A comment worth pulling up and out
Jim Benson just posted a comment to an earlier blog post that is related to a draft post I'm working on. So I want to pull it out and make it more visible. Full Circle Online Interaction Blog: Is this true or do our cultural norms make it common?: "A few things about groups...
You can't have them without individuals, so any treatment of group dynamics, results, or cohesion is entirely based on how our brains want to organize things.
A group changes the individuals that interact with it. When your various chemistries - philosophical, rational, communicative - come into contact with others, you create a new one .. that of the group.
When you put a carrot in a stew and pull it out later to eat it, you still call it a carrot, but its interaction with the herbs, meat, broth, and other vegetables have changed it.
You can still pull it out and call it a carrot. But it is a changed carrot.
Groups form usually for a purpose, schisms form when the individuals in the group have different interpretations of that purpose or when that purpose starts to lose cohesion.
Individuals exist ... but they usually don't have a personal mission statement and disband when that mission statement is fulfilled.
I've spent a lot of time thinking about how individuals and groups differ. I've come to the conclusion that groups are not like Transformers which take a bunch of little robots and snap them together to be a big huge robot. Rather, they seem more like lego or playdough, where a bunch of individuals can gather to create almost anything. And, lots of times, you'll want to disassemble or mash up that thing and try again. "
posted by Nancy White at 7:33 PM
2 Comments:
Heh, we both blogged each other on the same day.
http://ourfounder.typepad.com/leblog/2006/10/choconancy_hold.html
I love group dynamics; I really do!
Jim is correct that a group is nothing but a set of individuals. In fact, it's important to keep that in mind when participating in a group activity, especially a work-oriented activity. In my experience of work groups in profit and non-profit contexts answering the following questions is key for success.
1. What is the primary task of the group? It could be to have tea and chat, or to build software, or ....
2. How will the labor and authority be divided and accounted for?
3. How will decisions be reached when there is disagreement?
Successful group work requires a rational, scientific approach to tasks and accountability. Personal chemistry and civil behavior also make successful outcomes more likely and more fun. And, as Jim mentions, well functioning groups form and dissolve as need and desire change.
P.S. I have met people who do have personal, individual missions.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home