The Risky Shift Phenomena and YOU

During our group's singular two-hour work session the night before our presentation on appropriate creativity in the workplace, I learned a lot. I don't want to understate anything, but working in the collaborative environment really brought to light many of the group work ideas that were presented to us a little over a month ago in class.

Our group definitely profited from what was described in class as the Risky Shift Phenomena. Certain groups had already presented, and we were collectively intimidated by the quality of their presentation (great job, Pitch group!). As a result, we knew we had to come up with something big, so we brainstormed what a great class activity would be, with the stipulation that it was not power point centric. Even though it may have spawned as one person's idea, each person contributed with the ideas we would need to work out, potential kinks in the plan, time constraint issues, and the like. For each aspect of our presentation, from the form, to the specific ideas we would present, as a group we collectively decided on the best idea. When there were competing ideas, we were able to settle on a majority vote, which since everyone had a stake in it, we all were more committed to the final decision that was reached.

Unfortunately, since it was the first occasion of spending significant time together working on the project, we had to spend a lot of time in the norming and storming phases. We had to work out little kinks in our group work patterns, and evaluate which methods would be most effective and time efficient. As a result, we spent quite a bit longer on the project than our original plan, but that was okay.

All in all, the quiet members and the loud members were each able to contribute because we were often doing four different things at once and making sure to include everyone's ideas for their part of the different requirements (annotations, outline, making valid references to each interviewee scattered throughout the assignment). We also had enough flexibility to make things fun with a really creative class activity. When the group was finally adjourned, I found myself comfortable with the idea of working with these fine folks in another group setting, or taking my talents elsewhere and contributing to other group work in other aspects of my life.