When groups are necessary

I've long held a fairly jaundiced view of that holy-of-holies in our profession - collaboration. (See: A Few Words About Collaboration) Short version: collaboration should be considered a means of achieving a desired result, not the result itself.

I'm glad to see someone else has grumped about having to work with others. Scott (Dilbert) Adams, lists 11 "reasons that teamwork will make any normal individual perform below his highest potential." These include:

3. In any group of three people, there's generally at least one disruptive moron.
5. To mediocre minds, a brilliant idea and a dumb idea sound identical. A team will vote out the best ideas along with the worst.
9. Everyone wants to do the fun stuff and not the boring-but-necessary parts.

That's my kind of thinking!

Yet even I admit that teams, groups and collaboration are essential under some circumstances. These include:

1. When good decisions require the opinion/knowledge of variety of experts. (Tech and curriculum, for example.)
2. When decisions involve highly conflicting values. (Security vs. convenience and access)
3. Ownership by a range of stakeholders is essential. (1:1 laptop program buy-in by teachers and administrators as well as techs and librarians.)
4. When the only way to overcome a negative power by a situational leader is by creating a strong group to counter. (A group of teachers forms a policy committee to make recommendations on less restrictive filtering by a tech director.)
5. There is a better chance of donuts appearing when there is a group.

Groups, meetings and collaboration have their place. When there is a reason for them.

Comments

[Anne Oelke]

Thank you (and Adams) for expressing so well a view I've held for years. As a student I always resented the fact that my grade was determined by the effort (and often lack thereof) of others and that my fellow students could coast on my coat tails. As a Library Media Specialist I see this happening constantly in "group work" assigned by teachers, and in supposed collaborative efforts among professional staff. The most recent incident was the Long Range Information (Library) and Technology Plan. Of a core committee of 6, 95% of the work was done by two of us. One other person did a small amount. Is it any wonder that many of us avoid these types of situations? Of course, on the rare occasion that collaboration works well, it is truly a joy and a learning experience for all concerned.

[Kenn Gorman]

With your permission, I intend to refer to this article next semester when I give my first group assignment. Interestingly enough, the first question that my students always ask when placed in a group is "Does everyone have to do the assignment, or just one group project?"...which usually means "I want to do the least amount of work, so we will make the smartest person do the assignment and I'll simply add my name to it."

#5 is most significant, especially when it's the night before and the assignment is due in about six hours...

[Nathan]

Anne, I've been there too...when I wrote the technology plan in my old district 5 years ago, I did all the writing. The other members were very helpful in editing and reviewing...but it was impossible to write something like that collaboratively. I find it funny when people complain that they weren't in on a meeting....usually what I say to myself is "that's because we wanted to get something done!"

[Greg Carroll]

Ha ... love it. You have been in on some of my staff meetings then :-) ....hehehehehe
cheers
Greg

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Anne,

You echo the same sentiments that my academically gifted daughter did when she was in college. Her father's rather unsympathetic response - get use to it since these group situations are prevalent in the workplace as well!

Thanks for the comment,

Doug

Hi Kenn,

My sense is that too many groups don't take the time to chunk out tasks and then assign them to individuals. (Or have teachers/supervisors that encourage this activity.) Let me know the response by your students to this article. A guest blog post???

Like all my blog entries, this one is CreativeCommons licensed so use it as you will.

Thanks,

Doug

Hi Nathan,

It's usually much easier for a "writing" group to have some sort of draft on which to work as opposed to trying to create something from scratch. At least in my experience. Co-authoring is something I personally find difficult, I suppose, because my ego gets in the way?

All the best and thanks for the comment,

Doug

Hi Greg,

So you are saying this phenomena is not culture specific??? And just when I was about to emigrate!

All the best,

Doug

[Charlie A. Roy]

@ Doug
Thanks for the post. A friend of mine used to day, "Those who can't do - meet about it". An interesting quote.