Negative Group Process

A cornerstone for facilitators is to understand what happens to people in groups. To do this, we need to look both at what people set out to achieve, the task, as well as how they get along – the processes of group activity. People often behave quite differently in groups and teams from one-to-one settings. Some people become quiet, others turn into bullies or tormentors, some become jokers. For the facilitator who has to rely on others for getting the job done, this can be daunting. Why is it that a meeting feels electric one moment and awkward the next? Why do some people refuse to communicate while others do all the talking? It becomes easier to understand the process level if we take a practical example.

Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better

Overall, this group project went very well and was completed on time due to the fact there everyone including myself assigned ourselves with a task role, relational role and from the start had individual roles present such as leader, compromiser, and gatekeepers in the group that made it

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

Something that we learned as a group was that cooperation helps a lot. Certain tasks were accomplished faster and this showed us that one person does not have to do the entire project on their own. Procrastination is also detrimental, causing cramming on days before deadlines. This can be stressful and force meetings to be postponed. Our group has also learned to follow a set schedule. Following a schedule allows us to complete all of our work on time.

I always thought that working in groups meant one or two people doing all the work and the rest just goofing off. But in our group each individual had a specific task that they had to perform to make sure the group assignment got done. The group consisted of 9 people who are as followed; Christian Clark, Reilyenne Nahulu, Michel Rivera, Hunter Salavea-Timoteo, Kashalynn Vergara, Paola Guadalupe Gonzalez, Kobee Ledward, Bryje Ahia, and Jeremie Saludares. The analysis covers the importance of an interesting topic, preparation needed, roles I played, things that went well in our group, could've done better, and the two important things about group communication.

The last discouraging group experience I had was for the final group project in my audio technology class in my senior year of high school. We had to write, produce, and record two songs for an artist that we created. At the end of senior year, most high school students are not motivated to do anything. The members of my group did not really care about completing the project or the quality of the work we were doing. There were not really any group norms. We were expected to work on our tasks for whatever positions were assigned during the class period. There was a lot more deviance than conformity in the group. The members would sometimes not work on the group project during class time but on their own projects and homework for other classes.

The biggest dysfunction I have had with a team was during a research project for my SRA 211 class. The group consisted of four members. We managed to complete our project proposal without incident, but afterwards problems began to appear.

During my college life on campus in my major, I normally get a lot of group assignment to complete. In my second semester, I have been engaged with some hard working group members who willing to achieve their goals. In this case, all of us were on the same pace to complete the assignment and get it done on time to the best of our ability. In my communication class called editing and film, One of the projects was to film some athletes performing and write an article about the sport. There were five members in my group and we all work together and each individual gets a sign task to do and complete it without an issue. We get one week to perform the task and the follow Monday we would have to present it to the class, we have complete the work on time because we all work hard together as a team to get the job done

If you have a very negative environment or intense environment in our classroom kids don't learn as well as they do in a positive environment. Group projects allow students to work together with their peers and talk amongst themselves as one but do it while getting the knowledge and materials they need to learn. This causes the students to be less nervous when working with other and that makes the classroom they are in a more positive setting for them. I can speak from experience and I would rather work on a project with more than one person rather

The second “best practice” for group work is to look for the best in people. Refrain from going into the project with negative expectations of the assignment or members of the group. In addition, bar yourself from masking your own insecurities by pointing out faults in others. Look for and expect the best from every member of the group, including yourself. Ask yourself how what each person’s strengths are and what makes them a valuable contribution to the group (Hunter,

My initial response to our group project is that I thought we did well, especially given the fact that all four of us are very different people. Not only did we have very diverse interests and ideas, but we also had a slight language barrier in our group. I ultimately do not believe that this caused any harm to our group. The hardest part of the project may have been choosing a topic. Initially our choice was to do a response to the Koran. Although I would have enjoyed something that is intellectually stimulating and will continue to be debated, especially recently in the media, it was important that I took that off the table and suggested Cars instead.

Our group experience aligns with Bruce W Tuckman’s group development cycles. Tuckman’s first stage to group development is the forming stage, which members act cautiously with each other in order to understand the group's goal. Since group members were assigned at random, all members put in the effort to be cordial with each other. In the beginning, our group's climate was spontaneous. We had little to none primary tension as everyone was positive and encouraged each other to share their ideas for a product. When members were shy to put input in group decisions, I made sure to ask them for their opinion. For example, I noticed that I was contributing a lot of my ideas for possible products but group member Tony had yet to comment on his ideas.

The things I will have done differently in the group was to use my time wisely. I believe because we were on a time frame, I tended to rush things just to say okay where done. Also, more support and trust at a point of time I was kind of second guessing another idea. I feel that you have to have trust in your group member to make it effective.