One's an island, Two's a company, Three's a crowd

Group work is difficult when I am working with people that I do not know. Given the short amount of time, it is hard to be comfortable and familiar with everyone. However, I have discovered that sometimes, in the midst of doing work or meetings, we may subconsciously understand each other’s personality and work ethics. This leads to members naturally accommodating one another.

However, frustration is norm in group work. I would pin down this frustration to firstly, a breakdown in communication and secondly, a lack of understanding on my part. Regarding the first point, my group meetings have mostly been conducted online. As such, words can seem harsh when it is merely written and not spoken. Admittedly, I tend to “sound” cold and harsh online if I do not make the extra effort to use softer words. Considering that time is precious, I would forgo niceties and cut the preamble to get to the point during online discussions. However, in reality, I would be munching on a snack or listening to music as I am engaged in the online discussion. So, if my groupmate feels that I am being harsh towards him or her, well, that was unintentional. Hence, this is one of the drawbacks of online meetings. It saves time at the expense of potential communication breakdown.

For my second point, the lack of understanding comes from imposing a high standard on other people. I can get frustrated over other people’s work when it does not match up to my expectations. As a result, I would end up redoing the work. This is not right of course. In group work, the work has to match the group’s standards and not just one individual. I feel this is therefore one of the most difficult issue of group work, that is finding a common work standard that everyone is able to achieve.

Mixing different work personalities and ethics inevitably makes the construction of such a standard seem impossible. Moreover, more problems may even occur when a standard is established and people do not meet this standard. However, I feel that it is important that a group discusses this from the onset rather than wait until someone complains that the group has not done enough for the project. Hence, although we may not have the time to get to know each of our groupmates, we can still somehow get a grasp of the group dynamics by having a discussion on the kind of work standard the group would like to operate within.

In brief, no matter how many times we hear this, we must appreciate that communication is the most important thing in group work. With proper communication, a work standard can be agreed upon and thus ensure a smooth sailing experience.