Page 355 - Effective group discussion theory and practice by Adams, Katherine H. Brilhart, John K. Galanes, Gloria J

338 Chapter 12

The consultant does not need to be a paid professional—our students can and have
served as consultants to groups and organizations both on and off campus. By the time
you finish this chapter, you will know how to plan and conduct an observation of a group.
In this section, we describe the functions consultants perform, suggest strategies
for planning your consultation, and give you more examples of instruments that are
particularly useful for observing and consulting. We also remind you that the scales
and questionnaires already presented can be used by consultants, so don’t forget
about them when you put on your consultant hat.

Practice First
The best thing you can do to become an effective consultant is to practice. You need
to train your eyes and ears in what to observe and how best to gather the information
you need. There are many groups you can observe in their natural settings, such as
most meetings of boards, councils, and government committees. Many groups will
open their meetings to you if they know you are a student and you promise to main-
tain the confidentiality of the group’s private business.
Observing as part of a team will increase your learning. A team can take in more
than an individual can, and team members learn a lot from sharing and discussing
their individual insights. An observation team may be able to arrange a fishbowl
setup, with observers sitting in a circle outside the discussion group. Sometimes, all
observers will focus on the same aspects of group discussion, such as leadership shar-
ing; at other times, each member watches for and reports on a different phenomenon
(e.g., Martha observes leadership sharing, Xiuchen concentrates on how well the
group evaluates and uses information).
Consultants generally provide three functions for the groups they consult for: they
remind a group of techniques or principles of discussion it has overlooked, they teach a
group new procedures and techniques to improve the group’s performance, and they
critique a group’s performance. Sometimes, consultants do all three of these at once.

Reminding Often group members need only to be reminded of principles and tech-
niques they already know but have temporarily overlooked in the excitement of a lively
argument. A reminder is like a coach during pauses in a football game. Having a
reminder can improve a group’s decision quality. Schultz et al. trained certain group
members to serve as reminders, intervening whenever they observed symptoms of
6
defective group decision making. The reminders were instructed not to be aggressive
but to remind the group by providing timely questions and suggestions: “Maybe we
shouldn’t make our final choice until we’ve looked at all the alternatives.” Reminders,
particularly those who were regular group members and not the emergent leaders of
their groups, significantly affected decision quality.

Teaching Sometimes a consultant can be a helpful teacher by providing basic informa-
tion about small group processes. Many of the people who participate in groups of all
kinds have never studied small group communication and don’t know what is normal and
what isn’t. Just by taking a small group communication course, you are ahead of many
group leaders and managers who may have been thrown into a group with no training.

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