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Small Teams and Groups

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Small Team and Group Paper Working as part of a small team or group is inevitable at some point in every person’s career. Whether it is at a food establishment or in an office environment, teams and groups always play a crucial role in the business world. I have worked with several small teams and groups, but the longest I’ve worked in such an environment was as an instructor for the U.S. Army in Arizona. I taught for four years as a contract instructor at the Human Intelligence Collector Course at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The course was broken down into three detachments numbered One, Two, and Three. Each detachment was broken down into six smaller groups. Each group consisted of approximately six to eight contract instructors, a civilian group leader, and one to three military group leaders or assistant group leaders. Each group consisted of approximately four teaching teams of two to three contract instructors and the rest of the instructors were generally role players or assisted with grading reports. The purpose of each of the teaching teams was to present classes in order to teach the military students the essentials of becoming a Human Intelligence Collector. The breakdown within each detachment generally changed for every class cycle. Each class cycle lasted approximately 18 weeks, sometimes longer with holiday weekends, with about 2 weeks or less in between classes. During the break between classes, the upper management and the military leadership would review input by students and instructors to determine if the breakdowns need to be changed. As changes were made, instructors would almost always complain or start trouble because they do not want to be moved around. Eventually they will get accustomed to working with new teams and some instructors prefer to work with new teams to get a variety of experience with several instructors versus only working

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