Student teams are operate at the “Mt. Everest” of difficulty. As Duke’s Dr. Bridgette Martin Hard explains, student collaboration can be confusing. (Source: Hard, B. M., & RaoShah, T. (2022). Developing Collaborative Thinkers: Rethinking how we Define, Teach, and Assess Class Participation. Teaching of Psychology, 49(2), 176-184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628320986953)

At Duke, Prof Ted Ryan and I are piloting a mobile pop-up Student Team Clinic to help students diagnose and treat chronic and urgent Student Team Dysfunctions (S.T.D.s)

We’ve had students tell us that student team stress led to their hair falling out, physical illness, and a decrease in their love of learning. That’s sad! It’s why we hope to help you learn ways to better adapt to the challenge of student collaboration.

Some students want a quick fix. Some fixes can be quick. Many are not. However, when we learn the craft of skilled relationships, our quality of life is better, our work is better, and we have something precious: people who see us and support us on a project (and we do the same for them).

If you are in a bad student team, you have some work to do and decisions to make. Here are some places to start.

Student Team First aid

****CRITICAL: Duke resources: https://students.duke.edu/wellness/

Some behaviors are much bigger and more problematic than you can or should handle. Duke has professionals to help you, and if you are given solutions, we expect you to use them.*****

Top Level Diagnosis: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team video by Patrick Lencioni: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75bO_XWk7fw

Self-reflection:
What is your goal? 
What kind of values do you want to practice? 
Who taught you to act like you act with other people? 
Who taught them to act like they’re acting with you?
How can We > Me?

RX for skilled relationship

1. Navigating your difficult relationships Dr. Sam Bayer, WinWin Agent  – conflict coach and retired tech entrepreneur (winwinagent.org)

2.What to say: Jefferson Fisher: The Next Conversation
https://www.youtube.com/@jeffersonfisher

3.Relationship 101 Psychology: Jimmy on Relationships and  https://www.youtube.com/@JimmyonRelationships
Jeffrey Meltzer, Therapy to the Point
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7tL1NmQ-wx9XuPrAj9spFg

4. Advanced: “Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build more Loving Relationships” by Terrence Real https://terryreal.com/books/

Prof Ted Ryan (Theodore dot Ryan at Duke dot edu) and Prof Allegra Jordan (Allegra dot Jordan at Duke dot edu) are piloting a mobile pop up clinic to see what we might do to increase successful skilled relationships on student teams. We hope to see you out on Duke’s campus from time to time.

During the early tests of our pop up clinic pilot, you may write to us with your issues and where we can, we will respond with suggestions. We have limited bandwidth, so if you do contact us, we may take a while to respond.

Best wishes with what can be truly challenging issues!

Prof Jordan