Overall, this week has been about understanding how our group communicates ideas and how we choose to either move forward or pass on an individual’s input with the group.
We’ve created a great atmosphere that revolves around posing questions and allowing all members of the group to input their thoughts on those questions. A great example of this dynamic occurred during the post-it note activity. We were struggling to “dig deeper” with the categories we had established and had spent a few minutes really not accomplishing anything. Eventually I started asking questions about what we were viewing and what that meant to everyone, from those questions we got a lot of great insights from each group member and were far more productive during this time.
Being Team Leader, I often find that when a question is posed everyone in the group looks to me for guidance, this instantly makes “modeling the way” for me much easier. There hasn’t been a time yet where I’ve kept myself from giving my opinion for fear of keeping the group longer than need be or that the group will not appreciate what I have to say. Throughout the week I’ve made it a priority to check in with myself and make sure that there are no feelings of alienation or a bad mood in general. I realize that it’s much easier to nip those feelings in the bud right when I’m beginning to fall into a pattern and start sharing my feelings or opinions right away than to wait a few weeks and then start trying to make changes.
In general I feel very optimistic with the environment and feeling the group has, and that I’m making great personal progress as a leader in sharing my opinion. Even outside of this class I’ve been more honest in my feedback for other activities and have been feeling much more valued as a team member.