HUMOV1003 Community and Bush Environments

Seminar sevenStages of community

Parker Palmer on C.• We were created in and for a complex ecology of

community• Community is a gift - not a product• First you must create a capacity for connectedness as

an individual. • Community stems from contemplation - deepest forms

of contemplation arise out of failure, suffering, loss.• Community is “That place where the person you least

want to live with, always lives” and “When they move away, someone else rises to take their place” !!!!

Parker Palmer on C.• Community often suffers the romantic image of the

“Garden of Eden”

• Community is about creating “pockets of possibility” within larger organisations.

• Leadership within community requires authority - and you can’t take it … it is given.

• Community assumes people are resourceful - leaders/facilitators call upon that resourcefulness and resist being pushed/drawn/forced into traditional leadership (power) roles.

• Community is about suffering … which happens while you wait for the possibilities in others to become reality

Community concepts

Community is essentially about being a part of a group where: People can be themselves without fear of being judged or condemned by others

People are committed to work together and although conflicts occur they are resolved without big dramas.

Forgiveness runs freely.

People’s strengths are respected and utilised for the good of the group. People’s weaknesses are shared, understood, and accepted.

You feel safe to try (and possibly fail) new things.

People are welcome to participate in the group - it is not just a little club for people who feel the same way.

Peck’s stages of community

Pseudocommunity

Chaos

Emptiness

Community

Pseudocommunity

• People may pretend to be vulnerable - but it is all unreal

• There is no such thing as instant community• Conflict avoidance is the key feature of this stage• Minimisation, lack of acknowledgment, or ignoring of

individual differences. • Key is not to offend, annoy or irritate anyone - and

when people make you feel that way: ignore it, pretend your not bothered, and change the subject (good hostess behaviour)

Chaos

• Usually well intentioned but misguided attempts to heal or convert …. “everything would be much better if only you were more like me!”

• People resist change which gets the H&C working even harder. • Individual differences are no longer ignored, they are “out”, but

the group attempts to obliterate them. • Unconstructive, noisy, uncreative … not a lot of fun.• Leader often gets a good serve too !• Tempting to escape into “organisation” - it is a solution to the

chaos problem but it will not lead to “true community”.• Fighting is far better than pretending you are not divided. It is

painful …. But it is a beginning.

Emptiness

• Not an attractive solution to chaos• People empty themselves of barriers to communication - feelings,

assumptions, ideas, motives - self protection mechanisms that we have been developing very successfully for years.

• Expectations and Preconceptions• Prejudices (conscious and subconscious.)• Ideology• The need to heal, convert, fix, or solve (motive is often

questionable)• Need to control• Once people start to empty themselves …. They become receptive

to others and ….. They can enter the last stage ….

Community

• Soft quietness descends• Where to from here depends on task? - may be to

simply experience C and benefit from the healing?• Always community building first - problem solving

second• May slip back into chaos - need to work back through

stages. • Emotions range from: joyful, loving, to sadness & grief• Energy level is almost supernatural (sometimes

sexual?)- things going on in a spiritual level

Community is “That place where the person you least want to live with, always lives” and “When they move away, someone else

rises to take their place” !!!!

Model of group development

The most well known is Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) model of:

Forming

Storming

Norming

Performing

Mourning/adjourning

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1st Stage of Group Development

Forming is characterised by the

discomforts, concerns, feelings,

and doubts members experience in

a new group

2nd Stage of Group Development

Storming participants begin to

meet the needs of the group, to

question authority, and to feel more

comfortable about themselves and

their relationships

3rd Stage of Group Development

Norming involves members

addressing appropriate and

necessary standards of behaviour

though which a greater sense of

order prevails

4th Stage of Group Development

Performing finds the group

concentrating on tasks at hand with

mutual support and interaction

among group members evident as

well

5th Stage of Group Development

Adjourning provides closure of the

task, including the imminent end of

relationships

Effective VS Ineffective Groups

GoalsCommunication

LeadershipParticipation

Decision makingConflict

Problem solving adequacy

Effective Groups

• Individual goals matched with group goals

• Goals are cooperatively structured

Ineffective Groups

Goals

• Imposed • Competitively

structured

Communication

• Two way

• Open

• One way• Ideas only• Feelings

suppressed or ignored

Effective Groups

Ineffective Groups

Leadership

• Shared

• Based on ability and information

• Based on authority

• Obedience to authority the rule

Ineffective Groups

Effective Groups

Participation

• Equal emphasis for all members

• Emphasis on achieving goals and group maintenance

• unequal• High authority

members dominate

Effective Groups

Ineffective Groups

Decision Making

• Match situation

• Consensus sought for important decisions

• Made by highest authority

• Little group discussion or involvement

Ineffective Groups

Effective Groups

Conflict

• Seen in positive light

• Used to increase quality of decisions

• Ignored• Denied• Avoided• Suppressed

Effective Groups

Ineffective Groups

Problem Solving Adequacy

• High• Work together

• Low• Not solved as

a group

Ineffective Groups

Effective Groups