It’s often said that “there’s no I in team” because on the best teams, everyone works together for the good of the group. What happens when you encounter a team member who believes that

“there’s a me in team” and ignores or undermines the team’s success in order to achieve personal goals?

Consider this scenario. You’re on a team of four students and you’ve all been working for the past month to complete a major class project. When you were planning your project, one team member—let’s say Lee—argued with your team’s decisions but agreed to go along with the majority. Lee contributed the bare minimum to your team’s work and sat silently during meetings; when you asked for help overcoming a problem with the project, Lee responded with a shrug, “I told you at the start that I thought this was a bad idea. I guess we’re all going to get a failing grade.”

Now you’re at your last team meeting before the assignment is due. Lee reveals a decision to quit the team and turn in a separate project. Lee doesn’t want a grade that “will suffer from all your ‘second-rate’ efforts” and tells you that they already complained to your instructor about the rest of you.

As your instructor directs,

a. Write an email to your instructor in which you explain your individual response to this scenario. What would you do?

How should your team proceed?

b. Work as a group to establish a working policy that might address this scenario before it happens.

• What policies would you need to protect the group from individual members who are out for themselves?

• What policies would you need to protect team members from having the team take advantage of them?

• What is your instructor’s role in your team’s policy?

• How would your team evaluate each member’s contributions fairly?