The Portable Guide to Successful Group Projects

Introduction: Part of your obligation as an instructor is to insure students' group experiences are successful. You must guide them on substance and process. The project management outline has group spending the most time getting the process down in the front end.

I. Planning and clarifying assumptions : The more time you spend in the early stages clarifying assumptions and planning, the less time you will need to devote at the later stages correcting the misunderstandings and mistakes.

1. Talk about the finished product. How do people picture it? What are their conceptions? Discuss and reach a working agreement on as many of the details as possible.
2. Map backward. Together as a large group decide what must happen in order for there to be a finished product? Spell out the essential/important steps.
3. Discuss and clarify the dependencies and necessary sequences in 2 above.
4. Agree upon some milestones in light of above.

II. Roles for group members: Be clear on expectations, obligations, duties etc. for each group member. Identify/define important roles and assign them to individuals.

1. Leadership functions. What is appropriate for the group? Does there need to be a group coordinator for the length of the project or will a rotating facilitator work just as well?
2. Designate a recorder. He/she takes notes on all conclusions, commitments, assignments, etc. that are made. Distribute these promptly.
3. Other important roles/ functions? External communication? Research? Liaison with other projects? Logistics?

II. Group norms:

1. Explicit rules - These are the set of behavioral norms accepted by the group and stated at the outset. These may take the form of Agreements and Expectations created by groups at their first meeting. If agreements and expectations are not stated the group may function only according to implicit rules. Groups my need some coaching from the instructor to assist them select appropriate explicit rules. They will need your foresight to adopt rules for confrontation for example.

1. Implicit rules - These are the set of behavioral norms accepted by the group but never stated. Behaviors, attitudes or actions taken by group members that are uncontested will settle into a pattern. Groups and instructors should be aware of these patterns, They may or may not be healthy for the group. For example, if Kent takes notes at the first meeting, and no effort is made to appoint another recorder, he may end up being the recorder by default. Kent may be very unhappy about his job assignment and has no avenue to pursue change.

IV. Consensus: Everyone can at least live with the decision. The illusion of consensus can be very dangerous. Do not vote for the final decision. Avoid win/lose situations. Provide opportunities to make process observations along the way to consensus not just after the final decision is made. Allow room for disagreement.

V. Don't avoid conflict: Help groups to flush out and mediate conflicts. Don't allow groups to avoid it. Give group members a handout giving examples of how to deal with difficult team members or a handout on tips for resolving conflicts. Role play difficult situations students may encounter.

IV. Keep people informed: Have groups report to each other on content and process. They should let eachother know how their groups are doing and exchange ideas for solving problems.

Definitions:

Working Agreement - an agreement that the group understands can be changed as needed.

Illusion of consensus - some people have the erroneous impression that there is consensus. This occurs because members may not want to be the only person to disagree, even if they have legitimate concerns.

Mapping backward - The process of figuring out milestones and laying down dates for those milestones by starting from the date the project is due and working backwards form that date. This process can be extremely beneficial for students because due dates for rough drafts etc. are not longer arbitrary dates set by the instructor, but real deadlines set by the students themselves. The map of the project can then take the form of a contract, that is signed by students. The group may decide to set up consequences for missing milestones, the group that hits the most deadlines is given extra points, for example. However, instructors may want to continually emphasize the fact that the deadlines set were set for a reason, they are real, missed deadlines will affect the quality of the final product.

Roles - Roles can be decided with in the group or appointed by the instructor. An instructor may want to prepare a handout that outlines the roles each group must have at the first meeting.

Process Observation:

1. Hand out index cards to everyone in the group, ask members to use a Likert scale to rate how they feel about the idea on the table. 10 - they think it is the beast idea ever - 1 - it is the worst idea they hate it. Collect the cards confidentially, average them and let the group know their average. This can be done several times during the process of consensus. A similar scale can be used to rate members feelings about the group. These types of observations are best made by the instructor or someone outside the group.

2. A negative pole is something that can be done by the facilitator several times during the process of consensus to allow members to voice their dissent.

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