Group items tagged

This article stresses the fact that we were never really taught how to communicate in a way that produces desired results. The author bullets some of the obstacles that prevent a person from reaching certain objectives during the communication process. The key to evolving a person's communication skills is taking full responsibility for the outcome of each conversation. The author then offers ten questions to consider when determining how effectively you communicate.

This is actually a chapter out the book Social Work with Groups that I found eventually through EBSCO. I'm hoping some of the overall concepts will be beneficial or relatable for some of the group dynamics and communications people are addressing. The article discusses how co-facilitation can be effective if it is well planned and characterized by close communication among co-workers of equal status. The authors of this article describe their experience co-teaching a group work course. They examine the potential of co-facilitation in a classroom setting for role modeling an effective group co-leadership relationship to students and for contributing to the professional development of teachers.

This article is actually an interview of Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, and Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science; both are also organizational theorists. The two discuss how organizations can be more successful if they can work better with uncertainty, and incorporate meditation, derived from periods of silence in dialogue sessions, into their work. They claim that organizations need to accept that change should be accepted as the reality, and that life is a continuous state of change. The two also discuss the concept of "collective cultivation," wherein Buddhism teaches that cultivation is the practice of meditation, study, and service. Organizations not only need to accept change, but they need to collectively work hard and know how to accept this change. Unfortunately, most organizations don't have the tools or methods to support this idea. This interview allows the reader to think more about the concept of organizations and leaders in general, and how we understand them. We can't blame the hierarchy for the way things are, because we put the hierarchy in place. We are responsible for our own actions when we obey the demands of our leaders. If we can change our own views of organizations and the habits that we have adopted to work in them, then we can potentially change the way that they function from the inside out.

What struck me most about this article is their suggestion that we need to change our concept of what it means to be a leader in an organization. Particularly in the Western world, we look to our leaders, in fact expect our leaders, to have all the answers. As a leader, being comfortable sitting with uncertainty makes those you lead uncomfortable with you. The process of action research incorporates many of the same characteristics Senge and Wheatley identify: listening, being open, engaging in dialogue. Actively using action research in the workplace may help us reform our model of leadership.

I thought this article was very different but also very interesting. I like the combination of a business perspective and a religious one. I never really put too much thought into any similarities between the two. The suggestions on an effective leader and an effective organization are insightful. I agree there needs to be more dialogue as well as more reflection in order for things to work more efficiently.

This is a reference guide for Environment-Based Education for advanced learning skills and character education. EBL stresses developing lifelong learners; effective future workers and problem solvers; thoughtful community leaders and participants; and people who care about the people, creatures, and places around them. The article references the outdoors environment, specifically science and math learning, but I think that the 'environment' can take on a vast definition and the concepts are applicable to many learning objectives/situations.

The author presents examples of policies that are "bright ideas that have backfired in the real world." Specifically, examples such as random drug testing in prisons, giving juvenile delinquents tours of prisons to scare them straight, and randomised controlled medical treatment trials. She points out that what many of these policy makers are lacking is research on evidence of effectiveness, and that policy makers and researchers need to be in dialogue with each other. "Stubborn ideology," as she calls it, is costing us money.

Jenal Austin December 2010 "Science Rules OK: Running Societies the Rational Way" This article discusses the importance of basing public policy on evidence found through appropriately- conducted research studies rather than on assumptions or "feel good" ideology. Unfortunately, due to the fact that politicians want to come across as confident and decisive, they often prefer a simple evaluation of policies that research may have found to be unbeneficial for society. "Rigorous evaluations are seen as threatening rather than supportive of better policy" and many people view the task as "laborious, slow, and expensive." Social policies are also often seen as harmless when, in fact, there has been evidence showing that poorly researched policies have increased drug use in prisons as well as the number of teens involved in car accidents. Large randomized trails are necessary to evaluate whether or not a program might work on the national scale. It is also important that researchers and policy makers communicate with one another and that governments utilize proven facts rather than clinging to idealistic visions.