It's the Final Countdown...

My journey here, at the VCU and in this course is about to end. It is sad. I admit it. But let’s face it, the final stage of a group life, adjourning, is about to happen and I cannot do anything about it, it is a planned ending. I knew it when I came here, but as all the ends, this end just came too suddenly. Time has flown fast, too fast. As Levi (2007, 40) points out, “The adjourning stage can be stressful to team members because they are ending the social relations that they have developed.”  However, even though I’m wistful, I feel blessed. I can’t even put it into words how amazing this whole experience has been. It has most definitely been a great opportunity for me to learn; learn things about myself and things how I really can be a member of a successful team.

This will be my last post. In the summary I will use Levi’s (2007, p.4) words to describe my reflections and feelings about group dynamics: “The people in a team are connected to one another. They recognize this connection, and it binds them together so that they collectively share what happens to fellow group members. Team members interact with one another where communication is the central process of a team. The people in a team recognize and acknowledge their membership. Formal and informal rules and roles of the group control the interactions of group members. The people in a team influence one another, and the desire to remain in the team increases the potential for mutual influence. Finally, a team satisfies members’ physical and psychological needs, such that individuals are motivates to continue participation.”

For the paradoxes of group life I will refer to Smith and Berg (1997, 152): "Circles. One cannot escape the feeling that an exploration of paradox is like walking in circles. It is hard to know where you have come from and where you are going. But the more one lives with a paradoxical perspective, the more one develops a tolerance for circles and for the places where two apparently contradictory paths join."

Finally, I want to say something of my own: “This learning journey is about to end. But it will stay with me. I have learned what opposite forces are, they are paradoxes. My paradox is that this trip has faced its end but it means something new will begin. Paradoxes can also be like circles. My circle is that after this life experience I will travel this circle again even though the circle will be different. I will have this experience with in my new circle and it makes it different. It’s called learning and development. I know that I have travelled many circles before this but this circle is special. It has been rich, sunny, energetic, fruitfully, and colorful. It has painted my world view and it will stay in my heart for the rest of my life. The End.”

Intergroup Influences

So far I have discussed about the paradoxes of intragroup influences in group life. It’s interesting wow we can see those same thing as a phenomenon’s also between the groups, as intergroup influences.  In the text of Smith & Berg (1997) they present three paradoxes of intergroup influences: The Paradox of Scarcity, Perception, and Power. In the class it was very interesting when we started to reflect these paradoxes to the movies we have seen. How different things we saw happening in the movies. Of course we also saw similar things, but in the class I realized how important it is in adult learning to be able to share our thoughts and discuss in the class room. It’s probably the most effective way to learn, to share and discuss in groups and teams.

But what comes to these paradoxes of scarcity, perception, and power they relate very strongly to cooperation, competition, and communication, to the topics we had a chance to use in our lesson couple weeks ago. In my opinion the paradox of scarcity is about the competition between the teams, “we want to have it all” or “we want to be the best and most praised”. As we taught in our lesson, too much competition takes something away from effective cooperation and communication. Cooperation and communication plays an important part also in the paradox of perception. As Smith & Berg (1997) says in the text book, every individual sees things differently around the world. And the whole world is divided into various groups. If we don’t cooperate or we don’t have the skills to communicate with other groups or teams, we will face the paradox of perception because every group has to work on two forms of integration; 1. It must learn how to bring its members together so that a group can act as a unified whole and 2. A group must develop ways of integrating itself with other groups. By saying that I mean that it’s not only if “we”, the individuals in our group play well together and find the mutual way to interact, we also need to have perception to the bigger picture how to interact between the groups and teams. Power, in the end, combines it all; cooperation, competition, and communication. We need to loose our competitive side of ourselves and our group and be able to share the power to achieve the greater good. It also means we need to cooperate. Without cooperation we might face the situation of the paradox where we have two sides: the powerful and the powerless, the haves and the have-nots. “In this sense, power is an attribute of the relationship between groups, rather than of any group itself” (Smith & Berg, p. 197). Leadership plays important role in this picture, it creates the boundaries that are the life and the death of the group.

Reflections of the Paradoxes of Speaking

Now I can say it out loud, I’m almost a teacher!! I had the biggest test of our teacher education two weeks ago. It was about the Didactics and it was implemented as a group test so we accomplished our task as a group of four health science teacher students. This particular group has been together for a long time, approximately for two years. We have spent a lot of time together because of our studies and we have accomplished many tasks and achieved many goals in our journey. In this group we are already faced the forming, storming, norming, and performing stages and the group and its members have found the balance how to be successful.

 
As Smith & Berg (1997) refers the paradox of speaking is a description of the journey of a team to become a successful, active, well-functioning “ecosystem” where the members and the team find a balance to express their individual and mutual voice. The paradox of speaking deals with the concepts of authority, dependency, creativity and courage. The concepts represent the possibility of empowerment, the created conditions where a team can achieve its best outcome in an environment where the task and social orientation are in balance, people have a chance to engage in the team, to be productive without fearing mistakes and to have faith. In this particular study group we have been very successful, but also we have done mistakes. The paradox of speaking could also refer to communication, to the ability to speak up and use our own voice. It means that it is the only way to a group to learn to build the environment to be successful and have trust and faith. And trust me, we have learned how to communicate, both good and bad.

The key factor is the dynamic of influence team members have on each other. The paradox of speaking arises from an influencing process in groups and teams, the struggle with influencing and being influenced (Smith & Berg, 1997). In a team we need the courage to trust to influence and to be influenced. In my study group it’s unconditional because we are dependent from each other. Even though we have to work as individuals we have to acknowledge that without our team and our best effort we can’t achieve as good outcome as we can as a group. It’s our best interest to put an effort to a group because we all have the same goal: to become competent teachers of health sciences, to learn. This has been a journey that is going to face its last stage of group life, adjourning. And I already feel wistful because something good is going to end in some form. But on the other hand it means courage to let go because it means creativity. As it said in Smith & Berg (1997) something old must be destroyed to build something new. In addition it makes me realize that the end of my journey at the VCU is also facing its end soon. But that is something I don't want to think about, not yet.

The Learning Journey Continues and a little bit about the Paradoxes of Engaging

All the experiences of learning! Aahhh! We really had a fun class yesterday! In addition we have had an extremely fun two weeks before that. Now I’m talking about our time with our presentations and our first big goal to achieve. Last time I wrote about belonging, the first paradox of group life. During these two weeks something happened! In this team, Globetrotters, I really felt that we, as a team, were developing and we were moving towards engaging. The paradoxes of engaging consists of disclosure, trust, intimacy and regression (Smith & Berg, 1997, pp. 110-111). They refers that trust between the team members builds a safe environment where the team can develop, can communicate freely knowing that listening occurs, are able to make mistakes safely, are able to learn from them and succeed in an atmosphere where there is no contradiction between your own values and your teams values. And that is how I have felt during this time that we have had together when we have prepared our (awesome) presentation. I have to admit that I felt a little bit nervous yesterday before my “own part”. I trusted to my teammates so much that I could confess that I’m feeling unsure and nervous about my oral presentation and I might need some help. But as I said to my teammates after the presentation that I knew that if something goes wrong (I mean I start to get confused with my words for example) I have my teammates at my side who I can trust to help me out. 

As we could see in the movies "12 Angry men", "Apollo 13", and “Remember the Titans” how individuals from different backgrounds can achieve consensus, move from forming, storming, and norming to performing and achieve something important together. I could consider engaging as mutually approved understanding, as a journey how to be a successful team; how to get the pieces to fit together in an effective way and build an environment where members want to continue their journey within the group. I really feel that I want to engage to this group and continue my learning journey within the group.

Learning and Growing

New points of views, facets, ideas, experiences, and learning. Those are my thoughts of the group dynamics so far at the VCU. During my time here I have learned a lot about new cultures, ways to communicate and operate, and ways to get to know new people. I have been privileged to join in many different groups and face so many new point of views. And despite the fact that every group has its’ special characteristic, there is room for different personalities, backgrounds, opinions, and perspectives. That's why the best part of this journey is that I have started to feel that I fit in. I  have had a chance to start to show my own personality, identity and individuality. And the involvement in groups has been a rewarding participation in groups because of the social relationships.  I could say that I have started to feel belonging. 

As in the movies we have seen in the class there are many challenges in a journey of a team forming.  And also the reflections of the group dynamics of the readings to the real life and real situations has been a big part of my learning. As an exchange student I face new group situations almost in every day.  In my opinion it's important that I have had a chance to identify and reflect the challenges of a group dynamics in to my own experiences. It has made my journey much more interesting and easier! I consider myself as an explorer who tries to learn as much as possible. And the fun part is that it’s starting to change my worldview. By saying that, I mean some of my attitude and priorities. And it’s all positive! The new experiences with new people have helped me to learn things about myself. And even though one could see this change of my indentity or individuality as a paradox it doesn't always mean that it is a bad thing. I mean that I'm not trying to be something that I'm not. I mean that a change can be good and it can make us learn and grow. Time is making its’ magic and my journey here proceed successfully. 

Paradoxes of Group Life

The definition of paradoxes in this context could be “a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth.” As in The Paradoxes of Life by Dalai Lama, we can see statements or concepts which contain conflicting ideas. A connection of that statement refers to our tasks to reflect our own thoughts and experiences to group dynamics. Smith & Berg (1997, 11) expresses that “group life is inherently paradoxical”. And by saying that, they mean that individual members experience the group as being filled with contradictory and opposing emotions, thoughts, and actions that coexist inside the group (Smith & Berg, 1997, 15). In my opinion inherently can be associated with people, the human nature, which creates the paradoxical nature in group life. As can be seen in Dalai Lama’s text, people are paradoxical. And it makes the dynamics in group life interesting!

The Paradox of Our Age

“Where I'm From” by Sini Puustinen

I am from Thousand Lakes

the White Snow and Green Forests

the Fresh Air I can breathe and live in freedom.

I am from happiness and peacefulness

the Smile and Warm Hugs that makes me feel safe.

I am from Love

the Bedrock that surrounds me with Stability

I am from Acceptance

the Come as You Are.

I am from the Activity and Adventure

the Sports, Friends and Social Butterfly

the New Things to Explore

as if I could conquer the World.

I am from These Things

Confident and Full of Dreams.

First thoughts, feelings, and reactions

As an exchange student I was a little bit worried how I'm going to manage in the foreign country, in the VCU, with new friends,  and in classes: how I figure out how to honor cultural traditions and manners, am I going to fit in, what the others will think of me, am I being accepted, and am I going to be succesfull. All of these thoughts came into my mind at home in Finland before I had even booked my flights! I was afraid but excited, it frightened me and it felt good at the same time.

And after the first class of learning in groups and teams I realised that I have had the same thoughts and questions which are very common concerning new situations with groups and teams. It is the nature of human being, I assume. It doesn't matter what kind of new experience of socializing with new people in a new environment you are going to face, you are going to deal with these same concerns and questions.

It takes time to develop a successful group.In this point as an exchange student my being here has been a travel from a group to another. I am sailing in the first stage of group development, forming, with new people, getting to know new people in different settings and I am liking it! The forming stage is probably the most exciting part of the group development! But because of the knowledge from the reading about groups and teams, I'm waiting some storming... And when that happens I know I'm doing some progress in my journey to be an exchange student who figured out how to honor cultural traditions and manners, has fitted in, knows what the others think of me, is being accepted (hopefully), and is going to be succesfull. It just takes some norming, performing and adjourning after storming!

Sini