My Group Project Rant

Group projects are dreaded by many A-seeking, hard working college students. Invariably there’s at least one member that you simply never hear from, another who does the bare minimum, often there’s one that just doesn’t understand the assignment and turns in work that’s unusable and then there’s the team leader who, because good grades are important to him or her, ends up doing the bulk of the work herself, or with the help of one other like-minded team member. Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about these group assignments is that they really don’t teach people how to work in groups in a work environment. That appears to be the point, but the concept falls short in many ways.

For some, getting a “C” and coasting through college putting in the bare minimum of effort is fine; they’ll still get the same degree with all “C” as they would with all “A”s. In a work environment a team member can try to coast through, but his performance is not tied to a grade letter, it’s tied to a performance evaluation, raises and even continued employment; and continued employment means paying your bills. So while there are “slackers” in a work setting, the rewards and punishments for poor work are completely different. If anything, group assignments in college teach bad behaviors, primarily that if one doesn’t put forth any real effort, someone else likely will and you’ll still get a good grade. I would argue that it even pulls down the “A” students and makes them question whether putting forth the effort so that others can coast through is worth it or fair. It’s de-motivating and demoralizing, and teaches not cohesive group behavior, but that the only person you can count on is yourself.

In a school environment there is no “boss” and the only recourse the other team members have are peer evaluations, if they’re even used. Some people realize early on that if they don’t do the work others will. Different things motivate different people, and a good manager understands and capitalizes on that, in a work environment. He also understands that some people work very well in a team environment, and others don’t; successful managers know their people. So if there’s anything to be learned from group assignments in college, perhaps it’s that team projects don’t always work out the way they should, and sometimes people get left behind, and that’s ok. You reap what you sow.

Good to Great - on a global scale

The world is getting smaller every day as technology brings us closer together, gives us the ability to communicate better and makes international travel easier than ever before. However, as the world gets smaller we have come to depend upon, and we affect, each other more – as our recent worldwide recession has shown us. No longer is each country encapsulated and insulated from what’s happening in the rest of the world; it’s become clear that we’re all in this together. OK, so where do we go from here? Is it even plausible that we might work together as an international community? Perhaps, but where do we start?

The concept of one currency, on the surface, seems to have great appeal and many benefits, but a single currency is an end result, not a starting point. Before a single currency can even be considered we have to look at why it wouldn’t work and remedy those issues. One of the biggest problems is that some countries are very poor while others are very rich. There is a huge disparity between our countries – let’s start there. Let’s build teams of people from around the world to help poor nations build infrastructures which would ensure clean drinking water, irrigation, electricity and sewage. Build schools, working with locals to preserve their heritage while teaching their youth skills that they can use to get their families out of poverty.

The funding to bring third-world nations into the 21st century would come from contributions from the world’s richer countries. Each country would also be able to hire people onto this international team, so that no one nation is controlling, or paying for, these efforts. If the world is going to strive towards being an international community, first we must ensure that we all share the same basic standard of living. This will take us many years to accomplish and will likely start off with a lot of quarreling over who will do what, how much it will cost and perhaps even overcoming resistance from countries that may not want their quality of living improved to our standards. One very important point to consider as we begin this endeavor is that it’s for the benefit of the world as a whole and that there is no hidden agenda. Perhaps a portion of the military budgets for the world’s countries could be channeled to this effort.

Let’s say, for example, that the world as a whole were to come to a crisis – like an alien invasion – it’s highly probable that we, as a world, would come together and present a united front against a global enemy. So why can’t we work together now? Perhaps the answer is that we’re not threatened and have no crystal clear common goal. So let’s task the United Nations with determining just what our common goals are; to determine the best course of action for our world as a whole, because surely there are several. We’ll solicit the advice of top minds from around the world on topics from the global economy to health and wellness to agriculture and far beyond.

As Jim Collins in his book Good to Great suggest, we need to confront “the brutal facts, yet never lose faith” (Collins, 2001). If we look at the world as a large corporation that has various profit centers, or silos, that sometimes compete, perhaps it’ll make this process seem a bit more manageable. As the global community becomes goal oriented in the same direction, issues like trade and capital flows, exchange rates and international disagreements will begin to lose effect.

There has to be a happy medium that we can all agree to, a basic standard of living and level of tolerance that will work for us all, because in the end regardless of religion, color, heritage, political views and agendas we’re all human, we all share the same Earth and we all have the same basic needs for food, shelter and security. A determined melding of technologies, research, resources and finances could have limitless potential for good for all of humankind. As a world we should improve education, and perhaps offer incentives for students to attend colleges in other countries and learn other languages, and through that education break down some of the barriers related to misunderstandings or intolerance to other cultures.

It seems that the world is slowly coming to this conclusion, but is it fast enough? Will we learn our lesson from this global recession and make determined steps towards ensuring that it doesn’t happen again? Let’s hope so. And eventually, through much trial and tribulation, perhaps the world can also move from Good to Great.

Blogs

I read one of the most raw and heartbreaking blogs the other day. It was so beautifully written and so overwhelmingly pained that I found myself reading it several times. The author had closed comments, although honestly I'd not have known what to tell her anyways. I don't know her and I forget now how I even came across her blog in the first place, but she touched me. Today I followed up to find that things are better in her world, and again I am touched and happy for her - a total stranger.

A few weeks ago I was talking with a young friend who wanted to start her own blog. One of the reasons she cited was basically to be part of something bigger than herself. She mentioned a blogger who had suffered some great tragedy and of the blogging community that sprang into action to help her. She was fascinated and wanted to be part of that culture.

I wonder if that blogger was NieNie. Nie was in a terrible private plane crash with her husband about a year and a half ago. She suffered burns over 80% of her body and spent several months in a coma. She is blogging again about her incredible journey and the four children she and her husband have. Her blog is also heartbreaking and very raw.

It's incredible how people we haven't met, and likely never will meet, can touch our lives. Some in passing and others in deep and lasting ways.

This just the beginning my friends, 10 years ago we didn't have blogs or facebook or Twitter. Where will we be in 10 more years?

Who were you in high school?

About a year ago a friend asked me, completely out of the blue, what social groups I hung out with in high school. I never did ask him where in the world that question came from. He likely doesn't even remember at this point, but that question has plagued me since then. Well actually not that question - but more along the lines of who I was in high school and whether I've changed all that much. And further, if we're all just stuck in the same rut we started digging back then.

Well let's see... who was I in high school? Nobody. No really, you could probably poll everyone in my graduating class and not one of them would remember who I was.

Little known fact about me - I'm shy and often feel socially awkward. I am a total geek. I was in high school as well. Now that I'm older I am likely the most outgoing, gregarious shy and socially awkward person you'll ever meet. Often my attempts at small talk or what comes out of my mouth when I feel under pressure to say something, anything are pretty pathetic.

What else? I have always had an overwhelming need to be cool. Or more precisely for others to think I'm cool. Well I wasn't cool in high school and I'm really not cool now. I daydream about riding my motorcycle to work or anywhere really. I did own a bike, but sold it three years ago. Frankly I hadn't ridden it for a long time before that either.

I didn't have many friends in high school. This was at least partly because I had an abusive boyfriend who strongly discouraged me from having friends. I don't have many friends now either, despite my 121 friend count on Facebook. Perhaps that's why I'm fascinated with social networking, and before that with online gaming, and before that online chatting and role-playing. I now "know" people from around the world from all different places. Most of these people I've never met in person, but I know them from gaming or the breast cancer survivor group. Some I know from work, others I went to high school with, there are a few I just have picked up along the way - not really sure how, and I'm even friends with one of my husband's ex-girlfriends.

I really want people to like me, but I - ok this is going to sound pathetic - have been rebuffed and/or rejected so many times that I can be hard to get to know. Poor, sad little me, eh?

I liked to write in high school and I still do - so that's the same. I don't write trivial romance stuff anymore though. That's probably a good thing!

So, am I the same person today that I was in high school? Do we really ever grow up? No and yes. Despite the fact that I still exhibit many of the same characteristics I did in high school, I have come a long way. There's an awareness that comes maturing. I think the cancer had a lot to do with who I am today. So did my divorce many moons ago. These were big, life changing events - the kind that force you to grow up or go home, if you know what I mean. I imagine that I'll be different in another 10 or 20 years; look back and think how silly I was.

Maybe our core personality remains about the same, but we figure out ways around or through self-imposed limitations like being shy or fearing rejection.

Gosh, when I think about how often I mulled this over it seemed like such a big deal, but now that I've written it out... it just seems sort of silly actually.

So then what happened?

So here I was, feeling all proud of myself.

Mature.

Hello, my name is Wendy. I just turned 39 and I am mature. (Go me! - LOL)

I reviewed my life, determined that I was happy with who I am and let someone back into my world who I was never quite good enough for - my ex-husband. He flew in, befriended me on Facebook and had a few one-sided conversations with me and then...

BAM

He's gone.

His posts on my Facebook page

gone

His profile

gone

This has really left me feeling very conflicted.

Did the girlfriend say x-nay on the x-wifay?

Was Facebook just not for him?

Does he not have the courtesy to say good-bye?

Was I once again lacking in some undefined way?

Was he disappointed to find me happy, hearty and actually able to talk to him as an equal about more than one topic?

Am I just petty or too sensitive? Yeah, maybe.

Maybe he'll sweep back in one day and I'll get to feel all mature again and can ask him.

Until then I childishly feel like I wasted some of my maturity on him - LOL.

But it begs the question- do we secretly hope that once a relationship ends the other party ends up sad, desolate, alone and miserable; cursing the day they let you go? And if we cross paths with them at some later date are we proud to be happy and perhaps quietly disappointed to find that they are too?

So I guess this is just another piece in my social networking series, and further proof that blogging helps you get stuff off of your chest so you can move on.