Group dynamics are essential for the successful completion of your teamwork assessment. Group dynamics refer to how people behave in a group, and how they adhere to the ‘norms’ that are considered acceptable standards of conduct within the group.
A team with positive group dynamics is one where team members feel safe, satisfied, respected and understood. A positive group dynamic promotes creativity and productivity, leading to the successful completion of the assessment task.
However, a negative group dynamic can be disruptive for your task outcomes, and are often connected to miscommunication and a sense of distrust among team members.
Understanding group dynamics in teams
Many variables contribute to a positive group dynamic. To create a positive group dynamic, you need to firstly understand what roles and behaviours are connected to positive and negative group dynamics.
The compromiser: A team-member who adopts this behaviour or dynamic usually helps the group to reach an agreement when there are opposing views.
The gatekeeper: This describes the actions of a team member who works to create an effective and productive flow of information in group discussions.
The harmoniser: This relates to those behaviours that work to reduce interpersonal conflict by focussing on what is positive and constructive about the different team members’ contributions.
The social supporter: This positive team dynamic occurs when a team member encourages others to continue working hard towards their individual and common goals.
Watch the video below for a demonstration of how these different roles can affect team dynamics in practice. This video was produced in partnership with Monash University students.
The attacker: This is a negative behaviour in which the team-member aggressively disapproves of other members’ contributions.
The attention seeker: Their actions work to distract other members, and can be interpreted as not taking the discussion seriously. This negative dynamic is known for trying to shift the focus of discussions to themselves, disrupting the flow of information and, thus, impeding decision-making.
The dominator: They tend to talk too much and often over other people, interrupting and/or patronising other members. This makes other members feel like their contributions are undervalued.
The non-participator: As the name indicates, when a team-member adopts this group dynamic, they do not actively contribute to finding solutions for issues, and/or discourage other members.
Diversity and inclusion in teams
You’ll find great diversity while studying at university. Diversity exists across many dimensions: educational, cultural and linguistic background, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality, age, ability or disability and so on. All of these aspects influence how people communicate with each other.
Being inclusive is key to ensuring a supportive environment for all team members. This involves acknowledging and valuing the diverse backgrounds and experiences of all team members.
Here are six principles to help you and your team keep an inclusive and positive group environment:
If you don’t understand what a team-mate says or how they behave, avoid judging them. Instead, try to find out more about them. They might need your help or additional support from the University.
Don’t wait until things go wrong. If you identify an issue that might be impeding communication within the team, address it respectfully and directly with the person or people involved.
Remember that how you prefer to communicate might differ from others. There is no single right way to communicate with other people. Try to respond to your team members in ways that work for them. For example, be mindful and open to a change of plans in how the team works (e.g. task/role distribution, deadlines), so that you can adapt easily and without unnecessary stress.
Avoid language that expresses or implies ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or denigrating to any particular group of people. Here are some other strategies to be more inclusive in your communication:
avoid gendered language such as referring to a group of people as “guys”. Instead, you should use words such as “everyone” or “everybody”
avoid ableist language such as referring to things as “crazy”
avoid using in-jokes, references to specific TV shows, colloquialisms or metaphorical language. If you do, try to explain what you mean in clear and concise language.
Try to understand or feel what your team-mates might be experiencing from their perspective, so that you can help each other during your group project. Develop your capacity to place yourself in another's position.
Consider the impact of your behaviour on others as well as on yourself. Ask yourself: Is there something I can do differently in order to help my team achieve our goals?
Watch the video below for a demonstration of how to apply these principles during teamwork to foster diversity and inclusion. This video was produced in partnership with Monash University students.
Providing feedback
Providing and receiving feedback are essential skills to creating a supportive group dynamic and achieving your group’s goals. Here are some recommendations to guide how you and your team-mates can provide constructive feedback to each other:
From the outset, aim to establish an open and trusting relationship with all members of the group. Acknowledge that there will be times when you will disagree with each other’s ideas, but that this is a natural element of group work.
When giving constructive feedback, it’s important to distinguish a person from their actions, so it doesn’t feel like a personal attack. Focus on the issue at hand without making broader claims about who they are.
For example, you could say to your team-mate: “I’ve noticed some spelling errors in your part of a report. Moving forward, please allocate enough time to proofread your work”, instead of “Your writing was poor with too many errors. You just don’t pay enough attention to the details”.
Avoid making your own conclusions about a team-mate’s actions until you’ve had a chance to hear what they have to say. Bring up issues as you observe them, and give your team-mate the opportunity to explain their point of view.
You want your team-mates to know that you recognise every member’s individual abilities and potential. When you provide constructive feedback, tell your team-mate what was good about their work on top of outlining to them that what you think needs to be changed or further improved.
When you tell a team-mate that their work needs improvement, give them details of what exactly is lacking, and if you can, suggest how it might be fixed.
For example, you could say something like “Peter, the structure of your part of the presentation is strong, but it’s still missing some key information on…You could add an extra slide to address these points”.
Delivering (and receiving) constructive feedback is often better face-to-face, whether that be in person or online. In contrast, feedback via such technologies as email, instant messenger, or text message, is often open to misinterpretation, because vocal tone, body language, and emotional inflection (such as showing humour or concern) are often missing. Also, during face-to-face conversations people can ask questions to clarify points or actions right away, thus lessening the possibility of misunderstandings.
Make giving and receiving feedback a regular part of your group work. This will ensure that you as a team have a clear understanding of how team members should behave to meet expectations and complete the task.
Don’t wait too long to give your team-mates feedback on their work, especially when it comes to a specific subtask. You want the feedback to be fresh in both their minds and yours, so that the conversation will be relevant and actionable.
Watch the video below for a demonstration of how to use these communication approaches in practice. This video was produced in partnership with Monash University students.