The UB Post

In a recent submission, a reader asked about working productively in a team environment, such as a group project for class. There are many factors that go into a well-run group project. Most people start out with trying to pick the "best" people to be on their team. While this can be a good way to end up with conscientious team members (always a good thing), it doesn't guarantee success. For success, you need personal responsibility and group planning.

Responsibility is always the topic no one wants to discuss until there clearly hasn't been any and there's an issue that's interfering with getting the project done. Instead of thinking that someone else will take care of a task—or worse, that you will have to do all of the tasks on your own—it's best to have a meeting with everyone to determine responsibility.

Get all team members together at the very beginning of a project and discuss the broad project goals. Many times, I suggest doing this a day or two after an assignment has been handed out. I know that no one yet knows the scope of the project, and that's OK. This meeting can be a review of broad project tasks that need to be performed and in what order.

Let's use the example of creating an art project about the birds of the mid-Atlantic region. In the normal flow of the project, you might complete the task of researching barn swallows on Wikipedia (and hopefully a few credible sources) before you start doing the sketching, layout or other tasks. Map all tasks out as best you can, and estimate how long each will take.

I realize, at this point, that you're saying to yourself that what you've just read is what you always do, but somehow the plan falls apart three weeks (or one!) before the assignment is due. To prevent falling off track, take the determined tasks and put them on a calendar. I suggest working backward from a date near the due date of the assignment. In any project that is three weeks or fewer, you should work backward from three days before the assignment is due. For longer projects, I always try to leave a whole week before the due date.

In working backward from your new deadline, go through the tasks and put them on the calendar. Figure out what the sequence of tasks needs to be and then—and only then—assign tasks to individual members of the group.

When you have the details worked out, make copies of the schedule for everyone. This is where the personal responsibility part comes in. If a deadline is missed, everybody knows what happened and who missed doing their part. With this setup, if someone isn't pulling his or her weight, there's still time to adjust.

The crisis part of any project isn't when the unexpected happens—it's when the unexpected happens unexpectedly. Create a schedule everyone can live with and take responsibility for accomplishing the tasks, and your next group project will be a much more enjoyable experience for all.

Do you have questions about productivity or organization? Palmer, 3L and opinion editor for The UB Post can be reached at scott.palmer@ubalt.edu.

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