Building a Sense of community
four stages of development
1. Pseudocommunity
This is the stage of faking it. This is the 'cocktail party.' People are overly polite and nice to each other.
Symptoms: Members tell little white lies to withhold true feelings and to avoid conflict. Pseudocommunity embodies conflict avoidance. Individual differences are ignored and people who make others uncomfortable are avoided. When the status quo is interrupted, members act as if nothing happened and change the topic. People speak in generalities, avoiding specifics of the current situation.
Transition: Reflection and examination are often framed by questions. Challenging generalities is one way to begin the transition. When individual differences are allowed and encouraged, the group moves to the next stage - chaos. Many groups are believed to stop here.
2. Chaos
This is the time of fighting and struggling. Chaos develops as differences move into the open.
Symptoms: Members are trying to convert others to their way of viewing issues. They demonstrate fix-it behaviors and attempt to heal. In response, others demonstrate a resistance to change. New leaders emerge and try to escape into organization as a way of reducing chaos. A significant change is that instead of trying to hide, group members might openly attack or attempt to obliterate others. They move into a frame of blaming. This is often directed at the facilitator. The motives are to attempt to make everything normal.
Transition: Many groups need to experience a sufficient amount of chaos before they can be motivated to begin the struggle out. Many groups resist this stage. The patient group developer waits until someone asks for an explanation of emptiness.
3. Emptiness
Emptiness means specifically to "empty oneself of barriers to communication" and to make a transition from rugged to soft individualism.
Symptoms: Elimination of the following barriers to communication:
Transition: Moving through emptiness requires silent reflection. "What is it that we most need to empty ourselves of in our own unique lives?"
4. Community
True community is a final stage when a soft quietness enters the group.
Symptoms: When a group reaches this stage, people are open, vulnerable and lucid. No one is uncomfortable with silence. The emotions can range from sadness to happiness. The power of true community is in the caring and creativity unleashed by group synergy.
Transition: It is important for communities to give themselves time for ending. This is especially important for short-term communities. This requires "a joyous funeral with some kind of liturgy or ritual of conclusion." Metaphors are one way of bringing closure. This is often called 'myth making.'
This is the stage of faking it. This is the 'cocktail party.' People are overly polite and nice to each other.
Symptoms: Members tell little white lies to withhold true feelings and to avoid conflict. Pseudocommunity embodies conflict avoidance. Individual differences are ignored and people who make others uncomfortable are avoided. When the status quo is interrupted, members act as if nothing happened and change the topic. People speak in generalities, avoiding specifics of the current situation.
Transition: Reflection and examination are often framed by questions. Challenging generalities is one way to begin the transition. When individual differences are allowed and encouraged, the group moves to the next stage - chaos. Many groups are believed to stop here.
2. Chaos
This is the time of fighting and struggling. Chaos develops as differences move into the open.
Symptoms: Members are trying to convert others to their way of viewing issues. They demonstrate fix-it behaviors and attempt to heal. In response, others demonstrate a resistance to change. New leaders emerge and try to escape into organization as a way of reducing chaos. A significant change is that instead of trying to hide, group members might openly attack or attempt to obliterate others. They move into a frame of blaming. This is often directed at the facilitator. The motives are to attempt to make everything normal.
Transition: Many groups need to experience a sufficient amount of chaos before they can be motivated to begin the struggle out. Many groups resist this stage. The patient group developer waits until someone asks for an explanation of emptiness.
3. Emptiness
Emptiness means specifically to "empty oneself of barriers to communication" and to make a transition from rugged to soft individualism.
Symptoms: Elimination of the following barriers to communication:
- Expectations and preconceptions of what community is supposed to be like.
- Prejudices and judgements made about other people.
- Ideology, theology and solutions - the one right way to do something.
- The need to heal, convert, fix or solve the problems of others.
- The need to control - this is often an issue for the facilitator. Emptiness is a time to sit back, watch, listen and let it happen.
Transition: Moving through emptiness requires silent reflection. "What is it that we most need to empty ourselves of in our own unique lives?"
4. Community
True community is a final stage when a soft quietness enters the group.
Symptoms: When a group reaches this stage, people are open, vulnerable and lucid. No one is uncomfortable with silence. The emotions can range from sadness to happiness. The power of true community is in the caring and creativity unleashed by group synergy.
Transition: It is important for communities to give themselves time for ending. This is especially important for short-term communities. This requires "a joyous funeral with some kind of liturgy or ritual of conclusion." Metaphors are one way of bringing closure. This is often called 'myth making.'