Focus Area 3: Communications
5. Effective Group Communication Skills
Have you ever been in a group where a pattern of interaction develops and then repeats? For example, in a discussion group did one or two members frequently dominate? Did the group frequently get off task?
All the communication and relationship-building approaches previously discussed in this module can be applied to group settings. There are also unique attributes of groups that need to be recognized in communication and relationship building.
This section will help you better understand group facilitation and approaches to be a more effective facilitator.
Group facilitation refers to ‘making it easy’ for a group to achieve its desired outcomes and purpose. Good group facilitation requires strong communication skills and relationship building.
As a youth worker, learning how to facilitate a group is important since you’ll often interact with young people in a group setting. Some youth workers are more comfortable in one-on-one situations than in groups. That’s natural. But everyone can learn ways to help make groups more successful.
How you facilitate a small group (e.g., three individuals) will differ from how you facilitate a larger group (e.g., 100 individuals). The focus of a group (e.g., educational, planning, experiential, service, etc.) also influences how you will facilitate.
In addition to this module, we suggest you continue to explore effective group facilitation techniques and tips by:
- Observing others who lead or facilitate group activities
- Asking successful group leaders what works well
- Experimenting to find what works with each age group for what types of activity
GROUP NORMS
Groups take on a life and personality of their own. Group norms convey what is normal and expected in a particular group or group activity. Often group norms are unspoken but nevertheless can be powerful rules.
Examples of group norms include:
- A particular member always speaking first and speaking the most
- Having fun may be a higher priority than accomplishing the group’s goals
- Not being OK for group members to interrupt others
When a group operates with healthy norms it’s a great thing. But unhealthy norms can be like a smelly fart - everyone notices it, many don’t like it, but no one says anything!
There are ways to encourage the development of healthy norms and avoid or correct unhealthy group norms. Here are a few tips:
Name the Goals and Norms
Young people participating in groups tend to do better when they know:
- The purpose or desired outcomes of a group or group activities, and
- The behaviors and attitudes that are needed to accomplish the goals.
Setting norms and goals is part of a broader concept called pre-teaching.
A rule of thumb for pre-teaching: If there is potential for the group to get off track, you need to openly define:
- The goals/purposes/objectives/desired outcomes of the group or group activity, and
- The kinds of attitudes and behaviors that will contribute to success (i.e., the rules, norms, or principles the group will operate by).
A wise person once said, “People support most that which they helped create.” Having young people be part of setting goals and expectations for the group leads to them taking more ownership of the results.
What approach you use in naming the goals and norms will vary with the age of the young people in the group. Older children and teens will be better able to participate in setting goals and norms.
Typically:
- With younger children, you are more likely to be the one determining the goals and norms and directing them.
- With pre-teens, it is good to ask them for their ideas, and also have your own list to include in the discussion.
- With teens, you have the flexibility to co-create and gain agreement on the goals and norms. With buy-in, they will also be more likely to hold one another accountable to the goals and norms.
Creating collective rules and expectations WITH young people can be extra work up front. But once established, it’s a lot less work. Having young people, especially teens, enforcing and reinforcing healthy group norms is much more powerful than what any individual youth worker can do on their own.
Another bonus occurs when you are working with the same group more than once. Often many of the group’s norms will carry over to other activities of the group and this can be facilitated by simply mentioning them briefly at the outset of the new activity. Additionally, if you believe some new goals or norms need to be established, the group will already be familiar with the goal and norm setting process.
When working with a group of young people over a significant length of time, a written group agreement covering all activities and outlining group expectations is useful. This will help you in effectively managing youth behavior.
THE CHECK-IN FOR WHEN THE GROUP GOES OFF TRACK
When the group is getting off track, or any time you want to reinforce the group’s norms and goals, you can do a check-in to refer everyone back to the group’s norms and expectations.
Some tips for doing a check-in:
- Ask the group members about a specific goal or norm instead of asking in general about all of the group’s goals or norms. For example, you can ask, “At the beginning, we set up goals and norms. How are we doing on (name a specific one)?”
- If the group is clearly off track, you can ask questions such as:
- “What might be getting in the way of us doing (group norm/goal)?”
- “What might we do differently to turn this around?”
- “How do we need to adjust to be successful/make this experience successful?”
- “Do you need something different from me?”
- You can help remind young people of the norms and goals. This can be done by stating:
- “I can check on this (norm/goal), but I have found it much more powerful when young people check in with themselves.”
- “You have much more power than I/we do to make this successful. You can self-monitor to create what you want this to be."
Occasionally, you will receive no response to these questions. This is not a big problem. You can:
- First name it. As the group leader, you can name how the group is doing on norms and goals.
- For example, you can say, “I’m noticing that the group is doing well at generating creative ideas. We’re not doing as well at listening respectfully to each other’s ideas.”
- After naming it, then follow up
- For example, you might ask “How does that sound to you?” Or “Does that fit with what you are noticing?” Often the conversations that follow are enlightening.
But if after all this, they still are not responding, say something like:
- “Well, unless I hear differently, we’ll presume that what I mentioned is accurate and we’ll proceed with that in mind.”
- “The silence here seems to say that there is a norm of fear here. A fear of speaking up.” Then you can discuss that as need be.
- “This is your group and this is your experience. I’m guessing you want it to be a good experience. If a group is getting off track and is not productive, sometimes the only way it will get back on track is for the participants to gradually steer us back on course.”
Sometimes it can help to just ask, “Do you want to start over?” and then wait for someone to nod their head ‘yes’ or voice agreement.
SITUATIONAL STRATEGIES FOR WORKING WITH GROUPS
In working with groups, you’ll soon find that there are certain situations that pop up on a regular basis. Understanding the different types of situations you’ll commonly encounter will help you prepare ahead of time for how you’ll effectively handle the situation. Here are some common situations and suggested strategies for you to try.
If you need input or ideas from group members
It is often easier for people or groups to come up with a dozen ideas than one.
To get young people to open up and contribute ideas, thoughts, or feelings about an activity, you might say,
- “Let’s quickly name 25 (ideas, suggestions, feelings - whatever). The group is not likely to reach that many, but that’s not the point. Being asked for 25 ideas takes the pressure off of coming up with one great idea!
If you’re leading an activity and no one is participating
Options include stating:
- “In other groups I’ve worked with, young people have said…”
- “Here are some recent ideas I’ve heard….”
- “How about (fill in the blank with an activity that is not a favorite)?” Hearing the thing they don't favor will often prompt them to express their preferences.
Other options include:
- Engaging with a reliably talkative young person to get things rolling.
- Using numbers to randomly select youth to talk. They have the choice to pass if chosen. Or start at one spot in circle and that young person talks. Then the group leader picks a number and counts down to that number in the line/group, and that person then talks.
If young people are off task or off topic
Some options you can try:
- Stating, “Let’s check in on whether things are productive, successful, or moving us toward our goals right now.”
- Doing a silent rating and using it as a prompt to start a discussion-
- Have all members of the group close their eyes and then you ask, “On a scale of 1-5, how productive are we being so far?” (Or “how well are we doing the task,” “how helpful are we being in achieving the goal of___,” etc.).
- With all group members keeping their eyes closed the whole time, each person holds up the number of fingers indicating their level of satisfaction. You do a quick count and compute an average and tell the group their average.
- NOTE: If you find your group always tend to respond with all 5s or all 1s, you can modify by including the instruction that when we open our eyes, I may ask you to share the reason you chose whatever number you chose. So, think carefully. Ready...
- Saying to the group: “Ask yourself, does it seem like we are heading in a productive direction right now?” or “What adjustments might we make for a better outcome?”
- You can just raise the question and see if it helps create a shift in behaviors or attitudes.
- Another option is to use the question to prompt a discussion.
If the group or activity is not going well, for whatever reason
Try saying or asking:
- “Let’s take a break from (this activity or whatever the focus had been)".
- “I’m wondering if we made things clear enough for this activity?”
In addition to these strategies, if you're running into other situations or barriers, consider including improvisational activities and exercises into your work with young people to shift the dynamics of the group. This can have a big impact.
Nick Kleese is an English teacher and an improv aficionado! He encourages adding an element of playfulness in communication, especially in your group work with young people. In this video, Nick talks about the value of improv in youth work settings and he offers two fun exercises you can easily incorporate into your programming.
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