3.3 Communication

I don't mean casual communication and smalltalk. I mean the willingness to communicate with other members when it becomes necessary. Let's say you hit a snag in a task that you promised your team, what do you do? Let's assume you still have a week before the promised delivery date.

A team player informs the group that he/she encounters an unexpected snag. This does not imply the member is not capable or lazy. In engineering and programming projects, snags happen quite often. By informing other members, several important goals are accomplished.

First, the team knows that this task may take longer than expected. That is usually okay, as long as the team alters the original plan to accommodate for the extra time. If the team is not informed, then the alteration of the original plan cannot take place until the task passes its deadline. This gives the team less time to react, and makes inefficient use of team resources.

Second, the team may be able to help. Sometimes, we get tunnel vision after working on a part of a project for too long. Another team member may have a fresher view of the problem, and offer suggestions that lead to the resolution of the problem.