Group Dynamics

The Non-Judging Breakfast Club: Best Group Dynamics Ever

My classmates may guess--from the title of the post--that this is a post about one of my Consumer Insight  course material: Group Dynamics. Yes, we did learn about it, especially about Focus Group Discussion as one of qualitative research method. But I'm not going to write about it.

I'm about to write about how group dynamics always happen in our daily life, daily conversation, without us realizing it. Dynamics itself, based on the handout my lecturer given, is "forces and tension that exists between participants in the groups..."

I was thinking and observing how the presence or absence of an individual could really change the whole dynamics. Example: conversation between two people and three people could significantly make a difference. Two people may share some secrets that the third party has no idea about. Three people can talk about things they can't even mention in front of the others.

Behaviors also change as the formation changes. I, for sure, can really be myself: outspoken, quite wild; when I'm around certain individuals (read: closest friends). Common people will portray me as a more introvert and passive individual when they (those certain individuals) are not around.

I guess one big thing that we could learn from those facts are that we have to be able to "read" the situation, whether some matters are better conducted or done by two, three people, or in a more massive group. When we recognize our dynamics with every person well, we could choose them right: who we want to work with, to play with, to study with, even to dine with.

Recognizing dynamics isn't an easy process. But the more you be honest to yourself, the more you'll find who you want to be with.