Instructor Blog #5: Working in Groups
Submitted by eplough on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 18:44.
Quite frankly, I am hesitant to assign group projects to students. I have bad memories from my undergrad days of doing entire group projects by myself, so I am skeptical of the ability of students to work together effectively and equally. The challenges of teamwork are only exacerbated by our distance ed course, where group members may never meet face to face. But group work is a reality of the professional workplace, and you will need to be able to work productively in teams to accomplish complex tasks quickly. Often, you will have to work remotely with employees at other sites or companies. In that respect, our class set up is ideal for practicing group work. This project is probably not going to be easy, or especially fun. I anticipate frustrations. But the situation you are placed in here is becoming more and more common in the work world, so you need to be ready to face it.
To lower the frustration of the project, I have put several checks in place. First, I have divided the project into several stages to ensure that work is getting done over these four weeks instead of by one person the day before the project is due. Secondly, I have instituted work blogs that require every group member to report weekly on his or her work. Sure, you can not do any work, piss off your group members, and then lie on the work blogs, but at the end of the semester, every group member will report to me on the accuracy of their team’s work blogs. If you’re not doing any work, I will find out, and will lower your grade. However, you all have been working hard and getting things done, so I'm not expecting too many problems. On the other hand, if you are worried about doing your team’s entire project, don’t be. In the past, work blogs have been fairly effective in ensuring that work is distributed fairly.
The final check is team activity reports due every week in which the team reports what they have accomplished. Unlike the individual work blogs, which are mostly for this class, activity reports are similar to the reports you will have to give a boss about your group’s progress. Bosses want to keep track of what a team is doing, what problems are arising, how much things are costing, etc, so they often request reports at regular intervals to check in. These activity reports let me do the same thing for your team. I want to make sure things are going smoothly, and I want to address problems that arise. So make your activity reports specific and detailed so I know how things are going.
I also have a few pieces of advice to help your teamwork. I know people often associate advice on working in teams with doing cheesy activities like trust falls or ropes courses, or with ridiculous metaphors like “Your team is your family!” Despite the abundance of cheesy advice, I think there are some practical strategies that will improve your team work.
Communicate often through reliable channels. Everyone's email address is listed in the Members link in the navigation bar, and I expect that you will contact each other ASAP. Your group also will have a wiki page (a page that any user can edit) on the course site for communication. As you work, don’t go a week or two without giving updates. Communicate regularly to keep up on the progress of the project. Many students have used instant messenger in the past as an effective communication tool. Sure, communication is obvious, but it’s also easy to put communication off. Don’t just assign roles and come back together a few days before the due date to polish things up. I can almost guarantee a bad grade with this strategy.
Plan. The project is broken down into steps to help your group organize its work. Still, your group needs a plan to figure out who is doing what when. I have assigned a Gantt chart to help you with this. A Gantt chart is basically a complex graph that maps out your projected process. Take this seriously, and use it to figure out what your group is going to accomplish and when. Plan out all four weeks now, so that you don’t get stuck with too much work at the end of the term. Then stick to the plan. Though you can be willing to adjust your plan if the need arises, you should follow the plan pretty closely.
Delegate Well. One of the hardest things to do in a group is to delegate responsibility. As you delegate, figure out what needs to be done and how to divide up this work fairly. Make sure the work loads are even. Also, delegate to members’ particular skills. If one person is good with Excel or graphic design, put that person to crafting the visuals. If another person is good at copy editing, put that person on polishing your document. Again, this is common sense stuff that is often hard to do in real life situations. Also, as you delegate, figure out when something can be done by individuals and when it must be done by the whole group. Your Gantt chart, for instance, should probably be done as a group effort. Also, your final reports need to be read like they were composed by one author, not 3-4 different people, so figure out how you will unify sections written by different people. That will involve talking about how to do something before you do it, not coming back together afterwards and trying to make everything mesh.
Recognize Member Personalities. By now, all of you pretty much know what role you play in a group project. Maybe you’re the person who doesn’t say much. Maybe you’re the person who takes charge immediately. Maybe you’re the slacker who puts things off. Maybe you’re the person who would rather be working alone. Whoever you are, recognize your personality in relation to everyone else’s. If you are the slacker, don’t get mad when other members get on your case about doing more work. If you’re the perfectionist, realize that you redoing other team members’ work will hurt their feelings. If you’re the natural leader, don’t overwhelm everyone else. (There is more about negative group roles you'll want to avoid taking on in tomorrow's reading "Feuds in Student Groups.") Be honest with yourself and the rest of the team members. And follow the old advice about walking in someone else’s shoes.
I hope this project is a positive experience, and at the very least, remember that you are gaining skills for the workplace. Unless something drastic comes up, I do not want to mediate group conflicts. I want you to do your work. So please try to resolve problems in your group before you come to me. Part of group work is developing methods for handling conflict. (Thanks to Ryan Weber for content)
Good luck.
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Response to Instructor Blog #5
As I was reading through this blog, I was beginning to become apprehensive. Every group project that I get involved in, I always end up doing all of the work. When I mean “all,” I literally mean the whole entire research part of the project. Whether it’s having to call everyone to tell them the changes we made in our slide show or putting together speaking note cards for a group member that didn’t look up his or her assigned material the night before our presentation, I always get stuck with the bulk of the assignment.
But the words “you need to be ready to face it” really became a reality check for me. I might be working for a company where I am assigned to work with other people, and it just so happens I might actually have to do the bulk of the work. That’s life though. I think it’s rare to find a team of people who have equal effort and drive. But it’s important to strive for that at least. I hope that the other people in my group have the same goal as me: to learn from the project and ultimately earn a good grade. I really like how the Service Learning Project is set up. I believe that it will benefit the group planning part of the project, because we are required to turn in certain documents every couple of days. This will help the groups stay organized and hopefully on task. Planning is very crucial when working in a team atmosphere. Groups need to develop a plan and stick to it. I believe the “Gantt chart” will be very beneficial, since it’s a complex graph that maps out the process of a project. It lays out the group goals, has a time table for these goals, and lists the individual responsibilities. I think every group will use that religiously!
I do think every group needs to find the best way to communicate. If my group uses Facebook just as much as me, then I think that would be a good communication hub. We can use Facebook rather than using instant messenger, because you can send the same message to every group member just like an email. I think that every part of the project should be sent to every group member, not just the person assigned to put everything together. I think this technique definitely helps with communication throughout the group. For example, I believe each group member should constantly look at the documents for improvements such as: conciseness, grammar, spelling, and professionalism.
As for the Service Learning Project details, I am actually excited to begin working on the general information brochure and the flyer. I think it’s really creative to have the grading criteria be based on how well the client likes the professionalism of our documents. The one that is suitable for professional use for the client’s company will be the only project that receives an A. Not only are we trying to get a good grade, but we are competing between the groups. But overall, I am really excited to begin this project.
Response to Instructor Blog #5
I believe the hardest thing about working in groups is trying to properly delegate the work load among all the members. This does not necessarily mean that everybody gets the same amount of work. I know that if I’m working on a project with a group of friends and one person can never seem to accomplish as much as everybody else, I typically assign that person less work. I know that this might not be the best way to handle a situation, but in reality if you know they won’t get a whole work load done, what’s the point in having to finish it yourself at the last minute. I feel that this group project will be different from almost any other group project that I’ve been in before. Obviously not meeting with my group members face to face is going to be the main difference. I think that with the aid of the Gantt chart and all of the weekly team activity reports, these tools will keep us on track and not let us get behind on a certain task. I also think that everybody will be motivated to do their best and stay caught up on all of their work because the winning group will be the only ones to receive an A. This is enough motivation for me to not let my team members down and I hope it’s the same for the other people in my group.
Nicole VanDeLeest
Comment
Effectively working in groups is a very essential in today’s corporate world. It would be great if we start with it through this course. Working in groups would be the toughest in this course because it is a distance learning course. We all including our professor are in different parts of the world and jelling together and working together will be quite a hassle. But I guess it would be quite a learning experience for all us. I fell that the most effective way for a group to communicate would be through instant messengers as we are able to respond immediately and share files as well. I think most of us are well accustomed to the IM’s and are available most of the time. One of the major issues would be time zones. For example, I am from India which has a time difference of + nine and half hours from USA and too keep up with different time zones. But I am definitely looking forward to working in groups and the service learning project.
Instructor Blog Response #5
I personally hate group projects as I am aware many people do. I have always been in the same boat as you being the person who does the entire project. Sometimes just doing the entire project is easier than messing with everyone else in your group. I think in this situation a group project will be easier than before. There is actually a chance for each group member to be held accountable for their work. I think having to report on what you’re doing each week makes it harder for people to lie and pretend like they’re doing work when they aren’t. I also really like the fact that we get examine each group member’s blog at the end and see if they were representing their participation accurately in their blog. I also think the idea of each group having a wiki page will be very beneficial to the team as a whole. This gives each team member a direct outlet to communicate with team members. This page will also be easy to check and respond to your group member’s comments or concerns. I think that delegating responsibilities makes or breaks your entire project. If you haven’t delegated the responsibilities well then one person may feel overwhelmed while another person is left with little to do. I think this is defiantly the most crucial step in the process of completing the project and that each group should spend a significant amount of time on the step. I think that in this class so far it seems that everyone is always posting on each other’s blogs and getting their work done so I don’t really anticipate having problems with people slacking off as much as in other classes. The groups are small as well which I think will really help. I recently had a group project that we had to work on all of Spring semester with nine people. That project was horrible because you can never get nine people to do anything at the same time or in the same place. I anticipate this project to be hard but to go fairly smoothly.
Group Work
I have to agree that working in groups is probably one of the hardest things we are asked to do in school. However, it is like you said, we will also be asked to do this in the corporate world so we need to be prepared. I think this project will challenging, but I also think it will be a beneficial experience. The “checks” that have been put in place will definitely help ensure that everyone is putting an effort into this project, which is very comforting to me, because as many of us have clearly experienced, I too have ended up doing entire group projects alone.
Response to Instructor Blog #5
In the past, I have had many bad experiences working in groups. Like you, I seem to always end up doing the majority of the work. Sometimes I end up doing all the work because no one will help me and sometimes it is because I want to make sure it is done correctly.
I believe the Service Learning Project will be a different story though. This project will be a challenge, because we can't meet face to face, but with the checks and balances in place, I believe it will be successful. I like that we are required to report weekly on our work and then every group member will report on the accuracy of those reports. I think this strategy will hold people accountable to doing their work because they have no way of faking it. They won't be able to say they worked hard and were productive when they weren't.
I think the key to this project will be planning as mentioned in your strategies to improve teamwork. I liked the idea of a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart will allow groups to figure out who is going to do what and in what time frame. This will also hold people accountable.
Over all, the Service Learning Project will be a good experience and I look forward to starting it. With this being a distance learning course, I am a little scared because it will make the project more challenging. Even though it is challenging, it will give us real world experience. As you stated in your blog, "The situation you are placed in here is becoming more and more common in the work world, so you need to be ready and face it." That is the bottom line: we are doing a project that will truly benefit us in the future. The fact that we are doing a project that will benefit us in the future motivates me to work hard and do a good job.
Response to instructor Blog #5
Well, even though this is another one of those difficult group projects, I think we all know what we are in for. Professor Plough has done a good job at clarifying what difficulty this project will entail and I think that his list of practical strategies will help us all to be on the same page. We all know what we are in for and I think that working together will not be a problem if we stay in constant communication and abide by the checklist. I personally dislike group projects mainly because sometimes there is a lack of communication or ineffective communication. I think Professor Plough’s goal is to see if we can apply all of the useful skills that we have learned thus far in this class. I believe we have learned a good amount of effective communication skills and we should all do our best to utilize them in this upcoming project.
Response to Instructor Blog #5
Although most people have always had bad experiences with group projects, I can't say thats always true for myself. I have had my share of being stuck with a crappy group where its just easier for me to do all of the work. However, this past semester I was with a group in which we all worked really well together and did an equal amount of work. I think the reason for this was because we made sure that we were all on the same page before we even began the project. I know the distance can propose more problems in our situation, but we can still make sure that everyone in the group has the same goals in mind.
I really like how this group project is set up with the due dates every couple of days. This way, we can somewhat eliminate the possibility with having to complete everything the night before its due. This project also seems interesting. It gives group members a chance to show their more creative side and do something that is going to benefit a real organization. I like knowing that all of our hard work may be used by someone who really appreciates it. The "Gantt Chart" seems like a very good idea. From what I read about it in the blog, it is something that needs to be taken seriously by all group members and updated daily.
I look foward to meeting my group members and getting started on this project. I hope that I can have as good of an experience as I did last time I had a group project!
Reading Response #5
I can honestly say that I do not care for working in groups. Throughout my college career I have had several bad experiences with group projects. In college it is really hard to coordinate 4 or 5 different schedules. Last year I had to work on a group project and our group members did not get along. If we scheduled a meeting either members of our group would not show up or we would just sit and argue. During our meetings we got nothing accomplished and in the end myself and another person finished the entire project. For this course I think the way the project is organized will ensure that all group members contribute equally to the project. I also think the Gantt chart will help everyone stay organized and on task.
Response to instructor blog #5
Exactly! You mentioned all my doubts in this group project, especially because I do not know and never meet anybody in this class. Hopefully you split the groups evenly and all groups will work well. I agree that group project is important and this skill is going to be useful in the future, as we will always deal with people in the society. It is going to be a great experience to work as a group in a distance, where all members never meet and talk directly. I have never done this before and I hope my group and this project will leave me a positive memory about working as a group in a distance. Somehow I am so excited about this project, but on the other side, I am so nervous about problems that my group will be going through.
GC
Response to Instuctor's Blog #5
I have not had fond experiences of group projects. Last year I was in a class that was based entirely on group work. The leader of the group was an awful communicator and never included the other team members in decisions. I agree with the statement of not dividing work up and then turning it in at the last minute. It is hard to keep everyone on pace, without checking to see the progress being made. Having the checkpoints and weekly blogs will allow each member of the team to see what the others are working on. This will allow positive feedback and critique from other group members. Communicating through email and instant messaging will be a key to success in this project. Since we don’t meet in classroom face-to-face, it is important for each member to update the others regularly. I am not familiar with the Gantt chart, but will be useful to figure out what the group is going to accomplish and when. I agree to put people with parts of the project that they are better at. This will allow the group to produce the best project they can. Recognizing Member Personalities is the key to getting along with others in the group. This project may be the hardest project of the class but it will be a learning experience with a competitive edge.
Response to Instructor Blog #5
Oh group work; it's a love-hate relationship for me and it depends on the type of project and the details they entail that decides whether or not I enjoy it or loathe it. For me, when it comes to group work, I cannot really remember an exact incident or time where I had such an awful group or experience in group work that it impaired my work or our work as a team. I honestly don't mind group work I suppose based on the track record I had with it. I have found that with past group work experiences, making a time line and telling everyone what they need to do and by when is the best. You don't even have to necessarily elect a primary "president" or whatever of the group because this sometimes could cause problems. I have found that if everyone just acts on the same level and get assigned the same amount of work, it works fairly well. I for one have always been neutral in terms of my role in group work and am always willing to take on the work I am assigned or be flexible with what I am given. I think it is very important to be flexible in these cases. Overlooking the strategies you have listed above, I think they are all very helpful but I was kind of confused by the Gantt chart haha mainly because looking it over I found it more complication and time consuming than just doing it by the date we need to do it by. However, I'll have to give it another look and give it a bit more though. Other than that I'm not put off or anything by this upcoming group project. Im acutally kind of excited about it!!
Response to Instructor Blog #5
I would like to comment on the topic of delegation. Delegating responsibility is a big deal in the corporate world. It is a daily task that those in charge of delegation must master. It is not enough to just randomly assign projects to those below yourself. You must properly match the project with the person who possesses the correct skill set needed to complete the task. Efficiently delegating can be hard to accomplish if you do not take the time to find out what each employee is capable of doing. Many people think that if they delegate a project to someone else that the weight is off their shoulders. This may be true in the sense of putting time/effort into the project themselves, but the responsibility still remains on the higher rung of the ladder. This proves how important delegation really is. It is something that affects all employees, top to bottom. It is how things get done in the workplace. Properly doing this can get you promoted while failing to master delegation can get you fired.
Response to Instructor Blog No. 5
I think everyone has been in the situation of being stuck doing the most, if not all, of a group project. For me, half the time this is because group members don’t put forth the required effort and the other half is because I want to make sure everything is done right. This is not because I don’t trust my team members; it is simply because for a group project, my grade depends on everyone else’s work as well. I was a little worried when I first read that we were going to be doing a group project in this class because of the nature of the course. It is hard enough to do a group project when the group can actually set up meetings and all work together in person, let alone when all communication is online. It is true that many problems in the business world are solved through phone conversations or e-mail. There is just not time to meet someone every time a problem arises. It is a simple fact that we must learn to communicate and work well in teams to come up with solutions and to execute them. The wiki page will be very helpful throughout this project. I think it would be best to use the wiki page to give updates and insight at least twice a week. This will help all group members be on the same page. Establishing a Gantt Chart will be very helpful as well. Like you have outlined the class with certain things to do each day, so should we with certain tasks to accomplish so this project can go more smoothly. The Gantt Chart is just like a construction schedule that I would have to create at the beginning of each project. I can relate because for every construction project, a schedule must be created to know how much time is allocated to each activity so the finish date can be successfully met. The small adjustments that might have to be made along the way are common and referred to in the construction world as, “float.” Another difficult part of this project will occur when we have to create the final report. Making the report appear as if it were written by one author will not be easy because the report will be written by four authors. The cohesiveness of the final report will be a good indication of how well the entire process went for each group.
Ryan L. Ross
(No subject)
Response for week 5
This blog post was interesting to read. Normally, I do not like group projects, but I am always up for a challenge and I think working with a group when you are not actually able to meet them will be difficult. On the other hand though, there is a lot of technology available to us which will make communications easier. The checks that have been incorporated into the project will also be helfpul to make sure that everyone works well together. Although I do not usually say I am looking forward to group projects, I am for this one. After reading the blog posts by everyone over this course so far, I feel like there will be no major issues throughout the project. I'm curious to see how it will all work out, mostly due to the fact that we can not meet face to face.
Instructor Blog #5 - Groups
I have had many different experiences when working in groups. In the past I would take charge and try to do everything myself and do it the way I wanted it done. Now, I have learned to delegate jobs to other people and trust others to do their part of the work. It makes the work a lot easier and enjoyable when everyone does pitch in and help a little. Now, when working in groups I tend to be the quiet one and shy away, listening to everyone else’s ideas. I help whenever I am asked do what needs to be completed.
For this group project it is going to be more difficult to work together and get everything done on time. It will be helpful to have weekly group blogs and individual blogs to know where each group member stands on their work. It should help us to keep moving and working on our project. It is going to be a little difficult the first two weeks for me to get everything done when needed. I have a busy couple weeks with not as much access to the internet. Communication will be very important for all of us, especially since we are not all in the same area. Not everyone will be close to the internet when others need to talk to them. This whole project will be good practice for us when working with groups long distance. It will be difficult and frustrating at times, but we will learn a lot from this experience.
Instructor Blog Comment
As I was reading this I began to think of all my previous group work, some worked well and others didn't. My most recent group work was terrible I spent hours doing all the work by myself. The system that is set up seems like it won't be easy for other group members not to work. I really like that you have us check and see if someone is lying about what they did. I usually hate group work because I know it means a lot of work for me, but I think this will be different. I do however think this will be difficult since we won't really be meeting face to face. There will not be any room for procrastination it seems like. I am looking forward to seeing how this goes. This might be useful for working in the future with other people you work with. I also think that since we won't really be meeting face to face everyone will be more likely to work hard to make sure they get everything they need to done. Overall, I think this will be a challenging assignment but a very useful one.
Response to Instructor Blog #5: Working in Groups
I wholeheartedly agree the set-up of this class is more realistic than a class room setting. During my internship, I have been working with a client in Montreal, Canada, and they like to see every piece of work I have done. Clearly, I am not able to go to Canada to hand them every item I have worked on, so I use email frequently. Not only do I need to make sure my work is completed in a timely fashion, but it has to be presentable and easy to follow for the client. This has been one of the most challenging aspects of my job this far. I am excited to be working in a group in this type of setting. Not only will I get to practice working with others online, but I will be able to meet new people. I tend to take the leader role in my group projects. Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I like to be the “high-level” reviewer, making sure everything is completed in a proper manner. Although I like taking the leadership position, I am not objective to others taking on that role. As long as my group delegates well and group members keep up their work, I am sure we will be successful. I’m a huge believer in peer review and expect all my work to be reviewed by other group members before handed in as a draft. I hope the others in my group will feel the same way. Overall, the set-up of this project will be a great learning experience and I am excited to be producing materials for the real world.