IS THE GROUP PROJECT CIRCLING THE DRAIN?

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Midterms are over. There are four or five weeks before finals. That least-liked type of assignment, the group project, needs to be completed and presented before the last day of class. I’ve blogged earlier about setting up a group project for success. This week, I’m going to address the Dark Side.

If your group project is not going well by now, anxiety and frustration will continue to mount until conflict and issues are resolved, or until they aren’t resolved and a substandard project is slapped together, or until the project ends up an incomplete flaming disaster. This is the week to plan and take action to avert disaster.

Before you go into review and planning mode, some mindset adjustments can reduce the frustration if all is not going according to plan. It helps to accept as given that:

  • Most students really dislike group projects–you are not alone.
  • Group projects will likely be with you for the rest of your academic career, and into your real-life career. Strategies you learn for the downsides of project work are applicable long after graduation.
  • You may end up doing more, even far more, than your fair share of the work, while receiving the same credit as other group members who have done less.
  • There may be disagreements in your group about allocating credit for work done.
  • The point isn’t about fairness or justice. It’s about your academic career.

Having accepted the possibility of some of these unpleasant pills, focus on your own academic goal. That goal is to salvage as much of the project as you can, ideally with the cooperation of the group, but regardless, to get the grade for a well-done project.

To salvage the project, I’m recommending to some of my students now in the middle of their presentation projects the following:

Attempt collaboration and cooperation:

  1. Review the project on your own. Identify shortfalls. List what still needs to be done.
  2. Email or text your group calling for a meeting (ZOOM helps keep meetings shorter and on topic).
  3. Share your summary by email or collaborative software and invite group members to do the same.
  4. Approach the meeting with an agenda and a problem-solving approach. Divert blame into solution focus (even if there is some very well-deserved blame clearly attributable to some of your team).
  5. End the meeting with a clear action plan, with actions and time frames assigned.
  6. Send a follow-up email of the meeting with scheduled assigned tasks to all group members.

Follow up before the weekend and again after the weekend. If commitments have not been met or if there is conflict among the team that hasn’t been resolved and the project is clearly in danger, move the team toward gaining help from the instructor. (You could have gone directly to the instructor without the team meeting, but your team won’t like feeling tricked, and you may have allies among some of the team.)

If necessary, meet with the instructor about the group project:

  1. Ideally, two or three of you will prepare to meet with the instructor. More than that can be overwhelming. Or you may be nominated to be the group representative. If someone else is nominated, make sure that you go with them.
  2. Schedule a meeting as soon as possible. A last-minute meeting will not allow sufficient time to implement remedies that come up at the meeting.
  3. Prepare an agenda before the meeting. List the shortfalls. 
  4. Focus on solutions rather than blame. Come up with possible solutions, such as presenting at a later date than scheduled, or reducing the scope of the presentation. The perfection of your proposals isn’t as important as providing a clear indication that you are taking responsibility for the project and resolving problems rather than expecting the instructor to solve everything for you and your group.
  5. Expect that the instructor may modify your suggestions or come up with completely different ideas.

After the instructor meeting:

  1. Communicate with the group. Assign tasks. Follow up with emails.
  2. Be prepared for you and your allies in the group to complete the project almost or totally on your own. 
  3. Prepare for the presentation. I’ve discussed group presentations in other blogs–have at least two presenters, have backup presenters, rehearse, time your delivery, test the technology and have backup technology.
  4. Be prepared to deliver the presentation yourself, should it come to that.

Be prepared for some ugly:

I hope ugly never happens to you, but it helps to be prepared. What is “ugly?” Ugly is where teammates reverse blame, or assign you a C- in the group evaluation, or they meet with the instructor and claim they have done more work than you, or that you have otherwise been an unworthy team member. 

Your best recourse here is to have documented every stage of the project, every email, every contribution. Familiarize yourself with GoogleDocs history and keep a copy as the project proceeds. It may be extra work you end up not needing, but if you do need it, it is a grade and reputation saver.

Dealing with frustration:

Use the tools that work for you to keep group work from sabotaging your mental well-being. Take breaks, exercise, endorse for effort and for being civil, reinforce each effort. 

Reward and reflect when done:

Reward yourself when the project is complete. Celebrate with your allies–it’s high five time the day the presentation is complete. 

Later, reflect on what you have learned about project and team management.

And foster the allies you have made.

Connect:

I’m having many conversations this time of the term on group work issues. Connect with me to minimize the pain and optimize the gain, if today’s issues apply  to you: [email protected] 

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources. Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS PLEASE DIAL 911.