community and bush environments - seminar 7 - stages of community
DESCRIPTION
A look at Peck's stages of community and Tuckman and Jensen's model of group developmentTRANSCRIPT
HUMOV1003 Community and Bush Environments
Seminar sevenStages of community
Parker Palmer on C.• We were created in and for a complex ecology of
community• Community is a gift - not a product• First you must create a capacity for connectedness as
an individual. • Community stems from contemplation - deepest forms
of contemplation arise out of failure, suffering, loss.• Community is “That place where the person you least
want to live with, always lives” and “When they move away, someone else rises to take their place” !!!!
Parker Palmer on C.• Community often suffers the romantic image of the
“Garden of Eden”
• Community is about creating “pockets of possibility” within larger organisations.
• Leadership within community requires authority - and you can’t take it … it is given.
• Community assumes people are resourceful - leaders/facilitators call upon that resourcefulness and resist being pushed/drawn/forced into traditional leadership (power) roles.
• Community is about suffering … which happens while you wait for the possibilities in others to become reality
Community concepts
Community is essentially about being a part of a group where: People can be themselves without fear of being judged or condemned by others
People are committed to work together and although conflicts occur they are resolved without big dramas.
Forgiveness runs freely.
People’s strengths are respected and utilised for the good of the group. People’s weaknesses are shared, understood, and accepted.
You feel safe to try (and possibly fail) new things.
People are welcome to participate in the group - it is not just a little club for people who feel the same way.
Peck’s stages of community
Pseudocommunity
Chaos
Emptiness
Community
Pseudocommunity
• People may pretend to be vulnerable - but it is all unreal
• There is no such thing as instant community• Conflict avoidance is the key feature of this stage• Minimisation, lack of acknowledgment, or ignoring of
individual differences. • Key is not to offend, annoy or irritate anyone - and
when people make you feel that way: ignore it, pretend your not bothered, and change the subject (good hostess behaviour)
Chaos
• Usually well intentioned but misguided attempts to heal or convert …. “everything would be much better if only you were more like me!”
• People resist change which gets the H&C working even harder. • Individual differences are no longer ignored, they are “out”, but
the group attempts to obliterate them. • Unconstructive, noisy, uncreative … not a lot of fun.• Leader often gets a good serve too !• Tempting to escape into “organisation” - it is a solution to the
chaos problem but it will not lead to “true community”.• Fighting is far better than pretending you are not divided. It is
painful …. But it is a beginning.
Emptiness
• Not an attractive solution to chaos• People empty themselves of barriers to communication - feelings,
assumptions, ideas, motives - self protection mechanisms that we have been developing very successfully for years.
• Expectations and Preconceptions• Prejudices (conscious and subconscious.)• Ideology• The need to heal, convert, fix, or solve (motive is often
questionable)• Need to control• Once people start to empty themselves …. They become receptive
to others and ….. They can enter the last stage ….
Community
• Soft quietness descends• Where to from here depends on task? - may be to
simply experience C and benefit from the healing?• Always community building first - problem solving
second• May slip back into chaos - need to work back through
stages. • Emotions range from: joyful, loving, to sadness & grief• Energy level is almost supernatural (sometimes
sexual?)- things going on in a spiritual level
Community is “That place where the person you least want to live with, always lives” and “When they move away, someone else
rises to take their place” !!!!
Model of group development
The most well known is Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) model of:
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Mourning/adjourning
11
1st Stage of Group Development
Forming is characterised by the
discomforts, concerns, feelings,
and doubts members experience in
a new group
2nd Stage of Group Development
Storming participants begin to
meet the needs of the group, to
question authority, and to feel more
comfortable about themselves and
their relationships
3rd Stage of Group Development
Norming involves members
addressing appropriate and
necessary standards of behaviour
though which a greater sense of
order prevails
4th Stage of Group Development
Performing finds the group
concentrating on tasks at hand with
mutual support and interaction
among group members evident as
well
5th Stage of Group Development
Adjourning provides closure of the
task, including the imminent end of
relationships
Effective VS Ineffective Groups
GoalsCommunication
LeadershipParticipation
Decision makingConflict
Problem solving adequacy
Effective Groups
• Individual goals matched with group goals
• Goals are cooperatively structured
Ineffective Groups
Goals
• Imposed • Competitively
structured
Communication
• Two way
• Open
• One way• Ideas only• Feelings
suppressed or ignored
Effective Groups
Ineffective Groups
Leadership
• Shared
• Based on ability and information
• Based on authority
• Obedience to authority the rule
Ineffective Groups
Effective Groups
Participation
• Equal emphasis for all members
• Emphasis on achieving goals and group maintenance
• unequal• High authority
members dominate
Effective Groups
Ineffective Groups
Decision Making
• Match situation
• Consensus sought for important decisions
• Made by highest authority
• Little group discussion or involvement
Ineffective Groups
Effective Groups
Conflict
• Seen in positive light
• Used to increase quality of decisions
• Ignored• Denied• Avoided• Suppressed
Effective Groups
Ineffective Groups
Problem Solving Adequacy
• High• Work together
• Low• Not solved as
a group
Ineffective Groups
Effective Groups