The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
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Start By Sitting Together
W HEN I have to work with other people, I try to imagine us
sitting together with a deck of cards. My impulse is always to put all
my cards on the table, face up, and to say to the group, “OK, what
can we collectively make of this hand?”
Being able to work well in a group is a vital and necessary skill in
both the work world and in families. As a way to teach this, I’d always
put my students into teams to work on projects.
Over the years, improving group dynamics became a bit of an
obsession for me. On the first day of each semester, I’d break my class
into about a dozen four-person groups. Then, on the second day of class,
I’d give them a one-page handout I’d written titled “Tips for Working
Successfully in a Group.” We’d go over it, line by line. Some students
found my tips to be beneath them. They rolled their eyes. They assumed
they knew how to play well with others: They had learned it in
kindergarten. They didn’t need my rudimentary little pointers.
But the most self-aware students embraced the advice. They
sensed that I was trying to teach them the fundamentals. It was a little
like Coach Graham coming to practice without a football. Among my
tips:
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