Group assignments not it? Here’s how to collab in the real world

Everyone seems to dread the words ‘group assignment’ at university or TAFE, and we’d be lying if we said that this classic academic mainstay doesn’t have its downfalls. Unfortunately, we don’t see the classic group assignment going anywhere. Any way you shake it, collaboration is a part of working life – but it doesn’t have to be painful. If your learning institution insists on building your collaboration skills through group projects, let’s truly embrace the challenge and look at some ways you can bring your A-game.

What’s my task again?

One of the first big hurdles to tackle on any group assessment is the bystander effect. I’ve had projects that have gone weeks without a single letter typed because nobody’s clear on what they’re supposed to do. Worse still, people attempt to be nice by saying they ‘don’t mind’ which section they work on, which just leads to more delays.

A team needs someone who’s willing to carve up the project and create accountability – and that person, dear reader, is you. People might seem shy, but if you take the lead and start dividing the project into pieces, things start to naturally flow from there. You could use a corporate task management software like Trello, Jira, or Asana, but you can just as easily get away with a google sheet which lists the task, the person responsible, the due date of that section, and the status of the project.

What does success look like for you?

Another thing that you’ll find in a group project is that (to put it politely) people have very different ideas about what they want to get from their tertiary education experience. I had a project that was part of my core subjects at uni, which meant I wanted to really give it a go and give my WAM a boost, but for others, they were content to scrape through with as little effort as possible.

Chances are, if you’re reading this article you sit somewhere towards the caring side of the spectrum (good on you tbh), so it’s important for your academic and mental wellbeing to understand where your group-mates are coming from. When you kick off on the project, it’s worth asking ‘what does everyone want to get out of this?’.

This is a phrase that you’ll encounter in just about any client-facing job, or really any job where you have someone assigning work to you. If you find out that you’re with people who just aren’t that keen on putting the hard yards in, then you can find a way to make sure that the best people are working on the bits of the project that are going to deliver results for you. It might mean that you take on a bit more work, but (sadly, again), you’ll encounter this dilemma in your working life too.

Checking in

Our brains are very good at connecting the dots, to create pictures – even when that picture may not really exist. That’s all to say that you don’t really know how people are going along with a project unless you’re willing to check in with them and see how they’re going. You might see that their contribution isn’t up to scratch and chalk it up to neglect or laziness, but they could be struggling with the material, the task or other obligations and need a helping hand. At the end of the day, their success is likely to be yours too, so a simple conversation can help you work towards a better outcome.

That all being said, there’s an art to the check-in, especially if you have some constructive feedback to offer. The three tips to think about when checking in include:

• Keep it friendly and/or polite: people want to feel respected, and typically won’t tolerate being talked down to by their peers. Even if you’re upset, being polite starts every conversation on the right foot (and looks good on record).
• Throw in a compliment or two: embrace the compliment sandwich – even if it’s something as simple as saying ‘thank you for your quick reply’ or ‘thanks for agreeing to meet up about this project’.
• Be specific and be constructive: don’t just say you’re not happy with a contribution or think something’s ‘wrong’. Before you get in touch, figure out exactly what you think needs to be improved, and how you could go about doing it in order to help them set actions to improve. When you have the convo with them, approach it with curiosity and generosity, by asking their rationale and assuming that they also want to do the best job possible.

Putting it on record

We start all our projects with the best of intentions, but even after implementing these amazing tips, sometimes things don’t work out in the assessment group. Somewhat unlike a working environment, there’s not quite the same incentive system in place to make sure everyone pulls their weight to your satisfaction. Hopefully things can be sorted out within the group, but it can come to needing to kick it upstairs and talk to your tutor or course convenor to have things straightened out. If there’s one constructive thing that you can take from this, however, it is the process of proper record keeping and evidence-gathering – which will serve you well, from the boardroom to tenancy disputes to getting a refund after buying something in the wrong size at your favourite store.

Learning how to use popular note-taking software like Notion, Google Keep, OneNote or just your Notes app so that all your info is organised can be a true god-send when you’re in a stressful situation. AI tools such as Microsoft CoPilot are now built-in to common workplace video communication apps as well, so you can use them to jot down and summarise notes on the fly while you take care of crushing it at your next meeting.

This process is fairly simple. Where you can, make sure you’re communicating and delegating in a space or a format which keeps things on record. Emails are a classic, but even a Facebook message group will work the trick as long as it has times and dates available. If you do end up having a face-to-face convo, you can always follow up with the ‘meeting minutes’ - action items, project status and so on. Try something like:

‘Hey guys, thanks for making the time to meet up today. Just to recap so I’m across it, I’ll be doing the slide formatting ahead of the presentation, Mark is handling citations and Jane will be taking care of the introduction.’ You can even try experimenting with AI programs that can either record the meeting for you and take notes, or can summarise the notes someone’s already taken.

Are some of these tips a little nerdy? Perhaps – but if looking a little nerdy saves you a whole lot of headache when that next group assessment comes around, we’d say it’s more than worth it. Plus, by working out your teamwork and communication muscles, you’re setting yourself up to be unbeatable in whatever career you choose to pursue.

It might surprise you to hear that people can have disagreements over group projects even in the so-called ’grown-up’ professional world – but taking initiative and showing that you want a positive result for everyone is a great way to nail tasks and earn the respect of your co-workers, even if it’s your first job.