with only three weeks until graduation I
was assigned yet another group project
in my AP English for literature class
with these group projects it often
elicits some kind of dread and fear
knowing that I will probably end up
doing a solo project with three other
people watching me being 18 and being
granted all this infinite wisdom that
comes with being a teenager
I’ve been able to divide two categories
of people when it comes to grad to group
projects the first are people like you
and me who understand that with every
group project we will probably have to
take over do all the work and make sure
that the product that we put out is our
best product not we but our own and the
second group that sees every single
group project as an opportunity to take
a few weeks off and you know lean on
people like you and I in order to do to
do to work so when I think about how
often I’m surrounded with group work and
working with others I really wanted to
know do people actually like to work
together or does everyone else in the
world feel like me a couple scientists
had the same exact question and they
wanted to see at the genetic level that
people will actually have some kind of
proclivity or an innate desire to
collaborate so first I’d like to talk
about this one study that put identical
twins like my father and uncle and
fraternal twins together the key
distinction between fraternal identical
twins of course being that identical
twins share a hundred percent of DNA and
50% and fraternal twins share only 50
what this study found whoever’s
regardless of their DNA makeup
it seemed that every single human and
every single individual in the study had
this natural desire or this genetic
behavior that made them altruistic that
made them want to work together want to
work in two groups
this of course crosses familial bonds
and familial alliance as another study
put toddlers and our closest human
relatives apes and a situation to test
and see if humans were the only people
that had this natural desire to work
together what they did is they put the
toddler and the Apes and they had them
complete a task and upon completion that
task offer them a reward here’s what the
part about collaboration comes in then
they introduced
their partner to both the taller in the
ape the key part of this was making sure
that we put the right species with each
other once they figured that out they
saw that the toddler despite knowing
that they would not receive any
increased reward when working with their
partner often worked more together
almost every single time as the ape did
not so if the case is that humans really
do have this natural desire to work
together why does it always seem that we
hate working together and that we can’t
do it anymore
two examples though seem to point that
this isn’t true and shows that we don’t
always have to be this way
the first of course is an event that
happened that many people in this room
are familiar with on September 11th 2001
a couple of train or a couple of planes
hit the World Trade Center
sending New York City and the rest of
the world and to a state or the future
wasn’t clear and terrifying and played
with fear while all of us recognized
that this happened on this day when a
lot of us do not know is that on that
very same day one of the largest
evacuations by water and American
history occurred as if like ants humans
work together systematically to take
people from New York City across the
Hudson River over to New Jersey with no
desire other than to reach their fellow
human and get them to safety it didn’t
matter if it was a civilian or a fire
fireman or the Coast Guard people fell
together and work together and on and
honestly led to the safety of thousands
of people within New York City another
incident
even more recently came after the tragic
shooting and parkland high on a parkland
floor in parkland Florida and a high
school where students my age and younger
were able to put together one of the
largest grassroot movements for voting
and also gun control and a matter of
just a month both of these events have
something in common they both come at
the end of tragedies and they both
involve collaboration however as a
society and as people we cannot wait for
the next big tragedy and the next bad
thing to happen just to return to our
innate roots to work as a team and to
work together and my high school career
and being in Powell’s and speech and
debate I’m surrounded by teamwork and
what I see I’m not necessarily happened
with and I’m not happy with the way that
I view group
projects either this is why I think it’s
imperative for the people in here today
as well as myself to redefine and give a
new face to what teamwork and
collaboration means so you and I are now
going to discuss what it means to be a
real team player in the interest of
oversimplification I really wanted list
down to about three words and a sentence
this of course starts with adapt every
group situation you’re ever gonna face
is gonna be with people that you don’t
always have to work with and with
different people always comes different
ideas different learning styles and
different communication styles what it’s
imperative to do in the group setting
then is to adapt these people understand
that if you’re gonna work together
you have to work with them fundamentally
as well as in the group this means
adapting to their styles adopting to the
way they learn and talk in order to
truly integrate and invite everyone into
the conversation and have effective
group work next is shift we have to
abandon this idea that if you want
something done right you have to do it
yourself or that every time you walk
into the room you’re the smartest person
which in this instance unfortunately is
true because I am a teenager and I do
know everything however when we approach
group work and you’re surrounded by
teenagers or coworkers
that shouldn’t be the case you have to
understand but not one person will be
the leader of the entire time and the
other four people three people or
regardless will not be just the
followers learn that it’s important to
shift your role I understand that each
group is dynamic and different and
unique and that means that your role
within that group must shift and follow
that uniqueness as it comes along third
and finally is delegate this is
something that I have a lot of trouble
with as I mentioned early I always have
to think that if you want something done
right do it yourself this can’t be the
case anymore because as we adapt to our
group we also must also must recognize
that we can lean on them the epitome of
a group is being able to lean on other
people when maybe you can’t give your
best effort or maybe you’re not an
expert in that field what this means is
delegate responsibilities because what
you just might get is a better idea or
an improved idea on the ideas that you
might think are so great one of the most
important things that we have to
recognize whenever it comes to
collaboration is that true collaboration
can only begin when competition ends too
many times in this world were put into
situations we have to work together and
all
focused on is that grade or that
promotion or that raise this is the
enemy and the villain of collaboration
because whenever you’re just
self-interested you don’t lie with the
rest of your group you don’t have the
same interest and what that’s going to
lead to is failing group work and if
we’re gonna change the world and we’re
gonna change ourselves we have to get
rid of this competition and understand
that we’re working together we have a
common goal and miss eliminates
combination competition if I can leave
you with anything today that’s
imperative to being a collaborator and a
team player it’s that each and every
single one of you has value and if we’re
gonna redefine and reshape what it means
to collaborate then we must do
everything within our power to recognize
and draw out this uniqueness and this
value and other people because it is
then when we work together and truly
value each other that we are able to
take these ideas worth spreading make
them ideas worth discussing
and then ideas worth practicing that
will eventually change ourselves this
district this community and the world
it’s been a pleasure and thank you [Applause]
was assigned yet another group project
in my AP English for literature class
with these group projects it often
elicits some kind of dread and fear
knowing that I will probably end up
doing a solo project with three other
people watching me being 18 and being
granted all this infinite wisdom that
comes with being a teenager
I’ve been able to divide two categories
of people when it comes to grad to group
projects the first are people like you
and me who understand that with every
group project we will probably have to
take over do all the work and make sure
that the product that we put out is our
best product not we but our own and the
second group that sees every single
group project as an opportunity to take
a few weeks off and you know lean on
people like you and I in order to do to
do to work so when I think about how
often I’m surrounded with group work and
working with others I really wanted to
know do people actually like to work
together or does everyone else in the
world feel like me a couple scientists
had the same exact question and they
wanted to see at the genetic level that
people will actually have some kind of
proclivity or an innate desire to
collaborate so first I’d like to talk
about this one study that put identical
twins like my father and uncle and
fraternal twins together the key
distinction between fraternal identical
twins of course being that identical
twins share a hundred percent of DNA and
50% and fraternal twins share only 50
what this study found whoever’s
regardless of their DNA makeup
it seemed that every single human and
every single individual in the study had
this natural desire or this genetic
behavior that made them altruistic that
made them want to work together want to
work in two groups
this of course crosses familial bonds
and familial alliance as another study
put toddlers and our closest human
relatives apes and a situation to test
and see if humans were the only people
that had this natural desire to work
together what they did is they put the
toddler and the Apes and they had them
complete a task and upon completion that
task offer them a reward here’s what the
part about collaboration comes in then
they introduced
their partner to both the taller in the
ape the key part of this was making sure
that we put the right species with each
other once they figured that out they
saw that the toddler despite knowing
that they would not receive any
increased reward when working with their
partner often worked more together
almost every single time as the ape did
not so if the case is that humans really
do have this natural desire to work
together why does it always seem that we
hate working together and that we can’t
do it anymore
two examples though seem to point that
this isn’t true and shows that we don’t
always have to be this way
the first of course is an event that
happened that many people in this room
are familiar with on September 11th 2001
a couple of train or a couple of planes
hit the World Trade Center
sending New York City and the rest of
the world and to a state or the future
wasn’t clear and terrifying and played
with fear while all of us recognized
that this happened on this day when a
lot of us do not know is that on that
very same day one of the largest
evacuations by water and American
history occurred as if like ants humans
work together systematically to take
people from New York City across the
Hudson River over to New Jersey with no
desire other than to reach their fellow
human and get them to safety it didn’t
matter if it was a civilian or a fire
fireman or the Coast Guard people fell
together and work together and on and
honestly led to the safety of thousands
of people within New York City another
incident
even more recently came after the tragic
shooting and parkland high on a parkland
floor in parkland Florida and a high
school where students my age and younger
were able to put together one of the
largest grassroot movements for voting
and also gun control and a matter of
just a month both of these events have
something in common they both come at
the end of tragedies and they both
involve collaboration however as a
society and as people we cannot wait for
the next big tragedy and the next bad
thing to happen just to return to our
innate roots to work as a team and to
work together and my high school career
and being in Powell’s and speech and
debate I’m surrounded by teamwork and
what I see I’m not necessarily happened
with and I’m not happy with the way that
I view group
projects either this is why I think it’s
imperative for the people in here today
as well as myself to redefine and give a
new face to what teamwork and
collaboration means so you and I are now
going to discuss what it means to be a
real team player in the interest of
oversimplification I really wanted list
down to about three words and a sentence
this of course starts with adapt every
group situation you’re ever gonna face
is gonna be with people that you don’t
always have to work with and with
different people always comes different
ideas different learning styles and
different communication styles what it’s
imperative to do in the group setting
then is to adapt these people understand
that if you’re gonna work together
you have to work with them fundamentally
as well as in the group this means
adapting to their styles adopting to the
way they learn and talk in order to
truly integrate and invite everyone into
the conversation and have effective
group work next is shift we have to
abandon this idea that if you want
something done right you have to do it
yourself or that every time you walk
into the room you’re the smartest person
which in this instance unfortunately is
true because I am a teenager and I do
know everything however when we approach
group work and you’re surrounded by
teenagers or coworkers
that shouldn’t be the case you have to
understand but not one person will be
the leader of the entire time and the
other four people three people or
regardless will not be just the
followers learn that it’s important to
shift your role I understand that each
group is dynamic and different and
unique and that means that your role
within that group must shift and follow
that uniqueness as it comes along third
and finally is delegate this is
something that I have a lot of trouble
with as I mentioned early I always have
to think that if you want something done
right do it yourself this can’t be the
case anymore because as we adapt to our
group we also must also must recognize
that we can lean on them the epitome of
a group is being able to lean on other
people when maybe you can’t give your
best effort or maybe you’re not an
expert in that field what this means is
delegate responsibilities because what
you just might get is a better idea or
an improved idea on the ideas that you
might think are so great one of the most
important things that we have to
recognize whenever it comes to
collaboration is that true collaboration
can only begin when competition ends too
many times in this world were put into
situations we have to work together and
all
focused on is that grade or that
promotion or that raise this is the
enemy and the villain of collaboration
because whenever you’re just
self-interested you don’t lie with the
rest of your group you don’t have the
same interest and what that’s going to
lead to is failing group work and if
we’re gonna change the world and we’re
gonna change ourselves we have to get
rid of this competition and understand
that we’re working together we have a
common goal and miss eliminates
combination competition if I can leave
you with anything today that’s
imperative to being a collaborator and a
team player it’s that each and every
single one of you has value and if we’re
gonna redefine and reshape what it means
to collaborate then we must do
everything within our power to recognize
and draw out this uniqueness and this
value and other people because it is
then when we work together and truly
value each other that we are able to
take these ideas worth spreading make
them ideas worth discussing
and then ideas worth practicing that
will eventually change ourselves this
district this community and the world
it’s been a pleasure and thank you [Applause]
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