Importance of Effective Group Work in Professional Life

This critical reflection explores the importance of effective group work in professional life and how it contributes to skill development and college success. The author reflects on their own experience in a group project, highlighting the challenges faced and the lessons learned. The reflection emphasizes the benefits of group work, such as increased productivity and the development of interpersonal and teamwork skills. It also discusses the key components of effective group work, including rapport building and effective communication. The reflection concludes with an action plan for improving communication skills and learning from professionals' experiences.

Running head: CRITICAL REFLECTION
CRITICAL REFLECTION
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Introduction:
Several quotes are found to be extremely helpful while explaining the concept of group
work. “Two heads are better than one”, “the more the merrier” as well as “more hands make for
the lighter work”. Group work helps individual students in developing a host of skills that are
increasingly essential in the professional world (Brandler & Roman, 2015). Studies have opined
that positive group work has been helpful in contributing to different modes of student learning
as well as retention and even overall college success. It has been found that group works that are
properly structured can help in reinforcing skills that are relevant for both group as well as
individual work. This is seen to include the development of the abilities like breaking complex
tasks into parts as well as steps, planning and managing of time, refining the understanding
through discussion as well as explanation. It also helps in developing ability about how to give
and receive constructive feedback on performances, changing assumptions as well as developing
stronger communication skills (Brown, 2017). In the first months of my academic career in the
university, I got the scope of participating in group work. I will critically reflect on the
incidences through the help of Gibbs cycle so as to identify my strengths and weakness while
working in group work and also critically the experience so as to gain a deeper insight on the
importance of effective group work in professional life.
Description:
In the beginning of the semester, we were allocated group projects where we had to make
our own teams of five members and accordingly work together to submit the project within the
deadline. We were not aware of the others in the team and it was really awkward in the first days
to interact with each other. However, as days passed on we started talking with each other but

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were failing to work as a team altogether. It was becoming very difficult to plan up the project as
no one was ready to come to unanimous decisions. Every time, either one or the other was not
ready to accept the suggestions and everyone was putting their own suggestions. Therefore, the
project was gradually getting delayed. Many of the members even did not attend many of the
group decisions stating inappropriate excuses. One of the members was found to be highly
criticizing and used to discourage everyone about their opinions and suggestions. There was no
proper planning and communication about the actions that each would take to complete the
projects. Therefore, when we met again, we found that many of the works were duplicated as
more than one person has done the same work whereas other sets of work had remained
untouched. Finally, blame games started and I left the meeting in disappointment and anger.
Finally, one of them volunteered to be the team leader by herself. She had a very strong
personality and also had good management skills. She devised effective plans and lead the group
effectively. She called for meetings where she asked for feedbacks from everyone giving equal
scope to everyone. She often planned for informal outings to films, amusements parks and
dinners that helped in developing bonds. She started a social media group where we could
communicate with each other regarding any concerns. Finally we were ready with the work that
was beautifully done and hence the presentation went well. The professors were very happy and
these entire months taught me a lot about important of group work.
Feeling:
Initially, I was quite upset and dissatisfied with the performance of the team. I was trying
to cooperate with all but all was in vain. There were huge number of conflicts among the
members and no one was ready to accept each other’s views. This made me quite stressed as
anxious as the final date of submission was arriving. However, I felt relieved when one of the

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members decided to lead the team and with her innovative ways, she was able to overcome all
barriers successfully. This helped me in overcoming my fear as everything was falling in place
and the members had started to work in a collaborative manner.
Evaluation:
The bad part of the incident was that it initially had created huge stress and anxiety within
me for which I was quite tensed. Although, I was trying my level best to accommodate with all
the demands of the team members and collaborating with them, it was not bring out positive
outcomes. However, the good part was that we rectified our mistakes and shortcomings at the
knick of our time and the team leader helped us in managing the group project successfully.
When I evaluated each and every of the incidences everyday while working in the team, I
realized that there are many benefits that one can get from working in groups. Firstly, group
work helps in increasing productivity as well as performance. Studies opine that groups that
work together can achieve much more than individuals working on their own (Abdullah, 2016).
It is also found that a broader range of skill sets can be successfully applied in group work and
sharing and discussing ideas can help in playing pivotal role in deepening and understanding of
particular subject areas (Chen et al., 2017). Secondly, I also realized that effective group work
helps in developing many skills. Studies suggest that being a part of the team help individuals in
developing interpersonal skills such as speaking as well as listening to music and even team-
working skills like that of leadership, working with others and motivating others (Vogler et al.,
2018)). Many other skills are found to be useful throughout the academic career and all are
valued by employers. Third, I realized that from participating in group work, one can also know
more about himself or herself. Researchers are of the opinion when individuals collaborate with
others, they can identify their own strengths as well as weakness (Fenech et al., 2018). It also

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helps in enhancing self-awareness and this helps in developing a better approach to learning and
also contributes to better emotional intelligence (Gokhale, 2018).
Analysis:
A number of important aspects had been found to be intricately associated with effective
group work. One of the most important aspects is development of rapport. Individuals need to
develop rapport with each other so as to ensure smooth group work. Rapport building ensures
effective relationship development. It also helps in developing mutual trust among each other
that contributes to development of strong bonds (Steckler et al., 2016). Groups where each of the
members share strong bonds with each other can help each other by sharing their burden and
redistributing workloads (Chen et al., 2017). Individuals who share such bonds are seen to result
in higher productivity. Moreover, strong bonds among the team members ensure each of the
members to learn about the commonalities each share and the differences as well and therefore
the chances of conflicts among the team members reduce (Collins et al., 2016). It was seen that
within our team, there was rapport among each other’s and no one shared string bonds with each
other. Neither anyone trusted each other nor was anyone aware of the likings and disliking
among the others (Levi, 2015). All these were initially making the group work fail miserably.
Therefore, when the team leader arranged for different informal meetings, it helped the embers to
develop rapport and communicate with each other. This helped them in developing friendships
and helped in ensuring relationship development.
Another important component for effective group work is effective communication. Both
verbal and non-verbal communication skills can help in development of relationship among
members. When members of the teams show empathy and compassion towards each other,

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rapport development becomes much easier. Moreover, each of the members participating in the
group work needs to have active listening skills (Abdullah, 2016). Impatient listening skills
affect the morale of the opposite listener affecting his feedback giving action making him feel
that their suggestions are not respected. In addition to impatient listening skills, improper
feedback giving and receiving skills might also affect teamwork (Brown, 2017). When
individuals are allowed to give constructive feedback, they feel that their suggestions are
respected and this increases the dedication of the individuals towards the group work. Initially,
the members of the team had no proper communication skills. They were impatient listeners and
also did not allow the scope of constructive feedback from each other. Hence, the members did
not want to work together and hence the project was delivered. No proper medium of
communication was present among the members and communication was also limited. Hence,
when the team leader advised the members about the importance of active listening skills and
constructive feedback exchange attributes, no such issues were found to be present. Moreover,
the development of social media group acted as excellent communication medium and this
helped individuals to develop not only good rapport but also discussed about the needs of the
project.
Conclusion
When opportunities of group projects would come once again, the most important part
that needs to be incorporated is proper rapport development sessions between the members. The
members need to be given the opportunities to develop relationships by developing strong bonds
with each other, mutually trusting each other. Effective communication needs to be present
between members as it is one important aspect of relationship building (Levi, 2015). This would
not only prevent misunderstanding but would also help in ensuring sharing of work burden and

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prevention of burn outs in team-works. Better feedback exchange skills and active listening skills
would reduce conflicts as well as blame games and this would help in ensuring quality work
within deadlines.
Action plan:
In order to develop my communication skills and effective group-working attributes, I
would attend workshops which are held by eminent mentors who are quite experienced in the
professional world. Their guidance would help me to recognize my weakness and work on them
extensively so that they do not act as barriers while I am working in groups (Gokhale, 2018).
Moreover, I can also collect evidence based papers as well as search different internet articles
which would help me to learn techniques of working in groups that lead to success. I can also
interview professionals and learn from their experiences about their strategies of successfully
conducting group works.

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References:
Abdullah, A. (2016). Group work activities for improving speaking skills. English Education
Journal, 7(3), 389-401.
Brandler, S., & Roman, C. P. (2015). Group work: Skills and strategies for effective
interventions. Routledge.
Brown, A. (2017). Groupwork. Routledge.
Chen, M. W., & Rybak, C. (2017). Group leadership skills: Interpersonal process in group
counseling and therapy. SAGE Publications.
Collins, R. H., Sibthorp, J., & Gookin, J. (2016). Developing ill-structured problem-solving skills
through wilderness education. Journal of Experiential Education, 39(2), 179-195.
Fenech, C., Azzopardi, J., Klein, R., Reutter, G., Kronika, H., Karakitsaki, C., ... & Možina, E.
(2018). Work Based Basic Skills.
Gokhale, A. (2018). Guided Online Group Discussion Enhances Student Critical Thinking
Skills. International Journal on E-Learning, 17(2), 157-173.

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Levi, D. (2015). Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.
Steckler, N. A., Rawlins, D. B., Williamson, P. R., & Suchman, A. L. (2016, December).
Preparing to lead change: An innovative curriculum integrating theory, group skills and
authentic presence. In Healthcare (Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 247-251). Elsevier.
Vogler, J. S., Thompson, P., Davis, D. W., Mayfield, B. E., Finley, P. M., & Yasseri, D. (2018).
The hard work of soft skills: augmenting the project-based learning experience with
interdisciplinary teamwork. Instructional Science, 46(3), 457-488.