It is 9:02 on Monday, location is the bowels of HB, and the Boss gives the briefing. The assignment: group work. The team? A rag-tag bunch of misfits who are severely overworked (well, some of them) and underqualified. Your team is set, the roles are up in the air, and you barely understand the brief. Failure is not an option, especially when you flunked that test you studied a whole night for. You are thinking to yourself, “I work better alone.” But there is no flying solo, so it is time to assign roles before the roles assign themselves.
The Leader
There are three leader archetypes: the elected, the zealot and the resigned. If you have ever asked the question, “So, who wants to be the group leader?” it is likely that someone ended up being you. The responsibility of arranging meetings, sitting on people’s heads for completing their part of the work and submitting the final document has been dropped in your lap. If you are the zealot, however, you waste no time in gathering phone numbers to form the group chat and doling out tasks. Some may dub you a control freak or a tyrant who needs the assignment submitted a week before the deadline, but the operation would fall apart without you. Lastly, as the resigned leader, responsibility is thrust upon you because the group chat has been silent for a week, and someone has to take charge. Might as well be you.
The Slacker
Do you refuse to contribute any ideas on how to tackle the assignment? Are you never responding to messages on the group chat? Is your group leader constantly hunting you down for your portion of the work? If so – stop it! Get some help. But seriously, you just might be the slacker, and no one likes that. The basic premise of a group assignment is a shared workload, and not doing your share is detrimental to the team. Imagine the assignment is breaking into Uncle Cyril’s house to attain some of that couch money and your one job was to be the lookout. But no, you opted to play Candy Crush instead. So, rather than buying a fridge for your new apartment, you are in the back of a SAPS vehicle trying to ignore your team members’ bombastic side eyes.
The Perfectionist
Nothing is ever good enough for your high standards, which is why you insist on checking everyone’s work before final submission. You claim you will do just a little tweaking, only for your group members’ work to be unrecognisable by the end. The slacker loves you and will regularly use your type A personality to avoid work. On the other hand, the rest feel you could trust in their abilities more and give them some room to breathe.The hard truth is, you don’t always know better, sweetie. Your pursuit to have a grammatically sound assignment that elegantly incorporates all the points on the rubric is valuable to the team. But micromanagement does not translate well at a real job, where you make real money. So, consider having some faith, trust and a little bit of chill pill dust.
The Teamplayer
You are “never too much, never too much, never too much”. You have found the sweet spot amongst the group by being a consistent contributor without cramping anyone’s style. You meet your deadlines, leaving you enough time to ask if there is anything you can help with. One possible problem is that, as a mere observer to any drama in the group, you might receive flack for not taking sides. However, everyone could learn something from your “just get the work done and move on” attitude because it is never actually that deep.
The Wild Card
As a group member, you like to keep the other members on their toes (and get on their nerves). No one is certain if you will pitch to meetings, as something is always coming up five minutes before. When you do pitch, it is a coin toss on whether you will contribute some philosophically profound insight or save your brain power for League of Legends and just be a “yes man” throughout the project. Characterised by spontaneity and ingrained with the saying “I’ll go where the wind takes me”, you are probably the most challenging member to work with. At least the team knows the Slacker will just slack. However, your unconventionalism can also be a gift to your team by providing a much-needed answer when they least expect it.
There will always be a group assignment or some equivalent at some point in your university career. The challenges of poor communication, conflict, unfair work distribution, lack of clarity and dealing with people in various roles is normal. Here are some tips for overcoming these challenges without any casualties:
Keep time and track progress
For example, the Leader can organise the group’s first meeting early so that you start the assignment as soon as possible. It is also the Perfectionist’s time to shine by creating a shared Google Calendar to schedule meetings, work checkpoints, and the submission deadline. (The Leader should just remember to rein them in before they stage a coup.) When work is divided, a shared Google document can be created so that the Teamplayer can get their part of the assignment completed and apply pressure to other members to contribute.
Communicate and ensure accountability
All members should check the group chat for messages at least once a week (ten times a day is too much, Perfectionist). Any important messages should be pinned in the group chat or added to the description; thus, the Slacker will, at the very least, know the dire details and cannot argue ignorance. Also, holding meetings directly after the module for the assignment is an easy way to catch the entire team (even that slippery Wild Card) without much effort. The creation of an attendance register for every meeting can help you substantiate a lack of effort or participation from a particular member.
Do things differently
Sometimes embracing the unconventionalism of the Wild Card by having your meetings at Buzz instead of the library can be beneficial to idea generation for the project. Or taking the Slacker’s more relaxed approach of not overthinking the brief can lead to understanding. Perhaps, you (Leader) and an opposing personality (Slacker) can team up to complete a section of the assignment together. These pairings will allow for opposing ideas in the work but also for the balancing out of different characteristics. The Slacker can learn to meet deadlines and submit their own work while teaching the Leader to stress less by working smarter and not harder.
To overcome challenges, specifically those related to the different personalities in a group, requires you to accept and embrace those challenges. You need to understand who you are dealing with and make it work. In doing so, you build your soft skills of communication, teamwork and conflict resolution, which will elevate you when you graduate. Your whole professional life is going to be a group assignment, so consider these group projects practice for the real world. And do your best to strive for that golden status: assignment submitted – mission complete.
Micaela Wathen, Karla van Dyk and Thabo Moenyane
Originally posted on the PDBY website: Group work: Choose your character
