The Nature of Group Membership and Team Processes

ADLT 612 – Learning in Groups and Teams

Spring 2010

Agenda Reflective Practice: What and Why the

Blogs? Selection of Blog Buddies

What It Means to Become a Member of a Group

Brief Discussion of Readings

Teams Discuss Twelve Angry Men and Work on Team Charter for Group Paper

Early Struggles in the Life of a Group

Question: Does the individual exist for the group, or does the group exist to support the individual?

This bi-polar position fades only when members accept themselves as an entity capable of acting on behalf of its members,

AND When the group accepts the importance of its

individual members

FORMING

Judge: “It's now your duty to sit down and try to separate the facts from the fancy. One man is dead. Another man's life is at stake.. . However you decide, your verdict must be unanimous. …You're faced with a grave responsibility.”

Early Struggles in the Life of a Group

Identifying your Group Memberships

What groups are do you belong to, and how do these shape your identity

Consider family groups, work groups, social or religious groups, etc.

Our Collective Group Memberships Identify Who We Are as Individuals

Mental Maps

Joseph Sweeney

Lee J. Cobb

To become an effective group, members must integrate individual differences among members

Ladder of Inference

Take action base on belief

Adopt beliefs

Draw conclusions

Make assumptions

Add meanings

Select data

Observable data and experience

Impact of Group Maturity on Group Member Participation

Research on Group Process

Wilfred Bion (1961) found struggle and conflict at both the conscious and unconscious levels of group life. He describe groups as having three basic emotional states:

Dependency (leader)

Fight-flightPairing

Aspects of Collective Life in a Group

Terms Used by Smith and Berg

Paradoxes of Group Life, 1987

Rules Governing Theories-in-Use

Chris Argyris and Donald Schön

To remain in unilateral control

To maximize winning and minimize losing

To suppress negative feelings

To be as rational as possible – defining clear

objectives and evaluating whether they have

been achieved

Discussion of the Facts ?

Model II Behaviors

Provide data to support ideas

Invite inquiry

Open to rigorous testing of theories

Conflict can and does surface

Low defensive behavior

Test assumptions and inferences

Share all relevant information

Use specific examples and agree on what important

words mean

Explain your reasoning and intent

Combine advocacy and inquiry

Jointly design next steps and ways to test

disagreements

Discuss undiscussibles

Use a decision-making rule to generate commitment

Nine Ground Rules for Effective Groups

Individual Roles

A Group Effectiveness Model