Identify your personal strengths and how they together can become your study group’s strengths.
How to do it
You will need the strength cards on the right. There are 14 cards with strengths and 4 blank ones. Each of you should have a set.
Individually
Look at the strength cards and sort them into:
- What you are good at/strengths others appreciate in you
- What you are good at, but which others may find irritating about you
- A strength you would like to develop
Use the blank cards if you feel you have a strength that is not mentioned. Write your strength on the blank card.
For each strength, try to jot down a few keywords about a typical situation where that strength was really good for collaboration or for solving a task. It does not have to be from a study group. It could also be from other times when you had to collaborate in a group, e.g. in a previous education, a job, or in your free time.
Talk together in the group
Discuss the strengths each of you has selected in the different categories. Talk about what these strengths mean for your group work.
- How can the strengths support group collaboration?
- What could be the downside of the strengths? When might it become difficult for you as a group? Give examples.
Alternative
Give each other strengths and explain why the person gets that strength. When is that strength really good for group collaboration? And also talk about what the downside might be for that strength.