Guthrie - Groups Part 1

Hi. My name is Dr. Jennifer Guthrie, and

today we're going to talk about working

in groups. So before we begin, I want you

to take a bit

and think to yourself: do you enjoy

working in groups?

Have those experiences been positive?

Have they been negative?

And if so, what made those experiences positive or negative?

Well, if you thought to yourself, I

absolutely hate working in groups, I

can't believe I have to do this project,

you're not alone. Unfortunately, a lot of people

despise working in groups. In fact, so

much so that we even have a name for it.

It's called group hate--the idea that

people do not like working

in groups. Well, here's the deal: if people

have a lot of group hate, when they actually

do work in groups, sometimes it can set

up a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So hopefully today,

after this video, you'll have a bit more

positive attitude about groups, and we'll

give you some tools for how to work better

in groups. So again, as mentioned, there's

this idea of group hate. In fact, there's even a

popular meme out there that says, "When I die,

I want the people I did group projects

with to lower me into my grave so that

they can let me down one last time."

Well, here's the deal:

there's actually a lot of research that

shows that working in groups can have tremendously

positive effects. I myself avoided every

small group class

possible in my undergraduate, until later

in life I realized

that would have been a great experience

for me. I had to do a lot of group

presentations and projects

in the workplace, and now, as a researcher,

I write in teams.

So I've been able to see the real-life

effects of how wonderful

it can be to work in groups. So

to begin: first, working in groups--it

makes sense, right? Think of it

as a puzzle, where if you have different

unique smart brains coming together,

usually groups have better

problem-solving than an individual. So

you're able to bounce ideas off one another,

come to more creative solutions. Also,

having

different opinions at the table can

result in more

innovative solutions and better projects,

which makes sense. You're smart, you're

capable--

but imagine what you can do if you're

working in a powerful team with

other smart, capable people, and you have

folks you can test your ideas with

and make sure you have the best ideas possible.

So working in groups, even though it does

have its challenges,

can be tremendously beneficial.

So today, we're basically, in this first video,

going to talk about what makes up a

group and then the typical group processes.

So first of all, what distinguishes a group

from working autonomously

is its size. Anything with three or more

people is considered a group. If you have two,

we usually think of that as a dyad and

the dynamics are different.

As soon as you add a third person,

there's the potential to form what we

call

coalitions, which is basically where you

can have

some folks teaming up against another

person.

So, in a dyad--two people--you can, of course,

have conflict, but as soon as a third

person is introduced,

one person may feel like the other two

are ganging up on them. So

that's what makes a group special or

different. Coalitions--little heads-up,

we'll talk about this later--

can be a positive thing in groups.

Usually, they end

up being negative. No one likes to feel

like they're being ganged up on, so be

careful of that when you're working in groups.

Make sure that you don't have one group

member who thinks everyone else is

against them. That usually doesn't go well.

Think--if you've been in that position,

it's hard, right?

The second aspect of working in

a group is interdependence.

Everyone in the group depends on

everyone else to do their job.

In the next video, we'll talk about

problematic group situations,

and one of those is a social loafer.

That means that someone in the group is not

doing what they're expected to do.

So to be a good group member, remember:

everybody's

depending on you like you're depending on them.

So make sure you meet deadlines, you keep

in communication--

that sort of thing. The third aspect of a group

is a group identity. So one thing you can

do to inject some positivity in your group

work is come up with a name.

Even if it's a silly name and it's just for you all,

have that group identity. If you feel

like you're a group, you may

act like you're a group. The fourth part

of any good group

is to have goals. In terms of your group project,

talk amongst yourselves on what your goal

is. Is the goal to get an A?

Is the goal to learn from the experience?

Is the goal that you want to have fun

with your group? Make your goals

explicit to your group members--what

you're hoping to get out of the project--

and then keep each other accountable in kind ways.

Make sure your goals are

reasonable, they're something you can actually achieve,

but being clear about what you want to

get out of this project from the start

will help you plan. The next aspect is having structure.

Every group needs structure. We can have

formal roles as well as informal roles.

Joanne and Keaton, a

prominent group comm scholar,

recommend that you have at least three

formal roles in your group.

The first is to have some sort of a

leader. If you appoint a leader or elect a leader

right off the bat, that can make things a lot easier.

That person can be in charge of overseeing

or making sure you meet deadlines, of

making sure the communication runs smoothly, etc.

You can break up those leadership roles, but

make sure someone is behind the scenes

organizing what you all are doing.

Also, you should have somewhat of a secretary role--

someone to keep track of your meeting

minutes and notes,

scheduling appointments--so that way you

can keep track of those critical documents.

Perhaps you set up a Google Drive, and

that secretary function, the person, can

make sure you all stay on track.

And then finally, Joanne and Keaton

recommend that each group should have

what we call a critical advisor.

Another way to think of this is a devil's advocate,

which sounds bad but it's not. Basically, if

everyone in the group understands that

you should have at least

one person who plays devil's advocate with ideas--

like, "Okay, I like that topic for the speech,

but here are some potential negative

consequences. What do you all think?"--

just having someone to question, to toy,

to maybe look at other aspects of an

idea can go really, really well.

So try to have some

sort of leadership

going on, some sort of organizer who's

taking care of your written notes and documents,

and then someone who's either appointed, elected--

you can even rotate that role--who's

playing critical advisor,

meaning they're going to test ideas in a kind way

to make sure you have the best

innovation. So that's basically the

components of a small group,

and in the next video, we'll talk about

dealing with not-so-great group issues.