Expeditioning - Community and the group

Community and Community and the groupthe group

OEEDU 6002 Expeditioning – Week 5

Large human movements spring from individual human initiatives. If you feel that you cannot have much of an effect, the next person may also become discouraged and a great opportunity will have been lost. On the other hand, each of us can inspire others simply by working to develop our own altruistic motivation

His Holiness the Dalai Lama

“”

3

Community

• Have you experienced real community?

• Palmer suggests that most experiences of

community are actually only pseudo-

community?

4

Parker Palmer on real C.

• The concept of community has been distorted - most references

to community are more realistically - Pseudocommunity – where

people hate conflicts

• By contrast real community is only reached through hard work

… at a great cost.

• To be connected – you have to look at your heart – otherwise

you will not be able to respond to criticism – you will always be

defending. The heart needs to be a place of peace. (need to

know what you believe and be OK with that - worldviews ?)

• Real community involves: taking social risks, being vulnerable,

being able to forgive, soft individualism, working from a position

of weakness, taking responsibility for our own actions.

5

Is community that important?

• Rousseau (1991) - we all experience an

ontological loneliness

• This brings discomfort, loneliness, anguish.

• Our distinctively human way of overcoming

solitude is to “enter into unity with, share the

existence of, other beings through knowing

and loving them” (p35)

• What are the consequences of non-

community? 5

6

The “true” meaning of community (according to Peck 1990)

• Concept of community is used far too loosely

• Community is like a gem - multi-faceted,

inherently mysterious, miraculous,

unfathomable

7

1. Inclusivity

• Most groups are exclusive cliques that work

hard to keep people out.

• It is much easier to exclude rather than

include.

• Communities seek to be inclusive

• Inclusivity extends the groups

8

2. Commitment

• Must be a willingness to co-exist - and make

it work

• Requires an appreciation of differences.

9

3. Consensus

• Community avoids the use of voting to

resolve differences - as in a democracy

• Consensus values individual difference -

which is not congruent with “majority rules”.

• Consensus is when all agree that they have

come to the best decision for the group at that

time, given all the circumstances.

10

4. Realism• Diversity and difference are more likely to

produce realistic solutions to problems

• The multiple points of view and freedom of

expression usually gives a better

understanding of the situation

• Humility is a key ingredient because you

begin to appreciate other people’s gifts and

recognise your own limitations

11

5. Contemplation

• Community is self examining, self-critical, self

aware

• Contemplation is the key to insight

• You don’t reach community and sit back and

relax

12

6. A safe place

• Acceptance and freedom to be yourself is a

critical part of community

• Community is healing - even though that is

not the focus of community - more a by

product

13

A group of leaders

• Total decentralisation of authority

• Not leaderless - leader-full

• Flow of leadership

16

Community concepts• Community is essentially about being a part of a group

where:

- people can be themselves with fear of being judged or condemned

by others

- People are committed to work together and although conflicts occur

they are resolved without big dramas.

- Forgiveness runs freely.

- People’s strengths are respected and utilised for the good of the

group. People’s weaknesses are shared, understood, and

accepted.

- You feel safe to try (and possibly fail) new things.

- People are welcome to participate in the group - it is not just a little

club for people who feel the same way. 16

17

Community in OE

• How realistic is it to expect us to

experience/promote community in our OE

program?

• What are the constraints to establishing true

community - what makes it hard for OE?

• Should community even be something that

we strive for in OE programs?

18

Community on Expo...• Are you prepared/committed to work that hard to reach

this “state of group functioning” ?

• Forgive people when they hurt you? Current and/or past?

• Accept people with quite different views of the world to

you?

• Accept and value people who annoy you and get on your

nerves?

• Be prepared to really let your walls down?

• Not just bite your tongue to avoid conflicts?

• Speak up in the group?

19

Models of group development

• The most well known is Tuckman and

Jensen’s (1977) model of:

- Forming

- Storming

- Norming

- Performing

- Mourning/adjourning

20

Peck’s stages of community

• Peck’s stages of Community

- Pseudocommunity

- Chaos

- Emptiness

- Community

• Essentially a sequential model.

21

Pseudocommunity• People may pretend to be vulnerable - but it is all

unreal

• There is no such thing as instant community

• Conflict avoidance is the key feature of this stage

• Minimisation, lack of acknowledgment, or ignoring of

individual differences.

• Key is not to offend, annoy or irritate anyone - and

when people make you feel that way: ignore it,

pretend your not bothered, and change the subject

(good hostess behaviour)

22

Chaos• Usually well intentioned but misguided attempts to heal or convert

…. “everything would be much better if only you were more like

me!”

• People resist change which gets the H&C working even harder.

• Individual differences are no longer ignored, they are “out”, but the

group attempts to obliterate them.

• Unconstructive, noisy, uncreative … not a lot of fun.

• Leader often gets a good serve too !

• Tempting to escape into “organisation” - it is a solution to the

chaos problem but it will not lead to “true community”.

• Fighting is far better than pretending you are not divided. It is

painful …. But it is a beginning.

23

Emptiness• Not an attractive solution to chaos

• People empty themselves of barriers to communication - feelings,

assumptions, ideas, motives - self protection mechanisms that we

have been developing very successfully for years.

• Expectations and Preconceptions

• Prejudices (conscious and subconscious.)

• Ideology

• The need to heal, convert, fix, or solve (motive is often

questionable)

• Need to control

• Once people start to empty themselves …. They become receptive

to others and ….. They can enter the last stage ….

24

Community• Soft quietness descends

• Where to from here depends on task? - may be to

simply experience C and benefit from the healing?

• Always community building first - problem solving

second

• May slip back into chaos - need to work back through

stages.

• Emotions range from: joyful, loving, to sadness & grief

• Energy level is almost supernatural (sometimes

sexual?)- things going on in a spiritual level

25

Fight gracefully

• there are no sides, factions - cliques have

been dropped

• Community is a place where conflict can be

resolved without bloodshed

• Conflict resolution is a product more than a

pre-requisite to community

26

Group member behaviours

• According to Trotzer (1989) there are five categories

of group member behaviour …

- Resisting behaviours

- Manipulating behaviours

- Helping behaviours

- Emotional behaviours

- Sub-grouping behaviours

• Today’s message …

- Before you respond/intervene .. Look beyond behaviour and

try to understand possible cause or contributing factors

behind behaviour.