Reflecting back on this week's topic on "Group Communication", I've decided not to use any media work or sources to discuss issues regarding it; instead, I will use my exposure and past experience regarding what it means by "Group" and what are the pros and cons of it...
Well, I'm sure readers of my blog would have had to work in groups or have been involved with communicating within a group throughout or at least once in our lives. So, when you're reading through this entry of my blog, please think of your past experience, and later comment on whether you agree or disagree with what I have got to say (or type...)!
Group communication in sports:
My first encounter with any form of group communication probably dates back to my primary school, when I was part of the basketball team. As mentioned, basketball is a "Team" game, and that implies that winning matches very much depends on the the team working as a whole or a group rather than having individual players performing well.
Being a kid, I was an egocentric and individualistic player blessed with better skills (having started earlier) than my peers during that time. I'll play the game myself, choosing to shoot or dribble when the better option would sometimes be to pass to a team mate. Well, it didn't help that I was so obsessed with winning rather than having fun during that time and it also didn't help when my teammates always try to find for me rather than have a go themselves. Of course, matches in inter-schools end up with many loss because we were essentially a one-man team. well, we finally learn to work as a group in our last match (well, actually I was benched by my coach...) and we finally managed to play as a whole rather then individuals resulting in us winning that match(too little too late)!
But the very important lesson we learn here is, if we all work together instead of depending on one player, we could perform better and achieve better results!
Group communication in organizations:
Well, my second formal need to be part of a group was during my secondary school period, I was the vice-chair for my class during my schools "Entrepreneurial Fair". Now this was the first time I was involved in having to lead discussions on what we were going to do, and how we were going to get things done. It was a class effort, and many ideas were suggested and given much after thought to.
Well, the pros of having a group to discuss what we were going to do led to a myriad of ideas to be considered. Then, everyone was assigned different roles and the whole event was successful as everyone did their parts and we met our target sales! strangely not much problems encountered and everything run so smoothly despite having over 30 people involved in organizing and executing the event!
Group Communication in project works:
Groupthink.... groupthink groupthink... if you're wondering what this is, well this is the biggest problem I have faced with all the group projects I've been involved with during my time spend doing project work. It is the problem of everyone in the group going in the same direction, not considering other ideas or options available leading to a very narrow piece of work.
I used to think that if everyone is heading towards the same direction and idea, it would be a good thing as there won't be disagreements or arguments. But now, I've learn that this is a major problem as often, ideas run dry and people don't seem to be able to come up with something novel!
So what are your experiences in working with a group, and what do you think is the benefit of working in a group and the problem of being in one?
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Working in groups is really a double edged sword.
I mean, when groups work well, they can lead to great efficiency and the ability to accomplish a lot more than one could possibly do alone.
But at the same time, grouping, especially if theres groupthinking, often means compromising on individuality. As much as having a closely knit group is important, it is often in the nuances of each individual that non-uniform and definitely not boring creativity is born.
Think of it like forming a boyband. A boyband has to work together to perform well, but it requires for each member to have his own unique traits to stand out. And often there is also a need of a designated leader to guide the rest along. Beyond that, some members will tend to be more popular amongst their fans (just like ideas from 1 member might end up being more favorable than those of the others), and space must be given for such ideas to grow or else we would only be fostering the plain vanilla, when we could be synergizing to achieve so much more
Some people loves working in groups. Simply bcoz they can then latch onto team-mates who are actually working. This group of peeps are otherwise called leeches.
Wow, interesting thought there from clarence, think like a boy band, where one member usually stands out... Maybe thats why in group work we usually end up focusing and directly ourselves towards the most "famous" idea, and anything other novel idea would usually be regarded as "out of place"...
and An Angel also pointed out something really true, but I think in the big groups especially, it will always be only a few really working very hard well the rest just ride on with the train of thought. "leeches" maybe, but could you imagine everyone coming out with their own ideas? would that lead to a mayhem of other problems?
Group Communication should always occur within a group because if there weren't communication, the group would have disbanded. Let's take a group of friends (clique) as an example, we do things together, help each other, make fun of each other etc. This is how a normal communication should occur. I feel great to be in a clique!
i love working in groups as it gives me the opportunity to know more friends and interact with other people. Groups that work well together and achieving good results are definitely the most ideal case. we get to share the success of our hard work together.
However, when there is a mis-match in working styles, i.e. process-oriented person vs goal-oriented person, or 'well-prepared' vs 'last-minute' worker, or 'feeler' vs 'thinker', such differences would lead to certain conflicts and frustrations, with group members have differing unspoken 'norms' and expectations.
I guess at such times, instead of focusing and complaining about how difficult it is to work with others, it might be an opportunity for us to learn more about the different styles of working and how to go about communicating our opinions and sort of differences.
nice quotes pointed from unknown.. (seriously who are you)
anyway I guess life is all about learning and sometimes if you're unlucky enough to have "leeches" within your group, you just got to learn to cope!
The benefit of working in a group is the level of productivity a group can produce instead of an individual trying to get the job done.
However a point to note is , the characters of individuals must not clash in other to have efficient verbal communication with one another.
A group effort also means more contribution of unique ideas which other group members might not have thought of. Shared commuication.
The problem of having a group is that inevitably, some group members tend to slack off and some will misinteprete you ideas resulting in not so desirable results for the group assigments.
Basically, team work has its own benefits and detriments. There are bound to be disputes (from different ideas and methodologies), lack of creativity (due to group think like what you mentioned above), ‘leeching’ (as quoted from AnAngel) and plenty more other reasons why team work may be ineffective.
Despite having its limitations, teams can also be effective in distributing the workload, reinforcing each other’s ideas and the list goes on…
And whether working in a group works, in my opinion, really depends on compromise from everyone in the group. Ultimately, groups will definitely have problems and I guess what matters is the concerted efforts of everyone in coming to address the issues of the group rather than letting the problems ‘engulf’ the whole team and the essence of team work will be lost (just like how you mentioned how the problem of you being obsessed with winning affected the rest of your team and no one tried to make things work which caused the coach to intervene and benched you).
I guess working in groups is part and parcel of life. There are advantages, and of course, disadvantages. Advantages include coming up with better ideas, sharing of workload etc. Disadvantages would refer to obvious cases where you have leeches who refuse to do work and simply claim credit, and also the difficulty of coordinating everybody's timetable to come up with a suitable timing for meetings.
I for one prefer to work in a group because i feel ideas churned out in groups tend to be better. Of course, this is with the assumption that people in the group are conscientious enough to do their own prep.