Group Development

Right now I think Comms is in the "storming/norming" stage. We formed in April and continued to do so in June. I don't think we have had any huge explosions, but I will admit that I have learned some things about others the hard way. :) We all have different senses of humor. I accidentally said something to one of the girls and it offended her a little bit. It was something that I would be okay if someone said it to me, but I had to learn that it wasn't okay with her. And that is just fine. We are a stronger group because of our differences, and can achieve more by relying on each other's strengths. I think we are also in the "norming" phase. We have more inside jokes than I can count, and it has been a constant party (a constant hardworking party, of course) to work with Brandon, Sarah, Olivia, Karen, and of course, you Tamara. We are learning the working styles of each other and there are expectations that we all are creating for each other.

I don't think there is one way for our areas to maintain the "performing" stage of the group development model. Like we talked about in class, the dynamics of a group are constantly changing. Just like the dynamics of a family change every time a new child is born, the dynamics of our areas will change as we get new volunteers and work with different people. The trick is to get us to be in the performing stage more than the storming. :) We talked in class about conflict and how it isn't always a bad thing. It can't be a totally bad thing, because "storming" is a normal phase. I think that our individual areas can stay in the performing stage for the majority of the time if we are willing to accept each other's differences. We need to realize that our ideas are not always going to be the best and support the best idea even if it isn't ours.