Our group faced some unique struggles in respect to this project. We had a serious conflict, but were able to resolve everything and become a succinct and cohesive group afterward. I truly believe that if we had not gone through the aforementioned conflict, we would not have been successful as a group.
Our group development very closely followed Tuckman’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Rust, 2015). First, our group was formed through random selection within the class. Although it was not totally random because all people in the class share a few common threads like: being SUNY New Paltz students, being students in Small Group Communication, and mostly being Communication majors or minors. …show more content…
I have a rather assertive personality, so I felt confident and comfortable to represent the group in this pending conversation, as did Cailin and Emily. Toni was supportive of the cause and agreed to comment when she felt necessary, but Alexa is a very non-confrontational person and was not comfortable with asserting herself in the conflict. But, she did make it clear that we had her support in our group decision. After many weeks of deliberation and building tensions, we decided to ask him to leave our group. As we explained to him our decision, he rebuttled with excuses about the health of his grandmother. While we were all sympathetic, we communicated that it did not excuse his constant absence from the group. Tensions rose as we hashed it out and just as we ran out of things to say to him to make him understand our perspective, Alexa asserted herself into the conversation unexpectedly and communicated to him what the rest of us were unable to make him comprehend. As he understood our decision was final, the tensions fizzled out and we were left with a feeling of relief that the storming was over and our group had survived as one cohesive unit, even though we had to lose a member to accomplish
Our group development very closely followed Tuckman’s stages of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Rust, 2015). First, our group was formed through random selection within the class. Although it was not totally random because all people in the class share a few common threads like: being SUNY New Paltz students, being students in Small Group Communication, and mostly being Communication majors or minors. …show more content…
I have a rather assertive personality, so I felt confident and comfortable to represent the group in this pending conversation, as did Cailin and Emily. Toni was supportive of the cause and agreed to comment when she felt necessary, but Alexa is a very non-confrontational person and was not comfortable with asserting herself in the conflict. But, she did make it clear that we had her support in our group decision. After many weeks of deliberation and building tensions, we decided to ask him to leave our group. As we explained to him our decision, he rebuttled with excuses about the health of his grandmother. While we were all sympathetic, we communicated that it did not excuse his constant absence from the group. Tensions rose as we hashed it out and just as we ran out of things to say to him to make him understand our perspective, Alexa asserted herself into the conversation unexpectedly and communicated to him what the rest of us were unable to make him comprehend. As he understood our decision was final, the tensions fizzled out and we were left with a feeling of relief that the storming was over and our group had survived as one cohesive unit, even though we had to lose a member to accomplish