You walk into the room, ready to lead a productive team meeting, only to be met with blank stares, side conversations, and perhaps a subtle eye roll or two. The energy is off, and suddenly you realize—this group isn’t on the same page.
Sound familiar? As a coach or leader, you’ve likely faced groups that lack direction, struggle to collaborate, or simply don’t gel. And while it can be frustrating, the key to navigating these challenges lies in understanding the group dynamics and applying facilitation strategies that bring out the best in everyone.
Groups, like individuals, have personalities. Just as no two students are alike, no two groups function the same way. Yet, groups have immense potential. Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.” The question is: how can we as facilitators unlock that potential?
The Power of Purpose
One of the most common issues groups encounter is a lack of clarity around their purpose. Have you ever sat in a meeting and thought, “What are we even doing here?” It happens more often than we realize, and the impact is huge. Groups without a clear purpose tend to flounder, lose focus, or even become negative forces in their environment.
As a coach, one of your first responsibilities is to clarify the group’s purpose. Ask yourself: How is this group better than the individuals in it? Whether the group is tackling a performance challenge, solving a problem, or building a common culture, a well-defined purpose sets the stage for success.
And remember, it’s not just about stating the purpose at the beginning—it’s about revisiting it often and ensuring that every member is aligned with that purpose.
Objectives: More Than Just Tasks
While purpose provides direction, objectives provide the concrete steps the group will take to achieve its goals. However, objectives can be tricky. Some groups have clear, explicit objectives, while others may have vague or even conflicting goals. For instance, a group might have the explicit objective of selecting program indicators, but their collateral objectives—such as building trust or improving communication—are equally important for long-term success.
As a coach, you need to help groups articulate both their explicit and collateral objectives. This might mean taking extra time to clarify objectives, even if it feels slow. The payoff, however, is a group that understands not only what they need to do but how they’re going to do it and why it matters. Taking time to clarify objectives helps avoid confusion and disappointment later in the process.
Group Dynamics: Know Your Members
No group can function effectively without understanding its members. Whether you’ve been called in to work with an established team or a newly formed group, the dynamics of group membership are key to success. Each person brings unique skills, perspectives, and, yes, personal agendas, to the table. Your job as a coach is to balance these factors and create a cohesive, high-functioning team.
The ideal group is small enough to stay coordinated but large enough to cover all necessary skills and perspectives. And let’s not forget about trust. Group members who trust each other and agree on the group’s direction are more likely to be allies, while low trust or conflicting goals can turn members into adversaries. Diagnosing the group’s makeup and understanding how individuals will interact can help you navigate the complexities of group dynamics.
Getting to the “Performing” Stage
Tuckman’s (1965) stages of group development—Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing—are a useful framework for understanding how groups evolve over time. But let’s be real: groups don’t always progress neatly through these stages. Sometimes, just when you think a group has hit the “performing” stage, it reverts to storming over a new disagreement.
As a coach, being aware of where the group is developmentally is crucial. Each stage requires different strategies, and knowing how to support the group at each point can make the difference between chaos and cohesion. Whether it’s guiding a group through the storming phase or helping them solidify norms, the goal is to keep the group progressing toward higher performance.
Final Thoughts: The Facilitator’s Toolbox
As you work with groups, remember that your role as a facilitator is to create the conditions for success. That means designing processes that align with the group’s stage of development, setting ground rules, and continuously diagnosing and addressing group dynamics. It also means being patient and flexible, as groups will evolve and change over time.
At the heart of it all, your job is to help the group answer the question: How can we work together better than any one of us could work alone? When you can guide groups to this answer, you’ll unlock their true potential.
Download our free Group Dynamics Assessment Tool
References
Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63(6), 384-399. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0022100
