Wednesday, May 9, 2012

On Groups and Leadership

Now I'm not saying that this was a problem that I had this semester; everything actually worked very well and went very smoothly.  But, just as a thought for other times teaching the class, it might be taken into consideration to have the groups (Prose, Criticism, Multimedia) select someone to put in charge in some loose sense.  Maybe some groups did this anyway, though mine didn't, and though we were fortunate enough to get the work done without any serious hangups I wonder how much more organized and efficient we could have worked with a more centralized authority.
This class is actually one of my rare experiences in which group work didn't result in (A) Someone being put in charge, (B) Someone rising up organically to take charge, or (C) Nothing getting done because everyone's running in different directions and not communicating well.

This semester was the exception, but just as something to consider if things aren't working as well in later semesters.  I realize it goes against some of the publishing models that we studied about, but I recall George Hitchcock making a compelling argument in favor of "dictatorships" in publishing.

1 comment:

  1. I agree group collaboration is always easier with a sense of leadership and direction even if it is only lose.

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