Roles

Different types of roles are being formed in every group. Some of them help the group to achieve its goals and push the process forward ("gate openers": supporter, listener, summarizer etc.), some of them hinder the process and group work ("gate keepers": passive resistant, open opposition, challenger of the trainer etc.)

People can change their roles in the group, and the trainer has to deal with the meaning of these roles, rather than rewarding or sanctioning the persons themselves. The trainer can decide to validate a gate-opener and oppress or confront a gatekeeper, but also to ignore a gate-opener and turn the gatekeeper over, to win that person to the process. But it should serve the goals of the group and should not be out of sympathy or antipathy towards the person in that role.

People usually act those roles, which somehow helped them to achieve their goals in past experience. It can happen that the trainer occupies his/her role (he or she is a leader in another group). See in Rivalization.

Influence

People have different levels of influence on what is happening in the group. It depends on their skills, knowledge, style of communication, position in the community etc. The group has its own life and the trainer has to intervene in this process, if somebody dominates others and the influence of someone is so high that the goals of the group will be endangered. (E.g. if none dares to speak out in front of the Boss.)

The trainer may also want to intervene when s/he sees that the group neglects some people and finds it important to involve them in the process. In this case s/he can use facilitation techniques to increase their influence (e.g. a go-around).

Relations

Within the group a web of relations is formed that takes expression in several forms: who likes to work with whom in pairs or small groups, who are competing with each other, who exchange nonverbal signs during the sessions, who talk and don’t talk to each other during the breaks etc. The trainer needs to be aware of this web but needs to intervene only when the relationships are hindering the group process and the progress in achieving the goals. Such can be the formation of strong cliques, total ignorance toward a group member, two people constantly whispering during the session, alliances against or for something (seemingly with no logical reason) etc.

The actual relationships in the group can be best made seen through the sociometrics.

Norms

Certain norms are followed in every group, which are formed spontaneously over time. They may or may not be verbalized at a later point.

There are two main types of group norms:

Rules that affect behaviours in the group, eg. can someone be late, is it allowed to laugh, is it allowed to criticize the leader or the methodology, does everyone get heard etc.

Values and traditions, eg. tolerating lateness: nothing important happens until everyone arrives; rewarding aggressiveness: those who interrupt are never shut down; equal chances to talk: none talks twice before everyone talked once etc.

There may be competition around whose norm will prevail.

The relevance of the norms can be tested when a new member comes: how easily he/she can become part of the group.

Rivalization

Rivalization or competition is a typical thing in most groups. It happens among group members or between a group member (or more) and the trainer.

Competition among group members is usually for being favoured by the trainer. As an example, when a trainer starts the session, s/he already has an agenda in her/his mind and therefore will be supportive towards those who agree with and accept the agenda for the day and will weaken the expressions of dissent (both verbal and nonverbal in both cases). This shows the group who gave the right answers and who gave the wrong ones and therefore have a clue for gaining the favours of the trainer (or to provoke him/her).

Competition with the trainer can originate in the fact that the person has a leadership role outside the training room which is now occupied by the trainer; or because the trainer reminds the participant about a previous relationship (a parent or a boss) and projects those feelings onto him/her (see Projection).

When there are two trainers, the group might make an effort to separate them by nominating one of them to be the “good guy” (supporting, more competent), the other one the “bad guy” (confrontative, incompetent).

Resistance

Resistance can have different reasons. Sometimes a person is arriving to the training with a - probably subconscious - determination to act in conflict. In this case s/he is likely to become a passive or open opposite (see Roles). In other cases, resistance is produced by the group as a normal reaction to the inappropriate conduct of the trainer, irrelevance of the topic etc. Therefore resistance can be a good feedback to the trainer!

Competence

Levels of competence are usually varied within the group. The trainer has to find the middle range so as not to make the whole group adapt to the lowest or highest competence (expertise, speed of learning etc.).

At the same time, the level of the competence of the group as a whole is also changing as they become involved in the process. While in the beginning the trainer can tell them how things are going to be, later on it there will be a need to share the process and involve the group in decisions.

Projection

This is a phenomena where one person subconsciously identifies the other not as who s/he is, but as an earlier person they had relation with.