Working in a group
A realistic Guide to life at UCLan - written by students!
1st article by by Ashleigh Parish, BA (Hons) Public Relations and Management, 3rd year, age 20, 2nd article by Noemi Broushmiche, MSc Applied International Communications, Age 21
Ashleigh Parish
The important thing to remember about group work is that you need to work as a team, and we all know there is no “I” in team.
Group work can be a great experience or one you will quickly want to forget. From other people not doing their work to a controlling group leader, group projects can quickly turn into an unnecessarily large problem.
Working in a group is something that may be new to you before starting University. In some of your course modules, group work can be used as part of an assignment, therefore it is important to be able to work well with your team members. There are times where you may have to work with people that you may not particularly want to, but most of the time this part of the assessment. By following a few basic tips, you can work to ensure that your group work leads to a great grade instead of a massive headache.
It may seem basic, but set team roles, objectives and deadlines early. This way everybody knows what they are doing and when tasks need to be completed for. Arrange group meetings in advance to meet up and check that everybody is on track with work. This way, everyone will know the group, as a whole, is on track before it becomes too late to fix the problem.
Each team member will have different strengths and weaknesses so in order to make the most of group work situations, understand what team members are capable of.
The key aspect of working in a group is communication, keep talking and make sure everybody knows what they are doing.
The Making of Experior from Jonee on Vimeo.
Noemi Broushmiche
“Group work is good because it allows individuals to complete work that they are best at. Ideally the group should be representative of a machine with all parts working together in unison to fulfil their roles. However, this an idealistic view as many factors can prevent this from happening i.e. social loafing." (Jonny, age 20)
Although group work can suck, the point is to get better understanding of group pressure and decision process. More than helping your future professional life, group decisions often happen in everyday life why decisions among friends need to be taken.
Group work tests your social skills such as participation, leadership, respect, integrity, listening to people. It requires some bonding (as team building) in order to make you feel comfortable in the team work. You should feel comfortable to speak with anyone in order to produce ideas.
Good balance between individual contribution and group meeting achievement is difficult. The production will represent the group’s baby: it’s not everyone’s part pasted together but the result of collaboration.
Group meeting is only useful when distance needs to be taken from the work such brainstorming, structuring, discussing, criticizing or presenting. Group dynamics improve skills as collaboration, delegation, expression, compromising... The most important ability is listening: everyone has the right to speak, but especially the right to be heard.
“People think that they know better than the rest and don’t take the others in consideration” (Ana, age 25).
Then the individual contribution consists in concretisation about every remark, thought emitted as well as basic work such as reading, writing, summarizing. Never be afraid to work too much, you can never do too much!
Dispatching depends on every one’s ability: “Few people always do more than the rest, but their outcomes learning differs” (UCLAN Teacher). Ideal should ask for equal repartition of work but as in “Tug-of-war”, some people are more able to face the situation than others.
Succeeding group work is a great opportunity to behave you and learn yourself as it will be reflected in your interactions with group members’: coping stress, confidence and adaptation skills.