I’ve never been much of a team player. I prefer to work on my own, because I know how I think and how I best get things done. I don’t have to run my ideas or decisions by anyone else before I implement them, it just runs smoother. In any situation, things are much simpler when there is only one person involved; one brain is conflicting enough on its own, partner it with another and things get difficult. However, being simpler doesn’t mean that it’s easier. In a good team with a good system and clear roles and duties, things do run smoothly and the workload for each individual becomes lightened. I experienced that in the hospitality industry, but not until one and a half years into my degree did I experience it at uni. We’ve done a lot of group work in my 2.25 years at uni, in just about every course I’ve taken, but only this semester’s group and two groups that I was lucky to be in last semester, have worked well together.

The most important factor in a team is communication. This involves being comfortable enough to tell someone when you don’t like their idea, or that they’re not pulling their weight. The positive stuff is easy to communicate, the negative stuff not so much. Communication is also important where you all need to be on the same page and working toward the same goal. These have been the issues in previous years, either I (and other team members) chose not to voice my opinions until it was far too late and everyone ended up getting frustrated, or we all had different ideas about what we wanted to accomplish or create, and everyone ended up getting frustrated.

This semester, my group is excellent. I get along with Matt, Sarah and Mollie really well, and while we’re all quite different we find a lot of common ground and sometimes we probably get along too well (getting excited -me especially, running off topic and discussing some awesome thing probably to do with feminism or cinema, or feminism and cinema, that has nothing to do with the task at hand). But this is our biggest problem as a group, and when we really dedicate time to the task we stay on task, and allow chat breaks when we start to become mentally exhausted.

We all voice our ideas, and our ideas have developed our story on multiple levels. And when someone feels like an idea is off-centre, or they don’t understand how an idea functions within the story, it’s easy to bring it up and discuss it, work on it or ditch it. We all pull our weight, because we all want to make the story as good as possible, and get it finished as smoothly as possible. These are our common goals. We haven’t had a conflict, and you don’t really know how well a group functions until a conflict arrises and you see how well you deal with it, but I don’t think one will given the timespan.

Basically, I feel like my attitude towards group work has really changed for the better due to this semester, this class and this group. I know that if you choose your team wisely, communicate well and are all passionate about the idea and the desired outcome, things will go well. This greatly improves your work ethic, the final outcome, and your personal takings from the given material. I will work toward choosing great team members, communicating well and creating a great group dynamic in future because I can see now how much it improves my experience of a course. Sometimes it’s the luck of the draw but if you’re able to create that excellent group dynamic, everything gets better.