Why is group work so hard?

I do so well on my own, but it seems that every time I have a group project, something always goes wrong, and it’s usually something different going wrong every time. I honestly can’t think of the last group project I’ve had where we worked well together and everyone contributed, and most people I speak to seem to always have issues with group work as well. Why is it so hard?

Group work is challenging at every level of education and can be in the work world as well. One reason it is hard is because people aren’t taught how to work effectively in groups. Another reason is differing levels of abilities, commitment, interest, competition, mental health, social skills, etc. When it goes well, however, it can be powerful. Also in an information age, it is getting harder and harder to do seminal work alone, so it’s worth learning how to do it.

Because it’s seldom an issue with the material.

When you’re working alone, it’s all about the material-- accessing it, learning it, determining how to best present it.

But with group work, the material takes a back seat to the group dynamics-- how to equitably divide the workload, yet still get the highest grade possible. Those two factors are frequently at odds with each other; very often the grade would be higher if one or two people did the lion’s share of the work-- but that’s not fair.

As @NorthernMom61 stated, though, it’s a vital skill for life outside the classroom.

Sometimes it’s immaturity. In my child language acquisition class, we had to post a project proposal on the class forum and other students could then ask to join you and you’d work as a pair. I posted my proposal on the very first day. Mind you, we had 2 entire weeks to form pairs. Guess when I get a response to my forum post? It was the weekend before the proposal was due. This was a small class of about 20 students and I had 3 different students ask me if I had found a project partner. Seriously, I couldn’t get over it. I went with the person that asked first, but I somewhat regret it. She was helpful at times, but when the experiment didn’t go as planned, she refused to change her portions of the paper we had to work on. There are just so many factors that can make group work extremely difficult.

Group dynamics. Ego. Stylistic differences. Professors who want to review and grade fewer projects. Trickle down from the latest business fads. All that and then some.

Sometimes the extroverts bully the rest of the group, who will agree just to shut.them.up. Introverts don’t want to be there in the first place, since they’d rather work (and be) alone. Personally, I think it’s better to sink or swim on your own merits, but that’s rarely the hand you’re dealt, in school or in work. I don’t like saying it, but it’s not a bad thing to start getting used to it now.

This will sound sappy but it might help. Don’t think of what went wrong. Think of what went right! How can you make the right stuff more of the overall equation? This is a progress vs perfection approach. The fact is you can’t control other’s actions. You can help motivate them but that’s about it. Think of each group project as an opportunity to improve the dynamic and output.

It’s important because, in the real world, unless you are in a very specific situation where you get to work alone, you will be dealing with a form of this for a long time. People work with people.Overall teams or parts of projects where you’re dependent on others to provide information. So figure out a way to improve the experience today so it will carry over for you tomorrow.