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Group Facilitation – Team Yellowbirds

Chapter 28 – Holding Risky Conversations | Print the Handout

With your partner(s), role play your assigned scenario. You should consider the suggested process listed below during your discussion.

Suggested process:

• Share your view of what happened
• Talk about how you both feel
• Clarify needs and interest
• Jointly design solutions

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Scenario I – Internet Safety / Appropriate use

You recently discovered that your fourteen year old daughter has an account on the very popular MySpace Social Networking web site. You have learned from a family member that she has posted several provocative pictures of herself taken with her cell phone on the page. In the pictures she is skimpily dressed in fact in one picture she is dressed in underwear only. In addition to the images, you also have learned that she has begun developing relationships with boys with whom she has begun texting and is contemplating moving beyond the online environment to face-to-face.

You are extremely concerned about her welfare and safety so you have decided to talk with her.

How can you best approach this risky conversation?

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Scenario II – Disabled employee who is consistently late for work

You are an office manager and oversee 22 employees. You have been the manager for 3 months. Since you have had this position, a wheelchair bond employee has come into work late weekly. Over the past three weeks, the weekly occurrences have become twice a week. Sometimes this person is late by up to 20 minutes. You understand that this person has a disability but you also need to be fair to the other employees. This past week a group of six employees present to your office with concerns of their coworkers tardiness and question if there tardiness would be tolerated. The tardiness of the “handicapped” employee impacts the other employees by unequal disruption of task and not following group norms. Accommodations for parking and building access have been made for this employee.

How can you best approach this “risky conversation”?

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Scenario III – Employee with Body Order

You are a manager at Walmart and you have an employee that develops a body odor everyday around the same time each day.  It seems to develop after working a couple hours on the clock while stocking shelves. His coworkers try to avoid working on the same isle as him to avoid the smell because it is very offensive. You are now faced with confronting him to address his body odor.

How can you best approach this “risky conversation”?

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Scenario IV   Work Dress Code / Appropriate Attire

You are a manager who of a very small company, 3-5 employees.  You are concerned about the wearing of inappropriate attire / clothing in the office by the employees.  Complaints have been made by other employees as well ‘comments’ from a few clients about side cut skirts stopping over the knees, low cut / revealing shirts, single strap shirts, partially see through shirts.

This attire is inconsistent with the company policy and you have tried subtly to address your concerns. You have also tried to reinforce the short and vague policy to employees by putting it their mailboxes. Your employees feel as though they has made the necessary adjustments and that they are adhering to the policy as written.

How can you best approach this ‘risky conversation’?

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Scenario V      Domestic Violence/ Family Content

You find your teenage daughter crying and sobbing inconsolably in her bedroom. When you finally get your daughter to talk, she tells you that a male friend assaulted her physically and sexually. However, when you suggest calling the police or a rape crisis center, your daughter adamantly refuses, and says she does not want to talk to anyone.

At the same time, a teenage girl is still a child, and as with all youngsters in crisis, it is often necessary for adults to step in and take charge for the sake of your daughter’s safety and welfare. However, your daughter is adamant about remaining silent. How do you help your daughter?

How can you best approach this ‘risky conversation’?

• Share her/her view of what happened
• Talk about how each feels
• Clarify needs and interests
• Jointly design solutions

I came into ADLT 612 with very few apprehensions in regards to working in groups and teams. I have worked in a variety of groups and teams, so the idea of is not foreign to me. I actually find working in groups and teams to be very rewarding. A collective group of people have much more of an impact than a single individual alone because each group member brings a unique perspective and skill set to the group process. I have found this to be true in many of the committees and workgroups that I have been a part. As a group we accomplished so much more than any of us would have individually.

My goals for taking this were two-fold. First, I wanted to obtain information that would help me to become a more productive member of any group or team to which I am a member. Second, since I work in an environment where being a team player is a valued skill; I wanted to learn more about the nuts and bolts of the group process. In my current position, I supervise multiple individuals from a variety of age groups and backgrounds. At the end of the course, I am happy to say that I have learned a good bit of information that will help me in the years to come. The course content has allowed me to look at working in groups and teams from a different perspective.

First and foremost, both textbooks used for the course were absolutely outstanding. I will definitely be attending both to my personal collection as reference tools. I can see myself referring to the Schwarz’s The Skilled Facilitator Fieldbook repeatedly. One of the things that I appreciate most about this text is the fact that facilitation skills are useful in a variety of settings. Not only will these be helpful in my career but also when interacting with family. I am planning to test out my facilitative skills at my next family meeting. My family tends to be a rowdy bunch so these skills may help our discussions move along. On the other hand, the skills have already helped me at work during a recent focus group I facilitated with health sciences students. For instance, one of the initial steps I did was to lay the ground rules to all participants were expected to adhere.

I plan to delve a little deeper into the text especially in Part Six – Leading and Changing Organizations. I believe the information in that section will be vital in my role as a department head but also as I work my way to becoming a library director.

Now that I have completed the course, one of the most significant pieces of information that has been reaffirmed is the importance of open communication to the group process. Open communication is a key part of the group process as it will ensure that ALL group members are on the same page. I appreciated learning about the Diagnosis-Intervention Cycle. It is a wonderful tool to help groups bring issues to surface and to get group members talking. My group, Team Yellowbirds, actually used the diagnosis-intervention cycle to help us navigate through a minor conflict. I am also walking away from the course with a clearer understanding of the ladder of inference. I was first introduced to the ladder of inference as an undergraduate but I did not fully understand the significance at that point.

Overall, this was an excellent course, I enjoyed all the information we learned. I have never taken a course were the majority of the assignments were done as part of a group. I actually appreciated this part of the class because I work in an environment with group work is essential and required. I also enjoyed all of the films that watched this semester. All three were vivid depictions of group work. While I had seen all three before, I had never thought about them in terms of the group process. They were excellent choices.

Lessons Learned for the Road Ahead

I have learned a tremendous amount of information in the class that I will use in my work environment. One of the things that I will take with me is the importance of keeping the lines of communication open when working in a team environment. Communication is such a key ingredient to a team’s success. In addition, I will continue to support and foster an environment where individual group members feel as if they can express them selves without ridicule or being made to feel as if their opinions don’t matter. This type of environment amongst professionals is just not acceptable. It is also extremely important to make sure that members feel that their efforts toward team progress are appreciated. As a manager, I will definitely be using the diagnosis-intervention cycle to help the staff that I supervise work through communication issues. Lastly, the importance of setting clear, measurable goals and expectations is essential before tasks are assigned. This will ensure that everyone is one the same page and that all team members understand their role in the group process.

As I look back over the semester, I think Team Yellowbirds was very much a successful group because of several key conditions. First, every member of our team was committed to excelling in this course. Second, we all came to the group with a willingness to use our previous experiences and skill sets to support the group process. Third, we all were committed to putting forth our best effort for the team. This course exceeded my best expectations in that it challenged me as an individual to work towards becoming a more productive group member. I feel that I am armed with information that will help me in the years to come in a variety of settings whether they are personal or professional. Furthermore, the information that we learned has reaffirmed the importance of moving beyond the singular ‘I’ toward to more collective ‘We’ when working as a part of a group.

Well, what can I say. I don’t think I fully understand Mashups or APIs. I will definitely be continuing to explore this technology for its practical uses in a library environment.

A blog is a “website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in reverse chronological order”.

A wiki is “a website that allows visitors to add, remove, edit, and change content…and allows for linking among any number of pages”. (Definition found at MPLIC Tech Train website.)

• Week 2 Blog List
• Week 2 Wiki List

I have found photo sharing tools such as Flickr, Shutterbug, and Google’s Picaso to be very useful in personal and professional lives. Personally, I have used Shutterbug to store and share images from my family reunions. This has allowed family members who have taken pictures at the reunion to upload their photos in a central account. My library recently purchased a Flickr account. We are planning to use this account to share selected pictures of library-sponsored events with our users, to share selected images from our special collections and archives with our users, to show progress with renovation projects, and to pictures of our library building.

My Flickr Photostream: www.flickr.com/shannjones

My Picaso Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/shdejones

Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere? I can see the practicality of both. First, as a research tool, I would use delicious to store links to resources and web pages that were visited during a research consultation. This would also be good in instruction sessions for compiling helpful resources for faculty, staff, and students in a particular discipline. On the flipside, I’ve also used del.icio.us to create bookmarks that I may access whether I am home or at work.