My first group assignment was in the fifth or sixth grade, I think. We were pairs, and I was paired with one of the worst students in class. He was also one of the bullies. Not surprisingly, I ended up doing just about all the work. We were supposed to make a paper mache sculpture of Quetzalcoatl. My partner, at least, was not destructive to the process or mean to me. He just let me do what I do.
But after that, most of my group experiences in schools were good. I also had many experiences learning how to teach people to work in groups, some of which I apply here. I wonder how many people realize that we are a group working together at fluther to create an important product.
Process dynamics are very important, and can be key to the success of a team. What I don’t understand is why so many of us are thrown into groups without learning the skills and techniques necessary to make them work well. It’s usually the sink or swim method, and that’s why I think many people hate working in groups. In any case, there are no jobs on Earth that don’t involve cooperating with some people at least some of the time. We are interdependent and there is no way around that.
I think that professors are not trying to make their work any easier by assigning folks to work in a group. They have to grade people on an individual basis as well as grading the group’s work, and that can’t be easy. They also have to do a lot more coaching when groups have problems. I’m sure that can be difficult when they have few group management skills themselves.
Most groups that I’ve ever been in have found themselves surprised at how much fun it was and how productive it was. I don’t think that’s an accident. Groups tend to work better when I’m around, even though I have no official role in the group at all. I don’t think it’s all that hard.
I just try to make sure everyone gets heard, and that things happen fairly and that any effort to create dissent gets gently but firmly squashed. I also put my full, sincere and intense interest into my “work.” Somehow, just doing that seems to create a creative energy that is catching. I ask the right questions, I think. The ones that get people to consider an issue as if they are all on the same side. I do this whether the effort is verbal or purely nonverbal. Don’t ask me how I do the nonverbal thing. I can’t really explain it. All I know is that I can do it.