"I have a shitty group to do this project with" is coming into its own excuse that parallels "the dog ate my homework"—except it’s actually true most of the time. Since many colleges and universities are geared toward group work, in order to prepare you for working in teams in your future job, we’ve all been stuck with the worst groups. Believe it or not, there is a way to make group work a little more endurable. If you genuinely care about your work and aren’t just searching for an excuse to do a poor job, here’s how to be successful in a group project:
1. Exchange contact info right away
Get everyone’s number and email, and establish a group chat right away (and apologize to that one person who doesn't have an iPhone; they're just going to have to deal with it). This keeps you from wasting time not getting anything done because you forgot to establish a way to contact each other.
2. Set ground rules.
Decide how you're going to communicate, whether it be through text, email or meeting up. Set due dates for different parts of the project that everyone agrees to. Clearly establish who’s doing what as soon as you can, so no one can claim they didn’t know what they were supposed to do.
3. Use Google Docs/Slides and thank me later.
Use this to collaborate and create your project together remotely instead of trying to find a time in your busy schedules to meet together. If you can all get on the doc/slide at the same time, you can go back and forth and get a lot done without texting the group chat a million times. Just remember to color code which person is talking so other people can follow the conversation.
4. Pester slackers, but be understanding.
These people are either genuinely so busy they put your group project on the back burner, or they just don’t care that much about it. Bullying someone into doing their part isn't going to work, so try to come from a place of kindness and understanding; people are much more willing to work with you that way.
5. Fire people.
If it seems like tough love, that's because it is. If your instructor doesn’t tell you firing people from your group is an option (which they should), ask. If a person isn’t pulling their weight, they get fired from their job, so why not get fired from a group project? They can either get a zero or do the project by themselves, but at least you won’t have to pull their dead weight around and watch them get credit for it.
At the end of the day, you'll still be stuck with the controlling one, the quiet one, the slacker and the one who has absolutely no idea what's going on, but these rules can help you—the person who wants to be successful and not have to throw themselves off a bridge—navigate through a group project with a little more ease and a little less stress.
