Dealing with Problems in a Group

School of Computing

Joint HND Programme

Dealing With Problems in a Group

Mansha Nawaz

Revised Sept 2007

Dealing With Problems in a Group

1.Dealing With Problems in a Group

2.Clarify your Expectations Early

3.Agree on a Meeting Format

4.Construct Rules for Discussions

5.Construct a Timeline

6.Agree on Penalties for Missing Meetings or Deadline

7.Discuss What Each Member Brings to the Group

8.Monitor the Group

9.Discuss Problems

10.Common Fears about Group Work

a.My individual ideas will be lost

b.I could do it better myself

c.My grade will depend on what others do

d.Make Rules and Stick to Them

e.Speak Up

f.Deal with It

g.Group work will take more time than if I did it myself

h.My group members aren't as smart as I am

i.We won't be able to agree

j.I don't have time to meet out of class

k.I would learn more doing it on my own

l.I'll end up doing all the work

1.Dealing With Problems in a Group

Group work is rarely flawless. Two methods for dealing with problems are monitoring the group and discussing the problems. If you agree ahead of time about how to resolve problems, you can avoid involving your lecturer in the situation; however, if you can't resolve the problem it may be a good idea to ask for assistance. To read about these resolutions, choose any of the items below:

Clarify Your Expectations Early
Monitor the Group
Discuss Problems
Common Fears about Group Work

2.Clarify your Expectations Early

One way to avoid problems later is to make decisions about deadlines, meeting etiquette, and penalties for missed work before any of these occur. This way you can refer back to decisions already made and avoid the possibility that one member may feel like they're "being picked on" or meetings become so out of hand they can't be controlled. Specifically, it is useful to discuss and/or decide upon the following:

Agree on a Meeting Format
Construct Rules for Discussions
Construct a Timeline
Agree on Penalties for Missing Meetings or Deadlines
Discuss What Each Member Brings to the Group

3.Agree on a Meeting Format

While many groups will (and should) spend time socializing, talking about class, etc., it's helpful to set up expectations for how much of this type of talk should/can occur during a meeting. Also, because of how much typically get said during meetings, you need a way to keep track of what occurred and plan for the next meeting. For instance, you should:

Appoint a secretary for each meeting
Plan for the next meeting (set an agenda) at the end of each meeting
Plan a short amount of time at the beginning of each meeting for chatting and appoint someone to get the group "started" after that time has passed

4.Construct Rules for Discussions

Although it usually seems unlikely in the beginning, a healthy disagreement can easily turn nasty when people are invested in a topic. Decide early on what will be considered inappropriate comments and make sure someone monitors these in later meetings. Here are some rules to consider:

No personal attacks on a person's intelligence, background, way of speaking, etc.
No yelling; all disagreements should be kept in a rational tone
No name calling
If a person objects to a comment directed at them, the conversation stops there, no matter anyone's opinion of the objection
Out of Line Comments: "That's a dumb idea;" "You don't know what you're talking about;" "It figures a man/woman would say that"

5.Construct a Timeline

It's very easy to get lost in people's individual schedules week to week and put off certain tasks "just this time." Also, it's easy for a group project to seem "huge" until the tasks are broken down. For these reasons, it's useful to decide what tasks need to be done and when they need to be finished in order for the group to meet its final deadline. Make a schedule and keep to it. This will also help group members monitor each other so that someone isn't stuck with all the work at the end. Consider the following:

When will a final decision on the topic/focus be made?
What kinds of research do we need to do? Who will do what? By when?
When will people report back on research? What notes should they write up for others? By when?
When must a final decision on the major point (thesis) of the project be made?
When will the project be drafted initially?
When will the comments/suggestions for revision be completed?
When will the revisions be done by?
When will the final proofreading occur?

6.Agree on Penalties for Missing Meetings or Deadline

Although it would be great if this weren't true, the reality is some people are going to miss meetings and deadlines; some might even try to get others to do their work by not completing tasks. Groups need to be prepared for these contingencies by constructing rules and their consequences that can be applied later if individuals "drop the ball." For example,

If someone misses a meeting, or doesn't do a certain task, he/she has to type the final project, buy pizza for the next meeting, etc.
If more than one meeting is missed or a member consistently fails to do what she/he is supposed to, the group can decide not to include that name on the project. (Check this one with your lecturer)
In the same scenario, the group can decide to write a written evaluation of the member's work and pass it in to the lecturer with the project.

7.Discuss What Each Member Brings to the Group

While you might know your other group members as friends, you probably don't know as much about them as students as you might think. A very productive topic for the first meeting, after all the logistics have been worked out, is to discuss what individual members' strengths and weaknesses are. In short, have everyone conduct a "personal inventory" and share it with the other members on their experiences relevant to the collaborative assignment. Doing this also helps alleviate the feeling that some group members are "smarter" or "know more" than others. Everyone has strengths they bring to the group; we're simply not always aware of them. Consider the following:

What's your previous experience with the topic?
What do you understand best from class? What are you struggling with?
Do you have any outside experience (job, internships, previous classes) relevant to the topic and/or class?
What's your experience with the kind of research we're doing (field, library, etc.)
What kinds of projects do you write best? What have lecturers and others complimented you on?
What problems do you have in writing?

8.Monitor the Group

One way to help alleviate some of the problems that may result from group interactions is to encourage the group to somehow monitor itself. To facilitate this monitoring, each group member can keep a journal in which she or he comments on each group meeting. The journal can become the place to express frustration, to analyze the nature of communication taking place in the group, and so on. Or the group may choose to divide up monitoring tasks. One group member might be put in charge of keeping track of turn-taking (i.e., who speaks and when; do all members have an equal opportmoduley to speak; are some members always silent?). Another member might watch for nonverbal cues about how members are reacting to what is being said, or to an individual speaker.

9.Discuss Problems

In any of these monitoring scenarios, group members should be encouraged to discuss with the entire group any problems they see arising so that the group might discuss certain aspects of the group's dynamic before they become problems. Sometimes, however, the group will not be able to solve their interaction problems on their own. When this occurs, they should be aware that they can discuss this--as a group preferably-- with the instructor.

Overall, groups should be left to negotiate their own agendas among themselves, but discussing possible problem areas may provide the ounce of prevention that prevents the need for a more painful cure.

10.Common Fears about Group Work

Group work can be a frightening prospect for many people, especially in a school setting when so much of what we do is only "counted" (i.e. graded) if it's been completed individually. Some of these fears are fictions, but others are well founded and can be addressed by being careful about how group work is set up. To learn more about the relevant "fears," choose any of the items below:

a.My individual ideas will be lost...... 7

b.I could do it better myself...... 7

c.My grade will depend on what others do...... 7

d.Make Rules and Stick to Them...... 8

e.Speak Up...... 8

f.Deal with It...... 8

g.Group work will take more time than if I did it myself...... 9

h.My group members aren't as smart as I am...... 9

i.We won't be able to agree...... 9

j.I don't have time to meet out of class...... 10

k.I would learn more doing it on my own...... 10

l.I'll end up doing all the work...... 10

a.My individual ideas will be lost

Fact or Fiction? Both

In any group, no one's ideas count more than another's; as a result, you will not always get a given idea into a project exactly as you originally thought it. However, getting your ideas challenged and changed is the very reason to do a group project. The key is to avoid losing your ideas entirely (i.e. being silenced in a group) without trying to control the group and silencing others. Encourage Disagreement

Encourage a Collaborative Attitude
Be Ready to Compromise
Consider Including the Disagreement in the Project

b.I could do it better myself

Fact or Fiction? Usually both

Even if you are excellent at Systems Development, collaboratively developed systems are usually better than a single-authored one if for no other reason than the content and depth is better: it is better researched, more well thought out, includes more perspectives, etc. However, writing a good final draft of a collaboratively developed system does take work that all group members should be prepared to do.

Divide the Writing Tasks
Leave Enough Time for Revising
Divide the Project into Sections
Be Critical

c.My grade will depend on what others do

Fact or Fiction? Fiction

The important issue in group work is your individual contribution to the group. It is your individual effort which is assessed when allocating both your Group and Individual grade. It is your collaboration within the group and not what others may or may not do. Although this may be frightening, the positive side to this is that it increases people's motivation and investment in the project. Of course, not everyone will care about grades as much as others. In this case, the group needs to make decisions early on for the "slacker" contingency. To read more about how to deal with unequal investments in the task, choose any of the items below:

Make Rules and Stick to Them
Speak Up
Deal with It

d.Make Rules and Stick to Them

Before you even start work on a project, make rules about what will happen to those members not doing their part and outline the consequences. Here are some possible "consequences" other groups have used:

If someone misses a meeting, or doesn't do a certain task, he/she has to type the final paper, buy pizza for the next meeting, etc.
If more than one meeting is missed or a member consistently fails to do what she/he is supposed to, the group can document this in meetings; decide to formally email the person and/or lecturer.
note not to include that name on the project. (Check this one with your instructor)
Peer assessment ensures a written evaluation of the member's work and logged within the project report.

e.Speak Up

No one, usually, wants to anger their peers. When someone isn't doing his/her work, other group members need to tell that member in written form via email and raise such matters within group meetings. Many times people who end up doing more than their share do so because they don't complain.

f.Deal with It

This may sound harsh, but the reality of life outside of the UoT is that some people do more work than others but are not necessarily penalized for it. You need to learn how to deal with these issues given that in the working world, you are frequently dependent on others you work with. Learning how to handle such situations now is a good learning experience in itself.

g.Group work will take more time than if I did it myself

Fact or Fiction? Fact

There is no way around this, so be prepared. Even if you divide up many of the early tasks (research, etc.) which lessens the time you might put in individually, writing a collaborative paper takes a lot of time. It's time well spent as the final project is usually better than what any one individual could do, but don't fool yourself into thinking choosing a group option will mean less work. It hardly ever does.

h.My group members aren't as smart as I am

Fact or Fiction? Fiction

This is a dangerous attitude to bring into a group situation. If you honestly believe it's true, you should probably not choose group work if it's optional. If you don't have a choice, then consider the fact that other people might be thinking the same of you. To read about how your group can avoid this, choose any of the items below:

Discuss Member's Strengths and Weaknesses
Practice Listening
Encourage a Collaborative Attitude

i.We won't be able to agree

Fact or Fiction? Both

Group work is messy; you will disagree often. The best groups don't silence disagreement because it's usually in arguing that you can challenge each other to think more about the topic. However, groups that only disagree are no more functional than those that agree to everything. The key is balancing the two.

Assign a Monitor/Mediator
Decide Whether You Have to Agree
Make Discussion Rules

j.I don't have time to meet out of class

Fact or Fiction? Sometimes a Fact

Most of us, even if we're very busy, can find two hours to meet with a group. The key is having those two hours in common with other people, which is why, when forming a group, time in common is the first thing to consider. If you are assigned a group, however, this may not be possible. In this case, consider alternative ways of meeting: telephone, e-mail, meetings with some group members, etc. E-mail

Chat Rooms
Partial Meetings

k.I would learn more doing it on my own

Fact or Fiction? Fiction

While this may seem true because you'd have to do all the work, group work usually allows you to include more research than you could alone, exposes you to perspectives you wouldn't hear otherwise, and teaches you about your own writing strengths and weaknesses in ways writing alone and just getting a response never can. Thus, in group work, you learn more about writing itself, and, if done right, the topic as well.

l.I'll end up doing all the work

Fact or Fiction? Fiction

Unless you are unwilling to give up control or speak up for yourself, this shouldn't happen. Although the reality is that some people will try to get away with doing less, the chances of having a completely uncommitted group are rare. As a result, you simply have to watch for the tendency to think you "know better" than others and thus must do it all yourself and/or the attitude that your grade will suffer because everything isn't done the way you want it. To read about how not to do all the work, choose any of the items below:

Make Rules and Stick to Them
Speak Up
Divide the Tasks
Be Critical