Rules of doing group projects

RULES OF DOING GROUP PROJECTS

The complexity of things can only get deeper and more convoluted as time passes on. Knowledge will keep increasing at an exponential rate and the amount of information that must be known and kept at the fingertip will keep rising. This is true and this reality is the reason why teamwork has become the bedrock of any tangible achievement in the world today. Individualism has reduced to the barest minimum for all the right reasons and failure to realize this always leads to painful consequences.

In the world of learning, people come together to carry out inquisitive and exploratory activities with the view of getting satisfactory answers to some of the most troubling questions and issues in life. In all areas of possible learning and development, the burden of fact-finding and fact usage has reached epic proportions and thus the need to bring together groups of people and give them the  mandate to work together to get solutions and answers that are needed urgently. The necessity of bringing people together to achieve tangible results also has its own unique challenges and poses a sensitive situation where things can quickly go wrong if certain conditions and guiding framework are not strictly followed. People who desire great results from cooperative work must endeavor to follow the guidelines and basic rules elucidated in the succeeding paragraphs.

The need to clearly identify all members of the group is the fundamental and most basic rule for doing group work or project. The number of people in the group, their names and sex must be known to every other member of the group. This basic rule must not be flaunted if all members of a group want to feel and experience inclusiveness on a project work. This rule also guards against unwarranted false claims by strange persons to be the main discoverer or researcher in a project. Time must be taken to get the personal details of all members of a group. This responsibility falls on each member of the group and on the faculty giving the project. A neat and clean record to this effect is very important.

The length, breadth, depth and height of the project embarked upon must also be known to the minutest detail. The scope of the project has the magic formula to ensure that the project does not exceed its natural bounds. This basic knowledge would help prevent undue stress and time wastage. Every member of the group and the project dispensing body must clearly define the scope of the project. This is done by the usual coming together of the group members and their governing unit to draft out a clear and concise map of the boundaries of a project work, its duration and objectives.

Members of the group must now begin to deliberate on the methodology that will be adopted to get the desired result on a group project work. All members of the group must reach a consensus on the manner of approach that will be adopted to do justice to the project work assigned to them. In drafting out a methodology, a lot of other important things must get sorted out. The definition of the method that would be used in getting the group project done should automatically yield a responsibility chart. Every member of the group gets to know what contribution they must make to get the project done in record time. The leader of the group must be decided and acknowledged by all other members of the group and the various roles that each member must play for the group project to be brought to a pleasant conclusion must be properly highlighted and documented.

Every member of the group must carry out their delegated responsibility and must not impede the progress of the project work. The rule of unity and oneness is so paramount that if flaunted, would cause stagnation and systemic starvation. Efforts must be made to fish out unproductive members of a group working on a project. These unproductive members must be called to order and if there is no change in a reasonable amount of time, they must be shown the way out of the group. A group project thrives on teamwork and unwavering unity. This rule must not be toyed with if any tangible result is expected from a group project.

A group project demands regular meetings by the people carrying it out. It is unethical for members of a group working on a project to meet irregularly and thus end up with a project report or result that is not up to the required benchmark. Every member of the group must not absence themselves from any scheduled meeting day where progress and milestones in the project’s life cycle are gauged. It is both a point of duty and a responsibility that all members of the group meet regularly and without any hiccups.

Respect that is mutually given must not be thrown out of the window. All members of a group working on a project must show mutual respect for each other. Disrespect and pride are destroyers of progress on group projects. Any member of the group that is found to be disrespectful and lacking good sense of decorum should be shown the way out. This rule of mutual respect ensures that everybody in the group do not feel alienated or sidelined in any way. In this age of equality and equal treatment, all members of the group working on a project must have mutual respect for each other.

The final rule of openness is perhaps the most powerful rule of group projects after identifying all members of the group. The world of today constantly looks for individuals and group that “think outside the box”. There is no foolish suggestion or childish answer. Emphatically, there is nothing like impossible while when it comes to doing a group project. The only binding thing that is permitted to check excesses in the manner of approach to getting solution to a group project is the code of conduct that governs the group members and the overseeing body. All members of the group must be open to change, suggestions and unconventional options in carrying out a group project.