Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

TWG 5 Reading 2.2: The foundations of creative groupwork Jarlath F Benson

- - - - fear or shame about failure and the subsequent addiction to perfection, lay at the root of a lot of the novice group worker's activity:
        • Overplanning, perfectionism, fussiness
        • Working at a content level
        • Avoidance of process work on feelings, atmosphere, etc.
        • Self-defeating behaviour - not beginning or completing projects, delays, cancellations
        • Excessive intervention
        • Preoccupation with technology - video, two-way mirrors, etc.
        • Desire for co-workers
        • Anxiety reflected in constant course attendance, acquisition of ideas, techniques, 'skills'
      - suggestions which can be useful in lessening the fear of failure in the group setting.
        • You are not responsible for providing right answers or even any answers to problems
        • Avoid being cast in the role of expert
        • Insist on a communal approach to work, teambuilding, problem solving
        • Develop and encourage values and norms which emphasize and allow the creative and positive aspects of failure, risk-taking, decision making, spontaneity and intuition, compassion, forgiveness
        • Believe in and cultivate a collective or group wisdom which can be called on
        • See the work of the individual or group as an ongoing process rather than a static project. Work more with process levels of experience
        • Explore members' experiences of failure and identify favourite ways of avoiding coping, hiding. Identify idealized self-images, parental and self-expectations that contribute to a fear of failure or preoccupation with success.
        Do not hide your mistakes in the group. Use them as an opportunity to model new behaviours and develop suitable norms