How to Survive Group Projects

By: Maureen Corbett

We all fear it. That dreaded moment when your professor announces to the class, "Our next assignment will be a group project involving...(insert boring task that no one in the class wants to take part in)." Great, now you scan the room, looking for potential partners that you could tolerate working with for the duration of the assingment. Life experience has taught you that you will most likely end up with the least-competent students in the class, forcing you to do most of the work yourself.

I know in my personal experience, it is not the specific assingments that make me wary of group projects. They are for the most part very interesting, and the idea of sharing the amount of work that needs to be completed with a few other peers seems like a great idea. It is when conflict starts to brew among team members when group projects turn into nightmares. This can result from a variety of reasons: communication failures, students not completing work on time, or conflicting personalities/ideas among group members.

The best way to avoid these issues is to learn the most appropriate ways to deal with conflict. Conflict management is a life skill that every student should know. Soon enough we will all be immersed in the working world, where working in teams occurs every day and conflicts are guaranteed to occur. When a team of people can effectively collaborate on a project and work through any issues among individuals, productivity increases and great ideas are born. This semester, the LACD interns worked together to plan Libera Arts Career Week 2012. It was a lot of work, but because we were all able to work together responsibly and rely on each other, Career Week was a huge success.

Want to learn specific tips on how to handle conflict among group members? Check out this article providing just the advice you need to make your next group assignment a piece of cake:
http://www.developleadership.net/Crisis-Conflict-Management/how-to-effectively-handle-conflict.html