T-GROUP ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS T- GROUP A T-group or training group (sometimes also referred to as sensitivity-training group, human relations training group or encounter group) is a form of group training where participants (typically between eight and fifteen people) learn about themselves (and about small group processes in general) through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS CONCEPT The concept of encounter as "a meeting of two, eye to eye, face to face," was articulated by J.L. Moreno in Vienna in 1914–15, in his "Einladung zu einer Begegnung" ("Invitation to an Encounter"), maturing into his psychodrama therapy. It was pioneered in the mid-1940s by Moreno's protege Kurt Lewin and his colleagues as a method of learning about human behavior in what became the National Training Laboratories (also known as the NTL Institute) that was created by the Office of Naval Research and the National Education Association in Bethel, Maine, in 1947. First conceived as a research technique with a goal to change the standards, attitudes and behavior of individuals, the T-group evolved into educational and treatment schemes for non-psychiatric patient people. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS CONCEPT A T-group meeting does not have an explicit agenda, structure, or expressed goal. Under the guidance of a facilitator, the participants are encouraged to share emotional reactions (for example, anger, fear, warmth, or envy) that arise in response to their fellow participants' actions and statements. The emphasis is on sharing emotions, as opposed to judgments or conclusions. In this way, T-group participants can learn how their words and actions trigger emotional responses in the people they communicate with. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS KURT LERWIN Lewin was one of the first to suggest using small groups to teach people interpersonal skills and selfinsight. He believed that groups and organizations often fail because their members are not trained in human relations. He therefore recommended close examination if group experiences to give people a deeper understanding of themselves and their group dynamics. Lewin discovered the utility of such groups when running educational classes dealing with leadership and group dynamics. At the end of each day, he arranged for observes to discuss the dynamics of the groups with the leaders who conducted training sessions. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS KURT LERWIN One of the most noteworthy aspects of T-groups is their lack of structure. Although, from time to time, the trainees might meet in larger groups to hear lectures or presentations, most of the learning takes place in smaller groups. During the first few days of a T-group’s existence, group members usually complain about the lack of structure and ambiguity, blaming the trainer for their discomfort. This ambiguity is intentional, however, for it shifts responsibility for structing, understanding, and controlling the group’s activities to the participants themselves. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS KURT LERWIN The major method used by the trainers was group discussion and role-play. A research observer recorded the group interactions, and Lewin arranged for evening meetings of the research observers to pool and record on tape their process observations. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS T-Group As the group grapples with problems of organizations, agenda, goals and structure, the members reveal their preferred interaction styles to others. They also learn to disclose their feelings honestly, gain conflict reduction skills, and find enjoyment from working in collaborative relationships. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS WHAT HAPPENS IN A T-GROUP The first step was usually to get executives to expose their behavior and attitudes by creating a situational dilemma (Argyris, 1963). This dilemma was usually created by the lack of structure and agenda in the T-group. The trainer would open the T-group with a short statement about the need for each person to gain more self-insight and enhance his or her effectiveness as a group member. The trainer then informed the group that the work to be done was up to the group itself and that he or she (i.e., the trainer) did not intend to act as a group leader. This statement was usually followed by an uncomfortable silence that might be broken by a group member comment or suggestion (Coghill, 1968) ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS PROBLEMS WITH T-GROUP T-Group methods usually encourage self-disclosure and openness, which may be inappropriate or even punished in organizations. This was an early learning. When managers thought they could take the T-group method into the back home organization, they discovered that the methods and the assumptions of a T-group did not fit. T-groups consisted of participants who were strangers. They didn't have a history or a future together and could more easily focus on here and now behavior ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS PROBLEMS WITH T-GROUP The T-Group experience can open up a web of questioning in a participant. Ways of behaving that the person has used for many years may be called into question by others in the group and oneself. This has in some cases brought the participant to question relationships in the family or at work. While this can be a very constructive process that leads to the renewal of relationships, it has on occasion lead to the breakdown of a relationship. While such a breakdown may have, in time, come to the relationship without participation in a T-Group, it remains a painful and possibly damaging experience. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS PROBLEMS WITH T-GROUP Participants being forced or pressured to attend, by an employer or other person with influence, are on the whole less likely to have a positive learning experience. Employers or others who want to require the participation of others may enhance the chance of having a productive outcome if -- they attend a lab themselves before sending others; they speak with the lab coordinator before the event to discuss what might realistically be expected and what the leader could do to assist in the learning process when the participant returns home. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS PROBLEMS WITH T-GROUP Very rarely there have been situations in which a participant has a psychiatric problem. ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS IMPORTANT POINTS: focus of the T-group became the behavior of the group members struggling to deal with the lack of structure. This struggle was exacerbated by a passive facilitator. The primary mechanism for learning was the feedback received by each individual from group members. Resistance to self-examination was broken down, and an atmosphere of openness to change often emerged. The major goal of the workshop was to enable businesspersons, labor leaders, and schoolteachers to better deal with intergroup tensions, but most of the actual participants in the workshop in 1946 came from teaching and social work professions. The idea was to find better methods of changing people’s attitudes and provide them with greater insight into their own attitudes and values. Lewin believed that leadership training was effective only when it provided trainees with opportunities to see how their customary way of acting affects others (Marrow, 1967). ADVANCED GROUP DYNAMICS
