Last semester, I did a group project and one of my group members did their part late the night before our presentation. I was worried I’d need to do their part for them because it was getting close to the deadline. I personally didn’t speak to them about how that disrupted our group work but, I was able to mention it in a feedback assignment. I felt like it would be rude to ask them when they were going to work on their part so I just hoped they would pull through in the end. Thankfully they did, but it could just as easily still have been unfinished. I want for this group project to be open to giving and receiving feedback. We have multiple ways to contact each other so we’re well equipped to communicate with each other. I would try to talk out any conflict and come to a compromise/solution.
The perfect example of engaging in destructive conflict is my highschool volleyball team. Instead of routing for one another and working towards the success of the team, the girls frequently wanted themselves to flourish and engaged in conflict with anyone whom they felt threatened by. If there was a day in which one player wasn’t performing to the best of her ability, the coach would ultimately switch her out with someone else. That shouldn’t create as much of a divide as it did, but it had the team falling apart from the inside out. The girls would constantly say nasty things about each other to the other teammates, and it had everyone whispering. It showed on the court too, because we sucked more and more as the season progressed. The team dynamic fell apart and it became every person for themselves, which is simply not going to be functional in a team sport.
I have worked in teams my entire life: group projects, sports, and now academic research. I am a person that truly does everything in my power to avoid conflict, which usually meant I did the majority of the planning and work when it came to high school academics. I have tried to outgrow this habit of avoidance and perfectionism, but old habits die hard. My teamwork skills have greatly improved when it comes to leadership and organization in research because I have gained more confidence in my abilities and competency. However, I still have been on group projects in my college career where I have sunk back into my past habits.
Sophomore year, I was on several group project teams. One in particular was difficult because I was partnered with a team member who clearly wanted to take the assignment in their own direction. Another groupmate and I tried to make a lot of compromises so everyone could present what they were interested in but still keep to the prompt. However, in trying to minimize conflict we did not evenly divide the work or finishing answering all parts of the prompt in our presentation. It would have been very beneficial if I had directly addressed the issue and had an open dialogue with this person, but my annoance and habit of taking on more work won out. I could have given more feedback that could have changed this person’s mind somewhat, but it felt like a loosing battle.
Two years later, I am a much more mature and frankly easier going person. I have worked on trusting others to do their work and not just taking on more responsibility. In other group projects after this I would make a checklist and make sure all parts of the assignment were checked off and work divided equitably. This strategy has helped me relinquish more control, but I still acknowledge I have a long way to go. I think that my team and I have already communicated really well, and I have a lot of trust and faith in their abilities and competency.
I have experienced this at the college level during an academic project. It was in a Marketing class where we were put into a year-long assignment tasked with creating a product and writing a 20+ paged marketing plan. Since we were given the entire semester to do so, my group members were very hesitant on completing work until the last few weeks. This issue caused some conflict to arise between me and one group-mate on one side, and the others opposing. I had been reaching out to my group a few times in the first months of the semester to start working. My emails were professional, but you could tell after a point I was growing frustrated. It felt like a one-sided argument. Although we were a group of 6, only one group-mate responded to do work. This, to me, came off as the rest of the group avoiding conflict by simply not answering. In the long run it was pretty detrimental to our outcome. We had to rush to finish the project, including staying up nearly all night the day before presentation. There was never any apologies, or real address of the conflict, which left a sour taste to me. I believe that clear communication between a groups is important, if not most, for the projects success.
Yes, in this same project as mentioned above. When writing our marketing plan I noticed multiple issues in one particular group-mates section. I remember that working with them was particularly difficult due to their lack of response, and lack of class attendance. It felt like a losing battle at a certain point which caused to fix the work rather than communicate. It likely wasn’t my best move, but it had to be made for the project to be done. What stopped me from providing feedback was a long trail of no communication and resistance to do work. It felt like even if I gave feedback, nothing would have changed. If our relationship has been different earlier on in the project, I would’ve likely talked with them. Another reason I believe I didn’t was to avoid seeming “bossy” or controlling over the projects outcome. I’ve grown to learn that caring about the outcome of your work is not “bossy”, but it requires clear communication to make it been seen as that.
I have been in many situations where I have had an issue with my group member’s work and have not pointed it out. Conflict makes me very anxious, especially surrounding my grades, so I try to avoid arguing in groups that I am in. That being said, because I am so anxious about my grades, I find myself getting all my work for the project done quickly, while my group members may be a bit behind. The waiting makes me anxious, and in this situation, I will generally speak up. However, my issue comes when my group members do the work, and it is done sloppily and incorrect, as I do not want to insult what they have done. The biggest example of this comes from my freshman year of college at Suffolk University, before I transferred to UNE. I had to write a 20-page group paper with three other people, one being my roommate who I did not get along with. All three of them would wait until the last minute to do their part, and when they did, it would not make sense and be filled with grammar errors. I would never correct anything as I did not want to make them feel bad. If this had happened to me now, I definitely would have fixed the errors, but at that point, I did not say anything.
I have been in numerous training environments where members avoided conflict which ended up coming back to bite us. This is especially important to consider when training for healthcare jobs because a lack of accountability can have detrimental effects on both the patients and the employees. Failing to address potential conflicts allows them to grow into bigger problems down the road, to the point where they can cause irreversible damage to the team’s dynamic or backward progression from the goals or objectives in place. A specific example is during my time in military training, where interpersonal conflicts that involved hurt feelings led to a lack of communication. Eventually, although being a simulation, led to casualties within our team while conducting a mission, due to various necessary tasks not being done on time. In addition, while working in the pharmacy, someone refused to check the inventory of the drugs that are considered “fast movers”, the ones that are most frequently filled. The next day, we had numerous complaints and unnecessary interactions that slowed down the overall workflow even further, which hurt our numbers and the ability to help people who needed it. When it comes to conflicts within a team, it is self-explanatory but also crucial that it is addressed rather than ignored, as it most likely will come back to haunt the team later. Failing to hold oneself or others accountable only gives more room for problems to develop or worsen, leading to the detriment that inhibits team progress in achieving the goals in place. Clear and sincere interpersonal communication is a key aspect of ensuring conflicts are solved instead of avoided.
As someone who is used to working on a team weather it was highschool sports, lab projects, or even debates, I have seen and been on every angle of a group member you can give up. From the leader to the slacker, I am willing to admit I’ve participated in the flaw-of-the-pack mentality. For example, I had a debate last semester where I was the only one in my group who read the article. As annoying as it was it was impossible to blame them as they knew nothing and tried nothing to understand it. Helping them through the discussion was the only option, though it was rough balancing my thoughts and their points as well. You have to be calm and understanding, but also imperative if slack is being done when the work should be done. Group work is hard because it forces you to work with everyone and that’s good, but when personalities and the EGO clash, who knows what the end product will be?
In school, I have been part of a group that avoided conflict to our own detriment. I took a course that required students to work on a semester-long, out-of-class project. Unfortunately, only one other team member and I used the full semester for the project. The rest of the group waited until a week before the due date to start their portion. This resulted in the other member and I doing most of the work while the rest did almost none; some members wrote less than 100 words for the 20+ page assignment and presentation. We were all in a group chat together, and I messaged it at least once a week for some time, trying to coordinate with the group, but always received no response- it got to a point where I would directly message the only other person who was doing their part. In this specific situation, the professor had made it clear that we could NOT complain to him about group issues. So, some strategies I used were, as mentioned, frequently texting the group chat, catching people’s attention before and after class, as well as assigning each member specific parts to work on that were easy and within their skill set (bit-sized chunks of work). Frankly, I should have put my foot down much earlier in the year and scheduled a meeting with the professor and my group (despite my professor’s wishes). In the end, I got a much lower grade than I deserved because so much of the project had been BS’d to finish it in time.
I’ve been on many teams throughout my life – whether it be in sport, academia, or other social groups. And one instance I can think of, specifically, was when one my hockey teams began to slide, which is to say in other words, to start losing a bunch of games in a row, or consistently play poorly. Within this, there was a lack of leadership where nobody in the group felt the need to address the issue, and as a result, the losing persisted. I think this lack of conflict was likely on the ownness of the coaches and leadership group, but really, everybody should feel obliged to speak up if they identify a problem.
I think it can be uncomfortable for anybody to look their teammate (or whoever it might be) in the eye, and tell them it’s not good enough, or that they’re wrong or have made too many errors. Moreover, some might find it easy to do this in a non-constructive way – that is, to get emotional in the moment to address an issue. But it’s not always easy to find a constructive way to do this, or to find a positive and productive way out of that moment.
I have also been on teams where I have noticed a problem with a teammate’s work, but didn’t point it out. The theory I have with this is such: every teammate brings something to a team that they are uniquely good at. Within this, there is perhaps less positive feedback that I can give than would is initially perceived. Moreover, I always find it important to look in the mirror before evaluating the work of a teammate. Therein, noting a problem with a teammate’s work can, at times, also be a useful tool in self-reflection and self-improvement.
So this wasn’t much as team but just thinking back it reminded me of a time during my summer job. I know working with colleagues is not the same as working in a team, but I still feel the that the lesson I learned is transferable. I had a troubled colleague who would check my work in the cleaning rooms say “no” and would make me do it again and for a bit I thought she was an authority figure, on it and while not obvious to me then some other colleagues spoke up against her and realized I had wasted some of my efforts refixing what didn’t need to be fix. She left the job afterwards and it’s not exactly something you can do in a team like that. So I didn’t stand up to them, and I think for the same reasons I wouldn’t stand up to a teammates behavior like that is because, I know how flawed I can be with my work, so when someone does call me out on it I tend to trust them.
10 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 9”
Last semester, I did a group project and one of my group members did their part late the night before our presentation. I was worried I’d need to do their part for them because it was getting close to the deadline. I personally didn’t speak to them about how that disrupted our group work but, I was able to mention it in a feedback assignment. I felt like it would be rude to ask them when they were going to work on their part so I just hoped they would pull through in the end. Thankfully they did, but it could just as easily still have been unfinished. I want for this group project to be open to giving and receiving feedback. We have multiple ways to contact each other so we’re well equipped to communicate with each other. I would try to talk out any conflict and come to a compromise/solution.
The perfect example of engaging in destructive conflict is my highschool volleyball team. Instead of routing for one another and working towards the success of the team, the girls frequently wanted themselves to flourish and engaged in conflict with anyone whom they felt threatened by. If there was a day in which one player wasn’t performing to the best of her ability, the coach would ultimately switch her out with someone else. That shouldn’t create as much of a divide as it did, but it had the team falling apart from the inside out. The girls would constantly say nasty things about each other to the other teammates, and it had everyone whispering. It showed on the court too, because we sucked more and more as the season progressed. The team dynamic fell apart and it became every person for themselves, which is simply not going to be functional in a team sport.
I have worked in teams my entire life: group projects, sports, and now academic research. I am a person that truly does everything in my power to avoid conflict, which usually meant I did the majority of the planning and work when it came to high school academics. I have tried to outgrow this habit of avoidance and perfectionism, but old habits die hard. My teamwork skills have greatly improved when it comes to leadership and organization in research because I have gained more confidence in my abilities and competency. However, I still have been on group projects in my college career where I have sunk back into my past habits.
Sophomore year, I was on several group project teams. One in particular was difficult because I was partnered with a team member who clearly wanted to take the assignment in their own direction. Another groupmate and I tried to make a lot of compromises so everyone could present what they were interested in but still keep to the prompt. However, in trying to minimize conflict we did not evenly divide the work or finishing answering all parts of the prompt in our presentation. It would have been very beneficial if I had directly addressed the issue and had an open dialogue with this person, but my annoance and habit of taking on more work won out. I could have given more feedback that could have changed this person’s mind somewhat, but it felt like a loosing battle.
Two years later, I am a much more mature and frankly easier going person. I have worked on trusting others to do their work and not just taking on more responsibility. In other group projects after this I would make a checklist and make sure all parts of the assignment were checked off and work divided equitably. This strategy has helped me relinquish more control, but I still acknowledge I have a long way to go. I think that my team and I have already communicated really well, and I have a lot of trust and faith in their abilities and competency.
I have experienced this at the college level during an academic project. It was in a Marketing class where we were put into a year-long assignment tasked with creating a product and writing a 20+ paged marketing plan. Since we were given the entire semester to do so, my group members were very hesitant on completing work until the last few weeks. This issue caused some conflict to arise between me and one group-mate on one side, and the others opposing. I had been reaching out to my group a few times in the first months of the semester to start working. My emails were professional, but you could tell after a point I was growing frustrated. It felt like a one-sided argument. Although we were a group of 6, only one group-mate responded to do work. This, to me, came off as the rest of the group avoiding conflict by simply not answering. In the long run it was pretty detrimental to our outcome. We had to rush to finish the project, including staying up nearly all night the day before presentation. There was never any apologies, or real address of the conflict, which left a sour taste to me. I believe that clear communication between a groups is important, if not most, for the projects success.
Yes, in this same project as mentioned above. When writing our marketing plan I noticed multiple issues in one particular group-mates section. I remember that working with them was particularly difficult due to their lack of response, and lack of class attendance. It felt like a losing battle at a certain point which caused to fix the work rather than communicate. It likely wasn’t my best move, but it had to be made for the project to be done. What stopped me from providing feedback was a long trail of no communication and resistance to do work. It felt like even if I gave feedback, nothing would have changed. If our relationship has been different earlier on in the project, I would’ve likely talked with them. Another reason I believe I didn’t was to avoid seeming “bossy” or controlling over the projects outcome. I’ve grown to learn that caring about the outcome of your work is not “bossy”, but it requires clear communication to make it been seen as that.
I have been in many situations where I have had an issue with my group member’s work and have not pointed it out. Conflict makes me very anxious, especially surrounding my grades, so I try to avoid arguing in groups that I am in. That being said, because I am so anxious about my grades, I find myself getting all my work for the project done quickly, while my group members may be a bit behind. The waiting makes me anxious, and in this situation, I will generally speak up. However, my issue comes when my group members do the work, and it is done sloppily and incorrect, as I do not want to insult what they have done. The biggest example of this comes from my freshman year of college at Suffolk University, before I transferred to UNE. I had to write a 20-page group paper with three other people, one being my roommate who I did not get along with. All three of them would wait until the last minute to do their part, and when they did, it would not make sense and be filled with grammar errors. I would never correct anything as I did not want to make them feel bad. If this had happened to me now, I definitely would have fixed the errors, but at that point, I did not say anything.
I have been in numerous training environments where members avoided conflict which ended up coming back to bite us. This is especially important to consider when training for healthcare jobs because a lack of accountability can have detrimental effects on both the patients and the employees. Failing to address potential conflicts allows them to grow into bigger problems down the road, to the point where they can cause irreversible damage to the team’s dynamic or backward progression from the goals or objectives in place. A specific example is during my time in military training, where interpersonal conflicts that involved hurt feelings led to a lack of communication. Eventually, although being a simulation, led to casualties within our team while conducting a mission, due to various necessary tasks not being done on time. In addition, while working in the pharmacy, someone refused to check the inventory of the drugs that are considered “fast movers”, the ones that are most frequently filled. The next day, we had numerous complaints and unnecessary interactions that slowed down the overall workflow even further, which hurt our numbers and the ability to help people who needed it. When it comes to conflicts within a team, it is self-explanatory but also crucial that it is addressed rather than ignored, as it most likely will come back to haunt the team later. Failing to hold oneself or others accountable only gives more room for problems to develop or worsen, leading to the detriment that inhibits team progress in achieving the goals in place. Clear and sincere interpersonal communication is a key aspect of ensuring conflicts are solved instead of avoided.
As someone who is used to working on a team weather it was highschool sports, lab projects, or even debates, I have seen and been on every angle of a group member you can give up. From the leader to the slacker, I am willing to admit I’ve participated in the flaw-of-the-pack mentality. For example, I had a debate last semester where I was the only one in my group who read the article. As annoying as it was it was impossible to blame them as they knew nothing and tried nothing to understand it. Helping them through the discussion was the only option, though it was rough balancing my thoughts and their points as well. You have to be calm and understanding, but also imperative if slack is being done when the work should be done. Group work is hard because it forces you to work with everyone and that’s good, but when personalities and the EGO clash, who knows what the end product will be?
In school, I have been part of a group that avoided conflict to our own detriment. I took a course that required students to work on a semester-long, out-of-class project. Unfortunately, only one other team member and I used the full semester for the project. The rest of the group waited until a week before the due date to start their portion. This resulted in the other member and I doing most of the work while the rest did almost none; some members wrote less than 100 words for the 20+ page assignment and presentation. We were all in a group chat together, and I messaged it at least once a week for some time, trying to coordinate with the group, but always received no response- it got to a point where I would directly message the only other person who was doing their part. In this specific situation, the professor had made it clear that we could NOT complain to him about group issues. So, some strategies I used were, as mentioned, frequently texting the group chat, catching people’s attention before and after class, as well as assigning each member specific parts to work on that were easy and within their skill set (bit-sized chunks of work). Frankly, I should have put my foot down much earlier in the year and scheduled a meeting with the professor and my group (despite my professor’s wishes). In the end, I got a much lower grade than I deserved because so much of the project had been BS’d to finish it in time.
I’ve been on many teams throughout my life – whether it be in sport, academia, or other social groups. And one instance I can think of, specifically, was when one my hockey teams began to slide, which is to say in other words, to start losing a bunch of games in a row, or consistently play poorly. Within this, there was a lack of leadership where nobody in the group felt the need to address the issue, and as a result, the losing persisted. I think this lack of conflict was likely on the ownness of the coaches and leadership group, but really, everybody should feel obliged to speak up if they identify a problem.
I think it can be uncomfortable for anybody to look their teammate (or whoever it might be) in the eye, and tell them it’s not good enough, or that they’re wrong or have made too many errors. Moreover, some might find it easy to do this in a non-constructive way – that is, to get emotional in the moment to address an issue. But it’s not always easy to find a constructive way to do this, or to find a positive and productive way out of that moment.
I have also been on teams where I have noticed a problem with a teammate’s work, but didn’t point it out. The theory I have with this is such: every teammate brings something to a team that they are uniquely good at. Within this, there is perhaps less positive feedback that I can give than would is initially perceived. Moreover, I always find it important to look in the mirror before evaluating the work of a teammate. Therein, noting a problem with a teammate’s work can, at times, also be a useful tool in self-reflection and self-improvement.
So this wasn’t much as team but just thinking back it reminded me of a time during my summer job. I know working with colleagues is not the same as working in a team, but I still feel the that the lesson I learned is transferable. I had a troubled colleague who would check my work in the cleaning rooms say “no” and would make me do it again and for a bit I thought she was an authority figure, on it and while not obvious to me then some other colleagues spoke up against her and realized I had wasted some of my efforts refixing what didn’t need to be fix. She left the job afterwards and it’s not exactly something you can do in a team like that. So I didn’t stand up to them, and I think for the same reasons I wouldn’t stand up to a teammates behavior like that is because, I know how flawed I can be with my work, so when someone does call me out on it I tend to trust them.