INI 223 S

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INI 223 S

• Jan 22, 2004
• Introduction to Group Work and Meeting
  Participation

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Why Work in a Team?

• Group work is inherent in environmental studies
• Interpersonal skills and team work experience
  essential for most environmental jobs

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Group Work Basics

• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning
• (B. Tuckman, 1965, Developmental Sequence in
  small Groups, Psychol Bull. 63, 384-99.)

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Forming

• Get to know each other your background,
  interests, strengths and abilities
• Set ground rules for group work, for example
• No interruptions of meetings for phone calls
• Start and finish on time
• Only one person talks at any one time
• All are encouraged to contribute no sarcasm or
  insults
• Agree on method of decision-making, etc.
• (from Elwyn, G., T Greenhalgh and F. Macfarlane,
  2001. Groups A guide to small group work in
  healtcare, management, education and research,
  Radcliffe Medical Press, U.K.)

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Storming

• Discuss personal and collective goals, and
  individual constraints
• Conflict arises as individuals establish roles
• Who will do what when?
• Different disciplines make different assumptions
  about methodology
• Different group members may have different values
• Best to air potential conflicts early in group
  process
• How will decisions be made (consensus/voting)?
• Where and how often will the group meet?

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Norming

• Work as a team to expand areas of shared values
  and assumptions relating to subject of group work
  (share readings, discuss them and try to
  understand others perspectives)
• Get help if necessary to clarify group goals and
  objectives in a way that all can accept
• Establish framework of goals, objectives,
  deadlines, tasks and individual responsibilities
  to ensure work is shared evenly and schedule is
  reasonable (build in slack time in case of
  emergencies)

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Performing

• Meet regularly to ensure that deadlines are met
  and individual work fits into group framework
• Perform agreed roles (facilitator, recorder,
  liaison)
• Record agreements and work plan and review them
  regularly
• Acknowledge conflict, when it exists and try to
  resolve it openly
• Get help when you need it

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Common problems in teams

• Free riders
• Inappropriate behaviour by team member(s)
• Hidden agendas

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Adjourning

• Complete work
• Review workplan
• Evaluate process
• Analyze what went well and what didnt
• Figure out how to do better next time!

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Recording and Participating in Meetings

• Different kinds of meetings achieve different
  goals
• Sharing information
• Soliciting opinion
• Making decisions
• Developing plans for future actions
• Reviewing past actions
• Any combination of the above

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Decision Making Styles

• Consensus
• Voting
• Mixed Voting when Consensus fails

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Consensus

• Advantages of Consensus
• Inclusive, get best decisions that all can
  respect, informal
• Disadvantages
• Slow, sometimes impossible, or may get poor
  compromises some individuals may dominate others

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Voting

• Advantages of Voting
• Quick, clear
• Disadvantages
• Formal, and minority views ignored
•  
• Mixed advantages of both

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Meeting Agenda

•  
• Should include
• Who will chair, who will record and who is
  invited
• Time and place and duration
• Topics for discussion

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Agenda Can Include

• Who is responsible for introducing each
• Time to be devoted to each
• Often includes review of action items from last
  meeting
• Usually includes review of minutes of last
  meeting
• Often includes review of agenda
• Usually includes scheduling of following meeting

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Meeting Minutes

• Should be clear and unambiguous
• Must include
• Date, time and location of meeting
• Who attended and their roles
• Who was absent
• Decisions made
• Action items agreed on and who will be
  responsible, as well as the deadline 

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Meeting Minutes

• Discussion should be reported, and the nature of
  the discussion, and contested topics mentioned -
  this can be brief or more detailed, depending on
  the purpose of the meeting
• (review purposes of meeting and discuss how
  minutes would reflect them)
• Date time and place of next meeting need to be
  reported

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Meeting Participant Roles

• Facilitator or Chair
• Recorder
• Participant (Active or Passive)

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Facilitator

• Carries overall responsibility for the meeting
• Focuses discussion of the purpose of the meeting
• Follows agenda, and keeps to time line
• Ensures that actions are agreed on with
  responsibility and deadlines allocated
• Ensures that all have the chance to participate
  and that none dominate
• Keeps speaker list and indicates who is next

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Facilitator

• Summarizes discussion and introduces need for
  decision
• Often avoids participating in discussion,
  focusing rather on process can hand on chair to
  participate or make comments from the chair, but
  should not take a lead role in substantive
  discussion

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Recorder

• Takes minutes, clarifying discussion or action
  items or decisions and responsibility and
  deadlines when necessary
• Maintains list of items deferred from previous
  meeting and action items from previous meeting
• Circulates minutes