Writing Assignment: Indivudal Assessment of Your Group Work

Due: Sunday, 22 June.

Every few years, the college and your individual departments and programs get accredited. This process involves accreditation organizations visiting campus, reviewing the curriculum you are taking, and even looking at documents--such as our class blog--to make sure you are getting an educational experience as good or better than that at every other accredited college. To gain accreditation, many majors must demonstrate that their students are being prepared to work well as part of a team. Let me use Health Care as an example, but I could just as readily use any other or your majors. The bottom line is that there are very, very few professions or careers where teams are not the norm rather than the exception.

The Health Care program requires a significant portion of their assignments to be done by groups. Why? Nurses work with doctors and therapists and clerical staff to make sure every patience gets the best treatment possible. The public, that means you and I, does not want someone on their health care team who can not communicate well, complete tasks fully and on time, and be trusted to integrate their actions with the goals of their team. Again, why? Because success for the team requires everyone involved to do their job and do it well.

Over the past couple of weeks, you've gained some experience working with your group, and you've participated in a series of tasks where everyone's success depended on good communication, clear objectives, and accountability. For instance, for everyone in your group to have successfully completed the proofreading assignment, everyone needed to get up to speed and learn to share documents using google docs, each needed to share their contact information, each needed to be checking the class blog on a regular basis, each needed to move their five analysis over to google docs, and these tasks needed to be completed in time for everyone to finish their proofreading by last (Sunday) night.

Here's your first writing assignment for the week:

1. Write an individual assessment of how your group did and how you did working with your group? Use google docs to share this document with me and your group.

What to look at in this assessment:

A. Were the tasks assigned to the group completed? A clear idea of what needs to be accomplished by the group, by individual members, and by when is essential to group success.

1. Did your group complete the task of getting everyone's analysis into google docs and shared?
2. Did anyone have trouble with google documents? How was this trouble resolved?
3. Were all the documents shared with the group in time for everyone in the group to proofread each document?
4. Does everyone in your group now have a fairly comprehensive "Error List." They will need this for an upcoming assignment.
5. If all the groups tasks were not completed on time, how do you plan to make sure you are caught up as soon as possible?

B. How did the group communicate? Good communication is essential for teams to succeed.

1. Over the past two weeks, when and how have you communicated with your group?
2. Did you talk to one another about the need to have your contact information and analysis posted?
3. Did you assign a specific date to have these completed?
4. Did anyone assume a leadership role and try to coordinate the group's activity?
5. Did your group follow up and contact members who were not communicating?
6. How did you handle members who did not communicate?
7. Was your communication handled with tack and respect?


C. How did your group handle the problem of accountability? In order for a group to succeed, each member must be accountable to the other members, each member much maintain high ethos with the others, and each must trust the others to hold them accountable.

1. Was anyone assigned the task of double checking to make sure everyone was on schedule and of letting the others know about delays and problems?
2. Did you recognize or reward the members who completed a task on time or took on a leadership role? [This is as simple as saying, "Thanks for getting your analysis up and posted in time for me to do my editing?"]
3. Did you communicate as a group or individually? It helps if each members sees themselves as publicly accountable.
4. Did you communicate as a group and establish a list of the tasks each member was responsible for completing and a schedule to which each was accountable?
3. How did you handle members not turning in their work or not turning it in punctually?


D. What assumptions did you bring to working with your group?

1. Did you expect to communicate with your group to establish which tasks needed to be completed and when?
2. Did you assume everyone would read the assignments and complete them on their own without any communication being necessary?
3. Did you look to your group members to help you succeed or did you assume you needed to do everything on your own?
4. Did you assume everyone was doing well and was on track, or did you check and see what you could do to help?
5. Did you assume you were responsible to the group or yourself first? Why?
6. What could you have done differently to better insure everyone's success?

Some ideas to consider when writing your assessment. Don't attach others. This isn't a game of "He did..." or "She didn't...." In industry, groups and/or management meet to do this kind of assessment on a more or less regular basis. You are doing this assessment to try to see why your group succeeded or failed to succeed. More importantly, you are trying to figure out specific practices you can use as you continue to work with your group--practices which will help you better succeed in future group work. You are also looking at the assumptions you hold about how groups work and what your responsibilities are and are not. Finally, please remember, you will be working with this group in the future. Use this assessment as an opportunity to build and not burn bridges.

Steve