Artist's Resource Pack

Being part of a team can give you support and people to bounce ideas off. It means you don’t have to decide everything for yourself, and you are not the only person responsible. You need to think through in advance what will happens if you don’t agree on something, or if you and your team members find that you can’t work together as you had hoped.

Many people who work on their own join teams for particular projects. Actors, for example, manage their own careers but usually join teams of people to make work.

Before you work as a team, you need to agree roles and responsibilities – how much time is each person going to put in? What exactly is each person responsible for and what decisions can they make on their own? How can you contact them and when should you not contact them (some people do not like work interfering in their home lives)? How are you going to make sure you all stay up to date with all the information about your project?

It can be useful to find out more about how you behave in teams. Knowing your style, how you react to situations, can make you a better team member. It also helps you to spot other ‘team personalities’ and work with them better. One of the most famous personality tests was created by Myers Briggs. There is a free on-line opportunity for you to test yourself and find out your personality type. This will take you out of the artist’s resource site and to the Personality Test on the Team technology site (www.teamtechnology.co.uk/mmdi-re/mmdi-re.htm)