SMART GOALS AND GROUP WORK

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Carrying forward the theme of SMART goals to Group Work is a real challenge. A different approach may be in order if you want to get buy-in.

But first, the basics. If you have group work this term, here are a couple of tips others have found useful:

  • If you can choose your team, choose those who arrive at class on time, who come prepared, and who ask questions.
  • Exchange contacts and set up meetings–ZOOM works better for coordinating everyone’s timetable and avoiding travel time, but do what works for the majority of your team.
  • Whether you are leader, presenter, researcher, slide preparer, or model builder, be the recorder. Be the one who coordinates by email, who takes down notes at meetings, who follows up with post-meeting emails, and who notifies everyone before each meeting with a reminder about what was agreed to be covered by that meeting. 
  • It’s project management. It’s also evidence and your grade may depend on it if you are in a group of slackers, or if life happens, or if you are blamed unfairly for a group default.

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that setting your own SMART goal for the project will help you keep focussed on what you want from the project, even in the face of the many challenges of group work. Before the first meeting, take ten minutes and set that Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely goal. It might look like this:

  • I want to gain at least an A- on whatever topic we choose. I want to NOT choose the topic that I find least desirable. I want to polish techniques for gaining group cooperation and conflict resolution, should it arise.
  • For that grade to be Achievable, the work will need to be allocated, scheduled and tracked. If others slack off, I need to be aware of it early so that the group can work toward a solution. I may need to do more of the work than is my fair share, and need to have the time to do that. I need to have a plan B if a key person falls by the wayside at a critical time.
  • For the goal to be relevant, I have to decide whether the relevance of the topic chosen aligns with my interest, and if it doesn’t, whether the relevance shifts to getting the grade.
  • For the goal to be timely, group scheduling will need to allow for contingencies.

That’s your SMART goal. What about the SMART goal for the group? First, it might not be the best idea to go in leading with the concept of SMART goals. You can run it by the group briefly, but if you notice a marked lack of enthusiasm, you need a different approach. Instead of getting into a long discussion about everyone’s SMART requirements, just ask some basic questions to make sure that everyone is on the same page. You might ask,

  • Does anyone need this project to boost their GPA? What grade are you satisfied with?
  • Does anyone have any major challenges that we should allow for (wedding, out-of-town conference for another course, surgery)?
  • Who has what strengths that we can capitalize on to save time that might influence the topic we choose? Any of the topics someone would really avoid? Who’s presented before? 
  • What’s a safe deadline for us to have everything ready? How far ahead of the course outline’s deadline should we allow for, just in case?
  • Once we get the topic chosen, we can outline the project. That’s next!

These are the SMART elements of the group project, and get everyone on the same page about the importance of minimum grade, achievability, and timeliness.The Measurable is the grade, of course, but tracking so that scheduling is effective is on you

This approach gets a common goal set without imposing what can be seen as unnecessary picky delay by some. (Although you may luck out and work with people who use one form or another of SMART goal setting–be flexible if their acronym is slightly different from yours.) 

Greater challenges almost always lie ahead with group projects–and we’ll cover many of them here. But with your own adaptable SMART coal set, with your group in agreement about some key elements, and with you shepherding the progress and scheduling, you are far more likely to avoid major disappointment due to the performance of your other group members even if you do end up having to do more than your share!

I’m making a collection of group success stories and group horror stories–let me know some of yours! And connect with me to brainstorm on keeping group work on track [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.