Social Work: Group Techniques (7006E

What are the 5 c’s to run an effective task group?

• Control

• Conflict

• Communication

• Consensus

• Cohesion

During a task group meeting, what skills should social work leaders use to maintain control?

• ask open-ended questions

• Paraphrase

• Summarize

• Someone should be appointed to count the minutes (meetings should be less than 2 hrs)

• Set realistic goals

• Members should help establish rules and task assignments

What should leaders do during conflict?

• It’s a healthy group process

• Members should be encouraged to give their input

• Members should know their may be differences in opinion

• Conversation shouldn’t end during a possible sign of conflict or go for a long period of time (seen as unproductive)

• Important skills to resolve conflict: negotiation, mediation, and arbitration

What are some communication skills leaders should have?

• different communication styles can lead to miscommunication (especially in groups with different professions)

  • A doctor may use jargon which is meaningless to to other group members

• leaders should encourage and model good communication behaviors

• need to be aware of noncommunication (eye rolling, frowning, and shaking heads)

what is cohesion linked to?

• group member satisfaction

• leaders should strive for a sense of belonging among their members by involving members in group activities and encouraging interaction between members

what does group consensus mean?

all members agree with the decision and everyone has a voice

(this might not be possible in larger groups: majority vote is an option)

What are leadership strategies to achieve group consensus?

• deciding the procedure for coming to an agreement (hand raising, secret ballot)

• decisions should be made during meetings

  • a small group of members should not make a decision outside of the meeting

• discussing the advantages and disadvantages

what should occur during task group meetings?

•Introduce new members

•Seek approval for minutes and obtain a minute taker

•Follow the agenda – make sure to save time for all items

•Model the behavior expected of members

What should occur when a task meeting is ending?

•Summarize the meeting’s accomplishments

•Praise members for their efforts

•Identify issues and agenda items that need additional attention and the meeting schedule

•Mention major topics for the next meeting

•Summarize tasks members agreed to accomplish for the next meeting

how to meet the agendas outline?

•Examine and approve minutes

•Make information announcements

•Vote to include special agenda items

•Have officer and committee reports

•Work on less controversial, easier items

•Work on more difficult items

•Work on for discussion only items

•Consider any special agenda items

•Adjourn

What should occur between meetings?

•Work on meeting decisions and tasks

•Prepare reports for the next meeting

•Prepare for the next meeting

•Call for agenda items before the next meeting

How can you help members feel involved?

•Emphasize the importance of the group’s work in the context of larger goals

•Assign members specific roles

•Invite members’ input into the agenda and the decision-making process of the group

•Encourage decision-making participation

What group factors inhibit creativity and idea generation?

–Status conscious members and non-verbal messages

–Norms and social pressure to conform

–The censoring of controversial opinions

what is a model for effective problem solving?

•Identifying a problem

•Developing goals

•Collecting data

•Developing plans

•Selecting the best plan

•Implementing the plan

how should you handle information generated by the group?

–Separate relevant from irrelevant facts

–Combine similar facts

–Identify discrepancies

–Look for patterns across different facts

–Rank facts from most important to least important

what are smart goals?

• S: Specific (What?, Where?, How?, When?)

  • What do you want to do?

• M: Measurable (Break it down into measurable units)

  • How will you know when you’ve reached it?

• A: Achievable (Is your goal attainable?)

  • Is it in your power to accomplish it?

• R: Realistic (Can you realistically achieve it?)

• T: Timely (Make a blueprint. Time is money!)

  • when do you exactly want to accomplish it?

What are some brainstorming procedures?

•Warm up for 15 minutes to help generate creative ideas on another topic

•The problem is then explained and clarified

•The four steps are conducted with a second person writing the ideas down

what are the benefits of brainstorming?

•Dependence on a single authority is reduced

•Open sharing of ideas is encouraged

•Members of highly competitive groups can feel safer

•Maximum output of ideas in a short time

•Members ideas are posted for all to see

•Ideas generated internally rather than imposed

what is the purpose of a focus group?

•Generating hypotheses about the way individuals think/behave; tested quantitatively

•Obtaining in-depth information about the topic

•Generating or evaluating impressions/opinions about the services being offered by an agency

What are the strengths of focus groups?

• can lead to spontaneous responses

• can generate a variety of ideas

• can observe non-verbal behaviors

• flexible

what are the limitations of focus groups?

• group’s influence on individual responses

• less control on group dynamics

• possibility of emotional triggering by others sharing

• discomfort with group and topic (ex: group member may be uncomfortable talking about mental health)

• assembling appropriate groups takes time and resources

• need a strong group facilitator

• limits to confidentiality

What are focus group facilitators’ tasks?

• keep the discussion focused on the topic

• help people feel comfortable as possible in answering questions

• clarify when something seems confusing

• when posing questions:

  • move from general to specific questions

  • avoid leading questions

• also observe non-verbal behaviors & interactional patterns

  • having a co-facilitator/observer is helpful

Sample Focus Group Agenda

prior to the start time: Registration & consent forms

1. introduction (5-10 min)

   1. participants can use pseudonyms

2. Focus group discussions (5 questions, 20 minutes each)

3. Close (10 min)

   1. finish on a positive note (e.g., a closing activity)

   2. thank you for participating

what are the procedures of the nominal group technique (NGT)?

•Use a flip chart or a blackboard

•Develop a clear statement of the problem

•Round robin recording of ideas –people can pass until all ideas have been expressed

•Generate new ideas from ideas listed

•Combine ideas, eliminate duplicates

•Discuss ideas

•Vote anonymously

•Keep ideas with most votes

•Discuss each remaining idea

•Revote

What are the benefits of NGT?

•Stimulates ideas by everyone

•Avoids evaluative judgments

•Provides members an opportunity to search their own thoughts

•Avoids dominance by strong personalities

•Prevents premature decision making

•Encourages all members to participate

What are the procedures to increase judgement accuracy?

• Having members make independent judgments

• Expressing judgments mathematically by ranking or rating items

• Using the mean score of independent judgments to form the group’s decision

• Having anonymous judgments

What is the multiattribute utility analysis?

• Create constraints and minimum criteria

• Create attributes of the problem

• Create functional forms (graphs) for each attribute

• Create weights for each attribute

• Make decisions based on mathematical calculations

What are the Quality Circles (QC) Core Principles?

• Commitment from top level management

• Providing training to staff in Q C, problem-solving and statistical controls

• Voluntary membership

• A focus on problems identified by workers rather than management

What are the classes of motions in Parliamentary Procedure?

• Privileged motions

• Incidental motions

• Subsidiary motions

• Main motion: “I move”

What are the procedures of the Phillips’ 66 model?

• Clear instructions

• Break the group down into smaller subgroups of 6 to 8 members with a leader and recorder

• Have each group work for 30 minutes or so depending on the issues

• Have the recorder report back to the larger group when it reconvenes

What are strategies for raising public awareness?

• Meeting with community residents

• Making presentations to civic and religious organizations

• Testifying at public hearings

• Publicizing the issue through newspapers and newsletters, radio, T V and websites

• Demonstrating, picketing, and boycotting