Presentation: Group Dynamics

1
Group Dynamics and Community Building

• Dynamic Youth Ministry
• Starr King School for the Ministry
• Fall 2010

2
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding
• Opening Up
• Affirming
• Stretching
• Deeper Sharing

3
Five Stages of Community Building

• Model developed by Denny Rydberg
• There are many models of group building. This one
  has been used successfully for many years in
  Unitarian Universalist youth settings.
• Help develop intimacy and trust.
• A group does not necessarily move in a linear
  fashion through the five stages. They are more
  like phases a group goes through, rather than
  sequential steps or stages. When new members join
  a group, the group must go through bonding,
  opening up, etc. all over again.

4
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding group members get to know each other,
  engage in emotionally low-risk activities
• Reflecting on a group you have been part of
  what are some ways the group members have bonded?
• Opening Up
• Affirming
• Stretching
• Deeper Sharing

5
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding
• Opening Up group members share a little more
  deeply about opinions, concerns, hopes and dreams
• Reflecting on a group you have been part of how
  has this group moved from bonding to opening up?
  What activities or dynamics facilitated this?
• Affirming
• Stretching
• Deeper Sharing

6
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding
• Opening Up
• Affirming group members respond to one another
  in positive ways, reinforcing the connections
  they are building
• Reflecting on a group you have been part of how
  have you affirmed others and felt affirmed by
  them?
• Stretching
• Deeper Sharing

7
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding
• Opening Up
• Affirming
• Stretching planned (e.g. ropes course) or
  unplanned (e.g. group member is ill) a
  challenging experience for groups that have not
  gone through bonding/opening up/affirming
• Reflecting on a group you have been part of
  what planned or unplanned stretching experiences
  have you had as a group, and how has the group
  handled them?
• Deeper Sharing

8
Five Stages of Community Building

• Bonding
• Opening Up
• Affirming
• Stretching
• Deeper Sharing sharing deeper thoughts and
  feelings in a trusting group environment taking
  risks
• Reflection Questions When have you felt
  trusting enough in community to get to the point
  of deeper sharing? What dynamics of the group
  made this possible? What was the outcome?

9
Covenants

• Covenant group agreement or ground rules
• A covenant is one way of promoting trust and
  community
• It is a statement of how the group wants to be
  with one another.
• Created for the group by the group the group
  empowers its members to draw one another back to
  the covenant when dynamics become problematic

10
Youth Group Structures and Styles
Advisor Led
Group Led
Youth-Adult Committee
Elected Leaders
11
Youth Group Structures and Styles

• Social
• Structured
• Curriculum-Based
• The way the group is structured has an impact on
  how it builds community, what dynamics play out,
  and how dynamics are addressed.
• Reflection Question What are the advantages and
  disadvantages of each of the structures/styles
  for building community in the group?

12
Safety

• Adults play an important role in creating safety
  in youth ministry.
• The material in the assigned reading on Creating
  a Safe Group will be addressed in greater depth
  in Week 12 of the course, but we gave it to you
  this week because we believe it is important for
  adults in youth ministry to reflect on their role
  and power as it relates to group dynamics.

13

• We are all longing to go home to some place we
  have never been a place half-remembered and
  half-envisioned we can only catch glimpses of
  from time to time. Community. Somewhere, there
  are people to whom we can speak with passion
  without having the words catch in our throats.
  Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive
  us, eyes will light up as we enter, voices will
  celebrate with us whenever we come into our own
  power. Community means strength that joins our
  strength to do the work that needs to be done.
  Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of
  healing. A circle of friends. Someplace where we
  can be free.
• (Starhawk, Building Community Processes for
  Groups)

14
Power Dynamics in Community

• Starhawk has written about different forms of
  power
• Power over
• Power within
• Power with
• We can also add
• POWER IN COMMUNITY
• Power comes from having experience, knowledge,
  resources from being in a dominant or privileged
  racial/gender/age group from confidence in ones
  self from being part of a community of
  collective power.

15
Power Dynamics in Community

• This week, one of your assigned readings was
  Tools for Observing Group Dynamics.
• It can be helpful and eye-opening to observe and
  document the dynamics at play in a group, and for
  the group to reflect on how it can sustain or
  improve the way it works and shares power.
• Reflection Question How could you use these
  tools for observing group dynamics in a group you
  are part of?

16

• Move on to
• Readings Multiple Intelligences, Learning Styles
• Presentation Engaging Different Learning Styles