Discussion Group Dynamics
A key element of helping others to grow in their discipleship is learning how to hold a discussion. Through discussion you help others to speak and express themselves.
How can you lead a discussion? How do you handle difficult group members with tact? How do you guide a group through an issue to a conclusion? Helping group members relate with each other? How do you handle silence in a group?
Good discussions focused on a learning opportunity rarely happen by themselves. Developing a good group dynamic is a skill and provides an opportunity to serve in many contexts. Here are some key factors to be aware of –
Objective
Is the objective to transfer information or for the group to engage and learn?
To transfer information the group should be taught. If the group is to discuss, then the content will be considerably less, but the engagement and ownership much greater.
It is important to know how knowledgeable a group is before engaging in a discussion.
A group who are familiar with the material will need a coordinator to ask three or four content questions and guide the discussion so that the material is covered and draw things to an end at the appropriate time.
If the group knows little of what is being discussed, then a simple discussion will not help. In that case there are three approaches -
Each group member studies the material before coming together. This makes a significant difference to the quality of discussion. It requires commitment and time from members but allows both progress and engagement.
The leader breaks down time between reading material in the group and discussing. Minimum commitment from the group, low progress but good engagement and good group interaction.
The leader teaches. Progress through material, poor engagement with the group and little confidence that the material has been engaged with.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How could you evaluate the knowledge level of the people in your group?
- How could you match what needs to be discussed and what needs to be taught?
Thoughts to consider
Discussion brings engagement and ownership. It takes longer than just teaching, but the learning is significantly greater. It is worth lowering quantity of information transmitted in order to increase actual transmission and engagement with the group.
Leading
If you don’t know where you are going you could end up going in circles or someone else could take over the discussion to go where they want.
In preparing to lead a discussion it is good to think through what questions need answers? The role of the leader is to divide up the time appropriately such that the key issues can be handled. A discussion can be broken into different subjects. Each subject can then be discussed in three phases -
• Launch – Break the whole subject down to mini discussions.
• Guide – After launching the discussion can be guided by generic guidance questions.
• Summarise – leader breaks in, summarises discussion and moves to next launch.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How does having a plan help with the use of time and covering material?
- What impact will there be to directing a discussion with questions?
Thoughts to consider
By breaking up a discussion into key subject areas you honour the different members. It can be frustrating to enter a discussion with a desire to learn about x, but the only issue discussed is y.
Questions
Leading a discussion is done through questions. There are two types of questions that the leader needs.
First there are questions that are specific to the subject at hand. These come through preparing the material, both as a normal group member, and then a second time as a discussion leader. There are two key types of content questions. 1. A general question that draws many correct answers. For this, take the subject heading and turn it into a question. (e.g. What key aspects are there to leading a discussion?) 2. ‘Why’ questions. Take subjects which you think are challenging and ask why? (e.g. Why would using questions help people engage?)
Secondly there are questions that are appropriate for any discussion. This bank of questions is built up with experience. These questions stimulate people to speak, tactfully silencing the more vocal and drawing in the silent, broadening the discussion, and so on. These questions are called Guiding Questions. See section 4.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- Why would questions rather than information help develop the group?
- Why is it helpful to ask questions that the leader considers challenging?
Thoughts to consider
Questions encourage people to think. That thinking takes people from just knowing some information to the beginnings of engaging with what it means.
Guiding
You can develop the group dynamics through a bank of generic guidance questions.
There are a number of times during a discussion when guiding questions are needed. Here are some examples -
Involve others
When someone has dominated, the group often needs help to allow other opinions. Questions for this purpose include -
• What do others think?
• Does anyone have a different view?
• I agree completely with what you have been saying Dave. Does anyone have another perspective to broaden this thinking?
Head off a diversion
Groups notoriously change direction and get off track. Too strong a leadership here can stifle discussion, but after a couple of minutes it is good to bring the discussion back to the matter at hand. Some ways of doing this would be -
• Summarise the answers to the last question and then offer a new question on the same subject - quite possibly pre prepared for the eventuality.
• Ask someone who has not spoken much their thoughts from the original question?
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How can you be aware of a person dominating? They might be fascinating to listen to. It might be you the leader!
- How can you become aware of those who are silent?
Thoughts to consider
One of the challenges of leading a discussion is the leader can be drawn into the discussion. It is much easier to lead if one is monitoring the discussion rather than embroiled in it.
Silence
Silence is needed but often intimidates leaders.
Silent members are often deeply thoughtful. It is good to wait till many have spoken and then ask them directly if they have anything to add. Over time it will become clear how they feel about this, and whether they in fact have anything to add. If it becomes clear that they are deeply embarrassed to open their mouths at all it may be better to deal with those kind of issues outside the group. In that case allow their silence to persist.
Handling Silence
Silence is something many group leaders find difficult. What one has to remember is that the group leader has already thought through the answers before the question is asked. While the rest of the group is reflecting on the excellent question, the group leader is waiting and wondering with every second if anyone has understood. An inexperienced leader will become so nervous that they jump in before people have had enough time to think.
My solution to this problem is to literally count, or look at the seconds on my watch in order to gauge whether the group has had enough time. If after the time set - maybe 30 seconds - no one has spoken, then I will clarify the question. It is important to wait a long time before actually answering the question yourself.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- Why is silence important for some and a challenge for others?
- Why is silence particularly difficult for the group leader?
Thoughts to consider
The group leader has already thought through about the question. They might have an answer ready. Waiting for others to think about what the leader has already thought through can be extremely challenging and requires considerable patience.
Dominating
Give dominators a task to assist leading and divert from domination.
How do you handle group members who dominate? This could be one person who is always the first to speak, and then goes on and on. It could be a sub group who hold a dialogue between each other leaving everyone else out.
Sometimes those who dominate are in their own opinion more advanced in some way than everyone else. You might not hold to their opinion! One can however ask such a group or person to help you by serving the group. You could ask them to serve the group by -
• Hold back from speaking for 25 seconds after the question.
• Limit their answers to one sentence.
• Seek to involve others in the discussion. They might be aware of things that you are not, and could help in drawing out the opinions of others.
As they seek to serve, they could become a valuable ally in making the group work.
Others who dominate are those who speak in order to think, or just love speaking. This is a greater challenge. They need to express themselves, and will fill all the space. How you handle this can depend on how secure they are. One way is to allow them to start, but have a guiding question ready along the lines of ‘What does everyone else think.’
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How can you become aware of who is dominating a discussion?
- What other options could you develop that would help balance a group with a dominant member?
Thoughts to consider
For a less experienced group leader a dominant member can be a relief. There is less need to lead because someone else is running everything. However, this is not necessarily serving the group and if one allows such a situation to persist then other group members will become frustrated.
Seating
Can you make eye contact with everyone?
Can everyone in the group make eye contact with everyone else?
It is good to arrive early and make sure that the seating is setup so that everyone will be in a ring and will be able to see each others faces. This is especially true for the leader.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- Why do you think eye contact is important?
- Think of some groups where the seating was not ideal. How did the environment make you feel? How did it affect the discussion?
- What other considerations are there to the feel of a room?
Thoughts to consider
The feel of a room has a significant impact on a discussion. A warm room, a warm atmosphere and a warm reception will all contribute to someone feeling welcomed and more willing to engage.
Time
One of the biggest issues for a discussion group leader is keeping time. Keeping to the agreed time builds trust with group members.
Some elements to keeping to time.
• Make sure you can see a watch or clock. It may be on someone else’s wrist. It may be a clock on an opposite wall. It may be that you need to hold a mobile.
• Prepare the number of questions to cover the time. Which questions could be culled. (For 1 hour - 4 for a knowledgeable group, 12 for a less knowledgeable group)
• Be aware - early questions spark little discussion while people warm up. Later a question will spark long debate.
• Lose the battle of covering the material to win the war of trust. Learn from your mistakes in preparing the next time.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- Why is keeping to time important?
- What do the group members of your group want to achieve in the time together?
Thoughts to consider
A group is not owned by the group leader. It is a transaction between various parties. Few will complain if the unspoken contract is not kept to, but they will stop coming if it happens repeatedly.
Evaluation
Evaluating the group dynamic can help both leader and group.
Over time issues become apparent. It is good to take note of how people behave in a group. Look for patterns and as they emerge invite the different members to meet and discuss how they see the group working or not for them. Asking some questions privately can be very illuminating! One could also ask some questions about the behaviour that you see. Sometimes it can be illuminating all round, and you can help the members to work through the issues.
Questions for reflection or discussion
- How could you evaluate a group you are in?
- How could you invite evaluation from the group members?
Thoughts to consider
Often the group leader has a very different view of where the group is than the group members. An evaluation can bring things to the surface that all need to hear.
Overview question for reflection or discussion
- Looking over this material, what are three things that you could do to develop a group that you lead or are a member of?
- How could you use this material to think ahead and plan before issues come to the surface?
- Each of the points of this guide to holding a discussion is an opportunity to serve the members of your group. How could you learn what are the actual needs of the group in order to serve them better?
Thoughts to consider
Leading a group is a useful skill. Through it you get to serve the group and help them to develop as people. It is worth working through the challenge of developing your leadership to serve them.
