Studying the Master in Management Program at Trinity College Dublin (TCD), I have group projects for all modules of semester 1 and 2.
Which means for every semester, I have to join 6 teams at the same time. Balancing between group meetings, group essays, and group presentations is not an easy task, especially when I still have to work on my individual assignments and prepare for the exams.
Below are three of my top tips which I use to manage my group work and get decent results for all the assignments.
1 Choose your team members well
I cannot stress how important this point is. If you are working with capable and responsible team members, then you can focus wholeheartedly on your assigned parts and spend the rest of the time on your individual assignments. Irresponsible members can drag the whole team down by not completing their parts or delaying the group progress. The best-case scenario is when you have a team of trustworthy people who are playing to their strengths. For example, a native English speaker can be the one to do the final proofreading or taking care of the main presenting parts, or people with good designing skills to be in charge of making the reports and slides beautiful.
Choosing your team members in semester two is easier than in the first semester since you have already worked with some of your classmates, and know their strengths, weaknesses and work ethics. And you can ask around for your friends’ recommendations. So, I suggest you form the teams as soon as possible. You don’t even need to wait for the semester to start making the team. This crucial task can be done as soon as you have your program information, which describes what kind of projects you have to carry out and how many people are there in each project. Additionally, you can choose to work with the same people for several modules at the same time so you can schedule group meetings much easier.
For semester 1, everyone is a wild card. You wouldn’t know much about them. My suggestion is to spend as much time as possible to get to know some of your classmates. And then, in the very first class of each module, sit near them so even if the professors assign group members by grouping the people who are sitting next to each other, you can have a better chance to be in the same team with them.
2 Have team leaders/managers for all the group assignments
Team leaders/managers are not the ones to make all the decisions or to have people report to them. Instead, their primary responsibility is to facilitate the group work by making sure that things are on track and are done according to the required standards. They also will be the one to come up with meeting agendas and to assign tasks for the members. In case there are conflicts between ideas, they will make the final decisions to pick a feasible option and let the whole team move on with the plan. Not everyone can be a good team leader. But having a competent leader can make the group work much more efficient.
Being a team leader is a big responsibility, especially when you have to manage people from many different backgrounds. But it is also a great learning experience to become effective managers in the future. I highly recommend anyone who aspires to be future managers/leaders to play the role of team leader but not for more than two projects at the same time, so they can deliver good results for the teams.
3 Have a team agreement
This agreement is very essential for good teamwork. It describes how team members interact with each other (e.g., Don’t interrupt when people are speaking). Some rules might sound fundamental (e.g., Read the assignment instruction before joining group meetings), but you may be surprised at how some people could not do such basic things. Those rules are better discussed in the first meeting, so everyone understands the expectations of the others. And then, the act of signing this agreement (even digitally or confirming via emails) can improve the commitments of team members. When there are inappropriate behaviors in the groups such as late submission, conflicting ideas,… team leaders can refer to the agreement to mediate much more efficiently (e.g., “We agreed to let others finish their sentences, didn’t we?”).
Regardless of the number of group assignments you have to do, I hope that these fundamental tips (choosing members well, having team leaders and making team agreements) can be useful to you. And please leave your most valuable tips for effective group projects in the comment section below so that other people can learn from your experience.
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