Page 235 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

218 Chapter 8

Helping Individuals Grow Effective leaders help develop the members’ leadership
skills, including the members’ abilities to assess the group’s throughput processes and
suggest appropriate changes. Here are several suggestions:

1. Encourage members to assess the group’s processes and make suggestions.
Outstanding teams periodically assess themselves.
Sometimes, just asking, “How are we doing?” can prompt growth. Build
self-assessment into the group’s processes. For instance, a short evaluation can
end each meeting: “How well do you think our meeting went today?” and “How
might we make our next meeting more productive?” The answer to the second
question led the church board in Chapter 3 to rearrange its agenda so that “new
business” would be discussed early in the meeting before group members
became tired and uncreative.
Another suggestion might be to designate someone as a process observer to
watch the interactions and share observations with the group as a whole. Rotate
the job of process observer among members so that everyone gets practice
observing and assessing or bring outside consultants in to evaluate the group
and offer suggestions for improvement.
2. Model the behavior that you want others to adopt.
As designated leader, model group-centered, thoughtful, responsible behavior.
Your own behavior does a lot to promote teamwork and develop the trust
needed for collaboration. Encourage others to evaluate your suggestions, and
react open-mindedly and nondefensively to others’ criticisms.
3. Give members practice at performing needed group duties.
Suggest ways for group members to serve the needs of the group. For instance,
rotate the job of recorder so that several members get practice. Give members
the chance to report on their areas of expertise to the group and to perform
special tasks for the group. Let members substitute for you as discussion leader
or liaison to other groups. Don’t jump in right away when you see that the group
needs something; give the other members a chance to respond before you do.
A particularly striking example of this occurred during a Community Report
Card group meeting. The Recreation and Leisure Subcommittee resubmitted its sec-
tion without fixing the problems that the rest of the committee identified. Instead of
expecting Maureen to play bad cop, several members of the committee called the
subcommittee members to task and explained why their revision was still unaccept-
able. The message was more compelling because it came from the subcommittee’s
peers rather than the group leader.

Establishing and Maintaining Trust True collaboration (literally, “working together”)
is possible only when members trust each other and is fundamental to working with
diversity (see Chapter 4). Larson and LaFasto found four components of trust: hon-
esty (no lies, no exaggerations), openness (a combination of open-mindedness and
willingness to share), consistency (predictability, dependability), and respect (treating
others with fairness and dignity). 25

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