Project 2
Project 2: Group Dynamics Improvement Plan
Group Structure
In the movie Rudy, Rudy was on both high school and college football teams. The group structure was obviouly much different for each of the teams. They did not show his high school team for a long period of time, they all seemed to be much closer, which would be expected. All of the players seemed to be really good friends. The seniors (Rudy being one of them) looked like they were the top players. The coach also seemed to be really close to all of them, too. In college, the players and coaches were not as close to each other. There were so many players, it would be hard for the coaches to really get to know all of them. But, I think that in college ball, the coaches are more interested in getting you to be a good player than getting to know you as a person.
Team Climate
At first, the team climate was not the best on Notre Dame's football team whenever Rudy made it as a walk-on and part of the practice team. As I mentioned earlier, some of the other players got angry at him because he tried so hard. He made everyone else on the team look bad. This would sometimes create some hostility between team members. Some of the team members were regular players and others were on the practice team. He made everyone else look like they weren't trying. Starting at 0:40 in the clip below, it shows one player's reaction to Rudy in practice.
Leadership
Now, Rudy was not exactly thought of as a leader on the football team. He wasn't very good at football and he was only on the practice team and was a walk-on player. However, he did open some of the players and coaches eyes when they saw and realized how much heart he put into the practices. I think that it kind of motivated them in a way to make sure they played well. They did this because they did not want some little guy who didn't even play in games, to do better than they did in practice. So, I think that he actually was a leader on the team.
Communication
On Rudy's Notre Dame football team, communication seems to be pretty direct.The communication is pretty much all verbal. If the coach or any of the team members have anything to say, they seemed to just say it all out loud. The coach didn't seem like the kind of coach who liked to talk to the players a lot and ask them how their day was. He was just the type who just cared how they did in practice, unless they came to talk to him about something else. Then maybe he would listen better.
Improving Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses of the team was that at the beginning of the movie, they did not really act like a very good team. They acted more like a group of people that played football together. They all had different views and perspectives on things. This different was especially great because some of the players knew that they would never get to play out on the field during the game. So, obviously, these practice players would not care about how well practice went because they don't play in the real games or get a scholarship.
Using Strengths
Finally, though, towards the end of the movie, the team finally started acting like a team. They came together because they all thought it was wrong that Rudy had worked so hard and the coach had promised him a game, but the coach retired and he did not let him dress out for a game. They came to their coach's office to tell him that Rudy sould be able to dress out...in their space.