Recently, one of my tutors pointed out to the class that complaints about group projects are pointless, as collaborative work is part of basically every industry. While that’s a correct statement, it doesn’t make group projects any less daunting for me. I’ve had some pretty terrible experiences working as part of a group before, so I was incredibly apprehensive about starting PB4. Thankfully, todays lecture came bearing some pretty good tips, ones that hopefully will be applied by me and my group members.

This week our guest lecturer Rachel outlined clear points that can indicate that a collaboration is either good or bad.

A good collaboration typically involves a distributed work load, confirmation/feedback among team members and the ability to both learn and teach new things. Whereas a bad collaboration includes the antithesis of all these points, where there is conflict over ideas, unequal effort and disrespectful behaviour.

She also gave us tips on how to achieve a good collaboration:
-Having clear objectives and achievable goals
-Good communication and a comfortable working enviroment (eg; using the hats system)
-Respect and support among group members
-A clear timetable for meetings
-A rotation of roles to ensure distributed responsibility

I liked the idea of setting out clear objectives and goals. In the past, I’ve had issues working in groups where everything is unorganized and messy, to the point where either I or someone else will step up and do the bulk of the work. I think this lecture was a really good way to set the tone for the upcoming group project, ensuring that there will be accountability among all group members.

Anyway, hopefully our project doesn’t end up like this…