Asperger’s Working In A Team by Neil Morgenstern

What Is Teamwork? People performing different tasks that combine together to achieve a single goal OR More than one person working together on the same task “joining heads together”.

Some examples Orchestra. Clearly defined roles. Everybody knows what they need to do. Football Team. Some individuality. Some effective communication required. Different playing positions but sometimes need to take on role of another.

More examples Medical team performing operation / surgery. Surgeon is in charge, clearly defined roles. “Component based” teams where individuals work on components but they must fit together with each other as a whole. Software development can sometimes be this way.

What isn’t a Team Well not a particular good one anyway and that is a group of people all the same, with exactly the same skills, strengths and weaknesses put together to collectively work on a project. (And yet in so many places I have worked this is what I find they do).

Asperger’s Mentality Important to have structure Often creative. Perfectionist. Will follow procedure – but due to the above will often want to improve the procedure. Listening skills: Will listen to ideas of others in strive of perfection.

Asperger’s Drawbacks May seek perfection when not required and be unwilling to compromise. May be overly blunt when not agreeing with an opinion Will not always pick up social cues May over-elaborate on detail when not required.

Asperger’s Plus Side In Team Will excel in a different area to others and will see things others have missed. Critical nature can be seen as a plus in strive of the best product. Will rush in where angels fear to tread. Often will have very strong written communication skills, good structure, precise and detailed.

Team Meetings Discuss these scenarios: Brainstorming Meetings. People get together to solve a problem Agile Scrums. Software development team gets together to discuss next sprint under guidance of Scrum Master. Group meeting when everyone describes what they have been doing.

Rules for Team Meetings Have a clear agenda. Why we are here, what the issue is and how much detail is required at this stage. Preparation. Give people time to prepare. Facilitator: Decides who should speak and for how long. Record “minutes” of what was discussed and any conclusions that were reached.

Emotional Issues Feeling useful and involved Being listened to Chance to express and be creative if needed Making progress Some individuality.

Role of Manager Ensure rules and structure are in place. Prioritise work and set deadlines or sprints if necessary. Resolve conflict if necessary Do not micro-manage. Ensure staff are productive, that the process is working efficiently and that staff have the resources they need.

Role of Peers Ask for expertise. Involve in discussion. Be willing for constructive debate. Swallow ego and pride in search for best solution. It will be a team effort, remember. Listen and learn. Understanding. Stick to rules. Team, not personal.

Use of Media Task databases (e.g. Jira) s. Bulletin boards Wiki. Important to record the entire debate and discussion as well as the decision that was actually reached. This will be useful for the future.

Performance Reviews Performance is based on team achievement. Individual reviews should be based on contribution to the overall team achievement and not on fixed individual attributes. A weakness in some areas may be fine if this is compensated by 1. extreme strength in others and 2. other team members who have the required skill

Analyse And Fix Analyse the working relationship. See the strengths and weaknesses Pair up or get to work closely with others who have opposite skill-set. Try changing things to work rather than hope they will improve. Once working and effective, leave things be and give praise where due.