When I wrote the hub ‘How to get a first class degree at college or university’ I included
a section on group work but felt that it was such an important (and potentially
difficult) area that I needed to elaborate and provide a specific guide. When I
was at University some people had highly intelligent, highly motivated and
hardworking friends in their group so they probably didn’t need a road map to
achieving a good grade as ‘many hands made light work’. However, my experience
was different I had a mixture of people in my groups from the highly
conscientious to the guys that would go AWOL only to turn up on hand in day
with half a sheet of paper to their credit.
You don’t go through years of frustration, graft and ‘herding cats’
without learning a thing or two, so here is the ultimate survival guide to
dealing with group assignments at university and college.
Understand the beast – This isn’t going to be easy. You will be
working with people from different backgrounds who have different ideas,
temperaments, motivations and agendas. You may be busting a gut for that First Class degree but others may be there just to keep their parents happy
or pass the time. Therefore, their commitment and ability may also differ. The
key here is to not dread or fight this, you just need to accept it and work
towards getting the best grade possible.
Strength in numbers – The first task to complete when you have
been assigned a group is to find out who the good, hardworking and
conscientious people are and align yourself with them. Let them know that you
are also like them and want to achieve the same result. This will not only
benefit you but they will also realise that it is in their interest to get to
know you. If you get this right you will establish the ‘core’ of the group.
These ‘core’ individuals will be the people that are going to have most influence
over the quality of the assignment/project. You need to be part of this
foundation and the foundation needs to be good.
Identify and cover the weak – Once you have identified the strong
members and built your alliances it is time identify the weak. In this context
the term weak is not a derogatory term used towards a person’s character, it
simply means that there are some people that are more likely to produce poor
quality work that will inevitably drag your overall grade down.
Thankfully, these
people are fairly easy to identify. They will be the members that
look bored, say they need to be somewhere else, are fooling around or are happy
to sit back and let everyone else do the work without offering any input.
Distribution of tasks (Damage limitation) – If you get this
stage right the chances of securing a good grade increase dramatically. Hopefully
by now you have established a core group of hard workers and identified the
deadwood. Now it’s time for a little common sense. GIVE THE HARDEST
MOST VALUABLE TASKS TO THE HARDEST WORKERS. Seems pretty simple but it is
often overridden by the fact that no-one wants to do tasks that are boring,
hard to understand and the most difficult. Unfortunately, these are often the
tasks that carry the most points so you don’t want them in the hands of your
deadwood. Someone is going to have to take the bullet from the core group.
When I was at university I always took the hardest tasks that no-one
else wanted to do. For a few reasons :
1. I knew I would put
in maximum effort and do a good job
2. These tasks often
made up a large part of the overall grade and I felt more comfortable if I was
responsible for it.
3. The harder the
tasks the more knowledge I gained and this would serve me well in future exams
and throughout my degree.
4. I couldn’t bring
myself to offload it onto someone else.
5. It opens the door
to making you the leader of the group and as the leader you have more influence
over the outcome of the assignment.
6. It makes you look
like a hero………………….a hero that is going to be working harder than everyone
else, but still a hero !.
So if you prioritise the tasks by number of marks they carry and you
take the hardest, the only thing left to do is distribute the remaining tasks
to other members starting with the core group and ending with the least
significant tasks being granted to the deadwood.
Won’t the deadwood be offended by the lesser tasks ?. No, not at all.
They will think it’s their lucky day because they get to do less work than
everyone else. Also, don’t be surprised if they still hand it in late !. Which
brings me on nicely to my next section….
Allow two days for collation – Agree with the core group to get
everyone to submit their sections two days before the deadline. As I mentioned
before there is strength in numbers so hopefully the deadwood will feel obliged
to try. The reason I suggest two days is to account for any late submissions
from group members and allow for any ‘amendments’ that need to be carried out.
Amend for success – It may be that once the core group
sit down with everyone’s submissions they find that there is little coherence
between the individual sections or worse some of the sections aren’t quite up
to par. This is decision time, do you re-write someone’s work for the
betterment of the grade or do you say “I’ve done my bit” and submit work you
know is substandard ?.
I have always chosen the former and worked alone or with other people to
improve some group member’s work before final submission. Yes, it was unfair as
I had already worked hard enough on my own task but at least I could sleep
easier at night knowing that a reasonable standard had been achieved.
Don’t overlook the
lesson – Group work is meant to be challenging. People will talk over
each other, go off on tangents, not listen, complain, not contribute and some
of your good ideas will get shot down. Believe it or not this is excellent
training for the real world and your working life. It is one thing to be the
master of your own destiny but you will soon learn that you won’t get far
without the co-operation of others. Negotiation, persuasion and assertiveness
are all key skills in the business world so learn the lessons early and build a
great foundation for your future.
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