák.

Several people are sorting fish that are laid out on a long narrow table

Full speed ahead on the conveyor belt in the fish lab. Here the catch is sorted by species and size for later analysis. Photo: Johanna Kozák.

Two people sitting at a table looking at fish larvae through a magnifying glass

Once the fine-mesh larval trawl has been emptied, Malin Werner and Karolina Wikström start the next part of the job: identifying, counting and recording all the plankton. Photo: Johanna Kozák.

A trawl photographed from a ship

During IBTS, between 40-50 trawls are made at pre-determined locations. Photo: Johanna Kozák.

The International Bottom Trawl Survey (IBTS) has been running in its current form in the North Sea since 1990 and is carried out within the framework of one of ICES (International Council for the Exploration of the Sea) trawl survey programmes. The main purpose of the expedition is to estimate the abundance and distribution of juvenile fish of commercial fish species, such as cod, haddock, whiting, herring, sprat, Norway pout, saithe and mackerel in the Kattegat, Skagerrak and parts of the eastern North Sea. The estimates, together with data from commercial fisheries, form the basis for ICES advice on how much fishing stocks can tolerate. Since 2020, the expeditions have been carried out with SLU's research vessel R/V Svea.

Related pages:

  • Fish and aquacultural science
  • Department of Aquatic Resources
  • Environmental monitoring and assessment news
  • SLU Water Forum

Annelie Hilvarsson, Environmental Assessment Specialist at the Department of Aquatic Resources; Institute of Marine Research, joint staff [email protected] , 010-478 40 30, 076-126 80 21

Barbara Bland, Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Analyst at the  Department of Aquatic Resources; Institute of Marine Research, joint staff [email protected] , 010-478 40 13

Read more about the Research Vessel Svea​

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