Anyone who went to a public high school knows what a nightmare group projects are. Those projects tended to show exactly what kind of person you were. The perfectionist was the one who had to have everything go exactly right, and would invariably take over the entire project. The slacker was the one who would do the minimal amount of work and let the other people in the group pick up his slack. The others were the followers, who took the parts that the perfectionist assigned.
Working in a university organization or a real job is the same kind of scenario. The only difference is that in student organizations, people are not being forced to work together, and at a job people are given a choice of working there. Anyone can join a student club or organization. When you have a large group of people trying to work together for a common purpose, things are bound to go wrong. Personalities clash, tempers flare and this causes problems. Egos are punctured or they crowd out the other people in the room. A large amount of the everyday stress we all experience is just a result of a difficult and tense work environment.
Working together is such a big part of what we do. Being constantly at each other’s throats distracts us from our purpose as a student organization. There are several steps to improve your bond with your co-workers.
The first step is to get rid of the cliques. This is not high school. Back there it was fine to create a tight group and so establish your comfort zone. Now it excludes people and creates friction within your club. A clique generally nurtures the attitude of “us vs. them.” This is not an attitude that says “teamwork and cooperation.”
The next step is to have group outings that have nothing to do with the organization. Getting away from the causes of the stress helps melt some of the friction that exists between individuals who tend to work at cross-purposes. Meeting at a neutral location to relax and have fun actually gets people to open up, and so the transfer of ideas becomes a lot smoother.
Another step is to have meetings regularly with everyone in the organization. Micro-management is one way of fixing an organization that has been slacking and stalling. Having regular meetings gets everyone familiar with the other people in the organization and with what they do. Knowing where to go for help with any aspect of the organization ultimately helps the organization as a whole.
Organizations are like the group projects of our grammar school experience. We might moan and groan about participating, but there’s one thing to remember. An organization is completely voluntary. No one is being forced to join. Attitudes and egos need to be put aside to create a fully functional, smoothly run organization.