Group work at school, university and even at the office can be a challenging assignment. It is necessary to have all team members understand each other, contribute, find compromises and reach a consistent outcome in a limited amount of time.
Still, it doesn’t need to be difficult. With a few simple strategies, you can dramatically improve collaboration in your team and make group work more effective. Here are five common issues of group work solved for you.
- Problem: Difficulties in Getting Started
Solution: Plan, plan, plan. If you regularly spend time to establish work processes at the beginning of a meeting, your project may be lacking structure. Always have an agenda ready, and send it together with the meeting request. At the end of the meeting, share key takeaways and actions items with all participants.
- Problem: Low Productivity
Solution: Shorter Meetings, More Often. Our average attention span is 20 minutes. Sure, we can focus again and again, but experts say the overall productivity will drop after 52 minutes. It’s therefore better to have shorter meetings (1 hour maximum) more often to keep everyone engaged. Better still, have virtual meetings in CollaBoard to eliminate commuting time.
- Problem: Someone Is Not Contributing
Solution: Keep Everyone Involved. Everybody should have an open attitude and feel free to express his opinions in a neutral environment (that’s why gamestoming sessions are so effective). Depending on the group, you may want to have a moderator to ensure these criteria are met, or lay out a list of rules for everybody to follow.
- Problem: Poor Communication
Solution: Use a Variety of Media. Not everyone responds in the same way to text or conversations, therefore try using different media to get your message across. Read more on how to do this with CollaBoard.
- Problem: Poor Outcome
Solution: Set Time Aside for Brainstorming. Ok, so you did everything right and still, the outcome is rather poor. What can you do at this point to rescue the project and deliver on time? Brainstorm ideas with your team for quick ways to improve: you may be surprised by the results. Are you dealing with conflicts/introversion? Try Gamestorming: Affinity Map.
Bonus tip: install CollaBoard now to organize your group work quickly and efficiently:
– Upload the meeting agenda in a Project
– Hold Virtual Meetings in the app
– Have all participants contribute in a highly immersive environment
– Leverage different media (text, video, photos, images and audio) to get your message across
– Use Brainstorming (or Gamestorming) to improve your results
Simply download and install CollaBoard, login, and click on the Info button to sign up for a 30-day free trial version. That’s it – now you are ready for your next assignment.