Blog Topic #4

Your assignment this week is to think about how, in working with your groups, you have process gain and process loss. True, you all of have individual goals, but as a group you may be more successful than as individuals - why is that? What aspects of your groups will help you succeed and what aspects might lead to process loss? Social loafing?

Here's my entry:

This weekend is the first test of my goals. Sunday morning at 10:50, I hit the water at the Wildflower Triathlon. I find myself a little bit nervous. But, that's good. That means that I've set a high goal for myself, and that nervousness will help me. It's a sign of stress, but it is positive stress, and as we discussed in class, some stress is better than no stress.

I'm worried about making my own goal time (I went 24 minutes last year, and would like to get under 23 minutes this year), but also about my team. A relay team uses pooled task interdependence. I swim, then my friend Jessica (a professor from the Kinesiology Dept at SJSU) will ride, then our friend Nancy will run. Our success requires that everyone do well, but on the day of the race, I can't really help them perform. But, there are still opportunities for process gain. During the training phase, I told them what I was doing and that inspired them to get up and train more, as well. And, knowing that we have other people depending on us, and that we are accountable to each other, will make us work just that little bit harder on race day. Of course, there is also an opportunity for process loss. When we transition from one person to the next, we have to make sure that we hand over the timing chip smoothly, that each person is ready when it is time for their leg, and that we can find each other in the transition area. We'll practice all of this on Saturday when we get to the campground.

I'm hoping our team can reach our potential performance level. We are a homogeneous team (all Chinese! All women! All awesome!). We are small. I've reinforced with my team members why I chose them (Nancy is a super fast little runner!). Our goal is clear and we are all motivated. These characteristics of my team will help us succeed!

If you are interested, here's the triathlon website:
www.tricalifornia.com/index.cfm/WildFlower2011-main.htm

My team is FFF 2.5a