The trick in group work is to remember that you are doing two things at once. In a collaboration, you must not only talk about and work on the problem which the group faces, you must also talk about and work on how to talk about and work on the problem which the group faces. Robert F. Bales, a Harvard researcher on groups, has found that the most effective groups are those in which there is a balance between a.) building a sense of solidarity among members and b.) getting the group's task accomplished (Goleman). Robert Sternberg, a Yale psychologist, similarly, suggests that what he calls the "Group IQ" is a product not only of the sum of the group's intelligence but the sum of the group's social skills. Intelligence without social skills-or social skills without intelligence-handicap a group severely (Goleman). During the life of the group, you will need to alternate your perspective between that of a participant (in order to get the task done) and that of an observer (in order to get a sense of how well the group is working as a group).

Students who are inexperienced with group work too often believe that time spent discussing group organization, establishing a friendly cooperative spirit, re-integrating members who have strayed, and coordinating efforts is time wasted that would be better spent on accomplishing the apparent task at hand. While this may be the case in a very few extremely chatty and distractible groups, it more usually is not. Remember that meetings are rarely meant to accomplish work on the group's taskÑmost of that work will occur between meetings. Meetings are used primarily to define, initiate, and control the tasks that members will undertake between meetings. Thus, the success of a meeting can only rarely be judged on the basis of what "work" gets done while the group is together.

Students also often make the mistake of thinking that a "laissez faire" attitude will help the group to "evolve" naturally into a success-forgetting that another evolutionary possibility is extinction. Letting a group take what appears to be its natural course without trying to steer it or to create leadership, structure or methodÑis inviting disaster. Similarly, waiting for a ''born leader" to emerge within the group is dangerous. Two writers on group theory put it bluntly. "You are not born with group skills, nor do they magically appear when you need them. You have to learn them" (Johnson and Johnson, 21). The way to learn them, obviously, is by working in groups. But during that work, you will have to force yourselfÑand, on some occasions, force the group-into seemingly artificial behaviors. Any skill-playing the guitar, riding a bicycle-requires an initial investment of mental and physical energy, making us do things that do not come "naturally," over and over again until they do. And, of course, any time we do something that does not come "naturally," there will be a certain amount of tension and anxiety. Group work is no different.