Why do something alone when you can do it with others?

A group is an organization of members who interact in order to fulfill a goal and a purpose. During our last group meeting, our group reflected on the time that we had spent together over the past two weeks and agreed that not only did we achieve our goal, but we fulfilled our purpose with few difficulties.

A huge advantage to group action was that we were able to prevent “groupthink” by openly admitting the need to develop cohesion in the group without having anybody feel pressured to comply with group norms. It was stated outright that everybody’s opinions mattered and people were free to express their disagreement with any decisions made. As the tension from working with new people eased, there was greater commitment among the group members to the agenda and nobody in the group had to be reprimanded for failing to do his or her part. In fact, people volunteered to do more for the group when several members needed support. However, despite the fact that the group members worked very well with each other, there were several difficulties we came across. Initially, we held a group meeting in which we discussed what we would do for the project. Though this strategy sounds effective, the risky shift phenomenon claims that decisions made by a group are generally more risky and less productive than working alone before meeting together for discussion. Therefore, for our next group meeting, we decided we would interview our respective persons and group together in order to come up with an effective and engaging presentation for the class. Each member’s willingness to work with each other and sort out any problems was really quite astonishing. We did not need a group leader as everybody fully participated. If I had to pinpoint one person as the leader however, I would say it was Ambi Mehta, as she was the oldest and most experienced. She was more of a laissez-faire leader however, and she allowed us to do whatever we needed to do.

What was interesting was observing the role of group operations in our own group. Our group’s dynamics seem to follow the book step by step. The first step is known by group forming and was carried out by Ms. Narvaez, who assembled us according to career paths. During group norming, I discovered that my career path was completely different from that assigned to us, and thus I did not have as much in common with the other group members. However, the business majors in the group took pity on my complete cluelessness and established group norms; if anybody needed help, they were there to help. The only instance of group storming we underwent was the initial issue of groupthink. However, by openly addressing the problem of groupthink, we were able to evade the problem. Group conforming and group performing were simultaneous processes. Because we had some difficulties agreeing on a time and place to meet, we also posted our individual work on Facebook so that every group member had access to each member’s work. Thus, we had individual work and group work, which successfully followed the risky shift phenomenon.

In the end, I am glad that I was not put into a pre-medicine group because I learned a lot about communication in business, a subject that I would probably not have been exposed to otherwise. Thank you Andi!