GR:Many hands make light work, 23rd Sep. 7:30 pm AEST

@WheresMySquishy 

I like the idea of the team leader 🙂 Its always better to have someone who can mediate and reconcile what disputes have arisen. Especially when its someone who is like a third party 

What are some strategies to prevent unnecessary conflict?

I think conflict is such an important issue for group work, it can feel a lot like you have to compromise so much of your idea to avoid any disputes but that sometimes leaves my writing feeling uninspired. For me, I'll try talk through my idea to the group and not be specific with what I want to see for the project overall, so that everyone's expectations can be met. 

If it does arise, what are some ways of managing conflict in a group?

I think the only way to work through it is to talk it out, if you ignore everyone the assignment won't be great and probably won't meet the deadline. I try to get the creative differences out early and just be civil and open to what people say to try not escalate any conflict.

I'm very confused about what this is?

What skills do you reckon are most beneficial for group work/activities?

What skills do you reckon are most beneficial for group work/activities?

I think being cooperative and having good communication skills are a big plus in group work. Honesty (but not being too blunt) can also help you get your point across. Being respectful of the other group members and willing to listen to other people's point of view can also be helpful. I've also found it helpful when people are able to stay calm when problems arise. Problem solving skills can be great too.

@WheresMySquishy I agree! I think that honesty can be super important not just with getting your point acroos but if you ever need to ask your group for help on a section or if the group organisation is unclear.

With communication, I feel like having everyone supervise other people's parts and constant feedback can make a group project feel more cohesive and less like a bunch of stuck-together pieces.

I agree with @Milkninja222, loving the focus on qualities and interpersonal skills Just shows how important they are in a team setting!

I am about to sign off, but can't wait to check this thread again in the morning and read the rest of the discussion  Speak tomorrow!!

Next question: What is the greatest challenge you have had in a group?

https://www.ecosia.org/images?q=challenge+memes

What is the greatest challenge you have had in a group?
I really hated working with some particular groups!

In one group assignment I did at school, the other members asked me to do everything and type the whole assignment. When I asked them if they could do some tasks, they refused and made a big drama about it. I was so upset because they were my friends at the time. I ended up working out with the teacher to submit my work individually.

In the first group presentation I did in uni, I kept contacting the other two group members and asking what they wanted to do all semester, but they didn't reply until about two days before the presentation was due. By then, I had already done most of the presentation myself. I ended up having to contact the tutor, who got everyone to write down what they had done and said that she would be marking the members individually.

I worked with another really bad group in uni, where they did not tell me that they had already picked their topics. When I wanted to pick one and did some of the work for it, one of them told me at the last minute that she had already picked it and decided to use my work for her part of the presentation. We also had to do another presentation, where I was in charge of putting all the slides together, only for another group member to change it all at the absolute last minute without telling me despite approving it and practising with it us as a group before.

@ecla34 @WheresMySquishy wow, that sounds so horrible. As much as group projects like these can be really difficult to work through, I hope you find some great groups to work with in your next projects!

I think that learning from assignments like these can prepare you a lot for what kind of approach to take and bringing it up with the marker is definitely the right way to go if people are leaving it so last minute (or not showing up at all!)

What is the greatest challenge you have had in a group?

Definitely trying to get everyone to pull their weight. I am usually pretty happy with my group except for one or two people who scrape by and it can really feel bad submitting something when one section looks like it was done in a night. I think the only way to avoid this would be early starts and meet often with clear plans for what you want to do for your section each week. If you can motivate them early it can definitely be surprising how much better the end result will be.

What is the greatest challenge you have had in a group?

haha the greatest challenge in a group i had was at uni. We were doing an oral presentation, and we couldn't present it on the day because one group member

a. didn't write his part

b. didn't send his work to us/the tutor for the hurdle part of the assessment

c. didn't turn up on the day!

what a disaster! Luckily the tutor knew what was going on so we could present on another day, but jeez! Definitely highlighted the importance of communication and keeping up to date with everything!

See you next time @Jess1-RO and @Bee ! Have great night!

@katurian you're so right! it's so much easier to get stuff done in person but so hard to arrange times! i sometimes end up doing a poll with groups to make it easier!

@ecla34  That's crazy how the group member didn't even turn up! I'm glad that the tutor was understanding though!

@ecla34Omg that sounds like a nightmare! I think sometimes you can sort of predict how invested a group member is in a project from the start and prepare a contingency plan, especially if its a project that only looks at the final product (not individual effort).

If you someone is being unresponsive/not providing updates on their progress, I've done their part (along with some other worried group members) just in case they decide to not do their portion properly after all. Provides some relief to a worrier like me haha, although it is unfair

@katurian that's a bit hard on you guys! still contigency plans are a good idea! 😄

unfortunately it was one of those scenarios where everyone had to do separate parts and got graded seperately! I think i should've know from the start haha
"I'm happy to work as a three, means less work" is not an inspiring start!

@WheresMySquishy those do sound like really bad experiences! i'm so glad you felt able to contact your teachers and let them know! Definitely not right for people to take credit for work they didn't help with! 

What is the greatest success you've had as a group? What was different from the more challenging situation?

For me I always feel really rewarded after that initial hurdle when we all realise what needs to be done and how we'll work through it. I love to see the group chat full of people bouncing ideas off eachother and asking for feedback or help, it can feel like it's all coming together. As challenging as some groups can be, when your group clicks it's such an awesome feeling.

@WheresMySquishy and @katurian yeah, motivation in a group tends to really show in the work itself! It's understandable that some people just want to pass a subject, but a bit frustrating lol

@Decal21 agreed! when things start coming together and ideas flow it's such a great feeling  

What is the greatest success you've had as a group? What was different from the more challenging situation?
I think the more successful groups I've been a part of have been cooperative, respectful and friendly towards all the members. Everyone has been willing to help out other group members so that everyone stays on the same page and they have shown a genuine interest in the work, as opposed to people who have put off doing the work or are just hoping to scrape the subject. The successful projects I've been a part of have had a really great vibe to the groups and the group members have tended to provide a lot of positive feedback to each other. We also kept in regular communication with each other and were able to stick to a plan or schedule all the way through. I guess there will always be people who you will get along with and others that you just don't jive with.

What is the greatest success you've had as a group? What was different from the more challenging situation?

The greatest group success I've had has also been at uni! And it was with friends, which i feel like is rare! (sometimes friends are not that good to work with haha, it can end up a bit like @WheresMySquishy 's experience!)

I think what was different was that we wrote out a timeline of what we were doing and when we needed to have an outline done each, then a draft, then meet up to practice etc. From memory we put all of our work into the same google doc so we could see what everyone had done so far 😄
What was really helpful was as a group doing a dot-point plan of what each person was going to go away and do, so that we were off to a good start and all knew what was happening 😄 

@Milkninja222 has there been a time when you've had a group work experience go really well? do you think anything in particular made it go smoothly? 😄 

@ecla34  I think that working with friends can be really hit and miss. There have been times where I've worked with friends and I've had good experiences too. I think if the friends have a tendency to use you, then that tends to translate to group work too.

Similarly, another success I've had as a group has involved using Google Docs and a written timetable so that we could see what everyone had done and whether there were any mistakes that needed to be corrected. It was a research project involving assigning participants to different groups and gathering data from them, so having a schedule was essential, especially in times where data wasn't collected properly or someone was assigned to the wrong group.