Thus far, Collaborating Sucks...
In the past couple of weeks I have had
several collaboration projects in my speech and Technical Writing class. At the
beginning of the projects everything seemed fine. Everyone was listening to
each other, joking around a little, sharing ideas; until the rudeness came. In speech
-let’s call him Mr. Short- Mr. short sat down with the group portraying a
collaborative spirit and asked “so, does anyone have any ideas?”. Excited about
the project I said “yes, Directing!”. Mr. Short returned with “that’s boring,
no one wants to hear that, anyone else, any OTHER ideas?” he continued to shoot
down everyone else’s ideas until we all gave up and went with his. The obnoxiousness
was unrelenting for the rest of the project. In technical writing the project
went somewhat the same way, only instead of “Mr. Short” there was “Mr. Farmer”.
How did I handle this you ask? First, I was
insulted, then I asserted myself, then I yelled, and then I went on auto-pilot
and presented my part of the projects in the way I felt comfortable most; without taxing anyone else of course, I’m
responsible that way!
It seems every time I enter into a
collaborative project I leave with bitterness. I’ve asked several people how I could
change this pattern, but when I implement the advice I still end-up feeling
over-worked, underappreciated and subjected to tyranny. How do I resolve this? Is
it my approach to collaboration? Do I come to the group table feeling too
arrogant or self-entitled? What is it? I honestly don’t know. Does anyone have
any advice?
This is my blog post for next week: how to make the wiki project less of a nightmare, since the major problems all boil down to collaboration.
ReplyDeleteFor topic selection, there could be a voting process: all ideas go on the list, then everyone votes anonymously. If there's a tie, one topic gets pulled out of a hat. Topics also could be blended--if one person wants environmentalism and another wants the film industry, the topic could be movies about eco-disasters.
A good group should not be all nodding in agreement. Someone needs to play devil's advocate, if only to make sure everyone has recognized objections and possible problems with the topic, approach, etc.
Trust me when I say I know how you feel. Collaborative projects are the worst, especially when you have people like that. All that it's either my way or the highway is nonsense and I don't accept it. Doing a group project should have things everyone is comfortable with. When will we learn to respect each other? Hopefully the next one, and you will have another one, will be better.
ReplyDeleteThings like this will always have a bump in the road. All you can do is pray that your group members are willing to work together as one. In the end everyone has one goal and that is to get a good grade. Next time just try and make sure that from the beginning you are all on the same page. If you can't agree on something then try something different that everyone can agree with.
ReplyDelete