Working With Others

Part 2: Working with others.

This was a final session of our Inquiry Based Learning group which was a review of our learning and a sharing of feedback on our scenario action plan. On evaluating how the previous four sessions had gone the subject of the interaction between group members was discussed in an open, honest and reflective way with many group members using this opportunity to express their own personal feelings, worries and anxieties that had arisen during the previous sessions. Angelina expressed a view that she felt uncomfortable in the group; Brad said that he didn’t feel he was able to speak and be listened to so he kept quiet; Lulu, Carlos and Melissa all felt that we hadn’t really got to know each other well enough yet; I felt that we were all so impatient, myself included to raise our points and opinions that we didn’t allow others to finish speaking or time to acknowledge their points raised. Sophia said that she felt very unsure and felt people would judge her if she spoke and Kylie ,the chairperson, who was a confident assertive leader felt that we should all contribute more in discussions as she found it hard to reach a consensus without it being all her own point of view . Shakira, the scribe felt it was very difficult to write down the points as we were all talking at once and not agreeing on decisions to the best course of action to use with our scenario. I am very talkative by nature and expressed my own view that we should all speak up as we need to be able to speak with people from all walks of life in our roles of social workers. On reflection I think this was important for us to all appreciate how others in the group were feeling and for them to share their feelings with us all as a group.

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Tuckman’s model (1965) of group life has five stages that a group pass through before reaching effectiveness. Our group has passed through the Forming stage where we formed our impressions of each other; all tried to be accepted by others and avoided conflict. We started to understand the scope of the task we were being asked to do. At the second stage or Storming we began to question and challenge the task and there were minor disagreements within the group, which highlighted the strong, more assertive personalities of several members of the group. Some members seem to enjoy, myself included, to get into the real issues of our case scenario although it appeared that some members were content to stay in the forming stage. The third stage or Norming stage was where we started to understand each other better, getting to know each other’s strengths and experiences. We also began to listen and support each other and start to cooperate on the tasks we set as a group, or in smaller groups with each having tasks to accomplish. However, possibly due to the time restraints and the pressure of completing our overall task we did swing backwards at times to the previous stage and there were some unresolved conflicts and personal feelings that emerged which were not dealt with at the time.

I do think that we had some conflict as to what our roles were and didn’t define them properly also there was possible mistrust between members, with several members not feeling comfortable in the group situation. What was highlighted earlier by Kylie being that we didn’t reach a consensus or agreement on points, in my opinion was true as we did seem to accept decisions without discussing them as a group? I do actually after speaking or contributing to the discussion always ask for others opinions to stimulate further discussion and to ensure it isn’t just my viewpoint. We did manage to achieve our action plan for the case scenario and this session was extremely important for us to reflect on ourselves, our personal strengths, how our group was progressing and how effective as a group we were or were not at this point. Our second case scenario did progress more smoothly with better communication and improved listening between the group members. Small conflicts were out in the open and dealt with, possibly as more trust was being built up between the group members.

In practice with our service users and in dealing with other professionals in multidisciplinary working it will not always be possible to network and build a social relationship ; also to feel entirely comfortable in all situations with all people and in group meetings. But as a professional we have to ensure that we talk openly with everyone and respect others opinions, giving them validity. There will always be differences of professional opinion between one profession to another and we may need to be assertive at times, learn how to manage conflict in an honest and open manner. Effective working relationships are based on trust and respect and it is a skill that we have to learn to interact and communicate effectively to share our knowledge, skills and expertise with all parties for the benefit of our service users.

Teacher Reviews

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

Diane Apeah-Kubi

28th of Jun 2013

A reflective account of work within a group. Some interesting points were raised highlighting the different personalities often seen in a group. There was a good link to Tuckman - don't forget to reference the literature. Take some time to reflect on why individuals behaved as they did, eg. how did the different personalities impact on each other? The writing style was good overall, just a few grammar errors which could be minimised by careful proof-reading. 3/5

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