Process Facilitation Basics – Group Dynamics – IMGD Model – Roles Of Members and Leaders

I promised to give you more than One Model for group Dynamics. I remember that promise and after discussing about the role of members and leaders in relation to the IMGD Model I will give you some more models of group dynamics. Lets see the roles of Effective membership and leadership in connection to the group dynamic model that we discussed last time.

Effective Membership

Members in any group are responsible for the group. It is up to them to make or break the dynamics. I studied and acted upon some key points during my group work and internship. Following are the examples/key points for different situations. Members should remember these points and act accordingly for the best possible outcomes of the group work. These points can help groups to achieve the highest stage in IMGD Model.

1. Members encourage the process goal, role and task clarification.
2. Members do not blame each other, or the leader, for group problems.
3. Members encourage the adaptation of an open communication structure where all member input and feedback is heard.
4. Members promote an appropriate ratio of task and supportive communication.
5. Members are aware of and promote effective problem solving and decision-making procedures.
6. Members encourage the establishment of norms that support productivity, innovation, freedom of expression.
7. Members discourage any group tendency to over-legislate individual behavior through the adaptation of excessive or unnecessary norms.
8. Individuals voluntarily conform with norms that promote group effectiveness.
9. Members support division of labor, such as coalitions and subgroups, necessary to accomplish group goals.
10. Members promote group cohesion and cooperation.
11. Members interact outside the group for the task need.
12. Members are familiar with research on group development and productivity and utilize this information in the group.
13. Members encourage the group to frequently access and alter, if necessary, its functioning in order to facilitate individual and groups’ well being and productivity.

Very simple but effective point. What do you think? No Idea? Read them again. 🙂 These points are here to help you get started and than it is all up to you to make it work for yourself. As in these lines I cannot describe many different situations. Now let us see the role of a Leader in each group stage.

Effective Leadership

Like members, Leaders have a huge responsibility and this responsibility varies from stage to stage. I have discussed about it in the earlier posts. Below you will see the key points one more time so let us see what are the important key points/scenes/examples in relation to Leader’s role in a group while working with IMGD Model.

1. Stage 1 leaders are directive, confident, and organised.
2. Stage 1 leaders help members feel included and safe.
3. Stage 1 leaders facilitate open discussions of goals, values, and roles.
4. Stage 1 leaders set high performance standards.
5. Stage 1 leaders manage the external environment, negotiate for needed resources, and buffer the group from excessive demands.
6. Stage 1 leaders talk positively about the group to others.
7. When members begin to demand more participation in running the group, stage 2 leaders slowly begin to empower them.
8. Stage 2 leaders help the group to resolve the conflicts about goals, roles, and leadership.
9. Stage 2 leaders do not take attacks or challenges personally or retaliate for those challenges.
10. Stage 3 leaders delegate some of their responsibilities to members. They encourage member efforts to take on more responsibilities.
11. Stage 3 leaders encourage efforts to change things that get in the way of productivity.
12. Stage 4 leaders participate as an expert member of the team.
13. Stage 4 leaders continue to monitor processes, progress, productivity, and external feedback.
14. Effective leaders, at all stages of group development, observe all the rules of effective membership.

In very simple words, the role of Leader gets smaller and smaller as the group progresses to the higher stage in group development. So this is it folks I have shared a great model with you guys and to give you some more inspiration about leadership I have added a nice Ted Talk for you. Enjoy it!!!

Now that you have read a lot about group development, members roles, and leader’s role. So its time for you to ask your self this question. Which leader inspire you? Write his behaviors and skills that you like and you want to adopt them and make them part of your life. And explain by defining Behaviors and Skills. You can share these with me and rest of the world by commenting below or keep them with you and look them up time to time. I am happy as long as you Reflect. And to give you an example I can kick start with some of my thoughts on a leader that I like. My leader should have Behaviors such as: Listener, Confident, Self Esteem, Belief in Himself and his Skills should be in: Communication, Debate and Manage himself in worst conditions etc. Now its your turn to give me examples and its best if you explain why you like what you wrote.

Now lets get back to my Promise. I am sharing two links from Wikipedia and these links contain some of the most important Models. Remember that all these Models are working on the same rule and if you follow the techniques that I have shared in this post and the previous two posts you are good to go. You can choose any Model that you feel comfortable working with and than stick to it till the end. The links are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_development
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_dynamics

This is the end of today’s post. I hope you have enjoyed it and learned something from it. Spread the knowledge and don’t forget to Reflect. See you in the next post.

//Imran