Group Assignment Essay

A group is a collection of three or more people who interact and attempt to influence each other in order to accomplish a common purpose. The purpose of a group or team may range from preparing a new advertising campaign, to sharing information informally, to making important decisions, to fulfilling social needs, or just coming up with a solution to help a friend in need. Groups are a fundamental structure for accomplishing a wide variety of human tasks. I love working in groups because they give you a chance to work together with new personalities and new, refreshing ideas. The only time I don’t like working in groups is when there are people who aren’t willing to put the effort they could and posses, into the work assigned. During our last two classes we were separated into groups of six and given different topics which we were supposed to come up with solutions for. For the most part my group worked very well together on the first topic. We had great communication, and everyone was able to share their opinion on the matter. I believe that our group showed all of the characteristics of a healthy group, and if I had to do future group work I would most definitely choose to work with that group again. We showed interdependence which is the relation between two or more people and how their relationship directly affects the other. First, we started off by explaining the topic to the group again, than we each took turns going around in the circle and explaining how we each felt about the subject. After each person was done, the group took turns asking that person about questions about their view of the subject trying to take in everybody else’s opinions as well as our own and taking them into consideration instead of just throwing out someone else’s idea. I believe we all held each other accountable as well; making sure that everyone was conforming to the group’s norms and working together towards the group goal. No one interrupted anyone else. We made sure that everyone had a chance to speak their mind without being criticized or looked down upon because of the way they were thinking. We took everyone else’s thoughts and put them together to come up with what we believed to be a good solution for the topic that we were given. I was in a group with Sonny and I believe that he took the leadership role within the group. He was the most vocal, and the person who got others to speak their minds. I also think that my role within the group was that of a supporter. I was encouraging different members of our group whether their ideas were accepted by the group, or dismissed. I have always been afraid or nervous of working in groups during class because I usually don’t know any of people in my group, but working in a group with unfamiliar people is better because none of those people have a bias opinion about you. You can speak your mind without having to hear somebody else criticize your opinions or thoughts. In conclusion, I believe working in groups is an easy and efficient way to come up with well thought out, plausible solutions for many different situations that you might not be able to come up with on your own or with just one other person. These past two days have given me a more broad understanding of groups, and how to participate in one.