The beauty of working in groups

By: Brian Rivera

Plenty of us have had to work in a group environment, especially in classes or jobs where big projects are present, but whenever anyone even mentions “group work” we all moan and groan. Although I too have had my share of unruly group members, coasters, and “lost work” overall I feel that a group dynamic cannot only enhance the project on hand, but it can also help you learn useful skills for the future. What can you learn you say? Well here are just a few things you can gain when working in a group.

Task assignment:

One thing you will learn very quickly is which tasks to assign to each other. Most groups usually go into the project with thoughts of everyone doing the same amount of work in everything, but this ideal is a little naïve. Instead group work should be assigned by a combination of interests as well as skills. For example if someone knows there way around a certain computer program, assign them the work that corresponds to that, while you let someone else edit the work they produce. Learning to know where you and others fit into the group will not only let the work go faster, but it will also better the project.

Communication:

Obviously there will be moments where not everyone can meet, or you need to get in contact with the entire group at once. Learning the importance of communicating ideas and work via email and so on will help the group accomplish work, even if not all schedules can coincide. This also brushes you up on proper email and phone etiquette, which is something we should keep in mind, since the majority of us will use these skills when pursuing our careers in the future. Teaching yourself to always communicate with your group on your progress is also very helpful, because it keeps confusion to minimum, which leads to a faster, smoother completion of your work.

Problem Resolution:

More likely than not, groups of people will find conflict in something when working together. Whether it’s someone like not communicating or unsatisfactory work being presented, to someone not completing there part of the work there will come a time where two or more people will butt heads. So what now? This is the perfect time to practice problem resolution with your fellow group members. Proposing a compromise or even reprimanding someone when work is not being done is good practice for when problems like this arise later.  The better you get at resolving issues, the faster your work is completed.

Although these are just a few of the things you can learn from working with people, it is important to remember that regardless of what we do we will most likely end up working with groups of different people, and the faster you learn to glean the positive things from those experiences, the better your work will be.