Many grad students I’ve spoken with look upon group projects with trepidation. It makes sense: in the vast majority of our educational experience, we’ve been rewarded for superior individual effort, and working with a group means relying on the undiscovered skills and the work habits of others. It means relinquishing full control over the output of one’s efforts in order to complete a project that might seem easier to do alone, considering the extra work of directing others’ actions, accepting others’ interests as a guide, keeping one another on task, and being accountable, not to a professor, but to a group entity. We like being dependent on our own skills, and we know our own weaknesses. Sharing our skills and possibly being judged for our weaknesses doesn’t sound like a great way to facilitate learning.
But something happens when you really dive into a group project. You find that others’ input can be a valuable resource, that different perspectives can help you to see a problem in a new way, and that a group of disparate people can work together to accomplish something that never would have come to fruition at the same depth if those people were working alone. Kurt Lewin, a pioneer in the field of organizational psychology, was one of the first to study group dynamics in a scientific way. From Field Theory in Social Science / Selected Theoretical Papers, he concludes that, “It is not similarity or dissimilarity of individuals that constitutes a group, but interdependence of fate.” (p. 165)
Theory
This interdependence, whether in terms of a grade (MLIS) or a desired solution (IRL), allows us to engage with one another around the experience of the problem or question in the thought-work it takes to come to consensus, to consider our individual tasks as they interrelate with the tasks of others. We’re directing our energies together in a specifically focused direction. We learn from one another, we apply the theory we’ve mastered in class, and we discover the joys of self-directed education.
Occasionally, we even make friends, a nice bonus that one might think is entirely beside the point. But our friends often become valuable allies — friends who are able to provide critique and suggest new paths as we move forward in career and in life are invaluable in nudging us to try interesting things outside our usual sphere of experience.
In every vocation, there is work too big, too important for one person to complete alone, and there is work that benefits greatly from the values and ideas of several individuals working together on the parts that make the whole successful. It’s essential to cultivate this skill set in preparing for our professional lives, especially because it may not be a way of working which comes naturally to us.
Practice
For those new to working within groups, this Harvard guide is a good starting point for getting one’s bearings in a group learning situation:
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58474/wigintro.html
In my own collaborative endeavors, I’ve found that successful work groups are made up of successful group members who accept individual accountability, interact regularly, and trade meaningful feedback to support one another in their efforts. Even if group members have nothing in common except their assignment goals, that’s more than enough to be successful.
There are several roles one might play in the context of the group to advance a project. I’ll outline a few that I’ve taken on.
The Leader directs a project and keeps all the moving parts in order, making sure all members understand the assignment goals and have a preferred way to contribute to the final product. The Leader develops a timeline and action plan which includes deadlines, is available to assist individual members as questions or issues arise during their tasks, and provides a framework for accountability as members work through the plan step-by-step.
The Mediator leads meetings, coordinates members’ schedules and develops a clear discussion plan in advance, adhering to agreed-upon start/end times. The Mediator draws out each member’s ideas and potential contributions, reconciles conflicts by eliciting consensus, makes clarifying statements to emphasize key (and/or confusing) points, steers members to keep the meeting on topic, and identifies areas where more evidence is needed or where unwarranted assumptions might be coloring the process.
The Recorder compiles the group’s ideas and distributes the results to all members. This might include keeping meeting minutes, designing graphical information displays, and answering questions regarding the events/contents of group interactions. This role requires the Recorder to ask clarifying questions during meetings, to share group resources with all members, and to synthesize group findings, presenting consensus in a clear way.
The Presenter builds the “package” for the group’s work, which might involve presenting the findings orally, designing presentation slides, and/or producing a polished culminating document which reflects all group members’ work in service to solving the assignment problem.
Each of these roles is crucial to the success of the group. Every member has an obligation to attend meetings regularly and to participate fully, e.g., suggest ideas, identify and work toward common goals, pool knowledge, offer specialized skills or lessons from experience. During meetings, listen carefully, consider the perspectives of others, and provide constructive feedback. Complete tasks by the agreed-upon deadlines. Research the topic adequately and share resources and info with other group members. Do not overwhelm group members with too many emails, texts, or IMs: use agreed-upon channels for communication, e.g., facetime meetings, google docs, weekly update emails, et cetera. This is basic group etiquette, and will go a long way in fostering an atmosphere of mutual respect, allowing members to work well together and solve the assignment problem successfully.
The best group projects allow us to collaboratively apply course concepts to complex problems. This cultivates critical thinking skills, as well as providing valuable experience in the fine art of getting things done — together. Not only do we learn how the material applies to real-world scenarios, we learn how to effectively work with others, rather than in competition with others, to achieve a goal that benefits the entire group.
Collaboration is an essential ability in any workplace — better to gain this skill set in the “safe” setting of academia than to flounder while on the job. We should relish our experience in group learning settings, embrace the process, and observe group etiquette to make every project one that challenges and strengthens us to be effective in our education and in our future careers.
attribution: image from Calvin & Hobbes comics by Bill Watterson
Heather Bailey Terrell 