Stress & Cognitive Mapping

Personally, I often find working in a teams quite stressful, particularly when you all have different goals. In the cognitive mapping activity in class on Tuesday, I found that the activity we were performing significantly reduced the stress of "teamwork."

Below are photos of our original group cognitive maps (for Social Media Platforms).

Elements that made this task less stressful for me, personally, were as follows:

I. Visuals - I am a particularly visual learner, so having a visual map as an assignment resonated very well. Communicating visually is also a powerful tool for teams. Too often we are delayed when we attempt (unsuccessfully) to explain a concept or idea without providing a visual example.

II. Multiple Moving Parts - By this I mean the Stickie Notes. It is very helpful to have multiple items to be utilized when working in a group so that everybody can be doing something.

III. Nothing is Permanent - The use of whiteboards, and Stickie Notes made this task seem less daunting. Often, again personally, the pursuit of perfection intimidates and stresses me out on assignments like this. With the knowledge that anything written on the whiteboard can be easily erased or elaborated on, and the Stickie Notes could be repositioned, our group was able to ideate and innovate. This allowed us to rely on the process to reach a conclusion, rather then focusing too heavily on group dynamics or other factors.