In what ways have teams influenced you? Recall a positive team experience that has impacted your life. Perhaps it was a team sport when you were younger, or a project team that met an important goal. What makes that team experience stand out? Recall a negative team experience that has impacted you. Was it the goal? The leader? The team members? What made the experience negative? Consider the role(s) you’ve played and still play in teams. Do you see a pattern?
Review attached readings 2-3 (from the book Effective teams: Essentials from leader to leader by France Hesselbein) and lesssons and below links
Write a 400-word essay where you respond to the following prompts:
Compare and contrast high-performing teams and low-performing teams.
Support your discussion with personal examples of ways you’ve experienced teams, both high functioning and dysfunctional.
Links
Sample solution
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
Sample Answer
Sample Answer
The Power of Teams: A Comparison of High-Performing and Low-Performing Teams
Teams play a significant role in our lives, shaping our experiences and influencing our personal and professional growth. Whether it be a team sport during our formative years or a project team that achieved a remarkable goal, these team experiences leave a lasting impact. In this essay, we will explore the characteristics that differentiate high-performing teams from low-performing ones, drawing upon personal examples and insights from France Hesselbein’s book “Effective Teams: Essentials from Leader to Leader.”
High-Performing Teams: Collaboration at its Best
High-performing teams exhibit several key characteristics that set them apart:
Clear Goals and Shared Vision: High-performing teams have a well-defined purpose and a shared vision of what they aim to achieve. This clarity of purpose serves as a driving force, aligning team members towards a common objective. For instance, during my time as a member of a high school soccer team, we had a clear goal of winning the state championship. This shared vision fostered a strong sense of camaraderie and motivated us to give our best on and off the field.
Effective Communication: Open and frequent communication is crucial for the success of any team. High-performing teams prioritize effective communication, ensuring that information flows freely among team members. This enables them to share ideas, resolve conflicts, and make well-informed decisions. In my experience as part of a high-performing project team in college, we held regular meetings where everyone had an equal opportunity to contribute their thoughts and concerns. This open dialogue facilitated collaboration and innovation.
Complementary Skills and Diversity: High-performing teams are composed of individuals with diverse skill sets and backgrounds that complement each other. This diversity enables them to tackle complex problems from multiple perspectives, leading to more creative and robust solutions. In my professional life, I have witnessed the power of diversity in a marketing team where individuals with different expertise in areas such as design, analytics, and content creation came together to produce exceptional campaigns.
Low-Performing Teams: Barriers to Success
Conversely, low-performing teams exhibit characteristics that hinder their success:
Lack of Clarity and Direction: Low-performing teams often suffer from a lack of clear goals and direction. Without a common purpose, team members may feel disengaged and struggle to find motivation. I experienced this firsthand while working on a community service project where the objectives were vague, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
Poor Communication: In low-performing teams, communication breakdowns are common, leading to misunderstandings, conflicts, and reduced productivity. A negative team experience I encountered was during a group project in college where some members failed to communicate their progress or challenges effectively. This lack of communication resulted in missed deadlines and subpar outcomes.
Lack of Trust and Collaboration: Low-performing teams often lack trust among members, hindering collaboration and stifling creativity. When team members are unwilling to share ideas or provide support, the overall performance suffers. A negative team experience I recall was when I joined an organization where the team leader fostered an environment of competition rather than collaboration. This created a toxic work atmosphere that hindered productivity.
In reflecting on my personal experiences with high-functioning and dysfunctional teams, a pattern emerges. The success of a team is heavily influenced by clear goals, effective communication, diversity of skills, trust among members, and collaborative practices. High-performing teams embody these characteristics, fostering an environment where individuals can thrive collectively.
In conclusion, the power of teams lies in their ability to bring together individuals with diverse skills and perspectives towards a common goal. High-performing teams excel through clear goals, effective communication, and complementary skills, while low-performing teams struggle due to lack of clarity, poor communication, and lack of trust. By understanding the factors that differentiate these teams, we can strive to cultivate high-performing teams in our personal and professional lives, enabling us to achieve remarkable outcomes together.
