Question

Think of a time when you worked on a group project with others. What kind of experience did you have? What were the benefits and drawbacks of working with this group? What are two suggestions found in outside research for making group work more productive?

Answer 1

Once I was a part of the group which sought to measure the performance of various marketing campaigns used by the company in the market and to determine which were the most effective. The experience was great. It was a diverse team with members from different cultures. Everybody brought their unique insights into the thinking process which helped us a lot during brainstorming sessions.

However, working in a group comes with its own set of pros and cons. While we all benefitted from the availability of different ideas, seeing how different people used a different approach to finish their tasks helped us in learning a tlot about performing more efficiently and hence, helped us improve our performance.

The cons of working in a group are that if the communication is not handled properly, it can lead to conflicts between the members which could impact the overall performance. Also, sometimes we used to spend a long time discussing various ideas as the large availability of ideas meant more planning and organizing each idea to determine which one to use.

Suggestions which could help the group work are:-

• To implement effective communication with the team members to ensure that there are minimal conflicts and misunderstandings.
• Defining the roles of each team member would help everyone doing their job without stepping on each other's toe which could lead to issues within the group.