Day 3 continued

We were put into groups and sent to different sessions.One such session was led by Doug Hearst, a lawyer and community college instructor. He taught "perception and small group decision making" (Per Doug, you can't have one without the other). Very good session- he made the concepts crystal clear thru hands-on examples, of which I'll post some links.

• Intrapersonal (within yourself) communication affects interpersonal (between or among others) communication  
• "Perception" is the foundation of communcation for dyads, triads, quads and small groups
• "Perception" means every person within the communication will perceive things differently.
• It all begins with physical limitations; everyone has "blind spots". For an example, see the youtube video of the "passing basketball awareness test": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47LCLoidJh4.
• Doug also had us watch a spinning wheel like this, then try to look at each other. After wards, the optical illusion makes others' heads take on wierd shapes :
• 
• The point? As communicators, we "screen out" stuff.
• Steps of the perception process:

1. selection filters: future, present or past
2. organization (schema or narrative)
3. interpret: influences, experiences, prior knowledge, background, mood, culture and lack of info

• We seek out perceptions that reinforce existing beleifs.
• Barriers to perceptions:

1. We cling to first impressions
2. we assume others are like us (in thinking, etc)
3. we follow stereotypes and prejudices

Conclusion:

• Make sure your small group understands the need for group dynamics
• Have a clear agenda / process
• Use criteria whenever possible

Group Dynamics = Organizational Developement
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics#Dimensions_of_group_process
Aspects of group process include:

• Patterns of communication and coordination
• Patterns of influence
• Roles / relationship
• Patterns of dominance (e.g. who leads, who defers)
• Balance of task focus vs social focus
• Level of group effectiveness
• How conflict is handled^[5]
• Emotional state of the group as a whole, what Wilfred Bion called basic assumptions.

• Phase	Task Functions	Personal Relations Functions
  1	Orientation	Testing and Dependence
  2	Organizing to Get Work Done	Intragroup Conflict
  3	Information-flow	Group Cohesion
  4	Problem-solving	Interdependence