Forming Groups
April 19th, 2009 by Christine KnottIt has been quite amazing and rewarding to watch a group of people previously unknown to each other build relationships over a 7 week period. Similarities were drawn to the Big Brother House on many occasions! Without doubt I feel extremely privileged to have watched the journey progress and relationships form and strengthen. With such diversity in the group, age, background, culture, previous experience, hobbies, lifestyle, - to put it simply an extremely colourful tapestry many may have concluded it would take time to form a cohesive group. On the contrary – throughout my lifetime I have never seen a group bond so well. I feel confident that apart from forging strong personal friendships it has also formed a special team culture with values that extend well into one of total support for colleagues. That is so important for any working team especially when they will be working remotely. I thought about Bruce Tuckman’s 1965 Forming Storming Norming Performing team-development model and did some more research on the web about group formation. here is a link to Tuckman’s work http://www.businessballs.com/tuckmanformingstormingnormingperforming.htmIt makes reference to teams and leadership and though I can see some similarities, this group is very different to anything I have ever witnessed before. Respect for each other was always present and though some individuals clearly fitted into ‘family member’ roles I never experienced any battle for supremacy or ‘pole position’. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has any additional information on group formation. Perhaps members of this group can shed light on why it became a strong unit so quickly and maintained its strength with out any signs of cracks over a 7 week period!
April 20th, 2009 at 11:21 am
Christine,
After reading the latest blog you have got me thinking about why it is that we have formed such strong friendships in a very short amount of time!
After much consideration, I feel it is all down to ’soul food’!
During our first week it was one of the first ideas put forward to us, was taken on board and used more than maybe what it should have been! (inside and outside of business hours!)
This was a new concept for me, I gave compliments but never praised other people repeatedly. By taking on this idea, like many of us did I feel that we became more comfortable around each other and our guards dropped so much quicker than they would normally.
Obviously(!!) there would have been more factors in it, but I feel the skills we learnt on the first week enabled us to really get to know each other and appreciate different members of the group.
I will be keen to keep in touch with everyone in the coming months and I really do wish them the best of luck!
April 26th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Thanks Michaela, I think you make a good point, ‘Soul Food’ is literally ‘priceless’. It costs nothing but makes both the sender and the receiver feel great. For those wondering soul food is delivering positive feedback. It’s so easy to look for positives and they can be found in any situation.
May 14th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Christine,
I too have been carefully considering this and I think its down to the fact that we all have way to much to say!!!
I also think a big factor was because we all lived in very close proximity for 7 weeks and it was a cases of forge strong relationships or sit and eat alone every night!
In all seriousness, I can’t give a reason why we all get on so well and are all so adiment to keep in touch, however I couldn’t be happier that it worked out that way! What I do know though is that every great team has great leaders and each and every one of us is completely indebted to you for giving us this oppertuninty and teaching us everything we know!
May 21st, 2009 at 11:12 am
If only other webmasters would do what you have done and build a really worthwhile site on the subject. Most of them load the pages with junk, but this is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.
May 26th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Thanks Natasha
This is lovely feedback. I think you may be correct, the fact everyone spent the time together socially as well as in a working evironment helped to forge some very strong relationships. Everyone was dependent on each other for support in all areas. Having said that, the relationships forged with Richard, Faisal and Tim was equally strong and they spent less time in a social environment with the rest of the team. That could dispel that idea any thoughts?
Christine
May 26th, 2009 at 10:48 am
Thank you artisticheks.com for your comment.
Our initial aim was to use our blog to transfer ideas and thoughts, so I’m delighted that you have found that to be the case. I have just taken a look at your product which is delightful. I was unsure what it would be when I saw your domain. In the UK we spell checks as ‘cheques’, so I wasn’t expecting to see what I did!
Check in the UK means to ‘examine’. Here is the site should anyone like to take a look at artisticchecks product, does anyone know if we have anything like this in the UK? http://www.artistic-checks.net/
The power of words is amazing and should never be underestimated. On the communication courses Beyond The Box delivers we cover the area of words and their use. With such international business opportunities and multi cultured workforces here in the UK we need to be ever more mindful of the different meanings of words. Something as simply spelt as the word to, too, two can cause confusion if written incorrectly or used in the wrong context. In addition there are many words in the English language that are spelt the same yet have different meanings, example: right as in correct, and right as in opposite to left. Does anyone have any that are particularly confusing?
When communicating with someone whose first language is not English I endevour to think more carefully about the words I use and clarify that the person on the receiving end has understood. It can help to avoid confusion and misunderstanding!