Group Dynamics

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Over the years, I have had to do a ton of group projects. I hate them. To me, they are super pointless because in my experience, one or two members of the group end up doing all of the work while the other members just goof around the whole time. Or even worse, one member of the group gets all power hungry, bossy, and ends up telling everyone what to do and when to do it (nobody likes this person). The only time that groups actually work is when they go through Tuckman's 5 stages of group development. The stages go as follows: Stage 1 is forming where the group comes together and forms. Stage 2 is storming where the group has a little bit of conflict. This stage can be good because it causes the group to all get on the same page. Stage 3 is norming where the group finally comes together. Stage 4 is the performing stage and is not reached by all groups. This is the stage that I believe is vital to have a good quality group and in turn have a good, quality group project. The last stage is not that important, but it the stage of adjourning, which is just when the group parts.