Welcome back. Currently, we're exploring the important concept of group development and how it relates to group communication. Now last time, we looked at the what of group development focusing on socialization, norms and roles. Now, we turn our attention to the how of group development. Looking at different models that explain the manner in which groups develop over time and the important events and stage and turning points groups experience in their life cycles. Of course, every group is unique and no model can perfectly capture or explain all aspects of all groups. But decades of research have shown that most groups exhibit recognizable patterns in their development. And we can model this development in ways that enhance our understanding and help us increase the likelihood of more favorable outcomes more often. Because if we can recognize where we're at in our group's development and how we got there, then we can respond better to various situations and communicate in ways that are most effective of that stage of our group and the task at hand. There are lots of different models of group development that attempt to explain and even predict how groups unfold and progress over time. But over the years researchers have concluded that most models can be group into two main categories. Phase models of group development, which we'll focus on in this video and multiple sequence models, which is the subject of our next video. So rather than get bogged down in the particulars of any specific model, we'll focus on these two broad categories of group development. Phases and multiple sequences. First up, let's talk about phase models of group development. This describes a collection of models that arose throughout the 20th century. As researchers studied many different groups working on many different tasks. The basic idea here is that groups develop through a series of unitary phases or stages. That shape the groups structure, relationship, patterns and task behavior. And by phase or stage, we just mean a period of unified activity that fulfill some function. For example, when groups initially meet, they are often in a phase that is highly relational and exploratory. Getting to know each other, learning how everyone likes to work, figuring out how the group will operate. But it since developed the group spends less time on this relation or respiratory activities and moves on to a stage that is characterized by more focused work and task accomplishment. The most famous phase model is Bruce Tuchman's phase model of group development. Created back in the 1960 and find tune throughout the 1970s. This is basically a meta model of group development because it encompasses so many other specific models. Tuckman, in his research, reviewed nearly a hundred research studies of group development to create this overall model. Even if you've never heard of Tuckman, I bet you've come across some of the key features of his model. It looks like this. This model suggests that over time groups move through four recognizable phases of development on their way towards becoming a high performing group or team. Though of course, the boundaries between each phase are inevitably a bit fuzzy. The x axis going across the bottom, charts the progress of the group over time. While the y axis up the side indicates the overall effectiveness of the group in relation to why the group was created in the first place. As you can see, this model shows that groups begin with a forming stage where the group starts to take shape. Members still act like individuals and everyone is trying to figure out their place in the group and how everything is going to work. Next groups tend to take a little bit of a dip in their effectiveness as members seek to establish their place on the team and they engage in constructive conflict. Though sometimes destructive conflict, about how best to approach the task at hand or the problem they need to solve. Then things kind of level off a bit and as groups proceed to a norming phase, where expectations and patterns of behavior become more regular and predictable. There is a general consensus about who the group is, how everyone fits in. And how everyone approaches their responsibilities. This leads to, ideally, a performing stage, where the group has a clear strategy and a shared vision. And the group is executing at a high level. Now, later, a fifth stage was added, adjourning, it sort of rhymes. It indicates task completion and often involves some sort of recognition of the groups accomplishments and that their work is done. And maybe that the group is even disbanded. So over time, groups advance through various phases and stages, on their way towards becoming a high function group or team, that is proficient at task accomplishment. Or they become dysfunctional if they don't make adequate progress through these phases and get stuck at a particular stage. And as you can imagine, this understanding of group development is important for group communication because different phases call for different kinds of communication. And the phases, themselves are created and maintained, through the ways in which, we interact with each other. To progress from the forming stage, to the storming stage, for example, it's important that group members begin asserting their ideas. And engaging in constructive conflict and critique, to refine their ideas. Otherwise, the group will stay stuck in the shallowness of the forming stage, and never be very effective as a group. So it's very important that we recognize which phase our group is in, which phase we need to progress to. And communicate with each other in ways that are both appropriate for a given phase and enable us to progress to the next phase. This idea of a phase model generally represents the conventional wisdom of group development. It's the default assumption for when people talk about group development much of the time. In fact, many people just assume group development is synonymous with a phase model. That's just what group development is. And surely a phase model does cohere with many of our firsthand experiences with group development. After all, it's obvious that many groups we've worked with begin with what we might recognize as some formative stage. Then there are some growing pains as we level out to a normal phase and hopefully achieve some higher level of performance. So what's wrong with this? Well, there's nothing necessarily wrong with the phase model of group development, it's just that it's a bit simplistic and incomplete. And it doesn't adequately account for how many groups actually work in real life. See, the main critique of the phase model is that it's a linear model, assuming that groups move linearly through unitary stages. But despite the popular appeal of a phase model, researchers have demonstrated for years that this isn't exactly how many groups actually work. Here's the problem, most early research on group development was in the laboratory with what we call zero history groups. People who came together in a social science laboratory, like on a university campus, who were put in groups to perform a specific task observed by researchers. Either on video or through a two way mirror, but a small group research became more natural, studying real life groups in their actual settings. We learn that group development is a bit more complicated than a linear progression through a unitary fascist. In fact, groups often cycle back and forth between various phases and might actually be involved in more than one phase at a time. So in our next video, we'll complicate our understanding of group development just a little bit more looking at multiple sequence models of group development. But for now it's good to start with a basic understanding of group development. As a series of recognizable phases that groups progress through over time on their way towards achieving great overall effectiveness. And when groups aren't effective, phase models can help us understand where groups might be stuck and how we need to communicate differently to make progress towards the next phase. Well, I'll see you next time as we continue learning more about the important concept of group development and how this understanding can improve our overall group communication.
