Voices from the Field: The Importance of Teamwork and Collaboration Skills

Source: www.unsplash.com

We are told by business leaders that soft skills, like team work and collaboration, are very important. We believe that afterschool programs are especially equipped to teach these skills. In fact, we developed a briefing paper on the importance of teamwork and collaboration skills to prepare young people for the workforce. But we wanted to hear directly from business leaders, so we spoke to Kanita Fuller, a corporate recruiter, to learn more. 

Q: Would you describe your position?

Kanita Fuller

A: I am a full cycle, in-house Senior Business Recruiter at an AI start up in San Francisco called Perplexity. I interview and support candidates through the recruiting lifecycle for a variety of roles at the company, from accounting and finance to legal and sales and more. I recruit for a variety of levels as well, from entry-level (college grads with little to no experience) to Director+, each recruiting process can vary depending on the role/level/team. 

Q: How important are the soft skills of teamwork & collaboration to employers?

A: Very important, something every hiring manager looks for in their hiring process. 

Q: Do you look for them? Why? How?

A: No matter what role I recruit for, teamwork and collaboration are always skills that are at the forefront of our process. We often have a cross-functional partner on the interview panel so that we can learn if a candidate would be a good collaborator on projects with team members that may have different perspectives and opinions. Every role at the company has an element of working with one or more team members to get your job done, whether that is project-based, building or iterating on a process or helping to rebuild something that is broken, no job is ever a "solo" job. You will always have to work with others, so those skills are discussed throughout the process. We will ask questions in the interview process to make sure we believe a candidate's ability to work well with others is strong and a match for our company. We ask questions around their examples of working with a challenging partner, where there was friction, of working with a client or manager who they didn't agree with or there was a communication issue - and we ask how they overcome those challenges. Through their answers we can learn how they communicate, problem-solve and find a path forward in troubling or challenging scenarios.  

Q: What can afterschool programs do to help youth develop these skills?

A: Programs that are centered on team building, where participation from everyone is required, are important. Learning to listen to each other and understand that more minds are better than one to get a job done. This can be done in a variety of ways but would be best practiced in brainstorming and collaboration-based projects or work. Everyone has a different approach to coming up with ideas and executing and learning how to listen to each other. Learning how to move forward together is a great skill to learn. 

MORE ABOUT...

Kanita Fuller

Kanita Fuller is a seasoned talent acquisition professional and currently holds the title of Senior Business Recruiter at Perplexity AI. She has over 12 years of experience across corporate staffing. Her work spans recruiting for all functions of a business and aligning recruitment with growth initiatives in the tech and services sectors. She currently operates in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Perplexity AI, Inc. is an American privately held software company offering an AI-powered web answer engine designed for research and real-time fact-checking with cited sources. It processes user queries and synthesizes clear, conversational responses using large language models and real-time web search. Perplexity provides answers based on current internet content with embedded citations, and is available as a free public product with a paid Pro subscription that unlocks more advanced models and features.

Voices from the Field: Youth Activist, Hadley Gray

Source: Hadley's Hope

By Sam Piha

We first learned about Hadley Gray from an article by Giving Tuesday, which we posted last week. She was profiled because she helped organize a blood drive as a fifth grader, and saw something powerful: people showing up to help complete strangers, simply because they could. 



Today, she is the founder and director of Hadley’s Hope foundation, a compassionate nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness and providing vital support and she’s helping create those same opportunities for others. Through community blood drives, Hadley is showing others that giving back doesn’t always require money — sometimes it simply requires the time, care, and a willingness to step up for your community. 

We interviewed Hadley to learn more about organizing blood drives, building partnerships, and how youth-led generosity can create real impact. 

Q: What inspired you to serve others as described in your blood donor article?

A: What first inspired me to get involved with serving my community was my mom, when I was about 4 years old. She was always involved in helping organize charity races for people battling cancer. Before the races I would help put the raffle boxes together and the day of the race I would work the raffle table and hand out water bottles to the runners. When I got older, I had ideas of things I wanted to do for the community. Each event or thing I do for my community is inspired by something I have seen or heard. I listen to what our community needs and see how I can help. 

When I was in 5th grade I was involved with the National Junior Honors Society. The leader in charge of the group always organized a blood drive that was held in our gym. The NJHS students were to help check in the donors for the blood donation company. I remember how easy it was for the community to sign up and come donate blood, it was always busy. We live farther out and at the time there weren’t any blood donation companies located out in our area. As I got older, I heard on the radio that the hospitals were short on blood, they said it was a critical shortage. I remember how simple it was to set up a blood drive, so I started contacting different companies until one called me back and we were able to plan my first blood drive.  

Q: Most afterschool programs are school-based. How should people partner with schools if they are interested in sponsoring a blood drive?

A: From my experience with the schools here in Arizona, you have to first email administration. They generally then ask you to partner with a school club. Most of the time they will recommend a specific club that would likely want to partner with you. Then you would contact them to see if they would be interested in partnering up and make sure you give them all the details. Normally there are no issues.  

Q: If a person under 18 wants to participate in a blood drive, do they need parent permission?

A: People 16 and older can donate blood. They require all 16 year olds to get a form signed by their parents. There are 7 states that require parental permission for 17 year olds; Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 

Q: If afterschool leaders want to learn more on how to sponsor a blood drive, can they contact you at your foundation?

A: Yes, I’m more than happy to help with what I can. I can be reached at hadley@hadleyshope.org.

MORE ABOUT...

Hadley Gray

Hadley Gray is the founder of Hadley’s Hope and a GivingTuesday Spark Leader. She’s helping create those same opportunities for others. Through community blood drives, Hadley is showing others that giving back doesn’t always require money — sometimes it simply requires the time, care, and a willingness to step up for your community.

 

Hadley’s Hope, led by Hadley herself, is a compassionate nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness and providing vital support. They organize donation drives, fundraising events, and numerous community initiatives, from aiding the homeless with water drives to brightening the days of hospital children with stuffed animals. Additionally, they support foster youths with college dorm packages and run programs like the "Giving Tree" in schools. Their unwavering commitment to kindness shines through in all they do, making a profound impact on countless lives.

The Importance of Collaboration in STEM

By Sam Piha

We recently took note of this Education Week article entitled “Science Is a Team Sport” promoting the importance of collaboration in STEM activities. (Collaboration is one of the five LIAS learning principles).

The article opens by reporting, “Hollywood's version of science—the lone genius toiling in the basement, the socially awkward computer engineer—stands in stark contrast to the real life, increasingly team-oriented work in science and engineering fields. A new study suggests correcting that misconception could encourage more American students to engage in science.” A similar article appeared in the NAA newsletter entitled Boost Learning By Combining Teamwork and STEM.

Dr. Carol Tang

We asked Carol Tang, Executive Director at the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco and Former Director of the Coalition for Science After School, to comment on this. Below, we share her remarks. 

“One of the most interesting learning principles in my mind is the one about collaboration. Because studies have shown that one of the reasons young people do not go into science is because they think that scientists work alone and they're isolated. In fact, most scientists would think that they're very collaborative in their work. 

A lot of big teams are needed to really tackle some of the biggest questions in science. If you think about looking for life on other planets or you think about how to invent new medicine, all of those take a team of scientists and engineers to work together. 

For scientists, we think of our work as collaborative. We email people all over the world with our ideas and we hear their criticism and their critiques and that's how we do science. 

Photo Credit: http://ymcacolumbus.org/

For scientists, collaboration is a key part of what we do everyday. Yet most young people think that scientists work alone in their labs blowing things up. And so I think I like the collaboration learning principle and to make sure that when we do science, we encourage people to think of science as a collaborative effort because that's what it is in today's society.”

You can view Dr. Tang’s entire interview here. 

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Carol M. Tang, Ph.D. is the Executive Director at the Children’s Creativity Museum (SF) and former Director of the Coalition for Science After School. She is experienced in non-profit management, strategic planning, envisioning, meeting facilitation, team building, fundraising and public speaking. She also has extensive experience in teaching, organizing, and leading science education efforts including out-of-school programming, exhibitions, teacher professional development, public programs, volunteer management and higher education. 

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You can read other blogs by the LIAS project by going to: 

• Expanded Learning 360°/365 Project website
• LIAS Blog Written for the California Afterschool Network

Effective Strategies to Teach Collaborative Learning Skills

By Sam Piha

Sam Piha

The Learning in Afterschool & Summer learning principles have been widely embraced by educators, youth workers, and researchers alike. Learning that is collaborative is not only an essential 21st Century learning skill, it is an employability skill. But how do you actually teach this skill? We ask Allison Kenny, long-time youth worker and Co-Founder of Glitter & Razz Productions and Director of Go Girls! Camp. Her responses are below.

Q: Why do you think young people learning to work and learn collaboratively is important? 

Allison Kenny

A: For one thing, it's simply more fun. Even for kids who initially struggle with collaboration skills, the process of building them decreases loneliness and isolation. Kids who are having more fun and feeling a sense of belonging learn better and more importantly, are happier people. I think this is the most important antidote to violence in schools- addressing loneliness. 

Young people also deserve a chance to learn the job readiness skills that prepare them for life in our fast-paced, flexibly thinking world. Every job in every field requires you to be part of an effective team. Humans were built to work together. We just often forget how.

Q: We know that to do this requires that young people learn certain collaborative skills. What skills do you think are foundational to good collaborative learning?

A: Saying yes- it's a crucial skill in theater improvisation and in life. It means going along with, changing and adapting someone else's idea without shutting it down. "Saying yes" also gives permission to put your own idea out into the world without judgement.

Give & Take- another life skill the theater offers. It means tracking who is center stage and when to step up vs. step back.

Boundaries- Often when young people struggle with collaboration, they are feeling annoyed, invisible or overwhelmed in their work with others. Remembering their power to say what they do and do not want helps. Teaching young people to set and respect one another's boundaries is crucial for successful collaboration.  

Q: How are these skills taught to a group of young people who will be expected to work collaboratively? Can you cite some specific strategies?

A: At Go Girls! Camp, we use theater and expressive art to teach collaboration. Our girls experience how good it feels to say yes to one another's ideas in theater games. "Yes, Let's" is a perfect example. One girl takes center stage with an idea and says, "Hey Go Girls! let's...." and fills in the blank with something all the other girls can DO with her. Imagine she says, "Let's swim with sharks!" All the girls in the group respond with, "Yes, let's!" and pretend to swim with sharks. We play round after round and debrief at the end. "What does this game teach us about working together? How will that help us in real life?"

We teach give & take through our play-making process. Each young person creates a part for the play overall. They get to see how their character matters to the story overall and how to share the spotlight. 

The best way we've found to teach boundary setting is through the Kidpower curriculum by Irene van der Zande. She has amazing books and free articles on the Kidpower website. It's all based in role play and features real life scenarios for kids, teens and adults. 

Q: In designing activities that require effective collaboration, what are essential elements or expectations that the leader must introduce?

A: The leader must be sure each participant in the group has a role. Young people want to be clear on which part they get to be in charge of. There must be an expectation that everyone in the group participate in some way, using roles to address a variety of learning styles. They should be clear how and when to ask for help. They should be given an opportunity to reflect on their experience- both in how it was to work together and how successful they were at the given task.

Q: If young people were working together and learning together through collaboration, what would it look like?

A: The room would feel safe and charged. Young people would be finding and using their own materials, working in close proximity to those in their group, celebrating and cheering one another on, solving problems and addressing conflicts, asking for help only when they truly need it. Everyone would be included. No one left behind.

Q: Do you have any additional comments?

A: Celebrating and appreciating one another is essential for collaboration. Young people can learn how to give and receive compliments, how to bolster themselves up and build self esteem, how to look for the good in one another. This creates a sense of belonging and a way to work with the inner or outer critics that tell kids they have nothing to contribute. 

At Go Girls! Camp, we end every day with a celebration circle, where girls write or draw on the things they loved and learned that day. Other times they celebrate themselves, each other or their teachers. We also teach how to give and receive feedback, so kids can deepen their skills, grow and achieve even more.

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Allison Kenny is an actor, writer, teaching artist, co-founder of Glitter & Razz Productions and Director of Go Girls! Camp. Since 2002, Allison has worked in the Bay Area as a theater teaching artist with kids ages 2-18. For 5 years, she studied Floortime Play Therapy with Dr. Ilene Lee and worked as an inclusion facilitator with kids on the Autism Spectrum. Allison served as a Youth Development Trainer and specialist with the YMCA of San Francisco and The Children, Youth and Families Minister at First Congregational Church of Oakland and an ECE Trainer to Preschool Teachers across Alameda County. In 2012, she became a Certified Instructor with Kidpower, Teenpower, Fullpower International and leads safety workshops for kids and families all over the Bay Area.

As a girl advocate, Allison believes women and girls are the world’s greatest natural resource. “We bring creativity, compassion, nurture, resilience, reliability and love to any challenge and situation. When we forget that, the whole world suffers.” Allison’s work is to create art, experiences, and books for girls and women to remember who we are and why we have value. In 2013, Allison published “Starring Celia,” a chapter book about a 4th grade girl who goes from being bullied to being a “Go Girl!”