Working in teams

In all my courses I ask students to work on projects in teams.
I have seen them succeed and have seen them struggle.
These notes are based on this hard won experience with student run teams.
Lets hear from some students who have worked on teams or led teams
What kinds of ideas or approaches have you used (or been used on you) that you think are good?
Lets hear some horror stories?

NB You're not trying to become best friends with your teammates. You're trying to get something done!

A key challenge is to establish the “norms” or the “culture” of your team.
What I mean by that is the unspoken or spoken etiquette or understandings.
For example, how often you meet, how much you care about being punctual, how you give each other feedback, how you deal with conflict.
Each team, even of just four people, might handle things a little differently.
A college course, which runs only 13 weeks, this there’s not a whole lot of time for these things to happen organically.
This means that everyone needs to pitch in a little extra to it a fun and useful experience for everyone.