Group Process [Name of the Writer]
[Name of the Institution]

Group Process

During the video session, I have learned that a Group process involves individuals who are gathered together to focus and work on a mutual task in order to achieve the desired objectives. According to my research, there are four stages in a group process that leads to the ultimate goal. These are forming, which involves defining work tasks and designing plan to get it done. Second stage is storming, which involves resistance of group members to assigned task. Third stage is norming, which exhibits stableness, willingness to work as a team and address conflicts. Fourth stage is performing, which shows team’s understanding and approach to solving problems mutually (ftp://ftp.hrsa.gov, n.d.). In my opinion, group in the given video is exhibiting the characteristics of forming and storming stages. It is evident from the leadership techniques and dynamics used by the leader in a group that he is trying to form the group, establishing trust, striving to make everyone feel comfortable with each other, breaking ice, and creating a link between members from diverse background in order to achieve established goals. I believe leaders play a vital role in establishing and maintain the group. They must set examples and apply techniques to hold group together and work through conflict situation as the leaders shown in the video. In this video leaders have applied the strategy of dyads to initiate conversations among members in order to develop unity. It was also useful in maintaining the focus and concentration of members on their assigned task (Corey et al., 2006). Video has also focused on other techniques used are linking to create a bond or relationship among group members as the leaders made people from diverse cultural background to stick together in a group in order to make them realize the common problems and issues being faced by each one of them. I also reckon other techniques used were drawing in which members were encouraged to break ice, understand each other, share information about each other in order to form trust (Corey et al., 2006). The leaders shown in video exhibited a very practical approach in dealing groups from different cultural backgrounds by developing norms that encouraged everyone to speak to avoid conflict situations. I think leaders in the video exhibited a participative leadership style that allowed and encouraged participation from all members and responded to all emotional and official reactions of members effectively and spontaneously. All the group sessions showed were very organized and disciplined. I think this session was truly a lesson for everyone to lead in a effective style that hinder conflicts and appreciate participation, mutual understanding and teamwork. I believe the main challenge in a group must have been in the beginning of forming groups. That mainly required building relationships among group members, creating an environment of likeliness in the group, appreciating problems, addressing issues faced by people from different cultures, and most importantly establishing confidence and trust among group members on each other. These are the key issues addressed in the video and play an essential role in forming a group’s base, which actually leads to the ultimate success of group activities and goals. It was a fruitful video of group session that has helped me in learning about responsibility of a leader to lead a group and addressing their issues. It is certainly not an easy task. I think one must be able to strengthen the base of a group in the very beginning to avoid future problems. For that developing trust, confidence, unity, strong communication and comfortable environment are the critical ingredients.

References

Corey, G., Corey, M., & Haynes, R. (2006). Groups in action: Evolution and challenges. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.
. (n.d.). Stages of Group Process, Data Retrieved from ftp://ftp.hrsa.gov/hab/tgMod7Chap1.pdf at 1 November 2012.