DDCCC: My Philosophy on Finding the Best Teammates
The people you work with are important. The team you have is second only to the vision you create.
My philosophy for building teams is simple — find a diverse group of people who are driven, creative, collaborative, communicators.
Diverse: This is a must. You need diversity of opinion. You need diversity of background. Everyone has had different experiences, and by capitalizing on that, we can increase creativity, address various perspectives, and have a variety of talent. As a very basic example, when you’re developing a product, you don’t want to be in a room full of experienced programmers. You also need people such as designers and marketing directors.
Driven: I look for people who are passionate about my vision, because that’s something you don’t want to compromise. In addition, if you have a passionate team, they’ll have a better understanding of the goal and their own roles and they’ll also be more prepared to tackle all kinds of challenges.
An Aside: I really liked the way one of my classes (public health) built teams for our final project. You filled out a cute little questionnaire about yourself, including areas of public health that you find interesting. Based on common interests in public health, TAs grouped us up. That made our project, finding a creative solution to a public health issue — a breeze. It felt like we were all in the same headspace, yet with different ideas that flowed nicely.
Creative: I also try to find creative people who are eager to challenge the status quo and completely rethink the way we do things. I don’t want to have a defined roadmap from the beginning, I want us to think dynamically, and continuously evolve and iterate over our ideas. The fact is, you’re learning and also messing up all the time, and you want to be able to grow from those mistakes and improve solutions to your target issue as you learn. Divergent thinkers can help foster critical thinking and ensure our solution is the best possible.
Collaborative: So many times, I’ve been in a team where it seems like people are out to get each other. Stress is high, and so is tension. This is why it’s especially important to find people who are inherently supportive of others and others’ goals, and able to work cohesively in a team. This is a team, after all. You don’t want competition, you want collaboration.
Communicators: Another essential aspect of finding the right people is finding people who can communicate what they’re doing and stay focused. We’re students. We’ll be busy some weeks, hanging by our toes, and binging on Netflix other weeks, popcorn in hand. I need people who can stay committed to their role and be able to communicate what they’re doing no matter what kind of week it is. You also need people who are willing to speak their mind. Otherwise, projects will disintegrate. Focus will be lost. Morale will plummet. To be honest, this aspect is almost as important as the “driven” one. For example, there’s no point in having creative teammates if they can’t explain what they’re thinking (which is kinda blunt, but the best way of putting it).
