In a group of seven, competing voices, opinions and visions can often interfere with productivity and success. While our group largely worked collaboratively and came to decisions together, the nature of my role, which involved being dependent on the work of others to get the site up and running, gave me the opportunity to assume more of a leadership position, ensuring that my colleagues were accomplishing their own tasks and meeting expectations.
Like many people, I am uncomfortable with confrontation, but I discovered strategies and developed the skills necessary to approach situations where I needed to hold others accountable with understanding, while also ensuring that I adequately communicated the changes in either output or quality that needed to be made. This included initiating conversations about deadlines and expectations, reminding members of their commitments, and following up when they were not met. It was challenging to take on this role with my peers, all of whom had many other commitments and other assignments that needed to be completed within the same timeframe as this project.
Overall, while my project management efforts did not resolve all of the issues we faced regarding important components of the work not being completed in a timely manner, I believe I was able to instil in my other project members an appreciation of the importance of being responsible not only to yourself, but also to the group as a whole. In this way, I was able to add a sense of order and structure to an otherwise self-driven project.
My specific role as the project member responsible for creating the website, as well as the role I took on as project manager and leader, helped me learn a range of effective communication and collaboration skills that I will be able to carry over to similar group work as I complete my university studies and, eventually, in my future career.