Let’s Work on Group Work

There is a reason why most people dread hearing “So we will be doing group projects”. Maybe it is from historical tendencies of groups falling apart. Of the potential false niceties when there is tension or disagreements. Or inability to divide and fulfill group work.  

Truth is, most of us have not been successfully taught how to be in groups. Oftentimes, it is the instructor calling out randomized groups and then sharing what the end goal should be. Maybe everyone gets a separate grade based off of individual work, or a lump sum grade no matter what. 

But there is a reason why we hate group work – no one has taught us how to officially do it! And although the creation of this website that you see has been a successful group project, it was not free of small disagreements, awkwardness, and unequal divisions of labor. And that won’t change across the board for whatever groups we work in – especially as we embark into our careers. Yet, we still need to be aware of the work it takes to effectively communicate in the beginning and advocate for such conversations to be included in the coursework. 

There are whole majors and fields dedicated to such conversations. They are even here at Georgetown via the Conflict Resolutions, Project Management, Linguistics Master’s programs. 

So naturally, we should not be surprised that we aren’t masters at group work if we have not actually done any training on it! And that is okay – being aware is the first step into being better. 

Half of any group project will be the technicalities of the legitimate project, and the other half will be navigating the group. The latter is rarely ever considered a part of the grade or the success, but without it, the entire project suffers. 

So my reflection this semester in our ability to navigate this space together is this: we did an amazing job getting this whole website off the ground and should applaud ourselves for this. Sincerely, our previous semester’s work in bonding as a cohort has helped us. But not every space will have this, so I wish for our due diligence in learning more about how we can be better public humanists by learning the technicalities of working together. 

And if anyone is reading this and residing in Washington, D.C. – go check out Solid State Books. They are an independent bookstore and cafe, and if you go all the way to the back of the store, you can find some amazing books about group cohesion, boundary setting, leadership models, and all of that jazz. All of this is worth the read.