Advantages And Disadvantages Of Teamwork

Many argue that working in groups is significantly beneficial, while others may argue that working in groups decreases productivity. Those who favor working with others possibly prefer this due to the fact that team effort comes with a diversity of minds, thus leading to multiple great thoughts. On the other hand, many may dislike working with others as they prefer a strict genre of ideas and enjoy learning on their own. Regardless, there are definite advantages and disadvantages that come with each. Advantages such as reducing the amount of time it takes to complete a task, learning through others’ thought processes, or even incorporating varying ideas. However, there are also numerous disadvantages that come with working as a group. Some of the most common are: dependency on others for help, an abundance of disagreement, a lack in contrasting thoughts, and elongating a simple task. Whichever it may be, working alone or with others depends primarily on how big and what exactly the task is. In most cases working as a group can increase productivity and has many benefits, while others include many disadvantages and set-backs.

Working with others introduces many advantages when it comes to completing a task to its best. To increase the project’s value, teamwork means there is a greater chance of hearing remarkable ideas. For example, during freshman year we were to design a coffee table that was stable, yet visually appealing. One of my teammates suggested that we make the legs cross each other at the center rather than the classical two parallel legs perpendicular to the ground. This idea was, in the end, far more stable than the alternative and thus, increased the amount of points we received on the project. Another advantage is reducing the amount of time we spent working on designing this table. We each split up the work: one person did the measuring while another did some research on what type of wood we should use, and so on. Instead of taking three months to complete the assignment, we got it done in just under three weeks! Another crucial reason working as a group may benefit those involved is because there is a greater diversity in the skill levels of each person in the team. Each with skills such as problem solving, artistic hands, or even speed. One scenario in particular where this happened was about five summers ago when my family and I went on vacation to a boat place. The competition was to see who could build the strongest boat, and ride it across the perimeter of the lake. My cousins, siblings, and I worked as a team to formulate a firm yet speedy boat that would help us in the competition. My cousin was great at paddling, meaning without him we wouldn’t have that extra skill to help us in the race. Lastly, whether it’s a skill, a talent or information, working as a team promotes learning from others. As we were working on the coffee table, for instance, those who were researching wood informed the rest of our group about the different kinds of wood that would be beneficial to the type of table we were making and the various thicknesses of wood that would be best. In addition, These are just a few of the many advantages but the list is endless.

While there are numerous advantages that come with working as a group, there also comes an abundance of disadvantages. A major con is that there is often little to no unanimous agreement when making decisions. To be specific, when working with a group for a podcast in speech class last year, the four individuals in my group each suggested different stories to do, creating a dispute. This could then lead to elongating the length needed to complete recording the podcast. On top of that, there is the possibility that only one individual from the group does all the work, making it far easier to avoid work. Now, there is a notable contrast between a single person doing all the work because they don’t want to work with their team and a single person doing all the work because their team doesn’t want to work with them. In my introduction to engineering class, for example, we were to make a puzzle out of legos. Instead of allowing others to share ideas and give their opinions, one of our group members went on creating the puzzle, leaving little to no explanations about what we should do or how the team could help. Ultimately, working together introduces scheduling conflicts. In other words, each of the members in the group may have conflicting times in terms of when they should meet. To cite a specific example, when we were designing our coffee table, we would meet through zoom. Each of us had different meeting times that would work for us. Moreover, if only a single person was working on the project, this would not be a problem. Working solo allows for freedom and pushes you to solve your own problems rather than relying on others for answers. It also 

To sum up, “teamwork makes the dream work” may be true in certain cases, whereas in others not so much. Whether working as a group is in your advantage or not depends entirely on the immensity of the task. Larger tasks may require team effort whereas smaller tasks may be best to work solo on. To recap, a few of the main advantages are that there is an increased variety of ideas, reduced time needed to complete the task, you have a greater diversity of skills and working as a team promotes learning from others. On the other hand, working as a group can also mean there is unequal distribution of work, promote dependency on others, and may introduce conflicting schedule times. Essentially, working with a team is inevitable, meaning at some point everyone will have to work with others to complete a task. More importantly, when working with others, you should always contribute the very best of your abilities.