group projects

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As a student, I hated group work until I got into my later degrees. Then I began to learn skills around managing group dynamics.

But now that I am in mid-career, I cannot express how important learing to manage group dynamics has been to me. It is a skill that I work with every day at work, in my volunteering, and in my social life.

I still fail at group dynamics, regularly. For example, I am terrible at sharing information off-line. If someone asks me to send them some piece of material, that's fine. But the unspoken expectation that I will c.c. everybody with every piece of communication drives me mental.

[u]Imaginary Conversation[/i]

Me: Tell me what you need to know and I will send it to you.
Them: I need to know everything
Me: Yesterday I had a conference call (ACK!) with X about Y--
Them: I don't need to know about Y
Me: Then what does "everything" mean?
etc.

I work in government, so it's a bit like Yes, Minister at times.

Fortunately my immediate colleagues know about my AS, and understand where these gaps come from, and try to ensure that they are clear in their requests for support/help/advice from me.

If I have to work with others, they have to do it my way. My ideas were often right but I wasn't allowed to use them becuase no one else did. They were often just jelous that I thought of it so they refused to incorperate it. My teachers and parents always said it would be so much fun if we would work together but the other kids never wanted to use my ideas and I never wanted to use theirs because it would ruin it. I only played along becase a "consequence" was threatned if I didn't "cooraperate" but I never enjoyed myself if forced to compromise and often got poor grades because of the idots I was pared with. If they did it how I said, they too could have gotten A's. I refuse to do group work.

I don't particularly like group projects either, but this is a common theme in colleges now because it prepares you for the "real world" or I should say the "NT world". If I have to be in a group project for a class I am making A's in, I will almost always try to lead the group. I am talking about ONLINE school, not physical classroom. I wouldn't be like that is person at all! I just ask if I can lead it, and usually they all are OK with it. I am not a control freak (LOL really!). I just like to be the one to go over the final details and make sure everything is tight. I like to be in more control because it is graded. I will likely do more than my share of the work too.

I used to work in an environment that was all about teamwork (military). While sometimes I would not be the best team player, I would try to bring my talents and best work to the table. Even if you are not a sociable person, people respect good work and your effort to make a contribution.

In a work environment at least you will know the people in your group and may be more comfortable with the project.

Teamwork is a swear word to me. When people tell me there is no I in team, I reply, "There's no I in "Go f**k yourself" either and that tends to shut them up and leave me alone to do my own thing.

Group work is the bane of my college existence

One thing that I have found makes it a little better is making sure the group gets organized from the beginning so everyone knows what they should be doing and the actual time we have to spend together is minimized. Few things are more infuriating than being stuck in a group while people chit chat and socialize--whatever I can do to make sure the group stays on task, I do it. I'm a crappy group leader myself, but if I can play backseat driver to someone who actually like organizing people, that seems to be the best way.

The compulsory teamwork was one of the major reasons that I left College and had to have a rethink about that kind of career.

It's all very well to be knowledgable, but if you can't apply your knowledge in a real-time teamwork or field situation, you can get stuck. It was frankly embarassing being having to be socially "shunted around" by other people. There were also safety issues too when I "froze up" or socially "shut down".

I know that my parents and teachers did not have to go through this vigorous kind of teamwork training: I had to.

I became very depressed at my inability to socially integrate. It is frustratin and overwhelming to have something to contribute, but be unable to get past this social barrier.

It's like a language barrier almost.

I tried my best.
I wanted to improve.

Never again.

I have enjoyed working alongside others:

-In an online seminar/messageboard environment

-Being given a task to do and told to get on with it on my own

-Being paired up with someone and discussing a topic (unassessed)

-Helping people out with tasks on a one to one basis

-Running errands for people/fetching things


I think that there are sensible and valid ways to work alongside others

Sitting in a circle in a group isn't the only way to be productive