chapter 2

The interrealationship that group members form is really what makes a group what it is. Without openness and good communication you cannot have a group that will function well. I have one recent example of this happing in a group that I was involved with. Last semester we had to make a business plan for a class and I had formed a group with some members on my team. We had one outsider that we had just met that was in our group. The guys on my team I saw every day and spent a good amount of time with them so I already knew them. Working with them was not the problem. The one person that we did not know was a different story. We did not know him and had already formed a solid relationship with each other so it was hard for him to get to know us. I thought this hurt his ability to be open with us because he did not feel as if he knew us as well as everyone else in the group knew each other. This lead to him being shy and not putting much into the group. In addition, throughout the year his communication was poor because I think he was timid to be a part of our group. It was always hard to get on the same page with the kid because it was hard to get a hold of. The group did not fail though because we picked up his slack. I thought this was a good example because it shows how important communication is and getting on the same page. If there had been more than this one kid that was not good at communicating in the group then im not sure how well the group would have done.