My small group, the Dominators, has been very proactive from the start. We scheduled our first meeting on Tuesday, September 15, one hour before class started. This meeting helped our group to get ahead of the game and prepare for our group proposal and service project. The phrase “communication is key” replayed in my head during our meeting. Communication is defined in our book, Communicating in Small Groups, as “how you make sense out of the world and share that since with others” (p.50). I believe that our group did an excellent job of fulfilling this task. When discussing what community service project our group should partake in one member suggested volunteering at a golf center. Through communication, as a group we decided to go in a
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Two of the members in our group are global students. Across the world different countries all have different norms. One issue that I believe is getting in the way of our group is what our norms are. “Norms are standards that establish which behaviors are normally permitted or encouraged within the group and which are forbidden or discouraged” (50), as described in the Communicating In Small Groups textbook. For me making jokes and laughter is a huge way to connect with other members of my group. Because of the language barrier and different norms my group has a hard time, as a whole, connecting. Another example that our cultural different norms can be seen is the way we sit. I am accustomed to sitting very close to the people that I am working with but other people in my group do not feel this way. There are 4 of us that sit closer while the other two are more spread out from the group. This becomes a disadvantage to our group because of the separation. At times there would be two conversations going on just because of the distance. I believe that one thing I can do to improve the performance of this group is be more elaborative. The important group role of elaboration helps explain an idea in different ways so that all group members understand. The group norm issue can easily be solved through the technique of elaboration. If one group member does not understand what is being discussed, elaborating
Two of the members in our group are global students. Across the world different countries all have different norms. One issue that I believe is getting in the way of our group is what our norms are. “Norms are standards that establish which behaviors are normally permitted or encouraged within the group and which are forbidden or discouraged” (50), as described in the Communicating In Small Groups textbook. For me making jokes and laughter is a huge way to connect with other members of my group. Because of the language barrier and different norms my group has a hard time, as a whole, connecting. Another example that our cultural different norms can be seen is the way we sit. I am accustomed to sitting very close to the people that I am working with but other people in my group do not feel this way. There are 4 of us that sit closer while the other two are more spread out from the group. This becomes a disadvantage to our group because of the separation. At times there would be two conversations going on just because of the distance. I believe that one thing I can do to improve the performance of this group is be more elaborative. The important group role of elaboration helps explain an idea in different ways so that all group members understand. The group norm issue can easily be solved through the technique of elaboration. If one group member does not understand what is being discussed, elaborating