The Value of Collaboration
in Environmental Field Research

Introduction:

All of you have had experience working in groups. Some of these experiences may have been less than optimal and we urge you to use this course to give it another shot with an open mind. There are some practical aspects and some reasons why we think the performance of a collaborative group will be better than any single individual's performance.

Practical reasons:

coverage - A group of people working in a coordinated manner can cover more territory or sample more times.

safety - It is always a good idea to have a partner when you are working in the field, whether that is on a boat, hiking in rough terrain or surveying urban environments.

teamwork - Many tasks are just simpler when one person holds the instrument and the other person records the data.

Because of these authentic practical reasons, it is worth the extra effort to coordinate a group approach.

 

Performance:

People in groups may contain two types of diversity, instrumental preferences and value preferences.

Different preferences for what people value is a problem for political negotiation. This requires a lot of work. The groups in this class have already decided that increased biodiversity is important, and it's just a matter of addressing how to promote more biodiversity within the parks and greenspaces that we have.

Instrumental preference diversity is when people, who agree that addressing a problem is valuable, bring different ideas about how to solve that problem to the table. This is extremely valuable and can be accomodated with some simiple group processes skills (see below).

According to Page (2007) in his book "The Difference", diverse functional groups will beat a single very smart individual almost all the time. The reason is the the wealth of experience and different approaches in a small group of good people far exceeds the experience and know-how of a single brilliant person. The key is to be able to bring out that benefit of the group.

The creativity and skills repertoire that is available in groups is crucial in difficult situations, such as the "wicked" problems we discussed in class.

 

Skills and processes that help bring out the benefits of groups

This is a very simple list of guidelines.

1) Everybody contributes. Each person needs to be prepared and have something to say.

2) Be patient. There is no rush. It is better to take some time to discuss the problem and possible alternatives. You're much better off doing the right thing than doing just any thing.

3) Be polite, civil and respectful. The people in your group don't need to be your friends. If one of the group is a friend, treat them the same during the core meeting times. Be on your best behavior. It is not the responsibility of the other people in the groups to put up with your emotional baggage, bad habits, personal issues, etc.

4) Be inclusive. Allow time to let everybody contribute.

5) Be present. Focus on the task at hand with your group. Get that done and then move on. If your group discussion only has to be 5 minutes, make it quick. Then go back to your distractions or tasks. Just try sequential multi-tasking in a group.

 

The "free rider" problem

It's a fact of life that there are slackers and lazy people. Sometimes a student just doesn't want to engage in the particular project.

Don't worry about whether everybody is contributing 100%. In the case of class projects, there is no limit to the number of A's or F's that can be awarded. So it is possible that someone who didn't deserve an A on the project gets one, that won't keep you from getting an A.

For the class, each of you will be asked to comment on the contribution of your team-mates which will be taken into account for the project grade.

In general, this is a simple iterative problem. Slackers end up as the last choice in groups the second time around. In a one-term course like this, that may not have any impact.

References

Page, S. E. (2007). The Difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies. Princeton, Princeton University Press.