Team building and Collaboration

Over the past year or two I have worked in many different groups in working towards my masters. In the beginning I hated the group work because majority of the group didn't put forth much effort and the trust was not there. As time went on and I continued toward my degree, I begin to work closer with a select few group members due to being in each class together. As far as saying good byes or building relationships with group members outside of the classroom, I have actually gotten to know two previous classmates outside the classroom. I believe at times it is hard getting to know classmates outside the classroom due to it being an online sector. Here lately the groups have ended with well wished and good byes. It seems that each are thankful to see another class down and one step closer to the finish line. It would be nice to get to build relationships with classmates on the outside of class because many of the classmates have valuable information that I find interesting since I am coming into the field without any experience that most of my classmates have. I truly enjoy working along side my group members and learning from their advice, and experience. For this I believe that is what makes some group hard to leave. The trust is built and things run smoothly within the group. However, I have also had my share of groups where it was chaos and I couldn't wait for the semester to end. The forming stage had been bypassed and things headed for disaster from that point on. When working in groups I believe that the forming stage is so important!