The document discusses seven common blocks or difficulties that groups face when working together: 1) Problems - Groups come together to solve problems, which provides creative tension but can also lead to frustration. 2) Frustration - Groups want quick results but inevitably face difficulties that stop progress and cause frustration. 3) Pain - Not achieving goals can feel physically or emotionally painful but helps groups grow stronger. 4) Failure - Groups are failing until they reach their goals, so facilitators should reframe failure as bringing success nearer. 5) Confusion - New areas of work often cause uncertainty and confusion, which facilitators should help groups work through. 6) Risk - Growth requires leaving comfort zones and facing uncertainty, so

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Group Dynamics
GROUP DYNAMICS
The uneven process of groups that grow
MTL: The Professional Development Programme

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Group Dynamics
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Learn.
Group
Dynamics
Introduction: No matter what tasks your group are working on – whether trying to achieve
new goals or giving birth to a new way of working, – the fact that they are “struggling” to
succeed can bring with it a number of painful feelings. When a group becomes
despondent at facing these painful feelings, you must put on your facilitator’s hat and,
true to the essence of facilitation, ease their way forward. In this topic, we’ll look at 7
possible blocks that will face you and the group.

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Group Dynamics
1. PROBLEMS
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Without problems, the group would not need to exist
Many groups come together in the first place
because of problems that they need to work on.
Sometimes the problems are outside the group;
sometimes they are inside it. Facing up to
problems gives the group a creative tension.
Without it, group life would lack challenge. It
would be too easy and comfortable. It would have
no reason to go on. Writer Benjamin Hoff says,
"Without problems, there can be no personal
growth, no group achievement and no progress
for humanity. Without difficulties, life would be
like a stream without rocks or curves, without
torrents or dams, without stillpools and eddies."

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2.
FRUSTRATION
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Frustration arises because we want quick results
Whenever we strive for something new in life, we
inevitably come up against difficulties, difficulties
which often stop us in our tracks. The feeling of
not being able to reach the goals we want is
frustration and it is inevitable when a group
comes together to solve problems. Often group
members will appeal to the facilitator to resolve
their frustration for them. But facilitative leaders
know that there are no lessons to be learnt by
skirting round frustration, only by guiding a group
through it.

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Group Dynamics
3. PAIN
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Let the difficulties show you how strong you are
Not being able to find a way to one’s goals can
sometimes feel painful, even physically painful.
We all want the pleasure of success, not the pain
of failure. But there is nothing worthwhile in easy
success. The sages of Ancient China suggested
two paths out of pain. You could take the Taoist
path and accept life’s pain as an integral part of
life itself. Or you could choose the Confucianist
path and use the pain as a test of your resilience.
As Confucius said, “It is when the ice and snow
are on them that we see the strength of the
cypress and the pine. I am grateful for the trouble
around me, because it gives me the opportunity
to realize how fortunate I am.”

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Group Dynamics
Life's Difficulties
Ancient Chinese culture had two ways of
looking at the difficulties that life throws
at us: the stoical approach of the
Confucianists and the accepting approach
of the Taoists.
The Confucianists welcomed pain and
difficulty as a test of their strength and
virtue. The more they grew used to pain,
the stronger they became. Taoists, on the
other hand, simply accepted life's
problems as an integral part of life. They
believed that in time things would sort
themselves out.
"THERE MAY BE DIFFICULTY AT THE MOMENT, BUT I WILL NOT LOSE THE
VIRTUE THAT I POSSESS. IT IS WHEN THE ICE AND SNOW ARE ON THEM
THAT WE SEE THE STRENGTH OF THE CYPRESS AND THE PINE. I AM
GRATEFUL FOR THIS TROUBLE AROUND ME, BECAUSE IT GIVES ME THE
OPPORTUNITY TO REALISE HOW FORTUNATE I AM." (K'UNG FU-TSE OR
CONFUCIUS)
Picture of The Lone Cypress: https://www.flickr.com/photos/anupamsrivastava/9135214363/

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Group Dynamics
4. FAILURE
For a group who are trying to succeed, failure is
the state they are in until they reach their goals.
Our society doesn’t like failures. Everywhere we
promote images of success. But even for the truly
successful, failure is the state they are in for 99%
of their journey. One of the things you can do as
facilitator, when a group complains that they have
failed, is to divorce the failure from the feeling of
failure. Instead replace it with the feeling of
success: the knowledge that every failure brings
the group one step nearer their goals.
Until we reach our destination, we are always failing
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Trying Too Hard
One of the reasons for failing to achieve a goal in groupwork as in individual work is that our mental attitude
changes when we get close to a target. Instead of concentrating on how to do the job, which is what has brought
us to this point, we start instead to think about the meaning of success and what it might bring us in the way of
prizes. These distracting thoughts divert us from the calm equanimity that we need to finish the job. Instead we
get excited, fearful of what we might lose, and over-compensate by trying too hard.
"An archer shooting for a clay vessel shoots effortlessly, his skill and concentration
unimpeded. If the prize is changed to a brass ornament, his hands begin to shake. If
it is changed to gold, he squints as if he were going blind. His abilities do not
deteriorate, but his belief in them does, as he allows the supposed value of an
external reward to cloud his vision." (Chuang tzu)

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Group Dynamics
5. CONFUSION
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All the options look the same. So which one do I choose?
We don’t like confusion. It evokes thoughts of
uncertainty, danger, and panic, like driving at
night through thick fog. But a learning group will
inevitably experience confusion in the early stage
of their work especially if they are in brand new
territory. Helping people stay with their confusion
without giving up is one of the most valuable
things a facilitator can do. As Trevor Bentley says,
“Being able to stay in a state of confusion until
clarity arrives is the height of intellectual ability.
It’s what we call wisdom.”

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6. RISK
All moves towards group growth involve varying
degrees of risk. The group is, after all, moving out
of the comfort zones of what they already know
and do well into areas that they are unsure of.
That means giving up things they hold dear such
as personal status in the pecking order, trappings
of power, and the feelings of established group
relationships. Facilitators can help the group face
risk by helping them move forward in easy steps
and managing the group’s change.
All growth means risk because we leave the status quo
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7. CONFLICT
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Aim to turn conflict into creative results
Conflict is always at or near the surface when
groups work to solve problems. These may be
conflicts between group members, conflicts on
how to proceed, or conflicts on solutions
themselves. As facilitator, you play a crucial role
in steering the group away from destructive
conflict and towards their own ways of working
harmoniously together. That way you set them up
for a solution they can all subscribe to as well as
teaching them something about how to handle
conflict.

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This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Despite what some management theorists tell us, groups rarely proceed in a straight line from
formation through normalization to accomplishment. The truth is that group growth is often a
painful experience. But while it may not be comfortable, it is in working through the pain of not
getting it right that all groups eventually fulfil their creative potential.