Capstone Project Wiki

Students will have some experience working on teams. Much of that experience will have been negative. As a Capstone coach, you have the opportunity to mentor the students to develop appropriate teamwork practices. Some suggestions are listed here.

Team members have experience in working with others, but may need advice in how to best organize and run the team. As an experienced professional, you have the ability to provide such advice.

During the month of September, every coach should plan and carry out some kind of activity that will help build team unity. It's often good to invite spouses or significant others as well. Some coaches have a barbecue at their house. Others take the team to participate in some kind of activity that may be project-related. In any case, the activity should be fun for you and your team members and help you all get to know one another better.

The coach should pay for the activity and then Capstone will reimburse the coach for up to $10 per team member toward this team-building activity. Coaches must follow the process described below and get their receipts to the Capstone staff within 5 days after the event. If you were unable to hold the activity by October 1, contact the Capstone office to work out an adjusted plan.

Follow the steps below to be reimbursed for the allowable amount:

1. Complete an online Capstone Reimbursement Request (NOT a Capstone Order Request) by clicking “New Reimbursement” at byucapstone.byu.edu.
2. Submit the original receipt to the Capstone office as soon as possible, no later than 5 days after the purchase.
3. Once the Capstone office has processed the reimbursement, you will receive an email from BYU’s financial system, Chrome River, indicating the need for you to approve your reimbursement. To accurately complete the approval process, go to Chrome River (you may also go to my.byu.edu > Campus Links > Work Links > Chrome River).
4. In Chrome River, go to approvals needed and select the expense report corresponding to your reimbursement. Click on Approved.
   
5. Click approve again to confirm approval. Ensure that the report indicates it has been successfully approved.

The right team leader can make a huge difference on the team. Working with the team, you should select a team leader.

There are many ways to select a team leader. You can have the team vote. You can have each member of the team lead for a week, then select a leader. You can ask somebody to be a provisional leader, then make a permanent selection later. You can plan on rotating team leaders every month or so. Or you may have other ideas.

Regardless of the specific methods you use, make sure your team has a leader. A team without a defined leader will struggle to make progress.

Help the team learn to run effective team meetings. The team is very likely used to having meetings, but their meetings may not be particularly effective. They may also confuse having meetings with doing work. They may wish to meet every day, which is a recipe for greatly slowing down progress.

Help the team to understand that meetings should have a purpose and an agenda. They should have assignments. Reports on previous assignments should be given. The reports should preferably be in writing, so they can be passed on to others outside of the team.

Teams that make effective use of meeting time are more successful.

One of the challenges of BYU culture is that there is a significant feeling that it is always necessary to be nice, and that we must avoid disagreement because contention is of the devil. This can lead to students being very uncomfortable with normal and desirable team processes.

Teams have been demonstrated to go through four stages: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing as described in Tuckman Team Stages. Teams that are afraid of conflict may back away as soon as they start to reach Storming. If they back away, they never become high-performing teams.

As a coach, you can help provide the safety the team needs to progress into Storming, and to move on to Norming and Performing. Help the students to see that Storming is an essential part of team growth, and that it represents progress as long as the team moves forward.

In order to succeed on their project, the team must reach the Performing stage.

It is healthy for teams to have some conflict. Different people have different opinions. And the different opinions are valuable. Having a range of different opinions increases the likelihood that the best solution will be found in any particular situation.

However, it is important that the differences of opinion not degenerate into contention. The focus needs to remain on what is right, rather than who is right. People with different opinions need to listen to one another, and be open to change.

Help your team understand that differences of opinion are healthy, and that dealing well with them can strengthen both the team and the project. Furthermore, the ability to deal well with conflict is a valuable personal and professional skill to develop.