I would say that the biggest obstacle in projects is making sure everyone does their fair share of work. Disagreements can be solved through discussion, and more than likely a solution will arise. When individuals have a disagreement about the content of a project, it means both groups are contributing their ideas to the project's development. Discussion should be welcomed on a project team. Effective teamwork becomes clear when individuals are able to talk freely about their ideas and come up with a path towards a solution. When it comes to someone not contributing at all, it shows a lack of enthusiasm for a project, which creates unnecessary frustration. For a project manager, or a group leader, this can create a problem; how could a group leader solve issues related to someone not pulling their weight in a project? 

To answer the question on what the biggest challenge in teamwork is I would choose people not doing their share of the work. Members of a team disagreeing on ideas is bound to happen and personally I don't discourage it as it brings new things into perspective. Having members not contribute however can really hinder the entire project. If everyone has a role to complete and one person doesn't contribute ,whether that be because of their own decision not to act or some unforeseen circumstance, now the team has to pick up the extra responsibility. The extra responsibility that they might not have the skill or know how to complete the goal. I thankfully have yet to be apart of a situation where a team cant pick up the slack of an individual, but I'm sure in industry where everyone has their specific skill sets, not having a backup to fill the void of a members missing contribution can be detrimental to the entire project, maybe even leading to complete failure. The best thing I think a project manager can do to avoid situations like this is to try not to assign someone to a task that only they know how to do unless their reliability is somehow verified.

I believe that the biggest challenge overall in teamwork is people not doing their share of the work.  Although working with a team allows for different perspectives, it make it difficult when members are not contributing.  As someone who likes to do their work earlier, it has always been hard to work in groups, especially when people prefer to do their work the night it is due. There can be instances where team members do not agree on ideas, but there is always a way to incorporate everyones thoughts and suggestions into a project or evaluating as a group to decide which root to take. So overall, when an idea is not agreed upon at first, I believe that it can be resolved.  But working with others who do not contribute can cause more stress and an unfair workload for the members who are doing it. This ultimately can lead to frustration and animosity, effecting how the group works moving forward and can impact when they submit their assignment. 

Another component that comes with dealing with teamwork that is challenging is the possibility of there being unclear ownership for certain tasks. Even when people want to contribute, the project can still face challenging issues if no one in the team verifies certain pieces of the project are completed. As an example, everyone might think that someone is making sure that deliverables are finished, but some people might not know who makes the final decision. One person may finish their part perfectly, but if no one is held responsible for checking how the pieces work together, then small problems can be overlooked. A good team is not mainly one where everyone does the same amount of work; some tasks may require more time than others. The fairness should come based on if the responsibilities are clearly defined and if everyone is contributing to the outcome. In this case, do you think everyone should be doing the same quantity of work or is it all relative?

I agree that disagreements are bound to happen, but discussing different ideas and perspectives is often a positive. Although it is sometimes time consuming, finding a compromise is typically not that challenging, at least in my experience working in groups. However, sharing the workload has absolutely been something I have struggled with. It is incredibly difficult when team members do not pull their own weight. The main issue is when a project has several tasks that depend on one another. If the plan clearly shows that the next task cannot be started until a previous one is finished, and the individual assigned with that previous task is not giving their best effort, the rest of the team cannot move forward, which is very frustrating. The best thing to do when working in a team is to communicate very clearly on what everyone's expectations are from the beginning, assign specific tasks to certain people and clarify when those tasks are expected to be finished, and always set those deadlines as soon as possible, to give yourself some wiggle room or a "buffer" in case an issue like that does come up. While doing this cannot guarantee someone else will listen, in my experience, it has helped make those situations slightly easier. I also feel like quantity of work is not necessarily relevant - some tasks seem smaller, but are actually more complex. Each team member does not have to do the same "amount" of work, as long as they are putting in equal effort. For example, in my capstone project, one of my team members was working on molding 10 pieces of silicone, while I worked on a SolidWorks simulation. Her work produced ten tangible objects, while the work I was doing simultaneously only produced two outputs, however the simulation was very complicated to run, we needed the results before we could move on to the next step of our project, and it took me around the same amount of time to complete as it did for her to make the ten molds, so although she physically did "more," we considered the tasks evenly weighted. This is how I believe work should always be divided within a team - not by quantity, but by effort. 

Personally, working with teammates can be a great thing, yet also tough. Having a group that works together and communicates efficiently can make the team stronger and lead to more progress. On the other hand, having teammates who rely on others to carry the workload reflects poor work ethic. Teamwork is defined as a collaborative effort of a group of people working together to achieve a shared goal efficiently. Anything that isn't collaborative doesn't really count as teamwork. The same idea applies to the end goal. If there's no communication, or one person refuses to work toward a collaborative solution, then what's the point of teamwork? Teammates who don't collaborate well can show up in any group, whether at school or in a work setting. Some people can be stubborn, letting their ego get in the way and refusing to take advice. That kind of attitude tends to catch up with people once they're in the real workforce. I'd say a groupmate not doing their share of the work is the bigger challenge, since that's what has come up most in my own experiences working in groups.

I would agree that people not doing their share of the work is a major problem in teamwork in general, but I would argue that in the workplace, disagreement over ideas would be a larger problem. In the competitive engineering industry, consistently underdelivering on deliverables expected of you often results in discipline and firing, and as a result those who do so without providing good reason do not usually remain in the same job for long. However, often when two people disagree on how to proceed in a project, the project stagnates if both are unyielding and unwilling to compromise. I think the best way to settle these disputes when they occur would be to ask the project manager which side they would recommend doing. If the PM is one of those in the original disagreement, what they say should take precedence. Disagreements are a good opportunity to learn about how differently people approach the same task, and closely considering the ideas of all sides can help broaden your perspective on problem solving in the future.

Personally, I find one of the biggest challenges in teamwork to be communication. Through my own research experience, I have realized that communication makes everyone's life easier. For example, when I first started working in my lab I wasn’t really comfortable with the people and was unable to effectively communicate. As a result, I was left waiting around a lot in my projects without any clear direction. After I started getting involved and communicating more, I was able to learn a lot. For example, if I would start an experiment or follow a protocol I was now able to ask other undergraduate or PhD students in the lab for help and they were more than willing to offer their expertise. Eventually, I started working on some projects with those same students and our previous communication made it much easier. 

I think that effective communication can actually solve both problems mentioned above: disagreeing ideas between people and the problem of others not doing their work. Even if two people have very different ideas, talking through them can help team members understand the viewpoints of others. In this way, the ideas can be thoroughly discussed, any necessary changes or adjustments can be made, and a compromise can be reached. In addition, communicating who is doing what and documenting everybody's roles is a great way to ensure that everyone is doing their part. It’s true that some people are just lazy and don’t want to do their work, but others may be unable to complete the work because they aren’t fully sure of what they should be doing. Either way, clearly defining roles/tasks means that people can be held accountable if they are not working to their full potential.

From personal experience, another major conflict point that can be seen with teamwork is competing personalities. At times there can be certain members or subject matter experts that can be very straightforward or close-minded about how something can be done. Having strong opinions is not inherentley bad, especially when an SME has a lot of experience, but it can be a problem for team members to feel like their ideas are being dismissed.

A project manager plays an important role in this scenario where one has to communicate with different personalities and, at the same time, decide which feedback is constructive and valuable to a project. At times, not all feedback is constructive or valuable to the project. Not every comment or criticism should change the direction of the project just because it comes from someone with more experience. Although, at the same time, a leader should make sure everyone has the space to contribute with their ideas. A strong team should have a leader or project manager that separates technical feedback from preference and should make decisions for the benefit of the project.

I think the major challenge is creating a strategy when multiple project team members opinions do not align in. Unless the project is for school, each individual is apart of a project team for a specific function and providing individual contributions that simultaneously move the project forward. Whether it be project manager, scientist, regulatory affairs, or quality assurance, each of these roles determine their designated tasks based on their specialties. Therefore, lack of everyone "pulling their weight" isn't too much a concern, otherwise those project team members wouldn't have a job. The challenge of determining each members required contributions takes the most time since each collaborator sees the project and it's needs from a different lens of expertise. Typically each project has multiple reoccurring meetings just to talk through strategy and work required from each member to meet a specific endpoint.

If you have the opportunity to, for projects it is very beneficial to find people that you can work with to bring the idea to life. Teamwork is best projects not only because it provides an extra set of hands to work on the project, but also allows for more ideas to come out of the project and bounce of with each other. In my opinion a project is always at its best when it is not confined to a limited scope and continues to expand as people feel more and more inspired to see it flourish. The main thing that people should worry about when it comes to teamwork in projects is whether communication is going to be a problem or not. A poorly communicated team can completely derail a good project because of lack of time management, no focused vision, and just all around disinterest from other group members after arguments. Teamwork should be taken very serious for projects because it is not the same as working with your friends, it is about working with people you trust to get the work done and improved upon.  

People not doing their share of the work is infuriating. This is something that I can't stand in terms of projects. Doing work is the backbone of getting any project off the ground and up and running. Without work from a single member, a project can stall. If someone is unable to get work done, they should notify the team, communicate, and request assistance. That is all that they need to do to be a good teammate.

@pz98 I totally agree, I believe a person not contributing their share of their work is more problematic than a conflict of ideas. To answer your question of possible ways to get someone to contribute to their part of their project is to reach out to that person and ask them if they could do their part of the project and if they are dealing with any issues. If after all the efforts of trying to reach out to the person and they still do not make an effort to contribute then it is probably best to reach out to whoever is supervising the project, whether that is a professor or a manager, and see what they advise you to do. The unfortunate part is that you might have to still do his part of the project because I doubt the supervisor would say to leave that part blank but at least the person would feel inclined to contribute if their credit to the project is at risk. That is the only solution I can think of but how would you guys do it?