1. Attending: letting others in a group know that you are paying close attention to what they say and do.

2. Information Management: asking questions and giving information in a group.

3. Contract Negotiation: working out an agreement on goals for the group and its members, and the ground rules to be used in working toward these goals as a group.

4. Rewarding: providing payoffs ? such as praise ?for effort and/or achievement in the group.

5. Responding to feelings: letting others in a group know that you accurately understand how they feel about a situation.

6. Focusing: keeping a group discussion on track.

7. Summarizing: pulling together what has been said by group participation for review and as a basis for next steps.

8. Gate keeping: achieving a balance of participation in a group, by inviting low participators to speak up, and limiting high participators.

9. Confrontation: informing a participant, subgroup or the entire group about discrepancies in words and actions to require that they consider these inconsistencies.

10. Modeling: teaching by demonstration, learning by imitation.

11. Mediating: attempting to resolve conflicts among group participants

12. Starting: beginning a group's first meeting and each group meeting thereafter.
    (Group Participation, p.16)

For there is but one veritable problem. The problem of human relations. We forget that there Is no hope or joy except in human relations. Antoine de Saint Exupery

Building Mutuality

Identify ways that members are alike
Develop expectations that all are willing to abide by
Stimulte adispostonofpdre
Build unity using a symbols, group song, group personality
Explore ways that members can satisfy individual needs
Provide opportunities for members to make sacrifices for each other
Explore and clarify norms held by members and validate those held in common
Celebrate accomplishments

Starting and Attending:

1. Is there an informal warm up as part of beginning?
2. Is there an agenda for each meeting?
3. Do participants move beyond superficial sharing?
4. Do members go beyond courtesy and actively listen?

1. Is there a sense of trust among members?
2. Are all members participating?
   1. Attending regularly
   2. Coming on time
   3. Preparing for group work

1. Is a part of each meeting set aside to enjoy victories?
2. Is trust and community building a part of each session?
3. Is there a mechanism for responding to feelings?

1. Are members courteous while others are talking?
2. Is there a mechanism for dissenting?
3. Is each person consistently given an opportunity to respond?
4. Do people express dissenting opinions regularly?

1. Can the group set aside a time to complete task and do so?
2. When one person is sharing, do others listen empathically?
3. When the group keeps drifting, do members agree to address the true issues clouding progress?

1. Is summary set aside at the end of each group?
2. Can each member consistently summarize a meeting fairly?
3. Is each member keeping some form of log and sharing insights?

Gate Keeping:

1. Is a social leader monitoring and adjusting group processes?
   1. Does this monitoring revolve around the group?
   2. Are members responsive to suggestions for improvement?
2. Do all members contribute to a fairly equal degree?

Confrontation and Negotiation:

1. Is there a process for expressing disagreement or concerns?
2. Is each person offering honest comments and suggestions?
3. Are disagreements honored and addressed in a timely fashion?

Modeling:

1. Do participants share ideas with civility?
2. Are all members treated with equanimity?

Mediating:

1. Is the group utilizing productive behaviors to relieve tensions?
2. Are conflicts resolved by honoring the differences and trying to understand divergent opinions and how they help focus the task?

Each 'yes' shows healthy group functioning. As a group, make a goal for building the group in the coming meeting by changing one of the 'NO' responses to 'YES':

Group Goal: ______________________________________

Implementation Date: ______________________________________

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Once you have finished you should:

Go back to Lesson 2

E-mail J'Anne Ellsworth at Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu

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