Informal Roles: Productive

Informal Roles: Productive I took on the informal roles of a compromiser, gatekeeper and encourager during the group interactions (Connery & Vohs, 2006). In the compromise role, I offered suggestions and encouraged feedback from the group members on my ideas so that we could all have a chance to weigh in on decisions that were being made and come to a collective agreement on how we wanted to proceed. As the gatekeeper, I kept up frequent communication online with my group members when we did not meet in person in an attempt to help facilitate dialogue and keep group members up to date. I felt that I helped initiate our first few weeks of coordination and assigning roles through these updates and dialogue. During in-person interactions I tried
to refocus group members if side bar conversations were occurring while we were working on the group assignment or when some of the quieter members of the group were trying to have their thoughts heard. In the encouraging role, I voiced my approval of ideas and helped ensure participation form all group members by actively listening when people were speaking, asking questions and asking for feedback from all group members (Connery & Vohs, 2006). Where there were productive roles, there were also non-productive role I adopted throughout the quarter, which may have hindered the group process. Informal Roles: Counterproductive The informal role I exhibited that may have been counterproductive to the group was blocking (Connery & Vohs, 2006).
Blocking I did several times throughout our in-person meetings not realizing that it was likely counterproductive. I brought up topics several times that the group had already addressed and often repeated information several times for clarification on assignments and group roles. There was one specific instance I can remember, where we were discussing what we needed to have prepared for our next in-person group meeting. I believe we were trying to decide if we should have our individual outlines and talking points prepared. One group member suggested that maybe we didn’t need to have quite so much prepared because we still had a lot of time left in the quarter. I quickly responded that I thought it would be better if we had things completed early because we all have busy schedules and we needed to make sure things were coming together. A few other group members quickly jumped on my bandwagon and we collectively shut down any further discussion. I realize now that this was blocking and I should have approached this in a different way, perhaps with a better attempt at negotiation and exploring the other member’s feelings about the
expectations. This is another example of the Storming phase and perhaps is reflective of some missed opportunities in the Forming phase with regard to developing relationships (Connery & Vohs, 2006). We were still working through some minor conflicts here, trying to balance everyone’s schedules and motivations. Had we spent more time working on relationships in the early stages of our Forming, perhaps we could have better discussed our feelings towards our differing desired approaches to the project, the group member may have felt more comfortable addressing my blocking statement, and the group could have found a solution that everyone was more comfortable with.
For The Future As a nurse I will work in many groups throughout my career and because I am in the business of patient care and safety, it is imperative that I continue to develop my skills in communication and conflict management so that when there is a serious issue involving patient or staff safety I can be confident in my ability to address it within a group and work with that group to seek a solution that will hopefully benefit everyone in some way.
I think one of the biggest things that I will take away from interpersonal communication and group work is Connery and Vohs’ (2006) concept of building relationships before tackling the problem. I see the value to this in any group process and I have seen it work this quarter. I think getting to know the people you are working with, allowing them to get to know you, really sets the stage for better communication by helping to ease tension and gain a better understanding of each other as Connery and Voh’s (2006) would
suggest. I will continue to work towards identify conflict and addressing it early on in group work so that it does not fester and become a bigger issue in future interactions. The more I face conflict and confront it, the better equipped I will be to address it, especially in very crucial situations. If conflicts must be had, then I want to try and make them functional conflicts where the group is working to learn more about each other and exploring everyone’s ideas in an effort to find a compromise that everyone is happy with, rather than a dysfunctional conflict where people are unhappy with the outcome (Adler, Rosenfeld & Proctor II, 2013). I will strive for the win-win approach to conflict resolution as described by Adler, Rosenfeld and Proctor II (2013) whenever it is possible and I will try and avoid destructive communication styles such as criticism and defensiveness. I will continue to work on developing my weaknesses when working in groups. I will continue to work on my communication skills, particularly paraphrasing because I think that practice will help me feel more comfortable with this skill. The art of communication is a continuous learning process and I continue to apply these skills in my career, personal and educational endeavors to become a more proficient communicator.