Reflection on group work

This post is a reflective piece on the way I collaborated with the other members of my group, namely Fatima, Josh and Liam, in order to produce four infographics.

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the first two meetings and thus to contribute in the production of two out of four infographics. This was due to unpredictable problems, such as an illness and a cellphone dysfunction which unfortunately affected our communication. To be honest, however, had I been more eager to find out about the second meeting, I could have tried harder contacting the others instead of relying on the assumption that they will get in touch with me.

Of course, I was not feeling comfortable with having missed half of the group meetings and I knew I would have to make up for it. I met Fatima at that week’s seminar and we agreed one of the remaining infographics would be made just by me and Liam, who had also missed the last meeting. However, although I was glad we had both agreed to this as a way to make amends, it was at this point when the communication within the group was at its weakest. Having missed both of the meetings that far, I was not yet feeling comfortable enough to undertake this task on my own with Liam. I needed to attend a meeting with the entire group first, in order to get a grip on the process of producing an infographic. I tried to explain this to Fatima, but either I did not do it very successfully or she did not really agree with it. In any case, I ended up expecting we would have a group meeting whereas Fatima and Josh were expecting me and Liam to do the infographic by ourselves.

This problem was solved at the following week’s seminar, when my group and I had the chance to discuss about this in person. Then, we arranged we would meet the following Thursday and do both the group piece and the separate one. After all, this misunderstanding might have served as a short delay to the creation of the third chart, but it did not by any means disrupt the collaboration of the group.

During our last meeting, my group and I tried to focus on a subject relevant to the latest film we had watched at AMC, Unfriended. We thus decided to produce a piece about the found-footage genre. I had a suggestion of my own to which the group did not stick, but our final idea worked out fine, so we were all happy with the result.

What I found interesting about working with Liam on our own infographic is how useful cooperation can be to the conception of an idea. Whilst the main suggestion of doing a chart about super-heroes was mine, we both contributed equally to the final decision of the subject. We both helped to develop each other's thoughts and highlighted their flaws, jointly arriving to the final concept.

After that, all the infographics were complete. Nevertheless, I still felt the need to make amends for the meetings I missed, as I had only been in half of them. I therefore did one more chart on my own, as part of my final article on Matthew Vaughn’s filmography.

I finally feel quite satisfied with my contribution to producing the infographics, although some mild problems could have been avoided had I been more careful.