Paper Example on Gaining Benefits During Group Formation: Working Stage of the Process

Introduction

The working stage is the fourth step, and the driving force during a group formation process (Corey, 2015). Ideally, the working stage allows members to gain benefits for their existence and for being part of a group, making the phase seem more essential. Besides, this stage often comes after the transition stage, where members face and deal with conflicts and other forms of anxiety attribute. For this reason, the group is usually solidified at this step, and members are prepared to do everything so that maximum productivity is obtained. In other words, members are resistant to challenges during this stage of group development and could perform numerous changes with more concern on delivering the group goals. Moreover, the previous hardship experiences at the transition stage enable members to engage in riskier activities during the working phase fully, to maximize the group goals. While group members might find it difficult to freely share their diverging and converging opinions, feelings, and ideas on the previous phases, they are often willing to communicate openly and let their feelings out during the working phase. In a nutshell, the notion of a member's willingness to set things in the right direction usually enhances the possibilities of in-depth exploration.

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While acting as the group leader, I would effectively evaluate an individual member's commitment and desire to realize the group goals, as a form of identifying and accomplishing the working phase characteristics. According to Kumar (2014), members should adequately understand and embrace the goals of their groups at the working phase. The statement is justified by the fact that at this stage, members owe the ultimate responsibility of the group, and have perhaps obtained a clearer vision of expectations.

The second strategy to identify and recognize working phase characteristics is by measuring the cohesion level amongst the group members. The extent of belonging and solidarity is a triggering force towards a group cohesion (Alle-Corliss & Alle-Corliss, 2009). Ideally, the ability of group members to share their feelings, ideas, and opinions among themselves boost their concern to maximize the expected delivery output.

Thirdly, I would develop universal themes to identify and recognize the characteristics of a working phase. According to Alle-Corliss and Alle-Corliss (2009), having common issues among the group members could significantly leverage an individual's sense of belonging. It is imperative that having these universal themes makes members feel appreciated for their commitments because their similarities and differences have been accepted at this stage.

Interventions that I Would Employ During the Working Phase

During the working stage, I may begin by evaluating the participation level of each member. Besides, I would be encouraging the active participation that will probably recognize the particular characteristics in this phase. However, when the level of group participation diminishes, I would fundamentally challenge the group members by reminding them to keep in alignment with the group process and expected goals. As the group leader, I will engage in the assessment of a member's willingness to comprehend the ideas of behavioral change, to facilitate the process of achieving goals. Typically, I would also motivate active members to challenge the sleeping members who could be withdrawing slowly, by helping them to identify and solve those issues, or challenges in question. Most importantly, I would individually evaluate my readiness to act as the role model to other members by first recognizing the key influential characteristics that can affect my readiness and abilities to perform in the position. Leaders play a significant role in the group, as members could copy their responsibility traits (Ezhumalai et al., 2018). As a result, a leader should be able to set directions and possible solutions that members can employ to assist them in solving any conflicts or anxiety problems. Also, recognizing the universal themes to promote inclusion and collective involvement of members towards achieving the expected goals is a significant task to play. Leaders can always make their members stay alert on their actions or make the possible withdrawing members regain that trust with the group (Corey, 2015).

Therapeutic Factor and the Illustrating Group

One of the outstanding cohesive factors that were established by Corey was group cohesiveness. Its primary focus is to improve the overall sense of the group's security level for the members who are involved in the working phase. Besides, it enhances the belonging, member acceptance, and their chances of developing a positive perceived value towards the group goals and set of actions. Group cohesiveness also enables members to understand that they have similarities, and differences, hence they have to adjust and develop strategies of dealing with similar challenges. Typically, team-work is an instrumental phenomenon that groups can use to increase the chances of productivity. An illustrating process of this therapeutic factor observing all members participating in various group activities to ascertain that every objective is achieved. Having an effective work control in the group will provide every member with an opportunity to prove their worth in the team, thus avoiding possible dominance by a section of members who would demoralize others and make them feel as less important. Similarly, identifying common themes may also promote group cohesiveness. Conclusively, a group leader must be able to guide the members through difficulties that might tamper with the quality of production. Eliminating or addressing these challenges is a vital tool that not only promises success but also builds group cohesion.

References

Alle-Corliss, L., & Alle-Corliss, R. (2009). Group work: A practical guide to developing groups in agency settings. John Wiley & Sons. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Fnv2YwYteyYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Alle-Corliss,+L.,+%26+Alle-Corliss,+R.+(2009).

Corey, G. (2015). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy. Nelson Education.

Ezhumalai, S., Muralidhar, D., Dhanasekarapandian, R., & Nikketha, B. S. (2018). Group interventions. Indian journal of psychiatry, 60(Suppl 4), S514. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5844165/

Kumar, S., Deshmukh, V., & Adhish, V. S. (2014). Building and leading teams. Indian journal of community medicine: official publication of Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, 39(4), 208. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215500/