In a typical collaboration, team members will have individual goals that are not derived from the shared goals of the team. Some of these may motivate their participation in the team and resultant adoption of team goals. For example, a student may decide to participate in a mock trial team to learn more about a career in law, to participate in an activity that will look good on college application forms, to form or strengthen social relationships with other students, to improve language and speaking skills, to learn more about teamwork and competition, etc. Others will be part of a larger goal structure — involving family, friends, personal interests, school or job performance, heath, nutrition, etc. — in which participation in a mock trial team may have only a small and peripheral significance.

However, the success of a collaboration requires that there be an alignment of some individual goals with team goals. Starting with the high-level goal of the team winning in competitions, each team member is expected to adopt more specific sub-goals and plans that will lead them to behave in ways that contribute to the achievement of the team goals.

Some of the sub-goals adopted by team members individually will be related to their roles. For example, in a mock trial team, a member assigned the role of defense attorney may adopt the sub-goals that prioritize learning techniques for cross-examination, while a member assigned to the role of pre-trial attorney may adopt sub-goals that prioritize learning about case law relevant to the current season’s scenario. In fact, this kind of differentiation of individual goals is a requirement for success in most collaborations.

At the same time, the differentiation of individual goals can lead to conflict when team members must compete for resources required to achieve their sub-goals. One potential benefit of new collaborative technologies is the cost-effective reduction of internal competition for certain kinds of resources. This was a key driver for the FVHS Mock Trial Team’s use of Google Apps.