Small group skills

Skills for leading and participating

Small group leadership and membership skills are the skills required to achieve the best results from team meetings. Skill in meetings can be divided into two areas, `leadership' and `membership'. These are the two major roles people play in groups. A group must have an appointed leader to coordinate it's activity, and this person's leadership ability is critical to how well the group will work together. But equally important are the membership abilities of the others who make up the group. Membership ability is the ability to be part of a group so that your contributions are always positive, and so that you also help others to contribute in the best possible way.

Group leadership and membership skills are covered together here for a number of reasons:
* most people are, at various times, both leaders and members of small groups, so they need both leadership and membership skills
* the same issues of personal interaction arise for both leaders and members
* a group will not work well unless both leadership and membership are handled competently

Teamwork in small groups

Typically, the groups in which team skills are exercised are small. The size can range from as few as three people up to as many as eight or ten. Groups larger than this will have difficulty coordinating their activities and communicating. Within organisations, groups may be formed for many reasons and may be permanent or temporary. Examples of permanent groups are:
* teams of people who normally work together and who meet regularly to discuss quality and improvement issues
* peer groups who meet regularly, such as all supervisors or all department managers or all senior managers
* common interest groups, such as employees and particular customers, or employees and supplier representatives
Examples of temporary groups are:
* project teams which are set up within the organisation to look at specific issues, or to develop a new product or process
* project teams set up with customers or suppliers to look at and resolve specific problems, and which disband once the project is completed.

Types of skills required

Working effectively in small groups is not easy. Much has been written about the difficulties of small group work. Difficulties which include keeping focused on the task, coping with inter-personal conflicts, making decisions, etc. It is possible, however, to summarise many of the things which need to happen in order for small groups to be successful, and to give guidelines on how to approach or handle each of these.
Small group success depends on three types of functions being performed - task, maintenance, and personal functions -
* task functions help to keep the group focused and directed towards achieving its goals
* maintenance functions help group members to stay involved, and ensure that everyone is able to contribute to their maximum potential
* personal functions address the personal needs of group members to ensure that the group functions in the best possible way - these activities include the ways in which conflicts and disruptive behaviours are handled
These functions are complementary, which means they must all be performed if a group is to work well.
Responsible for seeing that these functions are performed rests, on the whole, with the group leader, but each group member also has a responsibility to support the leader, to improve their personal group-work skills, and to help the group achieve the best results possible.
The illustration below lists activities which make up the task, maintenance and personal functions of group work. Group leaders and members need to be familiar with all these activities, and to apply them whenever appropriate during group meetings. Guidelines for each activity are given under the illustration.

Listed below are guidelines for carrying out these activities.

Task functions

Initiating
This is any action taken to get the group members started on working together towards their purpose.
The initiating action may be
* to suggest a procedure for advancing the group's task to the next step such as to flowchart a process, brainstorm a problem, or to evaluate data gathering and measurement options, or
* to re-cap progress to date and to call for suggestions on the best task to undertake next.
A useful tool for deciding how to initiate group sessions for continuous improvement activity is the PDCA Cycle.
Information, or opinion, seeking
This is the act of asking for facts, relevant information, suggestions or ideas about a group concern. This can be done through normal group interaction or if fresh ideas are required, a full brainstorming session or other ideas generation technique can be used.
Information, or opinion, giving
This is offering information up to the group in the form of facts, beliefs, opinions or ideas.
This is a leadership function that most people tackle with enthusiasm, but take care not to overdo it or you will stifle contributions from other members of the group. They will take the attitude that you value your own opinion more than theirs and will be reluctant to offer up their contributions.
This action is best taken when group discussion is a little stuck and needs some fresh points of view to react to.
Clarifying or elaborating
Interpreting ideas, clearing up confusions, identifying alternatives, and raising related issues, are all ways of clarifying and elaborating on things the group is discussing.
Clarifying is necessary to bring order and direction to information giving sessions. Most people are unskilled at listening carefully to others, so the same information is often contributed in different forms several times before the group realises it is going over the same ground again and again. Or the reverse can happen - group members think they agree on an issue but this is based on a misunderstanding of each others' view.
Clarifying is achieved by asking questions such as "Do you mean that ...", or "Is that the same as ...", or "I don't understand, would you please explain that in more detail", or "Could you give an example of that".
Elaborating is achieved by asking such questions as "Does that mean that this would happen as well, ...", or "As I see it then, what you are saying means that ...", or "If that is true, then what will happen is that ...".
Clarifying and elaborating are essential actions for ensuring that everyone in the group is talking about the same thing. The best tool to use to assist with this process is the flowchart. By drawing a flowchart, common understanding is reflected in the chart itself and all group members can see quite complex concepts and logical connections in the form of a single `picture'.
Summarising
This is the act of pulling together related ideas, restating suggestions after they have been fully discussed, or offering a decision or conclusion for the group to accept or reject.
It is essentially a `taking stock' of where the group is at in order to move it closer the important step of taking a decision. If this function is not carried out then the group will often continue to discuss and elaborate facts and ideas for much longer than is necessary.
When the leader 'rings the bell' with a summary that wraps up the issue, the group is ready for the next act of leadership. As group leader, don't worry about missing some essential points in the summary because the other group members will add these as you go.
Consensus seeking
This is the act of testing whether the group is nearing a conclusion or decision. It is aimed at assessing the extent to which the group is in agreement.
Groups often reach the point where further discussion and evaluation is unnecessary but there is reluctance to bring an issue to finality. The group leader tests for this point in the discussion by consensus seeking and intervenes to precipitate a decision.
Such intervention is necessary because there is often a natural resistance to making decisions. Decisions represent commitment and, in many cases, the acceptance of responsibility for further action.
Implementing
This involves putting the decisions of the group into action and requires,
* assigning responsibility
* delegating authority
* accepting personal commitments
Group meetings are not an end in themselves, their function is to create a platform for subsequent action by group members.
Devil's advocate
This is an essential act of leadership and is performed when there is a suspicion that the group has reached agreement or consensus on an issue too quickly and easily. It is a way of elaborating on an issue to make sure that the best assessment of its implications is made.
It is possible for group members to agree because they have unconsciously limited or prejudiced their viewpoints. In such a situation, a Devil's advocate position must be stated to keep the group honest and avoid a `cheap' decision.
Consultants
Design or research groups have some special leadership needs because they often include artists, researchers or other 'specialists', who are often unwilling to submit themselves, their art, or their ideas to the `limitations' of group process.
To get the benefit of their work some special concessions can be made by placing them in a consultant role to the group in which they offer up their ideas but do not participate as full group members. This type of structure must be handled carefully to prevent other members of the group feeling like they are being treated like second class citizens (you may remind them that full group membership, rather than the limited input of specialised expertise, carries with it much more power and responsibility.)

Maintenance functions

Encouraging
Encouragement simply means being responsive to others, giving them an opportunity for recognition, and consciously helping them to feel that they are welcome and valuable members of the group.
There is a common belief that encouragement is only offered by those who have nothing to contribute themselves, but research contradicts this. Frequently those who make the most valuable contributions are also those who most encourage and support others in the group.
Expressing group feelings
This refers to picking up or sensing the mood of the group at appropriate times and disclosing your feelings or reactions to the other group members. By expressing your own feelings in this way, you will encourage others to disclose their emotional reactions to the issues, problems, or discussion comments, which accumulate but which most people normally keep to themselves.
This function is important to perform because without it a feeling of distrust can develop among group members. Although the group may have discussed and decided issues rationally and productively, there is often a sense that things have not been properly aired unless people have expressed their feelings.
Care must be taken, however, because expressing feelings, or self-disclosure as it is often called, must be followed by positive feedback otherwise the person feels snubbed or discounted, and trust within the group falls. Positive feedback, on the other hand, increases or builds, trust within the group.
Compromising
Compromise is often regarded as an undesirable thing which prevents the best ideas from being adopted and even demeans the person who offers the compromise. The reason for this bad reputation is that people often seek a compromise at the wrong time. They often refuse to modify their stand on many minor issues but back down on important ones because they are intimidated by their far-reaching impact.
Consciously reversing this attitude leads to the effective use of compromise. By conceding your position on relatively minor issues, you build a reputation for balanced judgement, and attract greater respect when you resist compromise on issues which are really important to you.
Gate keeping
This is the function of keeping communication channels open within the group at all times. This means two things,
* restraining those who tend to talk at all times and at length, and
* drawing out those who tend to stay quiet and withdrawn, who find it difficult to enter a discussion or who are easily talked over by others.
Setting standards
This is the function of imposing and insisting on standards for the actions of the group. This function is essential for keeping the group focused on its task and it is a function which is often difficult to perform without risking short-term resentment and hostility.
Take, for example, standards which need to be enforced for group behaviour. If the group is playing about and having a good time and not getting on with the job, by reminding them that they need to get a move on you will inevitably make them feel like castigated children. They will naturally attempt to deflate you for calling them back to their task, but if you can grin and bear it, not pursuing the issue but letting each individual `save face', the group will soon get back to work.
Timing is critical with these sorts of interventions, because if the group does need some light relief or a short period of relaxation before resuming, you need to be sensitive to this and let the interlude run its course.
Issues about the adoption of standards will be raised from time to time by members of the group. The types of standards involved will depend on the issue being discussed by the group, and on the particular problems encountered. Examples of such issues are,
* attitude to late arrivals to meetings
* types of interruptions, if any, that will be accepted during a meeting
* confidentiality of the group's data (this may be an issue for product development or research groups)
* style of minutes which are kept and method of circulation
A useful approach to handling these types of issues is to ask the group to discuss and, if necessary, agree on the standards to be adopted.
Housekeeping
This function is about making sure that everyone is kept aware of the group's decisions, progress, and `to do' list. It is easily fulfilled by keeping minutes, distributing them, and discussing them.
These minutes need not be lengthy or complex, in fact the simpler and easier to follow they are the better. They need to cover three key categories of information - identification, matters of record, planned action. These categories include the following items,
* Identification information includes,
the name of the group
the date of the meeting
who attended
who didn't attend
* Matters of record may include,
decisions taken by the group
information received/collected
standards agreed by the group
statements of short or long term overall objectives
references to reports or records attached to the minutes
* Planned action includes,
actions to be taken by individual group members before the next meeting
Responsibility for the accuracy of the minutes lies with the group leader, but responsibility for preparing them may be delegated to a group member.

Personal functions

Self understanding
Your capacity to see your own behaviour, actions, and reactions in the group in an objective way, will make a big difference to how well you communicate with other group members, and how well you are able to identify and manage potentially destructive conflict.
Better self-understanding leads to better communication by reducing the contradictions between your words and your body language. For example, saying, "Yes, I agree with that" while crossing your legs, drumming your fingers, and rolling your eyes, convinces no-one of your assent. Understanding your own reactions to a situation helps you to communicate one clear message to those around you rather than several contradictory ones.
Self understanding comes through experience and maturity, but it can be actively developed by constantly and objectively evaluating the effects of your style of communication on others.
Inter-personal understanding
This is the ability to understand the other person's point of view and leads not only to much greater tolerance (which in turn reduces unproductive, or emotionally based, conflict), but also encourages many more ideas to be submitted to the group. This is because group members will feel better understood and less likely to have their ideas ignored or ridiculed.
Active listening
Our natural disposition in a competitive world is to constantly seek attention, to fight to have our ideas heard, to attempt constantly to command the consideration of others or to put our side of the argument. But communication is a two way thing and if a discussion is to be productive, each person's position must be understood clearly along the way.
Unfortunately, since most of our efforts in discussion go into being heard, rather than listening to the others' points of view, progress is often slow. This natural tendency needs to be countered by active listening. This involves,
* consciously concentrating on what the other person is saying
* waiting until the other person has clearly indicated that they have finished getting their message across
* then, before putting your own view, getting the other person to confirm your understanding of what they have said by reflecting their message back to them
Active listening is not simply a matter of restraining the urge to speak and listening instead, it involves both listening and making a conscious attempt to understand the other person's view.
Managing conflict
Conflict is the double-edged sword of group functioning.
The absence of conflict means that the group is not reaching its full potential to identify problems and explore possible solutions. It may mean that the group is not sufficiently motivated, or challenged, to generate the `creative tension' that forges the best solutions.
An excess of conflict, on the other hand, can be destructive to the group and undermine its ability to carry out any action at all.
This means that conflict must be managed. The leader must pursue an agenda which is challenging enough to draw out each person's differing views, but which prevents argumentation from blocking progress and decisionmaking.
Stopping conflict escalation
The problem with our traditional view of conflict is that we see it as a situation which is only resolved by having a winner and a loser. In this view, conflict is resolved only when one person prevails over the other, so it is a situation which is ripe for escalation. Escalation means that the heat in the argument rises, the number of points in dispute increase, personal abuse increasingly creeps into the discussion, and in the extreme, escalation leads to violence.
For group-work to be effective, this traditional view of conflict must be undermined and replaced with one which sees conflict as an essential factor in finding the best solution to a problem. In this view of conflict escalation is prevented by observing two rules which automatically keep discussion productive. These are,
1. attack the problem, not the person
2. avoid blaming at all times
No-one is perfect however and even in the best intentioned group, conflict escalation will occur. This may be because tensions have been building up for other reasons and a particular issue simply causes them to erupt, or it may be that one or a number of group members are particularly passionate about an issue and emotionally attached to one point of view. Here are a number of strategies which can be used to break the spiral of conflict escalation.
* if you are the group leader, use your authority to separate group members in direct conflict and give them the opportunity to `cool off'
* if you are the group leader, always respond to a plea to intervene and stop a dispute which is escalating; if you leave group members to `fight it out', respect for your leadership will diminish
* always deal with important issues as they arise, otherwise they are likely to contribute to conflict escalation in the future; this means avoid the temptation to `let sleeping dogs lie' and `don't rock the boat'
* if a productive and creative discussion is threatening to change into unproductive conflict, remind the group of the problem or issue being addressed and the progress already made
* escalation can often also be stalled by making a process observation such as "What on earth is happening here", or "I think we might be getting a bit personal", or "We are really off the track now"; these statements have the effect of prompting group members to see their behaviour as unproductive and get back on to discussing the issue objectively
* if the escalating conflict is focused on a particular member of the group they will feel threatened and may be pushed to a flashpoint of escalation; as group leader de-fuse this situation by diverting attention away from the person under attack so that they can relax and compose themselves
* even when discussion is productive, tensions can build up simply through the intensity of the work; in this situation, the group leader can look for the opportunity to ease the tension by taking a breather, and the way to test for this is by asking questions such as "Have we covered enough ground for now?", or "Shall we take stock here of where we are?"
Disruptive behaviours
There are many types of disruptive behaviour which group members can engage in and which need to be dealt with to stop them from hindering the group's progress.
The problem, however, is that the person concerned is often unaware that their behaviour is disruptive. In fact the group leader is just as likely to be the culprit as another group member. Taking this into account, there are a three rules to follow when dealing with disruptive behaviour, and anyone in the group may initiate action to stop it:
1. learn to recognise disruptive behaviour in yourself, and try to understand and to change it
2. point out disruptive behaviours to others tactfully, with good-will, and in a time and place which is appropriate
3. be open to others pointing out your disruptive behaviour, and respond by changing it (this can often be done in good humour by poking gentle fun at yourself by saying such things as, "Yes, there I go running off at the mouth again", or "Sorry, I'm still pretty touchy about that" or "Sorry, you know I can't help poking fun")
Here are examples of common disruptive behaviours.
* Blocking or diverting: taking the discussion off on a tangent, arguing too much on a particular point, fixing on less important details
* Power seeking: clashes with the leader, forming cliques
* Recognition seeking: excessive talking, advocating extreme ideas, add an example or repeat what has been said in different words, tell a meaningless anecdote
* Dominating: using a loud voice, making definitive pronouncements, endless speeches, special interest pleading, this sort of behaviour can produce a tense combative atmosphere
* Clowning: occasional comic relief lightens the discussion, constant joking and remarks will disrupt the meeting
* Other problem behaviours: silence, denying, seeking sympathy, attention seeking
Recognition
People work best when they feel that they belong, that their participation is worthwhile, and that their contributions are valuable.
What is often overlooked is the need to constantly reinforce this feeling in group members by giving recognition when and where it is due. By recognising and acknowledging all actions which help the group to function well and achieve its aims, you will be consolidating and improving the capabilities of the group.

Other references

`Group Leadership and Self-Realization', Taylor McConnell, Leviathan House, 1974
`The Team Handbook', Peter R. Scholtes, Joiner & Assoc,1988