Ch 2 outline of the Group Conversation Method

Outline of Reducing Social Tension and Conflict

Chapter 2: Group Conversation Enhances Other Methods

I.      While sometimes Group Conversation is used alone as an enriching, esthetic, even an entertaining social experience in itself to help a group reach its goals of social action more easily and effectively, it is most often used in connection with other group methods.

·           This method is more than an ice breaker, more than merely getting to know the names of those who have come together and a briefly-told fact about them.

A.     Facilitates Group Discussion

1.     Group Conversation is not group discussion but moves into it when relevant. Group Conversation purposefully uses a minimum of structuring of the group so that discussion of problems is not invited at the outset of the meeting.

a)     The controversial aspects of an issue are intentionally postponed until a mood of acceptance has been developed so that the members of the group are able to enter the discussion phase when they are ready to enter into it constructively and with a sense of trust, openness and directness.

b)     Most experienced leaders know that, until the feeling of strangeness, suspicion or even hostility is cleared, little real business in any meeting can be taken care of.

c)      When the feelings are complicated by many kinds of differences, not to mention those of nationality, religion or race, the blocks to real group development can be serious.

2.     If we assume that a group goes from discussion to problem solving and decision, thence to commitment and action, then Group Conversation may be seen as a prior step to this progression.

a)     Group Conversation prepares for profitable discussion by helping to point up the basic and strategic aspects of a problem so that the group can look squarely at what is of issue, then work on it. 

b)     Too often we cover up what is fundamental by cluttering the issue with nonessential; we loose sight of the goals of a program or the crux of a problem.

c)      We consciously and purposely hide certain crucial data from others, or unconsciously secrete them out ourselves.

3.     Group Conversation can be especially helpful to bring up to the level of awareness much of the material which we either as individuals or as a group, have pushed below with our rationalizations.

a)     Sharing earlier experiences of having been made to feel strange or different or queer, or of being rejected or of rejecting, may, for example, bring importation facets and depth to the exploration of some aspect of the issues (fair employment or school integration)

b)    The kind of data we should need to look for, how we could best go about getting at them – in fact, the very way we formulate a problem – could be uncovered by the kind of interchange at this level of emotional involvement.

4.     The discussion phase may flow directly out of concerns pointed up in the Group Conversation and become one continuous process if the leader feels at home in both techniques. Or the discussion may follay a coffee or refreshment break.

a)     The topic for the Group Conversation need not necessarily be related to the problem to be discussed, though often it is.

·           For example: A meeting between white and black men who are real estate operators, meeting together for the first time to consider first steps they might take toward open housing in a Southern city, matched their memories of boyhood games at the start of the evening. The release of tensions through laughter about those early escapades, and they were very similar as they were to all American boys, gave the group the momentum after coffee to make some first steps together on the thorny subject of housing.

b)     Group Conversation serves as a prelude to the workshop. It establishes an atmosphere that inspires the participants to share the kind of experiences that will bring deeper meaning to the impact of the total workshop.

B.     Impetus to Conference Progress

1.     For introducing the theme of a conference, seminar, or workshop, Group Conversation can be very effective.

a)     It can help a group, meeting for the first time, and for a short period, to move into the matter at hand much more rapidly and directly.

·           Not only can the necessary details of introduction be taken care of, but attendant anxieties to establish identity and “protocol” (a need so much more pronounced in the frenzy and briefness of conference encounters) can be allayed.

·           Members are more ready to buckle down to business, in sufficient depth to proceed with intensity and progress.

·           Many leaders who have worked a Group Conversation into the schedule find that the time is more than compensated for by the speed with which the rest of the meeting moves into the heart of the discussion and action.

b)     There may be occasion to use several group methods with Group Conversation.  

·           As an initial event on any program, Group Conversation can be valuable for the reasons given above. It may be used at anytime in a schedule to open up a session, or a discussion, or a new structuring of the group.

·           If the assembly is a large one, the different units may be set up in a concurrent round of Group Conversation.

­       A skilled leader can work with a very large group, but should not look for as deep penetration in the individual experiences.

­       Through vicarious participation, however, a group mood can be developed even in a large gathering which carries over into other parts of the program.

­       If the conference is on urban renewal and housing, for example, a Group Conversation, carefully planned to elicit emotional experiences around home or rooms with which we can identify deeply, can be a potent discussion dynamic.

C.     Provides Warm-up for Buzz Groups

1.     Group Conversation can be used very effectively to warm up a large group preparatory to its break-up into buzz groups in which case real thought must go into structuring the questions that are to be buzzed.

a)     The leader should be reminded also that the dividing of the groups should be done as quickly as possible

b)     They should, however, enhance or sharpen the areas of personal as well as group relevance and identity.

·           In such situations differing groups can learn from each other. 

D.    Sets Up Role Play

1.     For the leader who is trained in role playing and can see applicable incidents to play to for elucidation or for psycho- or socio- dramatic impact, Group Conversation is a particularly fertile sources for this kind of material, easier and more relevant to deal with than incidents imagined before the session by the role play leader.

a)     Here, the experience to be re-enacted, with the full potential and range of role playing, is oftentimes the more dramatic and meaningful because it arises in the context of the group’s sharing and situation.

2.     The Group Conversation leader need not be the one to stage the role playing. Often it would be well for the two functions to be lodged in different persons, especially if both are sensitive to group phenomena and to each others leadership style.

a)     Perhaps for those new to the method, it would be better for the role playing to follow the completion of the Group Conversation phase

b)     It may not be easy for the novice to keep hold of the mood or direction of the Group Conversation although, by and large, both processes operate on the dimensions of the emotions.

3.     As one familiar with the dynamics and procedures of role playing is aware, the closer to the evaluation of the experience the re-enactment can come, the greater the psychological impact.

a)    Because the incident is the emotional property of the group, it can be used with effect at anytime in the context of the group.

·           Emotional property is valuable for all of the reasons stated above, but because of its unique relationship to the group it is a powerful force in the battle of otherness in its unifying function.

4.     The experienced leader of role playing will see that its use in the contest discussed is especially effective in problems of social or self-inquiry and understanding.

a)     Where the group is small and is on ongoing one, it is very often effective to play out the incident as it is offered in the Group Conversation, in any or all of the ramifications that may ensue in role playing.

5.     Very often we have found that the playing out of a highly relevant experience becomes the moving and impact-filled climax of a meeting.

a)     It becomes, that is, the dramatic ending of the Group Conversation session.

b)     Whether the group moves from this point depends on its resources, needs, and maturity as a group, and on the awareness, imagination, and creativity of its leaders.

c)      The fullness of the moment can be translated into many kinds of assets on which can be built dimensions of growth as an individual, as a group, as a community, as a people.