Page 281 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

264 Chapter 10

TABLE 10.2 Steps in
the problem census 1. Group members sit in a semicircle facing a board or flip chart.
2. The leader (or person designated to conduct the census) explains the purpose
and procedures.
3. Members present problems one by one, in round-robin fashion, until all problems
have been presented.
4. The leader posts each item as the member presents it. The leader or members
can ask for clarification and elaboration but cannot argue. The problem
statement may be condensed so that it is concise enough to fit on the chart.
Chart pages are removed and fastened to the wall so that all items are visible.
5. Some questions may be easily answered then and there; if so, they are removed
from the list.
6. Members establish a priority order for the remaining items. Sometimes, members
have a sheet of 5 or 10 stickers to place on the items they think are most important.
All items remain on the list, but voting or attaching stickers prioritizes the list.
7. Each remaining item is dealt with in turn over the course of the group’s
deliberations. Often, a member will volunteer to do the legwork of preparing the
discussion guideline for a particular problem.

particular issues. A university department where one of us worked conducted, at its
annual pre-school year retreat, a problem census that developed into the department’s
agenda for the year. Faculty members first listed all the issues they thought should be
addressed and assigned themselves to research and present an outline of each problem
for eventual problem solving by the entire group.

Focus on the Problem After you have identified or been assigned problems to solve,
Problem Question
you must focus on the problem before jumping in to try to solve it. What would you
A question that
focuses the group’s think if you drove your car to a mechanic, who said, “You need new valves,” before
attention on the issue even looking under the hood? Focusing on the problem is the equivalent of looking
or problem; does not under the hood. Getting solution-minded too quickly is a common problem; writers
4
suggest any concerned with business groups have noted this tendency and the harm it can cause.
particular type of Questions to guide your analysis of a problem are presented in Table 10.3.
solution in the
question itself. State the Problem Appropriately One thing that will help prevent you from getting
solution-minded too quickly is stating the group’s problem in the form of a single, unam-
biguous problem question, which focuses on the issue or the goal. In contrast, a solution
Solution Question question implies or suggests the solution within the question itself. What if the university
A question in which registration staff had asked themselves, “How can we reduce the number of drop-adds?”
the solution to a instead of “How can we penalize students for dropping and adding during the quarter?”
problem is implied in The first, a problem question, leaves the door open for many different options, but the
the question itself. second channels group members’ thinking into only one option, penalizing drop-adds.
Examples of solution versus problem questions are shown in Table 10.4.

Map the Problem We describe mapping a problem in Appendix A. Group members
should take the time to share what each person knows about the issue or problem so
that if one person knows something, the others do as well. Mapping the issue tends to

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