Have a group project coming up? Learn essential ways to make sure everyone does their part, learns the material, and gets the grade they want.

In college, you’ll have many opportunities to work in groups, be they natural study groups or assigned classroom project groups. The benefit of working in groups is that you can tap into other group member’s strengths, access a wider knowledge base for brainstorming or creative content, and share the work that goes into a big project. These are important opportunities to be a part of, since a vast majority of your work in your chosen career will probably be done collaboratively.

But there are potential negatives about working in groups that can definitely dampen your enthusiasm. Few things are worse than someone not turning in their portion of an assignment, so you scramble to do it and get it in on time, only to find out that they get the same group grade that you do. Or when you gather together to brainstorm and one person is on their phone most of the time offering nothing.

When group members act this way, it can really make your job harder, causing frustration and resentment among the rest of your group and diminishing everyone’s productivity—not to mention your grades.

Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to discourage this sort of behaviour and to make sure everyone comes out happy! Here are some ways you can be proactive and make your group work successful.

1. Create Clear Goals

Before you dive into your assignment, devote some time to deciding what your goals are. You may be surprised, but not everyone in your group is going to have the same goal. Your goal is not just your grade, but other things you want to achieve or gain, such as information or processes that you hope to learn.

Settling on your goals gives you a North Star to aim for and makes it easier to assess what’s working and what’s not throughout the process.

Method:

• Hold an initial team meeting where you can all concentrate on laying out the project.
• List out your goals in SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time Bound) on a goal sheet.
• Test your goals. If your goal is for everyone to get an A, see if it passes the test. Is it specific? Yes. Measurable? Yes. Achievable? Maybe. Relevant? Maybe. Time bound? Yes.

2. Form Realistic Guidelines

Guidelines decide how work will to be divided—who will do what and when to complete tasks. In order to set up consistent guidelines, it’s imperative that they be clear. That way, there is no room for misunderstanding expectations. When creating guidelines, take each person’s other commitments into account, like work schedule, family demands, etc. A full calendar for someone doesn’t mean that they get less to do, though. Knowing will just help you find a way to make it all work.

Method:

• At your initial meeting, decide who will run point on making sure things are turned in on time and compiled correctly.
• Set time frames for rough drafts a few days before the deadline, since there are always revisions.
• Record these and make sure each person has a copy.
• Keep #1 in mind! Do these guidelines help you all to achieve your goals?

3. Communicate Actively

One of the most frustrating things when working on a project is when someone else missed their deadline and won’t answer texts, emails, or calls, leaving the rest of you in a lurch. Everyone is human, and sometimes there are things that come up, but being honest up front goes a long way toward building character.

Communication also helps you keep track of your progress toward your desired goals. It’s hard to get a good grade if no one knows what other group members are working on.

Method:

• At your initial meeting, agree on active communication with team members.
• Decide the best way to communicate with each other. Is it by group text? Facebook? Reply-all email? Having one communication channel makes it easier to expect responses from everyone.
• Set up something like a Dropbox or a Google Drive folder so you can all access the assignment and add your parts without depending on anyone else.
• If you can’t complete an assigned task within the set time frame, be transparent about it. Communicate!

4. Focus on Collaboration vs. Compromise

With multiple people come multiple personalities, which can lead to issues before you even get out of the gate. Imagine brainstorming during the creative phase, and you and someone else both champion your own ideas. The tension escalates. Egos take over. It gets personal. Before you know it, words are said that can’t be taken back, casting a pall over the entire process.

Hopefully that’s just a worst-case scenario, but the gentle art of collaboration means that you all need to give the best of yourselves toward your mutual goal. Compromise is when you both give something up in order to make things tolerable, which may not result in the desired outcome.

Method:

• Remove personality as far from the issue as possible.
• Realize that it is not a person being rejected but an idea.
• Resolve tough issues by majority vote or, if there’s a tie, pick ideas out of a hat.

5. Follow Through with Consequences

It might not be the most fun, but you might need to have a discussion about consequences if members aren’t pulling their weight. Discussing consequences ahead of time can actually put everyone on a level playing field and cut down on feelings of guilt when they need to be enforced. It also removes any feelings of being personally attacked right out of the equation.

Method:

• Group consequences might depend on how your assignment is graded.
• If you self-report participation to the teacher, you might have to email him or her to discuss any issues you might be having with certain members. Your teacher will likely have a course of action in mind for adjusting grades.
• If your group gets one overall grade, discuss infractions up front and talk to the teacher as a group—with ALL of you present.

The point of working in groups is to benefit from open collaboration and shared work with other individuals. It can help you to see multiple perspectives on a topic, which is valuable for critical thinking and deeper understanding.

If everyone isn’t on the same page, it can muddy the waters and make things difficult for the whole group. There is a giant learning opportunity to be gained by being proactive, encouraging honest effort from all group members, and holding others and yourself accountable.

Be sure to also check out our infographic on getting better grades through study groups!

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