When I applied to be in the LEAD with Honors cohort, I expected to have guidelines, structure, and design already planned out for us for our four year journey. While we do have some of that, such as our course structure, the way we govern ourselves was just messy and sloppy. Because of this course, however, we were able to answer questions that were all on our minds at our monthly meeting this past week. With that being said, had there been structure before we joined the cohort, we would have been able to have better group performance instead of wasting away all last semester on what our structure was going to be. Because of our sloppiness and indecisiveness last semester; this is most likely the direct reason we saw a decrease in membership by nearly 20%. As of now, we lost almost 30% of our original members, and the numbers are just going to keep dropping. It might be inevitable, or it might be something else that we need to discuss to make sure it doesn’t happen again for the future cohorts.
To maximize group performance, we will need to have someone just draw the line and take a vote on something, rather than bouncing around an idea for 45 minutes at each meeting. I know we want to have all our ideas on the table, but when we just keep brainstorming without deciding on what we want to do, it can drive a lot of attention away from our main focus during our meetings. We already have a leader during the meetings, but we need a monitor to make sure that we decide and come to a consensus instead of just leaving ideas in the wind and moving on to the next segment of the meeting. Also, there just seems to be a lack of interest among about half of the cohort, as some never contribute to the overall discussion and just choose to stay silent. That may be their personality, but personally, I would like it if we heard everyone’s ideas, instead of just staying silent and going with what the majority decides. This may be me playing devil’s advocate, but I feel as if it is necessary for our group discussion at our monthly meetings. Also, we seem to still be fuzzy on our group roles and assignments, and clear rules should be laid out accordingly to each position, so we know what to do to facilitate a better structure. Ineffective team meetings, role confusion, lack of interest and participation, and unresolved issues are all problems that we face in which we need to overcome to become an effective cohort.
For the next cohort, I’m glad that their structure will be a little different than ours, as their HON 1000 class will be a minimester. That would have been the best thing for us last semester, but there is no reason to dwell on past issues. The course structure for the next cohort is already better, and I feel as if they will probably have a better structure overall for both curricular and extracurricular purposes. We just need clear roles and effective team meetings in which I believe will enhance our group performance.
