Reflections on Chapter 10-Using Work Groups:Committees, Teams, and Boards from my textbook: Community Practice by Hardcastle & Powers (2004)

I first give credit to my Professor Dr. Itin. He taught me not to fear conflict in a group process and further helped me to understand that conflict is just part of the process and if handled well can help groups to be effective. I never tire learning how to handle various conflicts and in my text they provide case examples our how to deal with various situations or roles that are common in a group process.

I have had my fair share of conflicts gone bad and I have always tried to avoid conflict. I don't lean towards working alone when provided the choice and to me there is nothing better than a team that works well together. One reason is because I value the opportunities to learn from others and see the possibilities of bringing together different perspectives and ideas. Often others have thought of something I would never have thought of and this is what I really value. Yet, this whole process of needing structure, buy-in, respect, shared collaboration sometimes is just quite a challenge within a group. It takes a lot of courage to bring up issues that are tense in a group, for fear that the group will turn on the person who is trying to mediate.

So as dorky as this sounds I love this stuff--I would love to learn how to gain skills so that I could help in any group I am in so that cooperation and consensus flows well.

Hardcastle and powers write "How many times have you gone to a meeting and left with the feeling that it was a waste of time? Nothing was accomplished. When this happens, frequently it is because whoever was responsible for running the meeting did not think through the specific decisions to be made at the meeting or could not facilitate the decision-making process effectively." So all of you out there in the leadership roles--which will be many of my co-horts after we graduate from the MSW program at HSU--We need to get our act together! This statement hit home for me. And I hate to say this I have been in that leadership role and made mistakes. The good news is that I can learn skills to be effective in this role. Another point that Hardcastle and Powers bring up is that all members in a group process are responsible for helping the process to be effective. So even if you are not in the leadership role--you potentially have the power to help group process or harm group process.

It's good to understand the stages of group development. A good reference is from Tuckman 1965--who describes the stages as Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, & Adjournment. I learned this from my Professor Itin as well--These stages of development continue to be taught today. By learning about the stages it helps to see what is important to accomplish at each stage and can help with understanding why a group process is not working well--Maybe something was not accomplished at a particular stage.

On pages 286, Hardcastle & Powers (2004) three common group problems are discussed with a scenario--then they offer a study which evaluates whats happening and the assessment which identifies underlying issues. Then they offer several interventions and discuss the possible outcomes of each decision. I found this to be very helpful and I would recommend this section highly to all of my co-horts as well as to anyone interested in learning how to be an effective leader and strategies for intervention--even if you are not in a leadership role!

Here's to groups that work, here's to effective leadership, and may we never have to work in groups that we end up walking away with a feeling of wasting our time. If you do--ask yourself what you could have done differently.