Group facilitation: Collaboration

In the preparation for our group session, my partners and I spoke openly and gave input on what we thought we should do for our activities and the questions that we should ask. I tried very hard to think through each of the activities that were mentioned and collaborate with my team members on the setup for our group session. I feel like during the process of the written group plan, our group was able to plan out our session and make sure that it flowed together. During this time, I worked to help fill in different parts of the plan while other group members were also answering other questions. Also, this was the time where we divided up who would cover each of the different sections, allowing there to be an equal amount of leading time for each of the co-facilitators, Alicia, Sarah Caitlin, and myself.

During our introduction activity, I introduced myself. Alicia was the one designated to do the introduction and the ice breaker activity. During this time, she introduced the group, explained why we were there, communicated how the group would run, and had each of the group members go around and say their names. Once the initial introductions were done, she facilitated the first activity by having the group members pair off with who they were sitting beside. During the ice breaker game, I used the time to take notes on the group member that I was writing my S.O.A.P. note on and observe the interactions of the other group members. Alicia did a good job starting the group, talking about what the group was to expect, and facilitating the group activity.

Our main activity was the island activity. I was designated to lead this portion of the session. I started out the activity by giving them the scenario and different details about the situation. Then I asked them to individually write 8 things that they would take then. During the time that they were writing, I was observing how quickly they wrote down their items and how hard they seemed to be thinking. Once everyone was done writing I proceeded to have them all read their different items out loud, as I wrote down the different items that each member said they would bring. During the time that people were reading their list, some of the comments made were funny and some of the people agreed, even though they did not write the items on their own list. When all of the group members had read their items, I proceeded to ask them to get together as a group and combine their list to just 12 items that they would take with them. This part of the activity got interesting because of the different reactions and opinions on the things that they should take. There were times when the group unanimously agreed on items that were going to be on their list and there were times when there was a discussion about the differing opinions. There was one time that I did step in and make a time limit for the group because the group was starting to step away from their task.

I was also designated to cover the sharing part of the group session. In this session, I asked which of the group activities they preferred, which they found to be more stressful, and how it made them feel when their ideas were both accepted or set aside by the group. This time was very interesting because to my surprise, and my co-facilitator’s surprise, the group liked the one-on-one group activity better than the larger group. During this time, we also covered the processing portion of the Cole’s Seven Steps.

Sarah Caitlin was the leader for finishing the processing, generalizing, and application portion. She asked the group to consider who the different people are that we, as OTs, have to collaborate with and in what ways collaboration comes into our daily lives. She also wrapped up the group by providing a summary of what we talked about, having each of the participants write one way that the things they learned could help them in the following week, and told them when the next meeting would be. I felt like Sarah Caitlin did very well with the language that she used, connecting with the different group members, and eliciting conversations from the group. During this time, I was taking notes of the different things that the group members said and observing their actions.

Other than the one time that I stepped in to redirect the group toward the activity, I feel like the group was ran good and stayed on task and focus. While this has a lot to do with the group members, I feel like the leading of the group helped in facilitating the correct actions from the group members. Our activities allowed for the group members to take the lead and direct the way the group ran. I felt like in this particular group this was a good way for the group to be ran and also helped to encourage the topic of collaboration. I was initially nervous about how the group would work and how smoothly it would go. Once the group started, I became much more comfortable and felt at ease with the process of leading the group. Looking back, I do think that we may have allowed the off-topic conversations to go on a little too long and should have reined it back in earlier, but other than that I think that the group went very well and was successful. One thing that I learned through this process is that no matter how much you plan for how the group is going to go and the things that are going to be said, you can not predict how the conversation will progress or what things will happen within the group.