How do you get your team to do work

Our team is a total mess, and don’t do the work they’re assigned to do. Furthermore, they’ve become a threat in our shop because they have started manufacturing weapons. I have no clue on how to get them back on track, and our tournament is in just two weeks

11 Likes

We set deadlines. Also, since robotics is a class for us, our mentor has to enter in grades based on our performance for that week, so it incentivizes us to do work.

6 Likes

Does you teacher know they are making weapons?

9 Likes

Def report this…

1 Like

He’s told em off for now, but there’s still a lot of horse play

1 Like

He caught em and told them off, but they still goof off. Our teacher literally tells them to stop being so loud, and stop goofing off at least three times per meeting

1 Like

Is this after school or during class?

1 Like

In all honesty, a group confrontation can do wonders. State the issue quite clearly to the entire team, set expectations for each meeting (such as, “this mechanism must be built and tested by today”) and work with them rather than give them a task and leave 'em to it. In this way, you can slowly start holding them accountable. State that this behavior is not acceptable in the least and that if they want to stay on the team, they need to contribute. In the rare event that their parents made them join, say that they can make VEX not drudgery by truly contributing and thus being proud of their work (an extremely gratifying feeling, I can assure you).
Please keep in mind that I am a team member myself and in no way some expert of anything at all. This is only based on my (embarrassingly) limited experience. Edit: only work with them if you are a team member yourself! :slight_smile:

6 Likes

I’m the captain of my team that I started this year and I’d say that your team members need motivation. Since my team is mostly juniors with two sophomores, we all work hard because we know how much this could count. Many people on my team are trying to get into a good college, so that’s a really powerful motivation for building a good robot, writing good code, and practicing well to try to preform well at the next competition.

Set a goal that everyone can agree to, make sure people know why they’re doing robotics in the first place. Is it because they love it? Do you guys want to do well? finding a goal that motivates people is key. Unless their parents made them do the team which I would then say to find better people.

10 Likes

For the bad behavior, on my team atleast they would be off the team, no other alternatives. As for people not working, is this more of them not wanting to do anything or nothing for them to do, because we are currently faced with the issue of a team at my school that had to many people on it for one robot and no room for them.

7 Likes

Are they freshman? :joy:

4 Likes

Maybe offer them a reward, i.e "if we get ___ (task) done by ___ (time), then ____(reward). It doesn’t have to be a big reward, candy or snacks are pretty good. Don’t overuse this, because it does nothing long term, but if one day you’re really tired of dealing with them, then this might be alright.

5 Likes

pretend like you don’t know how to do something and ask them to help, for me it made my partner feel like they had more power over the bot.

4 Likes

I’ve tried confrontation, but they don’t listen to me. Under technicality, I’m not the leader of the group, but I’m the one doing the most work, while our leader is somewhere else half the time. I’ve spoken with my leader as well, but he refuses to do anything, and instead gets mad at me when I take a short break.

1 Like

We’re an all Freshman team. I’m also a Freshman, but I do understand why we’re looked down upon

take that assertive team leader role. thats why ive sorta done even with upperclassmen they still listen if you state what you want clearly, are calm and are not super mean of the sorts

If you mentor/ leader is yelling at you, over something that’s a legitimate issue that you have tried to resolve yourself, then you should probobly talk to your headmaster or just whoever is above them.

1 Like

Have a sit down with the coach. If that doesn’t do anything, then maybe start talking about kicking people out of the club. IMO if u have to go to such lengths as give them an incentive or prize to do work then there’s no point. U seem like the kind of person to go to pretty big lengths to win so lemme tell u this, the best teams in the world have a combination of skill, experience, and passion. If ur team members have none of those and are there for the college application, make them work for it at least. Maybe even if u ask the coach and the upperclassmen accept it (you’ll have to prove urself) u can move to a better team. Not only does that mean that you’ll have a better chance of winning with a better, more supportive group of people around you, but it doesn’t seem like ur leaving much behind except for the robot.

If ur concerned abt the robot, just delete the code. I have my doubts they even know how to link the radio to the joystick.

2 Likes

Honestly the only advice I have is to find a new team or something. From what I understand you’ve tried everything u can and in my experience changing teammates for people who share the same goals as you is the best option. A lot of people don’t change and trying to work it out usually takes a long time or just doesn’t happen.

This really sounds like a tough situation, but @kryptonite made a wonder ful suggestion that worked quite well our second year. Next year the team’s must be reorganized. This year you just have to display your determination to do well by suffering thru the season. It will reflect well on you next year.