Group Dynamics

Every time you're in a meeting, whether with one other person or twenty, you're in a group. Task groups, work groups, departments, committees—all kinds of groups dominate organizational life. In fact, they're every organization's basic operating unit. But think about it. How many people complain that groups and meetings are the least productive and rewarding parts of their job? As much as we work in groups, it's sad that their potential often goes unrealized.

What is group dynamics?

Group dynamics is the study of groups, especially of smaller groups (less than 20 people). Because people in small groups interact and influence each other in powerful and complex ways, groups develop many dynamic processes that differ from how individuals act. These processes include norms, roles, hierarchy, power and authority, need to belong, need for solidarity, group assumptions, boundaries, and social influences—to name some. Group dynamics is one of the frontiers of social psychology and seeks new ways to understand group behavior. The emphasis is on then applying this knowledge to help groups function better.

How we develop groups

We develop work groups by applying group dynamics theory and knowledge in ways that help groups become more cohesive, purposeful, and effective. The aim is to minimize growing pains and accelerate performance improvement. For instance, any group can improve its performance by learning group process skills, group social skills, and group management skills. We help groups get better at all three, but find that the last one is especially overlooked. Organizing meetings, monitoring budgets, planning strategy, setting goals, monitoring performance, reviewing schedules, and so on are all routine work-group tasks. But most groups do them poorly. When a group masters these basics, not only does performance dramatically rise, but morale and job satisfaction do, too.

Our group dynamics work draws from the latest applied social science research. This has led to an emphasis on aligning groups with their environments to optimize performance in terms of clear and functional improvement metrics. Our consultants are experienced with many group facilitation and communication tools such as Council process, group creative problem solving, appreciative inquiry, group dialogue, non-violent communication, Myers Briggs, FIRO-B, Gestalt, and transactional analysis. But in no case do we impose any of these as a group cure-all.