5. Group’s dynamic and final project#

This week we worked on defining the group for the project and also decide what problematic we would work on! Our final project is gonna be about how to prevent common diseases costless ?
In this documentation i will also add my problem and answer trees.

Problem Tree#

During the first first week of this cursus, we were asked to make a problem and a answer Tree. 🌲
What is a problem tree ?

“A problem tree, also known as an issue tree or logic tree, is a visual tool used in problem-solving and decision-making processes. It involves breaking down a complex problem into its component parts in a hierarchical and systematic manner. The structure of the tree helps to analyze the relationships between different elements of the problem, identifying the root causes and effects.”

I decided to do mine on fast fashion which is a major problem right now in the society!
I did it on a application called goodnotes on my ipad:

As you can see, there’s the major subject which is the trunk then there are the roots who are the major problems and then you have the branches or leafs (however you wanna call it lol), which are the sub problems linked to the major ones.
Then i did my solution tree which has “sustainable clothing” as the major subject:

First step of the group project#

When I arrived in class (late as usual), everybody was already in a circle and there were a lot of objects on the floor. They were the objects that the other students came with and they were linked to problematics.
I came with medications 💊 and my problematic was that there is a social inequality in the disparity of medication accessibility.
In some countries, the access to healthcare is a privilege but it shouldn’t!
Healthcare is a primary need and should not be optional
We then had to make groups of 3-4 with other students who had object that could be linked to ours.
I joined Julien and Ali and they became my partner for the final project.
Ali is in his third year of CS bachelor, he came with a syringue and his problematic was about Malaria in central Africa.
Julien is in his last year of physics Master, he came with a bottle cap and his problematic was about wheelchair accessibility 🦼 (cost a lot).

Melting pot#

After we formed our groups, we had to come up with as many words as possible related to our objects (FYI: we won ^^). This gave us a TON of useful words that set us up nicely for the next steps. By jotting down all those words, we got a good sense of what we wanted to talk about and the general direction we needed to take to tackle our problematics.
This was our final paper:

Problematics#

Then, we were asked to find problematics that we found intriguing.
We got a number of 4 which is not a lot but it’s because we already had an idea on what we wanted to work on and we also had an area of interest (medical).

• “How to improve healthcare accessibility in the third world?”
• “How to improve social inequality in terms of health?”
• “How to prevent common diseases (vaccination, contraception, screening)?”
• “How to raise awareness about disabilities and ableism¹”

This is what it looked like:

You may notice the small post-it notes on the side – we utilized them to determine our final topic among the four options. The concept was to place more post-it notes on the topics we found favorable and fewer on those we didn’t. This process led us to select our ultimate topic, the third one:

‘How to prevent common diseases (vaccination, contraception, screening)?’

Now, why did we opt for this particular topic?
By choosing it, we found a way to connect it with the first two. Our aim is to devise something that can effectively prevent the spread of common illnesses in third-world countries.
The most important thing for us is that,this solution should be cost-effective and easily transportable.

If i were in your seat, i would…#

We applied this method to gather different viewpoints from outside our group.
I visited other groups, presented our four problem statements, and asked for their input on what they would do if they were in our position (specifically, my group’s position).
This collaborative approach yielded some excellent ideas, and there was widespread enthusiasm about consolidating three problem statements into one.
Having a shared interest area was a game changer, in contrast to other groups where disparate objects led to more diverse problematics.
I loved this method because, of course the problematics that emerged in the beginning were solely the outcome of a discussion among the four members of the group.
It could have been possible that we might have had a tunnel-visioned in our ideas and overlooked other related, and perhaps even more intriguing, issues.
By asking the other groups, we made sure that we ahd actually thought about everything :))

What sickness are we going to work with ?#

This is when things got a bit heated in our group discussion—everyone wasn’t exactly on the same page.
To sort out our differences and make a decision, we decided to list out diseases we were all curious about.
Each of us rated them from 1 (not so interested) to 3 (super interested).
This helped us narrow down the options to just two.
The final contenders were HIV and Malaria.
To settle the score, we did a coin toss, and HIV ended up being our pick.
But guess what?
One week later we were talking together and we found another sickness that we all found really interesting 😄!!!
In the end we chose ⭐Diabetes⭐

How is our group going to work ? ==> Team dynamics tools#

★ 1. The Weather ★

Every time we have a group reunion, we start with the weather cast. Instead of asking each person one by one how they're feeling, we do this cool thing where everyone just raises or points their hand to show their energy level.

For example, if their hand points down to the legs, it means they're feeling low on energy (it's gonna be ok buddy 😓), and if it's way up above their head, they're full of energy 🔋. Everything in between shows how much energy they've got. This way, we can dodge a bunch of problems!

If someone's a bit grumpy, knowing it ahead of time helps, so you won't take it as hard as thinking they're just being mean out of the blue.

★ 2. Who Does What? ★

So, every week, one of us takes on the role of the secretary. 👩‍💻 Their job is to handle all the documentation, keeping us in the loop about where we're at and what's coming up next. Then, we've got our "chief" 👨‍💼 – they make sure everyone's on track with their work and even help decide what our focus should be for the week. Team effort, you know?

★ 3. The Rules ★

We all wrote a bunch of rules that we would like each other to respect, and this made us able to have a chart for the team!

These are the rules that we follow:

• Actively participating in the discussion
• Adhering to deadlines
• Avoid doing things last minute
• Punctuality
• Honesty > Kindness (stay respectful though)
• Being responsive through messages
• Group cohesion
• Fair distribution of tasks

★ 4. Vote ★

When we have to make a choice, we use the majority judgment, as you may have read earlier.

It's a voting system where participants rate their preferences on a scale, ranging from 0 (hate it) to 10 (love it +++), covering all possible gradations in between.

Checklist#

• Made a problem tree and an objective tree on a project you chose and posted it on the module 5 page of your website
• Briefly documented your analysis
• Presented the object you chose and the reason why you chose it
• Documented the list of potential problems identified by your team at the end of the process
• Shared your introspection and experience of the brainstorming process
• Documented the chosen team dynamics tools