Taking the Pulse of Small Groups
Community Mennonite Church
Introduction
1) Taking the Pulse of Your Small Group--How long has it been since your small group had a good conversation about the group's purpose, direction, leadership, and shared understandings about what it means to be a group?
a) purpose
b) direction
c) leadership
d) shared understandings
2) opening exercise-What is a metaphor for your group?
a) Our group is like …
3) one way to take the pulse of your group-Bruce Tuckman’s four (five) stages of group development (four stages-1965; fifth stage added in 1977)
Tuckman’s Five Stages (linear, but not really; not a function of the length of the group)
1) Forming
a) desire to be accepted by others
b) avoid controversy and conflict
c) orientation through testing (identifying boundaries of both interpersonal and task behaviors)
d) focus questions
1) What kind of orientation is/is not going on in your group?
2) What is be tested in your group? Both explicitly and implicitly
3) What is not clear about your group? Task? Roles? Relationships? Process?
2) Storming
a) important issues start to be addressed
b) looking for structural clarity and rules
c) conflict and polarization
d) focus questions
1) What is a conflict/polarizing reality in your group now? In the recent past?
2) How have you/have you not worked at the conflict or polarizing reality?
3) Are there any factions or power struggles in your group?
3) Norming
a) rules of engagement are established
b) group feeling and cohesiveness develops
c) new understandings develop
d) focus questions
1) What standards/roles/norms contribute to your group cohesion/togetherness?
2) Rate your group cohesion on a scale from 1-10 (1 = very little cohesion, 10 = significant cohesion)
4) Performing
a) interdependence and flexibility
b) group identity, loyalty, and morale are high
c) group energy is high
d) focus questions
1) Rate your group morale on a scale from 1-10 (1 = low morale, 10 = high morale).
2) How good is your group in accomplishing what you have set out to accomplish or be?
3) Are you clear about what you hope to accomplish or be in your small group?
5) Adjourning
a) completion and disengagement
b) “deforming and mourning” stage
c) focus questions
1) Is it time to dissolve your group?
2) How would you know it was time to dissolve your group?
3) If it is time to dissolve, what is a healthy way to do that?
Collison, Brooke B. Know and Be Known: Small Groups that Nourish and Connect. Alban Institute, 2007.
Members in groups that function effectively do the following:
Problematic behaviors in groups
Personal issues which can be problematic in a group