A Group Effort

As we have learned throughout the majority of the semester, working with a group can either be an easygoing task or an excruciating headache. Fortunately for the group that I was in, we probably met in the middle of these two. I don't think anyone in my group would concur that the project was easygoing but at the same time we didn't get on each others nerves to the point where we couldn't bare to be around each other. When we received the members of our group, one of the first things that we discussed was our career interests and goals. We soon realized that we all had a diverse set of career interests that ranged from law, to business, to medicine.
The way in which we were able to reach a middle ground was to choose a career to discuss that would be able to easily revolve around the same topic. It was at this point where we were able to come to the conclusion to do criminal law. Since the interview process was probably the most difficult segments of the project, we made sure that the group got this out the way early so that we would be able to talk about this component in our presentation. We arranged as many group meetings as possible in order to carry out the most effective presentation as possible. During our meetings, being productive was very important because we all had busy schedules and also limited time. We also were able to strategically divide up the work where we were able to equally speak during the presentation.

The main advantage of groups that was used according to chapter nine was that there were many viewpoints. As opposed to an individual project, the group presentations allowed for six different point of views to contribute to our success. I would have to say that one of the disadvantages was the fact that the group meetings were time consuming. Being that it was six college students, there were some individuals who had to make the effort to stay possibly stay at meetings longer because of other member’s conflicting schedules. The main communicative maintenance role that was used was the fact that we encouraged others. Being that we all had a different set of career goals, it was imperative to try and motivate other group members because our topic might not have catered to their interests.
One of the main challenges that my group faced was the fact that our presentation date creeped up on us. By the time our presentation rolled around, a lot of work still needed to be done in order to be successful. On the day of our presentation, we were very prepared, but we could have been a little more prepared. I personally feel as though if we had one more meeting, than our presentation would have been just a little better. Through our perseverance and trust in our group members, we were able to maximize our success during our presentation.