Advice for Effective Group Work
At University most courses will include a group working assessment. Instead of completing this assessment individually, you will be required to complete it as part of a group. In group work assessments the group will often be given one grade for the submission of the whole group. Group work assessments can include, for example, reports, presentations, practical skills assessments and essays. Group work assessments are common within the first years of your degree, as they help you to develop friends and contacts within your course.
Learning how to work within a group is a vital skill, as most job roles will require you to work within a team towards a greater goal. The guidance below will give advice on how to effectively work within a group.
Have an initial meeting
When starting a group project, the first thing to do is to get to know everyone within your group. You may already know some of your group, but it is important to get to know the other members of your team. This will help in team building, members feeling able to contribute in meetings and in understanding where each members strengths are.
In order to minimise the possibility of conflict, it is important that group members feel comfortable from the beginning, so make sure that everybody knows everyone’s name and that you all have each other’s contact details. Creating a team, using Microsoft Teams, can be useful for sharing ideas, arranging meetings and working collaboratively at a distance.
Analyse the task
When the group divides the task up, ensure that each person has responsibility for part of the task. The work should be divided fairly, so that everyone has approximately the same amount of work to do. The group should take people’s abilities and previous experience into consideration when deciding who does what. It can be useful to work on areas that you have less experience in to further develop your skills. After allocating tasks, work out a timeline that shows each task, the date by which it must be completed and the person or people who are responsible for doing it. Make this timeline so that it has some flexibility, so that it can be adjusted if problems arise.
Plan Regular Meetings
Meeting regularly means that you have opportunities to present your work, ask questions, and keep everyone on track with what their next steps are. Plan meetings around once per week at the start of a group work project. Meet more if you feel it is needed. After each meeting everyone should leave knowing what they should do before the next meeting.
Be an effective group member
Be positive and try to make the group work. Contribute to group discussions, encourage others to contribute and anticipate difficulties. Your group will only function well if everyone contributes by fulfilling their commitments, so do your section and try to support any group members where possible.
Coping with Difficulties in Group Work
Group work is an essential part of your university experience, helping you to develop skills whilst also helping you to make friends with those on your course. However sometimes problems arise when working in groups.
Coping with non-cooperative team members
Sometimes members of your group will be uncooperative and may not be doing their part of the project. Sometimes your first instinct may be to complain to your tutor, however most lecturers regard the need to cope with difficulties facing the group as part of the assignment, so avoid complaining to them about individuals unless you feel that you have exhausted all other available options. Instead try to communicate with an individual and try to find out the underpinning reason behind why they are unable to help. It may be that they are struggling, need some assistance from other team members, or have other personal difficulties. Whatever the problem, it is preferable to help the person complete their task rather than having other team members complete it for them. This will increase fairness and reduce your overall workload.
Coping with dominant team members
Groups having a dominant member is quite common and there isn’t always a correlation between who is the loudest or talks the most and who best ideas. The best ideas come in a group when everyone contributes and helps to shape the group work using everyone’s experience.
When an individual is dominating discussions, one solution is for other group members to point out that everyone needs to be heard and to ask quieter members for their ideas. Another method is to try timing everyone's contributions and to allow everyone the opportunity to add something after a point has been made.
It is also possible to politely indicate to the dominating team member that they are taking more of their fair share of time in the meeting. Suggesting this outside of a meeting may be more effective and reduce conflict. Suggested reasons behind this could include, allowing others to contribute, increasing the range of ideas and also reducing the workload of the individual who dominates.
Coping with silent team members
Some team members may be quiet during team meetings. This may be for a number of reasons including confidence, other team members dominating or because they don’t feel that they have anything to contribute. One way to help silent team members is to give them the chance to speak by asking them for their ideas and giving them the opportunity to discuss their specified tasks. Leave a space after each person’s contribution so that quieter team members have time to indicate that they have something to say. When a team member speaks pay attention and acknowledge their contribution, even if you disagree with it.
