Effective Communication With Children And Their Families In A Paediatric Context Workshop: Challenges And Solutions

The process of group formation and the problems experienced

Forming a successful group is not a simple thing. As members who are intending to form a group, they have to undergo some challenges (Ness, Duffy, McCallum, Price, 2014). They have to sit down and discuss in detail about the group they are forming. They have to set rules and guidelines that will govern them. However, in a group, not all the members will adhere to the rules and regulations of the group. This is because not all the members will have the same agenda (Cornell, 2015). At the same time not all the members will have the same schedule hence leading to some of them missing the meetings. Within the groups, people area assigned different roles so as to make the group become a success. Therefore, an exploration will be conducted showing the processes of group formation during workshop and the problems that are experienced during that time (Zhang, Spring, Arene, 2014).

During the group formation for the workshop of effective communication with the children plus their families in the paediatric context, some processes were underwent. First, the members within the group faced a lot of issues regarding the formation of the group. A lot of members were never present in meetings. The meetings that were held discussed a lot of issues and at the end they could assign roles to various members within the group. This led to some of the members missing the roles to conduct since they were absent during the meetings. This created disunity amongst the group because some of the members felt betrayed (Grills, Philip, Kumar, Porter, 2014). Those who were absent during that time felt that some of the members were favored hence they were given roles to perform. On the other hand, those who were assigned some tasks to perform felt that their fellow group members betrayed them since they did not want to work towards the agenda of the group. This is because their absenteeism led to them not being assigned any task as it was discussed that every member within the group will be given a task to perform. Due to some members being assigned roles and others not being assigned, there was a lot of frustration from both members (Shimazoe, Aldrich, 2010).Those whom attended all the meetings and were assigned roles became angry at those who missed the meetings hence leading to them not being assigned any roles within the group. They felt like being used because other people were not working yet they belonged to the same group that had a common agenda (Levine, Moreland, 2014).

Due to the frustrations from the group members, enmity was created amongst the members. This is because some members felt that some of their fellow colleagues who were never assigned any roles felt special than others. On the other side also felt that those who were assigned roles within the group were favored because the roles for the groups should be distributed equally amongst the group members. The enmity created among the parties affected greatly the cohesion of the group. This is because the group was not united anymore as some members developed a feeling that they were isolated from others. This led to the group dividing into two (Laguador, 2014).

Disunity and enmity amongst the group members

Due to the division that occurred in the group, the mood of work during the activity was down. Those members who were present during the activity felt discouraged and heartbroken because their fellow members were not present. This also made the present members work with despair hence not showing any seriousness towards their roles. Due to the mood being down, some of the activities did not become successful as they were planned before. This is because the present members did not show the urge and the strength to perform their roles. Therefore, most of the activities remained uncomplete and some undone at the same time. This also affected communication greatly as some members were furious hence resorted to remain quiet all through the activity (Barsade, Knight, 2015).

Absenteeism led to roles within the group to change. This is because the roles that lacked people to perform them, they became distributed amongst the available members. Therefore, some of the sectors were not productive and successful because some members performed more than one role at ago. Due to multi-tasking, some members were very exhausted hence they had to complete their tasks very late. Leadership roles within the group was affected greatly. This is because there are those leaders who had to stand for those that were present and also there were leaders who stood for those who were never present during the meetings hence ended up not being assigned any roles within the group. Those leaders who stood for the absent members felt that all the members could be made available so that all the actions and roles taken within the group could be agreed by all the members. These made the leaders for those absent feel inferior and disrespected at the same time because their views and suggestions were never considered at all. This also made them feel like their leadership roles did not mean anything to the group since their suggestions did not make any impact within the group. They felt isolated and their leadership roles not respected anymore (Hadar, Brody, 2010). This is because as a leader, the actions or the agreement reached in the group should be mutual in that all the leaders should give their views and opinions for consideration. However, this did not happen because the suggestions they gave of wanting all the members to attend the meeting before any agreement is reached, were never considered at all. On the other hand, those leaders that stood for the members who were present also felt disrespected. This is because they felt that those members who did not always attend the meetings disrespected them and they did not also respect their position as their leaders. They also felt that their powers were threatened because their commands of all the members attending the meetings were never obeyed at all. The leaders also felt that those other leaders who stood for the absent members showed some disrespect to them. This is because they felt that as a leader, he or she should not stand for those who are in the wrong but rather they should play the role of correcting them (Sherif, 2015).

Down mood affecting communication and cohesion

During the meetings, there were also computer problems. Some computers went off due to power hence some activities had to be put on hold until the power came back. The computers were used to do some research for the proposed projects of the group. The computers were also used to keep data and records of what was discussed in the meetings. The computers also performed the roles of printing the handout and documents which were distributed to all members during the meetings. The computers also recorded all the activities that took place during that day of the workshop. However, the group tried to overcome this problem of power by hiring a back-up generator. This helped greatly in providing power to the laptops and also it boosted the lighting system because most of the activities were held to late night.

Despite all the problems, the workshop ended well. After the workshop, the members had to sit down and agree on how to solve the problems that they had experienced before, during and after the workshop. The first issue was that of absenteeism. They agreed that before coming into agreement of any action which is to be taken, all the members should be present so as to vote for the idea or vote against it. To enable all the members to be present in all the meetings, they implemented the fines. The fines will be applied to those who will be absent during the meetings without any valid reason or without excusing himself or herself through the right procedure. The issue of leadership roles was also discussed. It was resolved that all the leaders should read from one angle. There should be no division within the leaders because all the guidelines and directions to the group members will be given by them. Therefore, to avoid misleading the members, they should come into agreement and make sure that what they have given or suggested to their members is what they have agreed as the leaders. The issue of cohesion amongst the group was also discussed in detail. It was agreed that all the members should avoid the small fights amongst themselves. To avoid that, they should all obey their leaders and do what is supposed to be done (Wasserstein, Lazar, 2016). It was also agreed that each member will be accountable for his or her actions. It was also discussed that each member will be assigned the task that is of his area of expertise. No member will therefore find an excuse of underperforming in the area that is assigned to him or her. No member will perform the role assigned to other member unless otherwise. It was also agreed that the members who performed well in their areas of expertise will be rewarded. This will help and motivate the members to work towards the agenda of the group hence making the group a success (Miall, 2016).

References

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