Every group goes through predictable stages, although not every group completes them all. Progression through the stages can be enhanced and encouraged through particular activities. Pseudocommunity/Forming Stage:
This stage includes forming an atmosphere of safety and acceptance and avoiding controversy, differences, and disagreements. Individuality, intimacy, and honesty disappear as people act as if they have the same beliefs, understandings, and life histories. Activities associated with this stage include: Ice-Breakers, De-Inhibitizers/Energizers & Ceremonies/Creating a Group Commons Chaos/Storming Stage: The phase of chaos occurs once conflict and competition comes out.
This struggle is noisy, uncreative, and unconstructive unlike healthy conflict that occurs in genuine community. Activities associated with this stage include: Trust-Building & Group Initiatives Emptiness/Norming Stage: Despite the connotations, emptiness is a positive stage meant for rebirth.
During this process, other members of the community must listen as individuals share their weaknesses without feeling the need to offer advice or pretend as if they were not speaking. This stage includes cohesion, sharing, trust-building, creativity and skill acquisition. Activities associated with this stage include: Self-Reflections, Trust-Building, & Group Initiatives Genuine Community/ Performing Stage: As a genuine community, the group itself becomes its own contemplative entity that is larger than the sum of the individuals. It is self-aware and examines itself.
Genuine communities are tied to a type of emptiness and vulnerability that proves immensely difficult and often impossible to sustain. Within a genuine community exists a freedom to be wholly accepted and acceptable for being ourselves. Activities associated with this stage include: Social Responsibility Adjourning, Transforming, and Mourning Stage The final stage of group formation revolves around the completion of the group. Activities associated with this stage include: Closing These ideas stem from a combination of:
Stages of Group Development (Bruce Tuckman) & Stages of Community-Making (Scott Peck)
0 Comments
I aim to support the development of individuals through using group structures. My goal is to create and facilitate conditions that allow members of short-term intentional communities to internalize the feelings and positive effects of belonging after the community has dissolved.
I structure my programs based on the idea that a sense of belonging exists on a spectrum, where the more conditions that are met, the more one feels belonging. For example, the ability to be vulnerable and have a shared emotional connection can take place within a group of people through commitment and the belief that members have shared and will share history, common place, time together, and similar experiences. I use these conditions to create communities centered on the shared interest of self and group explorations, instead of a pre-existed shared group identity or passion, such as religion or political views. the basis of our communities is an interest in human connection.
We often forget the variations that exist within our self and the complexity of our identities. One concept of self we explore in the Authentic Reflections program includes the 3 categories:
In the second half of the program we integrate these 3 identity types and bring forth our group identity. Within these identity categories, there are also 3 components of representation:
These components of representations do not necessarily correlate with the amount of time individuals spend with each other, but rather speak to the quality of time within relationships. |
AuthorVrindy Spencer is constantly seeking inspiration on topics of personal and human development, leadership, community, connection, and intimacy (with self and others). Archives
April 2017
Categories
All
|