Discussion 05: Ethical, Cultural, and Group Management Issues
Please note: In order to successfully complete the program, you must respond to this post. Your comment/response should answer the questions/show that you completed the given activity (if any). Read the post carefully and implement the learning in the chat rooms. If you didn't participate in Discussion 04: Group Leadership
, then check here!
This discussion highlighted some of the major points related to ethical, cultural, and group management
The competent group leaders act ethically in leading the groups. And, achieving this type of competence requires more than good intentions. Many well-intended group leaders have engaged in an activity while lacking solid ethical principles. It could probably be because of unawareness of the code of conduct and guidelines. So, a high level of familiarity with the guidelines is important so they act as professionals and leaders while leading any group.
A few points to remember:
Privacy and Confidentiality. It could be possible a group leader may also be a long term listener for a member. Members might have shared their situation in detail with them in a 1:1 setup. But, when you are a group leader, you need to ensure you are not bringing up the matter discussed in 1:1 with members unless the members themselves bring up the topic and discuss it with the rest of the group as well.
Follow Community Guidelines. Preach what you can follow. As a group leader, you would need to intervene from time to time to ensure the group is running effectively. Reminding users that they follow community and chatroom guidelines while participating. But, at the same time, remember to be the first to follow the guidelines too. So, you are able to model the role behavior in the groups.
Make unbiased decisions. In a group, everyone is equal to you as a leader. Even if you communicate with some of them more frequently than others. If anything goes wrong or you find anyone being unsupportive or unacceptable behavior, take the decisions without any bias. So, the group could trust you and know that you are impartial and there for everyone and against wrong behaviors. For more, here are the community guidelines.
Members in the group come from different backgrounds, demographics, and cultural differences. So, as a leader, it is significant to respect and acknowledge the cultural differences and highlight the common grounds to connect all members of the group. Such behavior allows members to feel inclusive and comfortable in the groups to share.
And the group management issues include conflict management. You may observe that sometimes misunderstanding or disagreement causes conflict between two or more people leading to an unsupportive and unhealthy environment in the room. So as a leader, it is your time to take action and settle down the conflict to ensure room and group stay supportive and comfortable around each other. Spontaneity is the key to restrict such events from happening.
Discussion: What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Activity: Respond to at least two of your fellow trainees' comments with thoughts on their share.
After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next discussion here. Ensure to implement the learning from these discussions in the chat rooms to build and support the group. You must take part in the brainstorming/activities given in all of these discussions to successfully complete the program.
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Sometimes a discussion turns more into a 1-1 chat and others feel excluded from the chat.
We can handle it by talking to others I the room that can remind them it's a group discussion.
@specialSnow9454 Absolutely! Snow! Or maybe we could form a turn-based queue setting to keep things more in order? What other steps you think we could take to make everyone inclusive and cliques do not get formed.
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
I consider this to be an issue of ethics (doing what is right) on behalf of the leader: When, in a turn based chat room, a queue has been formed (people have patiently waited for their turn) and someone pops into the room and starts typing out huge paragraphs about their problems (interrupting the current sharer and ignoring all others waiting in line). These are usually problems that should be dealt with in a private 1:1 chat, so they can recieve undivided attention. This situation becomes an ethical issue when the leader (contrary to room guidelines) says "oh, just go ahead and share, it's okay". If this behavior is "okay" then why do we hold everyone else in the queue to the room guidelines and standards?
I hope that I would handle it as one Mod did once: After gently reminding everyone to please follow the guidelines several times (and she posted them in the room), she asked the proper sharer if she may have the floor for a moment to address the situation. She then politely asked the new comer to allow her to PM them to discuss their situation. Then apologized to the room, provided lighthearted words to comfort to everyone and then went to speak with the new comer privately.
I've made bold the qualities that I think are important in handling issues that are sensitive or upsetting to the room. These are qualities that I hope to build for myself.
@Sher217 That is a really good observation, Sher. And I liked how the leader handled the situation. I think these steps are the key to make a difference and create a better space to engage. Thank you for bringing it.
@Sher217 @ASilentObserver
i love the way this mod handled this situation. I think that would be an unethical situation also. And I hope that if I’m ever in that situation that I handle it as gracefully as the mod did.
@ASilentObserver
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
One cultural issue I have recognized in the room is the use of specific terms from a language not everyone within the group understands. This has the potential to make other members feel excluded from discussions, as they may not have the cultural background knowledge needed in order to understand the topic of discussion between some of the other members.
This could be handles by reminding everyone how important exclusivity is when it comes to group environments and dynamics, and also about practices that have been agreed upon that are meant to keep the group chats exclusive (e.g. the use of English, as it is the most spoken language on Earth, followed by mandarin).
@Ines1229 definitely Ines. Great point! It is important as a group leader to keep people reminded that all need to follow the group practices so everyone feel inclusive and supported.
@ASilentObserver
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Personally, the cultural issue I recognised in the room is the excessive use of abbreviations. Whether they be 7 cups related such as PS meaning 'Peer supporter' or it being more 'universal' abbreviations such as IDK meaning 'I don't know'. It can be confusing to people who haven't encountered any of these terms and their abbreviations before and participants can be embarrassed to speak up about not understanding them in fear of being judged.
To handle this situation I kindly ask if people insist on using abbreviations to put in brackets the full meaning at least the first time they use it in that conversation as to avoid any confusion for participants of the room.
@Azalea98 Great idea to handle it AZ. Good work with these reminders and nice observation. Completely agree with you. Thank you for doing this.
@Azalea98
This is a fantastic idea, although, anyone entering the room after the explanation would miss it, I feel it may be a good idea to create an "Abbreviations" page that could be linked within the site or description of rooms, or even maybe in the help section.
Fantastic idea and I relate to this, I often wonder what abbreviations are :)
One cultural issue that I have recognised in the group support rooms is that sometimes members use words in other languages, other than English. This would cause confusion and will probably make others in the group feel less included, since they may not be able to understand what they are saying. Since English is the chat room rule language to use, it should be abided by. If members communicate to each other in their language (other than English) I would respectfully remind them of the chatroom rules and emphasise the need to use English language to maintain a inclusive environment
Forgot the tag oops @ASilentObserver
@kieran000
Well observed!
@ASilentObserver
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
There are times where personal issues are shared in the chatrooms as a listener and people might not notice or know that as listeners we are here to listen only - help out the community.
To handle this, I would put out a notice every once in a while saying that personal issues aren't to be shared in the chatrooms as a listener. It'd be good to remind listeners to switch to their member account when wanting to talk about those issues. It can be kinda confusing sometime though, because we often do say some personal things, but they are not necessarily considered "issues".
@mxmes @ASilentObserver
i agree. This is a big issue that I see in the LSR although I have noticed it getting better. Most people are open to a gentle reminder to sign onto their member account to discuss personal issues. I think honestly it’s lack of knowledge when most people ask for support on personal problems on their listener account.
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room?
A group management and ethical issue I have seen before is users breaking confidentiality either through sharing chat details, talking about other users and sharing offline contact. A further issue is when those users don't respond to moderation, and make things difficult and stressful in rooms, which causes conflict.
What would you do to handle it?
I would make sure that everyone is informed of all the rules before the enter the room, and that moderators are well equipped to deal with situations like these
@ASilentObserver
Example of an issue of ethical, cultural, or group management issue I recognized in the room:
On turn-based group support sessions, some people prefer to share without interruption (even in a form of encouraging feedback), while some others don’t mind it.
Sometimes, even when one already states his/her preference, there’s still one or more participants that would cross it, either they are not aware or they enter during the share.
What I would do:
Break the script at the part where we ask whether they prefer their share to be uninterrupted or they don’t mind feedback during their share. This is to highlight the question to the sharer.
And follow up with a comment that repeats the sharer preference, to increase awareness of other participants.
When the conflict still arises during the share in regard to the above issue, I would go with de-escalating conflict steps, e.g: remind others about the sharer preference and guidelines, encourage the sharer to continue, remind everyone to remain kind and supportive, and if it is seems stuck in the loop, move on.
@ouiCherie
I really like your steps to prevent the situation regarding other participants crossing the preferences of the current sharer. 😊 Will definitely apply this, in shaa Allah!
@ouiCherie
That sounds like such a well-thought-out plan! Thank you for sharing 💛
1st -Sometime member to lighten the serious talk say something funny , though intention is good but turn up disrespecting or unempathetic to member.
Like in one situation member shared her bad experience with listener sharing profile link. The other member told let message that listener everybody. Later said I am kidding. But that sentence can be provoking nor seem helpful.
Moderate instantly took the situation and acknowledged the member who had shared the experience and told would delete the chat as she had share listener profile page.
So surely going handle same way removing the details and acknowledge the member that he or she is heard.
2nd- I like the listener approach when one member replied rude to one member share” like who cares”. Instant the listener asked to be respectful. So there was no room left to be more rude.
3rd- Cultural issue I had not observed yet.
4th- Usually mod or host take care all messages are validate or get reply. That make discussion actually a group discussion. This is good way of handling.
Conflict – yes where difference of opinion between member -member and member -listener both I had observed.
In such case making both the party to remind the purpose of group sharing or discussion and also validating their statement. Accepting that difference of opinion is normal to happen. Being neutral.Divert by asking another question.
The group support room I spend most time in is Sharing Circle. There are certain group management difficulties that are specific to Sharing Circle, as it has its own set of guidelines separate to the chatroom rules, and it is very structured compared to other rooms.
One of the main group management issues in Sharing Circle is people entering and interrupting a member's share. Usually this is unintentional, they're just new to SC and aren't aware of how it works; in these cases the problem can be solved by stating that we're listening to (username)'s share and a link to the guidelines. However, occasionally someone is disruptive because they don't like the very structured format and it isn't helpful for them, so they break the rules and behave in the way they would like the SC to work, out of frustration. In these cases I point out that 1-1s, other rooms and the forums are available if they'd like to try a different format, direct attention to the current sharer and let them know I'm adding a minute (or more, depending on the situation) to their time, due to the interruption. It can also be useful to remind members about their personal mute button in the case of significant disruption.