This is the secret to more productive group work

Many of the habits you develop that influence your work productivity are shaped by your education. Unfortunately, for most of us, education was an individual sport, while our professional life is a team sport. As a result, we have to learn to work with others more effectively. (Just ask anyone who’s gotten stuck doing the lion’s share of a group presentation.)

One of the biggest drawbacks in group work is that often members act as if everyone working on a project is the same. This is particularly true in workplaces that see themselves as friendly, because people don’t want to order their colleagues around or give people jobs that may feel like they have lower status.

But any successful team needs people to take on roles. Not everyone in the band can be the lead guitar player (and as a sax player myself, I can assure you that playing a more supportive role in the horn section is a blast). That means that you need to be aware of some of the key roles that people have to take on and then to make sure those roles are filled with people who can do them well.

One key role is the decider. One person needs to have responsibility for being the final judge for key questions that arise. The decider might opt to let the group vote on certain things or to have discussions with team members to reach a consensus. But the group has to have someone who is ultimately given authority to make a decision that the rest of the team will accept.

A second key role is the editor. When groups present their work to others, there is often a report that goes out with it. While several different people may contribute sections to the report, it ultimately needs to read as though it has one voice. One person needs to take the lead on weaving the report together coherently so that it does not feel like it was patched together haphazardly.

Groups also need a scribe. Groups coordinate their activity in meetings. Unfortunately, in many meetings, everyone is engaged in discussion, and nobody records the discussion or catalogs the decisions that were made. The group scribe needs to keep good minutes for every meeting. If someone volunteers to take an assignment, they should be reminded about it later. If a key decision is made, it needs to be noted. The scribe should then post the results of the meeting somewhere where it can be accessed by everyone else.

Good teams also have a scheduler. There are two elements to scheduling—one is obvious and one less so. The obvious aspect of scheduling is that there needs to be a clear list of tasks that have to be performed, and one person needs to be responsible for making sure that at least one person on the team is addressing each of these tasks.

Source: Fastcompany.com

Powered by NewsAPI.org

Keywords:

Individual sport • Team sport • Presentation of a group • Psychological projection • Lead guitar • Guitarist • Horn section • Person • Moral responsibility • Social group • Voting • Team • Social group • Consensus decision-making • Social group • Authority • Decision-making • Social group • Employment • Scribe • Conversation • Decision-making • Scribe • Value (ethics) • Scribe • Scheduling (computing) • Scheduling (computing) • Scheduling (computing) •