Practical Group-Dynamics class: Communication methods

Consensus

A group decision-making process in which decisions are come to by collective agreement, rather than the desire of the majority.

Features

• Conflict is desirable
  • Conflict is encouraged, and resolved with respect, nonviolence, and creativity.

• Non-competitive
  • Everyone's concerns are raised and resolved, without a notion of ownership of ideas.

• Nonviolence
  • Power of persuasion is expected to be used without deception, coercion, or malice, using truth, creativity,logic, respect, and love.

Strengths

• Encourages every voice to be heard.

• Encourages solutions no-one opposes.

Criticisms

• Blocks can be disruptive
  • To counteract block-abuse, various groups have tried:
    • A block must be justified by showing how it violates the groups charter. This can only be effective if a group charter was made in advance of course, and often group-charters are very difficult to get consensus agreement on.
    • Only people who can show how they will be directly effected are allowed to block.
    • Limited number of blocks: There is a maximum number of times a person can block over the course of a year.
    • Consensus minus 1: There must be at least two people wanting to block.

• Manipulation & abilene paradox

Active Listening

A communication technique which requires the listener to understand, interpret, and evaluate what (s)he hears.

Nonviolent Communication

Conflict resolution focusing on empathy and honest self-expression.

Nonviolent communication holds that most conflict between individuals or groups arises from miscommunication about their human needs, because of coercive or manipulative language that aim to induce fear, guilt, shame, etc. These "violent" modes of communication, when used during a conflict, divert the attention of the participants away from clarifying their needs, their feelings, their perceptions, and their requests, thus perpetuating the conflict.

Four steps of NVC model:

• Observation
  • Say what we think is happening

• Feeling
  • Say what emotion it makes us feel.

• Need
  • Explain how this communication effects our need.

• Request
  • Make a specific request. Be prepared to negotiate.

Strengths

• Respectful of individual's experiences.

Criticisms

• Some have felt this technique can be used manipulatively by the listener going into knowing-better-than-you pop-psychology mode.

• The system seems to break down if one of the people in the dialogue is deliberately inauthentic for Machiavellian reasons.

Radical Honesty

Be adamantly honest at all times.

Holding back the truth is the biggest cause of stress in our lives. By being brutally honest at all times we can release these tensions, and provide an example for the other person to do the same.

Strengths

• Can bring people together in surprising ways.

Critisims

• Can be Hurtful to others

• Can be abusive of power-dynamics situations

Machiavellianism

Always respond in ways calculated to further your objectives.

Strengths

Gives you great power over people in at least the short term.

Criticisms

• Leads to mistrust and isolation.

• Hard to sustain effectively.

• Deceptive and amoral if not immoral.