Positive Dynamics

A Systemic Narrative Approach to Facilitating Groups

Margaret Henning

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781350305786
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Psychotherapy
• Index: Psychology

Group work is a common and valuable resource used in many areas: from therapy, education and training, to businesses and commercial organisations. At its best, group work is rich and productive, promoting open and honest communication; at its worst, it can become a source of failure and hostility. In this clear and engaging book, Margaret Henning focuses on the concrete practicalities of how to make groups vehicles for success, whether in supervision, therapy or self-development, in optimising team function, or in achieving specific organisational tasks. With a focus on the role of group facilitators, she lays out a model of group work based in systemic and narrative techniques generating optimal conditions for groups to achieve success. The book will appeal not only to counselling and psychotherapy practitioners and students, but to those in social work, education and management settings. Grounded in a firm psychological basis, Positive Dynamics pulls together what is known about creating a 'best possible' group culture and, informed by extensive experience, describes the principles and techniques for achieving it.

1

GROUPS AND SOCIAL REALITIES

Why this book?

Jill is sitting in her course Personal Development Group and hating it as usual. Maggie and James have already started squabbling about gender and power. They always take up much of the talking time and at this point of the academic year Jill is beginning to feel desperate because she knows that their participation will be noted and yet she has said nothing at all to date. Jean, the facilitator, is sitting silently, as she nearly always does, but Jill is sure she is watching her and realising her inadequacies. She feels that these will be fed back to the course staff group even though this is theoretically a ‘safe space’.

Maggie is getting to the point where she wants to shriek out obscenities. She is bitterly angry that this group seems to use her as a scapegoat and allocate to her the role of ‘bossy bitch’. She is supposed to be learning to ‘self-reflect’ but her emotional arousal is such that she can’t reflect on anything but blaming others for her situation. Today she had promised herself that she would remain silent but James and Lisa had immediately started needling her until she lashed out verbally.

GROUP 1

The above scenario is still unfortunately familiar to group participants in the field of therapies and psychology, whether in development or training groups or in group therapy. The task of the facilitator is defined as noting and possibly interpreting the interactive dynamics which arise spontaneously. In theory terms, the facilitator will ‘discover’ real, neurotic aspects of the participants’ psychic functioning or of the whole group’s psychic functioning (see, for example, Bion 1961, Foulkes & Anthony 1957). To what extent this functioning has been induced by characteristics of the total relational space is not sufficiently taken into account. In high threat situations, we all become more rigid and defensive and learning and creativity are seriously compromised.

Carl Rogers, whose ideas about groups were very influential in the encounter groups period, came from the opposite direction. He believed that man is basically good, with an actualising tendency, and that therefore the group could be trusted to run itself. Thorne and Sanders (2013, p. 14) remark that ‘he believed in the capacity of the group to find its own way forward and by refusing to exert his authority in the normal way he helped establish a truly democratic climate in which power-sharing became a daily reality’. This commitment to democratic process opened up very important advances in theorising about therapeutic groups and education but this opposite direction still produced a group in which there was insufficient control over dynamics, leading to problems.

In business groups (e.g. team meetings, strategy meetings, focus groups) there is usually a fixed agenda and a task focus. This means that group dynamics are not generally observed or theorised by the group leader and often do not seem to intrude too obviously on the achievement of the task. Relational space tends to be kept more positive by a strong task focus. In fact, organisational and business group development has usually asked the question, ‘How do we get the objectives met in as timely and efficient way as possible?’

So, is the whole secret of running successful groups to keep a strong task focus? It certainly can be useful and positive to do so. However, the lack of attention to interpersonal dynamics can seriously undermine the attainment of task. Leaders running this type of group often find the group process is ambushed by negative interactions. There is no option but to see this as accidental and possibly to blame, or even exclude, particular individuals.

Many therapeutic and training groups also have a strong task focus. For example, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) groups work through the individual group member’s interaction with the (instructional) material. Other group members supply a social (and hopefully supportive) context but the relational dynamics are not seen as needing to be theorised as part of the therapeutic endeavour. Some theorists would say that this might not, therefore, be a true group but rather an aggregate (defined as individuals sharing a space, such as a classroom, but not necessarily relating with each other). I would argue that learning is enhanced and task effectiveness is increased in a positive and cohesive group environment.

So there we have the two contrasting valences of the current ways of doing group work; attend to dynamics or attend to task. Of course, I am simplifying for the sake of clarity. Even with a strong task focus the leader might well be paying some attention to dynamics and even in a group therapy or personal development situation there may be attention to tasks.

I believe that whatever the type of group, the facilitator should be noting and working with both task focus and relational dynamics, with a duty of intervening proactively to keep relational space optimised for the achievement of task and the benefit of participants. In some longer-term groups, such as work teams, the necessity for a joint focus becomes even more obviously essential. In natural, relatively permanent groups, such as the family or nation, there are leadership roles but little formal allocation of the duty of facilitation.

What can a group member do if the leader or facilitator does not facilitate? Actually, any member can take some responsibility for group dynamics in a relatively unstructured situation. Let us use the above example and see what can change.

Maggie discusses the difficulties of the group in her individual supervision and her supervisor suggests that she should take responsibility herself for making the dynamics less dysfunctional. She decides to try a version of the miracle question ( De Shazar & Dolan 2007). Accordingly, she comments early in the next group meeting, ‘I wonder what we will see happening in this group if a miracle has happened overnight and the group is meeting each of our needs in a really satisfying way?’ After a short pause, people start addressing themselves to this question and the conversation becomes much more positive than it has been before.

Jill still lacks the confidence to join in but Maggie has noticed her silence and at a point in the ensuing conversation turns to her and asks, ‘Jill, I wonder what you are thinking about that?’ Jill replies with what she is thinking and finds to her surprise that her ideas are well received in the group. This makes it easier for her to take part in future discussions.

GROUP 1

When the meeting is very structured, it is less possible for a member to step into this facilitator position. The chair is in charge. The group member usually has the right to suggest agenda items. There might be limited opportunities to apply some of the techniques described later; however, this book is written primarily for those who have the task of leading or facilitating any groups, whether business meetings, teams, therapy or supervision groups, teaching or training, or any other.

What about groups which by definition have ‘no facilitator’? There are some groups which are defined by their nature as egalitarian and leaderless. An example of this would be a peer support or peer supervision group. As we see in the Group 1 example, a member could unilaterally take up the role. This could give rise to some problem dynamics. If the unofficial facilitator has a high enough comparative status the group can accept this and it can work but then there actually is a de facto leader. Maggie, in the above example, will almost certainly generate resentment in one or more of the others in the room and one would hope that this potential cost was thoroughly explored in her supervision before she took the step.

If this leaderless group wishes to remain such it is necessary to agree at inception what arrangements can be made for someone to facilitate; to take responsibility for dynamics and task structuring. It might be decided that all should take responsibility but this rarely works out without some social awkwardness and the risk of splitting and/or loss of impetus. The group as a whole can easily become inefficient in any or all of its functions. There are possible solutions. For example there can be a rolling programme of a different member taking up the role in each separate meeting and it might even be decided to allocate facilitation and structuring to different individuals in any given meeting.

This book therefore aims to be a practical manual for group facilitators, whether therapists, supervisors, managers, educators or even members who are taking up the role. Grounded in a firm psychological evidence base, it focuses on the concrete practicalities of how to make groups vehicles for success, whether in achieving therapy or self-development, in optimising team functioning or in achieving specific organisational tasks. The general theory and technique are covered first and some specific applications are later described.

FOR REFLECTION

• Think of a group you belong to. How much are you aware of the task/s and how much of the dynamics or relationships?

• Now do the same reflection with another group you belong to. Is the task/dynamics balance the same or different? Why?

• Who facilitates each of these? Is the facilitator also the group leader?

• Who holds what power in these groups? Why that person or those people?

• What would you or wouldn’t you say in that group? Why?

Meet the author

Before we start, you might want to know a little about who is writing this book and why. I am a Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Family (Systemic) Psychotherapist with a background in teaching, especially the teaching of adults and children with specific learning disabilities or emotional difficulties.

Since leaving teaching and re-training in psychology and family therapy, I have been engaged in various forms of group facilitation for about 25 years. Starting with therapeutic work with traditional extended families in Zimbabwe, I also facilitated family therapy teams and engaged in interactive training and in team development for various organisations. Coming to the UK in 1997, I worked for the NHS, where I was soon involved in management but also continued to engage in training, therapy, supervision and team building, refining and developing the model explained in this book.

I currently have a private practice, which includes all of the same activities. Apart from being a therapist, I do some training and university teaching and continue to offer group and team supervision, both in the NHS and the Voluntary Sector.

I am a committed Christian, a widow with a ‘tribe’ of children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. As a white person from Africa I have always had to grapple with ideas about cultural difference and relative power. When I worked in Harare Central Hospital with (usually poor, rural, traditional) black Zimbabweans, I developed my reliance on client families’ alternative knowledges (see Chapter 3) as I was dependent on client families for instruction on cultural issues. Because my own behaviour might be culturally inappropriate, I had to ask explicitly for the client’s input on whether this was so, and on the fit between their requirements and my responses (Henning 1992). I had to become curious about how to flatten the power hierarchy in order for them to be willing to be frank with me; the interactive and cultural issues of what is not communicated and why.

As a child I was considered odd and was always on the periphery of any group, watching the interactions. I was, and have continued to be, deeply curious about the interplay of the internal representations of individuals with their behaviours in the social group, whether culture, family or peer group. Often a rebel, I developed an interest in why different people think differently and why consensus is reached, sometimes with a false conclusion. Above all, I noted how the group could nurture or destroy people, how necessary tasks could be achieved optimally or fatally hindered by the emotions and actions of group members. Not surprisingly, therefore, I am passionate about the positive effects of attending to group dynamics in any group context and deliberately generating optimal conditions for groups to achieve their functions.

FOR REFLECTION

• Why are you reading this book? How do you hope it might be useful to you?

• How have you related to various groups in your own life?

• Have you noticed groups being constructive or destructive? Why did they have those effects?

The need for a new theory base

Much of Social Psychology has been about the study of groups. Indeed, this area of psychological research and theorising is about people in interaction with other people, whether at the level of a small group or a culture. Sometimes this body of knowledge has been largely ignored by small group theorists. Their thinking about how groups work has come from two directions: theories of individual functioning (and pathology) and theories of task achievement. Generally speaking the latter has been more espoused in management and business and the former in psychotherapy.

Most training of group therapists, in spite of this wide body of research in the field of Social Psychology, is based on old, untested ideas of ‘group dynamics’. Discovering the rage and ‘shadow side’ of insecurities and hostilities, which frequently emerged in unstructured and effectively un-facilitated groups (as in Group 1 above), theorists assumed that they were uncovering what was inevitably there and that it was necessary to allow the transference, basic assumption groups or group tension to reveal themselves and play themselves out (Whitely & Gordon 1979). Yalom and Leszcz (2005) and others critiqued some of the difficulties and pointed out that the main usefulness of group work arose from mutual support but still the focus of group work was around problematic rather than positive interactions. In terms of Narrative theory (Chapter 3), they were simply co-creating a negative and noxious story and process. Far from this ‘uncovering’ being therapeutic, Systemic Narrative therapists would consider it a social construction which is anti-therapeutic, creating iatrogenic psychological damage to the individuals and the group.

Unfortunately, there is little in the literature to date which reflects this radically different way of looking at the therapeutic potential of groups. This book aims to meet this need by linking theory with the extensive experience of the author in running groups of various purposes.

In management there are fewer ‘negative stories’ about group dynamics and groups are often task-focused, which in itself makes the process more easily functional and positive. However, managers may not realise that the pattern of relationships in the group is their business. They may...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures, Genograms and Tables
• 1. Groups and Social Realities
• 2. Basics of Systemic Thinking and Groups as an Ecology of Minds
• 3. Narrative Theory and Some Basics of Human Communication for Optimal Group Dynamics
• 4. Group Development over Time: Setting the Culture and Deepening Engagement
• 5. Specific Process Issues
• 6. Putting It All Together: Some Sample Applications
• References and Bibliography
• Index