Observing Group Process and Intervening to Improve Its Functioning
Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind.
——Louis Pasteur1
You’ve already read about group process in Chapter 2 as well as in many of the other chapters describing methods and attitudes that promote positive group process. In fact, you can prevent many potential workshop difficulties by employing competencies described throughout this book
The ability to generate effective group process and to repair a faltering one is a key ability that separates a first-rate trainer from a mediocre trainer. Since this is such a crucial aspect of training, we’ll do a mini-review of the difference between content and process. Then you’ll see that rather than focus your attention primarily on delivering the course content, it’s important to also be proactive in generating positive group process. Next, we’ll discuss what to look for when observing group process and how to intervene when group process is deteriorating and interfering with learning.
The Difference Between Content and Group Process
Content is what is taught: it’s the subject matter of the workshop—the concepts, attitudes, methods, and/or skills that are to be learned.
Process focuses on how the training group is functioning. It’s composed of two related aspects of group experience:
• The emotions the individuals in the group are experiencing
• The ever-fluctuating interaction of participants as they encounter each other, the workshop content, and the trainer
Process is always present in training and inevitably contributes to or detracts from learning.
Be Proactive in Generating Positive Group Process
Trainers generally have considerable content to deliver and, unless there’s a crisis in the group, the typical workshop leader focuses the bulk of his attention and energy on delivering the content well. In the meantime, he’s apt to pay scant attention to group process. However, the research is clear: good group process facilitates learning; poor group process undermines learning. So a high priority of savvy trainers is to be proactive in developing positive process in their workshops.
A trainer who is focusing on generating positive group process asks himself questions such as the following:
“What can I do to increase participants’ comfort with what we’re doing?”
“What can I do to get participants more involved?”
“Would a change of pace increase the group’s energy?”
“Does the group need a break?”
And well before any problems appear, he asks the group some checking questions:
“How are things going so far?”
“Have I been clear about this?”
“How useful does this seem to you?”
“Is there something you would like to add?”
How to “Read” Group Process
When taking the pulse of a group, look for the following:
• Indicators of positive process
• Indicators of mediocre process
• Indicators of negative process
Indicators of Positive Process
When a group’s process is effective, it is characterized by attentiveness, high energy, humor, and questions to clarify anything that is not understood—in short by good “vibes.” There’s also a general camaraderie among participants. This is the kind of group in which learning is enjoyable, positive relationships are formed, and people complete the workshop with a sense of accomplishment and motivation to do better on the job. Although when leading webinars, group process is harder to read and is less front and center than in a workshop, it is still important to remain aware of process, as you’ll see later in the chapter.
Indicators of Mediocre Process
In a group with mediocre process, people take a “wait and see” attitude. There’s a minimum of either positive or negative contributions. People may be simply marking time until they decide whether or not this training is worthwhile. Although a few participants may be attentive and interacting, the group is emotionally flat; blah.
Indicators of Negative Process
When several of the characteristics and behaviors listed below are present, the group you are working with is exhibiting negative process and it’s likely that learning has deteriorated significantly. When signs of negative process begin to appear, they’re often nonverbal. If they’re not addressed quickly and successfully, you’re likely to soon find yourself coping with vocal criticism of the course and/or yourself.
Nonverbal Indicators of Negative Process
When group process has deteriorated significantly some or all of the following symptoms will appear:
1. Low level of energy. Participants slump in their chair, yawn, sigh, and show little positive emotion. A listless quietness settles over the group.
2. Slow to move into activity, practice, or discussion groups. Participants take unnecessary time to gather their materials, get up from their chairs, find a partner, and settle into their activity, practice, or discussion.
3. Late in returning on time from breaks and lunch. Although timing guidelines have been presented clearly, a pattern emerges in which a number of participants repeatedly straggle in several minutes late.
4. Subgroups may form. Discontented students often cluster together in ways that retard workshop cohesion and performance.
5. Overt lack of interest in the workshop. Several people look out the window or leaf aimlessly through the materials to show their lack of interest and boredom. Someone might be reading the newspaper during your presentations.
6. Lack of eye contact. There is little eye contact with the trainer or with other participants.
7. Avoidance of the trainer during breaks or lunchtime. A number of participants make it clear through their blatant avoidance that they are not going to interact with the trainer.
Verbal indicators of Negative Process
1. Little verbal participation or group interaction. Few trainees make comments or ask or answer questions. During practice sessions, many chat rather than practice.
2. Making excuses. Participants are far more likely than usual to make excuses for arriving late, leaving early, or not completing classwork or homework.
3. Being argumentative. Participants debate excessively, contradict, and assume a challenging point of view regarding much of the workshop content.
4. Attacks on the course. Some participants may derogatively refer to the training as “charm school” and proclaim that what’s being taught will never work in the “real world.”
5. Inappropriate humor. Sarcasm directed at the trainer and or the course content.
6. Verbal attacks on the trainer. Occasionally, the situation may turn so ugly that a few of the more hostile participants attempt to discredit the trainer as a person who is unqualified to lead the workshop. Or they may put him down in other ways either publically or in private conversations.
Dealing with Negative Group Process
One of the biggest mistakes a trainer can make is to pretend that nothing is wrong in a workshop when everyone knows that things are going badly: the trainer knows, the participants know, and anyone just dropping in would know. So why would a trainer ignore the obvious problems and not address the situation?
Fear and ignorance often combine to be a formidable influence to do nothing. The ignorance is about not knowing how to handle the difficult situation. And the fear is of the bad things that could happen if the trainer addressed the problem in the group. If fear and ignorance win out when dealing with negative group process, the workshop will soon plummet out of control.
Learning to identify negative process and mastering the skill of successfully intervening when the group is floundering will banish whatever ignorance and fear a trainer may have about dealing with negative group process.
The Seven-Step Method for Restoring Positive Group Process
Although you have worked diligently to create a positive group process, as we’ve discussed, there’ll be times when you find yourself leading a group in which many members are using nonverbal as well as verbal behaviors that negatively affect group process. You realize that you’ll have to intervene to restore positive process. Here’s a time-tested way to proceed:
1. Observe the behavior of the participants.
2. Stop teaching, pull a chair to the front of the group and the center of the room, and sit down.
3. Say what you see and invite a response.
4. Listen attentively until everyone who wants to have a say has said it.
5. Summarize the problem and invite problem solving.
6. Evaluate the solutions and gain agreement on any emerging redesign adjustments.
7. Close, and take a brief break.
1. Observe the Behavior of the Participants
The ability to distinguish between a behavior and an inference is essential for this step of the intervention. As noted in our book, People Styles at Work . . . and Beyond, second edition:
Behavior is what a person does that can be seen and heard and therefore is observable. Behavior includes posture, gestures, facial expressions, the actions we take, and so forth. . . . There are many inner qualities that lie beneath the surface—thoughts, feelings, attitudes, motives, beliefs, and values. These inner qualities cannot be observed. No one can know for sure what’s taking place in someone’s inner world. We can only infer—guess—what someone else is thinking or feeling.
. . . When asked to observe and then describe behavior, people often report inferences. In our workshops, for example, before defining and giving examples of the distinction between observation and inference, a trainer often explains that he will do some behaviors and afterward will ask participants to describe the behaviors they observe. The trainer will then take some action like stomping across the room while shouting and shaking a fist. When asked what behaviors they observed most people tell the trainer, “You were angry.” Without realizing it, they stated their inference (that the trainer was angry) instead of reporting the trainer’s behaviors (stomping across the room and shaking a fist).
When observing a group, focus your observation strictly on behavior. Avoid the tendency to jump from observation of behavior to assuming what thoughts or feelings may be driving the behavior. You may automatically make inferences about what triggered the behavior; but don’t include those inferences in your description of the behavior.
2. Stop Teaching, Pull a Chair to the Front of the Group and the Center of the Room, and Sit Down
When you decide to intervene, stop teaching. Become silent. Typically you will have been standing in the front of the room. When you shift to sitting down, it signals that something different is about to happen and participant’s attention is heightened.
3. Say What You See and Invite a Response
Here’s how to say what you see and invite a response in a training program. Describe the behavior that’s interfering with the learning. For example, “I noticed that some of you are coming back late from breaks, others move very slowly into work groups, and there’s no discussion of the questions I raise. This leads me to think that I’m missing the mark with you.” When saying what you see, make it clear, nonjudgmental, and brief.
Then ask for the group’s help in understanding what’s happening. Asking for it might sound like this: “Help me understand what’s going on.” Then discipline yourself to remain silent until someone responds to your request.
Typically, everyone will be silent for a while. You may be tempted to fill the void by saying more about what you are asking and why. If you give in to that urge, you’ll undercut your intervention. If you remain silent, someone will speak up.
4. Listen Attentively Until Everyone Who Wants to Have a Say Has Said It
As you hear the various responses you may feel your defensiveness rising. However, this is not the time to justify yourself or the workshop. Nor is it the time to agree or disagree with what’s being said. Instead, use the skills of listening that you learned in Chapter 12. No matter what comes up, continue listening until you sense that the group is finished. To be sure that everyone who wants to speak has spoken, at what seems to be the end of the sharing, you can ask, “Anyone else?”
5. Summarize the Problem and Invite Problem Solving
If five or six people are talking about the same problem but saying it differently, make an integrated statement of the issue. Add to that statement any other problems that were raised. For example, “It seems that several of you feel overloaded in your work and that attending this training is causing you some stress. Others feel frustrated because you’ve already taken training with some of this content. A third piece of the problem seems to be . . . ”
Thank the group for their openness. Then say, “I think if we put our heads together we can come up with some ideas to get us back on track. How can we work this out?” Say it optimistically; show that you have confidence that the group members have the ability to solve the problems they just described.
If you have ideas about how to solve the problems that were raised, hold back and let the group solve the problem. The group’s ownership of the problems and the solutions will motivate participants to make them work. If a suggestion is made that would be unacceptable to the client or to you, say so. However, wait until the end of the discussion when you and the group are evaluating the solutions. If you interrupt the flow of ideas with comments about what will and won’t work, you’ll reduce the group’s problem-solving momentum. As the discussion is winding down, if you have something to contribute, this is a good time to say it.
6. Evaluate the Solutions and Gain Agreement on Any Emerging Redesign Adjustments
Invite the group to put together ideas that will meet the needs of the group, the trainer, and the client (whose needs will usually be voiced by the trainer since the client is unlikely to be in the room). Write the final product on an easel chart for future reference.
7. Close, and Take a Brief Break
This is a time to signal that the interaction is over. Thank the participants for their help. A break (typically ten minutes) gives both the trainer and the group a bit of time to shift gears. The trainer can use some of this time to figure out how to start making some of the changes that the group called for and how to get back on schedule. As far as possible incorporate what the group decided to change as soon as you can. That will demonstrate that you are taking the group’s input seriously.
Chapter 25 discusses dealing with this kind of situation, which if you are a career trainer you’ll undoubtedly experience from time to time.
Trusting the Method
Course leaders in our training firm were taught the seven-step method described above. The crux of the training followed our regular teaching method that’s described in Chapter 3: tell how, show how with debriefing, practice, and feedback.
Tell how: The leader described a situation in which the participants were disruptive and disengaged and described how to handle such a situation successfully.
Show how: The leader demonstrated the method with the other trainers acting as participants in the class and then debriefed the demonstration.
Practice: Each trainer practiced the method using the other trainers as their participants.
Feedback: The trainers who were acting as participants gave feedback to the practicing trainer.
Each trainer had one practice as well as the opportunity to observe each of the nine other trainers practice and receive feedback.
The following week, a team of two from this group was scheduled to co-lead a workshop: Louise, with years of experience in the lead role, and the second trainer, Bob, prepared and capable but inexperienced.
Within the first hour of the training it was clear that this group was not willing to participate in a constructive way. On the first break the trainers huddled. Louise summarized the challenge they faced and began searching for solutions. Bob listened, then suggested that they use the seven-step method they learned last week.
“Are you serious? I’m not facing this contentious group with a method I’ve never used before,” Louise responded.
Silence followed. Then Bob said, “I think I learned the method pretty well and I’m willing to use it if you think it’s worth a shot.”
After weighing the options, Louise gave her okay.
When the participants reluctantly returned to class, Bob pulled his chair to the front of the room and sat down. He observed the group until everyone was settled in their seats and giving their full attention. Then Bob said what he had been seeing: “I noticed that many of you were not making eye contact with either Louise or me when we were presenting the course material. Some of you were thumbing through books, while a couple of people were reading newspapers. Others were looking out the window or had their eyes closed. Can you help me understand what’s happening?”
Bob waited silently for a response. He did not rephrase the question nor did he use any techniques to encourage an answer. After a little over thirty seconds a participant named Jack said, “It’s not that anything is exactly happening. We’re just not a gung-ho group.”
“Just a generally quiet group” Bob reflected.
“You’ve got that right,” said Jack.
Bob waited through another long pause.
“This is getting pretty silly.” said Alice.
“A little ridiculous,” reflected Bob.
“Well yes,” continued Alice, “I mean we’re all adults here. Why can’t we just tell him the truth? He happened to hit us with this training at a particularly sensitive time.”
“Timing for this training is way off,” Bob reflected.
“I would have told Bob that,” said Jack, “but I wasn’t sure how everyone would feel about discussing this salary dispute in class. Maybe we should just move on and forget about it.”
“Some things might be better left unsaid,” Bob reflected.
“Or maybe not,” Kevin interjected. “It looks like we’re going to waste a whole day of training if it continues like this.”
“Seems like the group has a choice about how to proceed,” Bob reflected. He paused briefly and added, “How are we going to solve this problem?”
The participants vented some of their anger about the company trying to renegotiate a new wage scale when the employees thought that was a done deal. After discussing a bit they decided that the training room might not be the best place to deal with that problem and agreed to set the wage dispute aside for now and get down to the business of learning the content of the workshop.
Bob summarized the agreement, thanked the group for their forthrightness, and announced a break before resuming the training. The group returned from the break filled with lively conversation and ready to participate in the remainder of the training program.
Bob’s ability to describe the group’s behavior, his nonjudgmental tone of voice, and his neutral facial expression lowered the group’s tension and kept their defensiveness from rising. When he waited for someone to respond he was able to be patient because of his confidence that someone would eventually speak. Without this foundation undergirding the seven-step method, the likelihood of success is limited.
A participant wrote in the final evaluation, “The highlight of the workshop for me was when Bob sat down with the group and had a frank discussion about the fact that things weren’t going well. I see that this is a great ability for me as a supervisor to have.”
The news of that incident spread through our trainer network. In describing the episode to her colleagues in our training network, Louise said that an unforgettable learning from that episode was to “trust the method.” Before long the phrase “trust the method” had become a catch phrase for using the seven-step method whenever positive group process was seriously eroding.