North Seattle Community College
Embracing a Complex Future, Winter Quarter 2011
Peer Reviews: Due Monday, March 7th
Reflection Paper on Peer Reviews: Due Wednesday, March 9th
Taking Time Now to Focus on Your Group’s Development is called
“Assessing to Adjust”
Fourth Stage of Group Development:
Forming, Norming, Storming, Performing
Synergy:
“Cooperative interaction among groups… that creates an enhanced combined effect”
(www.dictionary.com).
(From Greek sunergiā, cooperation, from sunergos, working together
1. Peer Reviews: An important part of your “swamp” project is your own assessment of each
other’s leadership skills. As part of a group member, it is important to hear how your peers see
you as an integral part of the whole. You are to complete a peer review for every member of your
group. The peer reviews are due in class on Monday, March 7th. Please bring an individual
printed copy for each review to give to them.
2. Reflection Paper on Peer Reviews: On Wednesday, March 7th, you are to write a reflective
response about what you learned about yourself as a leader from reading and reflection on what
your group members had to say about your leadership skills. This reflection is to be turned into
your instructor. In class on March 7th, your small group is to have a discussion about moving
towards an even greater group effectiveness by allowing each person to share what they learned
from their peer review process and using this information to help the group more clearly focus on
the completion of agreed upon goals.
Sample Reflection from a Former Student:
My Reaction to My Peer Reviews:
After reading over the reviews that my peers have sent me, I’m struck by a few things.
First off, I find it really interesting to compare and contrast the perceptions that people have of
me, especially between those who have only recently met me and those friends I have whom
have known me for multiple decades. I’ve always thought of myself as having a Beta
personality, in the context of wolf pack dynamics -- someone who is second in command,
facilitating between the leader and the rest of the group. However, I’ve begun to understand that
not only am I a leader, but I’m a good leader. I just don’t feel the need to compete for the
leadership role. There are enough A type personalities, enough Alphas in my friend group that I
have rarely needed to step into a leadership role in the past. However, I have started to explore
my leadership skills more recently.
Looking at my career and my personal life outside of my friend group, I can see where
my leadership skills have been developing. I’ve constantly been promoted to a position of
leadership with every job I’ve had. In new social circles I’ve been looked to as a leader and a
community builder. When this class started, I had started to accept that I am a leader and I
stepped into that role. In my opinion, a leader is a servant to those he leads. Ergo, when I
decided to simply be a leader for every group I was in, that was my approach. Reading over my
peer reviews, I can see that my approach was well received.
From My Peers:
Group Member 1: A natural leader is what I thought as one of your unique strengths. From the
moment that we formed our group, you took command and made sure that everything are in
order from who did what, to when it needed to be done. I can definitely see you growing into a
CEO of a major company, or holding a managerial position because of your personal quality.
Even though you got sick, you did not neglect your part and made sure that you were engaged in
all the activities to make this group project be a success. I witnessed you play most of the roles in
our group and really did a fantastic job being the facilitator, include/encourager, on top of being
the assigned minute taker. You are definitely a real asset to the group. If there is one thing I
would suggest that you kind of work on and I’m not even sure if this is a negative, but sometimes
you take on too much. Don’t hesitate to maybe delegate the task to others who may have a
lighter load. Other than that, you are one of those people who can make things happen, or gets
the job done. Thank you.
Group Member 2: You definitely demonstrate good leadership abilities. You were able to
diffuse argumentative discussions before they started and you also helped keep the group on
track. The lack of facilitation was definitely obvious during your absence. You have contributed
your fair share of tasks required so far, and I have never felt any doubt about the quality of work
that you will produce.
Group Member 3: Strong personalities can either collide or combine and I think we’ve done a bit
of both in our sharing of facilitator. For the most part I think you’ve done a great job balancing
participating as a mover, follower, oppose and bystander. However, I think maybe a little more
attention could be paid to the role of bystander. Your natural tendency to be a mover sometimes
overshadows your efforts in the other roles. Thank you for taking ownership of the PowerPoint
and making sure all voices are heard in the group.
Group Member4: You are soooo good at facilitating. On days that you were gone, I could feel
your absence in the group, you have a way of getting everybody focused and productive. I am
sad that you couldn’t have been at every meeting. I think it would have made a huge difference.
Thank you for being such a good team mate though, I believe that you are very good at making
sure people know what they are supposed to be doing while taking your share of the work load as
well. I like that you can put forward your ideas and try to draw out what is really the issue when
there is opposition. Our group as a whole really communicated well, but your facilitating skills
really shine in that area! The only thing that I think you could improve on, you had no control
over. Don’t get sick—we missed you.
Group Member 5: You were a masterful facilitator. You moved the conversation in a productive
direction without drowning out other voices. You were responsible with any work you were
assigned and you coordinated beautifully. I would love to say there was more wrong with the
way you handled the group communication, but I can't. You were a great example of how a
facilitator should act as a dialogical leader.