Outline of Reducing
Social Tension and Conflict
Chapter 1: What is Group Conversation?
I. The
despair induced by the disorientation and dislocation develops soon into
hostility and loss of faith.
A.
Communication channels among the many disparate
elements that mount quickly in a community at odds with itself become
drastically reduced at a time when open minds are most necessary to unify
efforts towards constructive, deliberate action.
1. Few American communities are not affected by these
dynamics.
a) They assume different structural specifics, but the
psychological impact of the circumstances takes on a similar cast.
b) The result is such an assault on the elements and
resources of a particular aggregation as often to lead to a paralyzing
inability in the group to deal with the problems which ensue.
2. How can we transcend exacerbating circumstances so
that the community can experience some redemptive healing relationship for
those who live and work in the area?
a) There is a need for approaches that are fresh, renewing,
creative, where heart can reach out to human heart in joy and love.
b) We can transcend these
circumstances by recognizing dehumanizing illusions that our differences and
the false perceptions we have of them create.
·
Race, age, social status, ethnic background, religious faith,
religions, economic income, and educational sophistication.
c) Detailed reports of
group experiences in which many of these blocks were removed because
differences came to be seen as assets will be found throughout this book.
B. A widely tested method that works
1. Some solutions [that aim to unite us and eliminate our perception
of “otherness”] have been less relevant, less complete, less direct that others.
Generally, however, they have reawakened
attributes and abilities of the persons gathered, bringing to the
group’s deliberations and concerns such resources and energies as to make their
experience together a meaningful one.
2. The way toward a solution is usually illuminated with
a new sices of mutual trust and discovery [].
a) Of new insights about oneself.
b) About each
other.
c) About the group.
d) About getting together on the problem,
e) About renewal.
C. This restructuring of the situation to bring a
wholeness of the group focused upon a particular concern, we see as a key for
the group to sue in dealing with problems which our society has allowed to
alienate us as
a) Persons
b) People
c) Communities
d) A nation
D. There are, then, many reasons for the use of Group
Conversation by the alert group worker. Among these reasons are:
1.
To help make for
an easier access one to another just as persons, without the socio-economic
trappings and status that so often block direct communication.
2.
To help leaders
to become more aware of their own feelings and be more sensitive to the
feelings and needs of others
3.
To help
counteract stereotyped attitudes often found among members of various racial,
religious and cultural groups, and by releasing the potential mutual enrichment
in such groupings to promote understanding among and active interest in them,
leading to a richer common [] live.
4.
To cultivate
among all members of an organization, new and old, a deeper sense of belonging
and fellowship.
5.
To integrate the
newcomer, the person from another ethnic group, the student from abroad, the
refugee, the member of another generation, the migrant worker, and so on, into
the fellowship of the group.
II. The Unique Qualities of Group Conversation
A. When a small number of persons – from 10 to at most
30 – take an hour in which to exchange memories of experiences of joy or sorrow
in a group experience based on spontaneity, a warmth and closeness develop
quietly and quickly. When this sharing is directed around a universal theme,
even a very mixed group can see and feel the oneness of the human family and
can gain an appreciation of the beauty, significance and wondrous qualities
inherent in diversity.
B. Group Conversation is this face-to-face sharing of
experiences both of the past and of the present in a spontaneous atmosphere
which quickly produces rapport.
1.
This kind of sharing helps to break down the fears
and suspicions that separate us because our culture has taught us to see our
differences of age, race, ethnicity, creed or class as liabilities.
2.
While the
initial phases of the give-and-take in a Group Conversation are not
problem-centered, they help build a
basis of faith and trust upon which the participants can more effectively work
out their problems of living together in home and community.
v
This is the uniqueness of Group Conversation – its
ability to quickly produce confidence and trust among its participants.
C. The method described in this book seeks to change the
group situation in such a way as to transcend the fear, suspicion and hostility
so that these forces do not stand in the way of our dealing positively with
them as they arise in our day-to-day transactions with life.
1. The process we call Group Conversation is a way of
using a group to center on each of its members and a way of helping its members
to develop into a real group.
a) I like to think of a real group as a team.
2. Its impact on the individual helps him become more
sensitive to life’s moments and often to motivate him to bring about needed
change, both within himself and within his environment.
3. It is the kind of change which brings deeper, more
sincere and satisfying communication between individuals and thereby gives a
richer quality to our common American life.
D. The authors of this book have [] found that Group
Conversation can be quickly learned and practiced by group leaders in
1. Community centers
2. Government agencies
3. Schools
4. Teacher training institutions
5. Churches
6. And even in homes.
E. Psychological Roots of Group Conversation’s Success
1. Group Conversation is a way of helping members of a
group to experience a sense of our
common humanity by first reaching back into the past for memorable
experiences to be shared around a topic of universal moment.
a) The method is designed to facilitate real and
spontaneous communication by developing the social climate which fosters mutual
regard and confidence.
2. Leaders in social psychology and group procedures see
Group Conversation as a unique and important step in the development of the
group because it…
a) Its effectiveness of this simple informal method for
quickly establishing rapport.
b) Participants are brought into greater readiness for
·
Encounters
·
Discussions
·
Problem solving
·
Decision making
·
And other levels
of social thinking and action.
3. Group Communication breaks though to unifying feelings because it leads
participants to the kind of communication that reaches the hart of a human situation.
v
Gordon Allport says, after experiencing this process, said, “The
participant does not think himself into a democratic way of acting (as
lecturers, preacher, and writers ask us to do) but rather acts himself into a democratic way of thinking. This is
sound psychology.”
F. Group Conversation Revives a Lost Art
1. The name Group Conversation comes from the simple
fact that your having a conversation in the setting of a group.
a) Like any other good conversation form, that much
lamented lost art, it requires a
willingness to share and a willingness to listen creatively with tenderness and
firmness.
2. Understanding and real communication can come only in
wholeness and freedom.
a) If we reflect on these attributes, we realize that
they are requisite to all human relationships, of which person-to-person
conversation is a highly developed and yet spontaneous form.
3. Spontaneity is of the essence, and a well-conducted
session can be a moving and profound experience.
a) This seeming paradox implies a delicate balance of
trust and expectation.
b) It requires
that the leader not only be open to all the magic that can be touched off in a
group, but that he be alert as well to catch the sparks that can set it off.
c) It means that he must be able to convey this faith
and sense of ease to the group; but, as with any art, this ability comes with
practice.
·
The leader
learns to be spontaneous and to trust the group because time and time again
something comes spontaneously from the group which is so much more moving than
anything he may have thought during planning.
·
In fact, he
learns so much from the group – gets such a sense of self-fulfillment and
inspiration – that sometimes he sues the phrase, “There is magic in a group.”
d) This unifying feeling is so necessary to the strength
of a group that all group leaders might well consider using regularly some
method to produce (or, shall we say, release) this feeling of belonging
together.
·
In the most
dangerous phase of the civil rights struggle in the South no march or
demonstration ever took place without spending at least an hour’s time in
singing freedom songs.
·
The leaders knew
the time was well spent, for it was this feeling which carried and upheld them
in facing electric prods, dogs, clubs, and even jail.
·
The Religious
Society of Friends uses the unifying process of a period of group silence [].
G. Extra Points
1. After experiencing common feelings around some
universal topic, the participants now had enough mutual confidence and trust to
be able to bear the thrust of honesty and challenge of an encounter group even
when voices were raised and harsh things said.
2. Group Conversation aims at helping to start flowing
in a group that spirit of mutual confidence and trust needed when members enter
later an encounter group which by its nature consists of being honest if it
hurts.
a) Very often encounter groups. Starting first with
expressions of anger, end on a note of anger with less than a sense of growth.
