Discussion 02: Building a Group
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 01: Introduction to Group Support, then check here!
Welcome back, crew! In this discussion, we will learn about building a group.
As you have observed and noticed, some chat rooms are the busiest space while some are pretty quiet or slow. That means many factors contribute to a group building. It could be the topic, time of the day, members already there, social anxiety, facilitator, and so on. Each one of them has a critical role to keep the room active and supportive.
The first thing to acknowledge: 7Cups is a global platform. We are available to 189 countries and we have users who speak more than 140+ languages. That is, we have a large group of diversified members and have demographic and cultural differences. But, the challenge is how to connect them?
So, to do that, we structured and created certain rules and policies in order to facilitate group interaction. One of them is to use English as a common language to communicate. As per the research, 20% of the Earth's population speaks English, that is, the highest percentage for a language used for communication followed by the Mandarin language.
Then, we placed the chatroom rules regarding what is acceptable or unacceptable behavior in the chatroom so we are able to ensure the room is well moderated, safe, healthy, and compassionate space to connect and interact to get and provide support to each other.
That means in order to build a group, you need to identify the common grounds, and based on that you can structure a group for group support. Anxiety Support Room, for example, serves the purpose to support the members struggling with anxiety or to share the progress they make and what is working for them. Sharing Circle Room, another example, serves the purpose of the most structured and uninterrupted space to share and vent.
So, how as a group specialist/ facilitator, leader, one sets up the group is crucially important for its success. One needs to have an eye for details, structural features of a group to ensure a good environment for participation. It is important to reduce the unproductive anxiety, foster compassionate interaction among the members, increase the likelihood of good attendance and active participation, therapeutic processes, and discourage any unhealthy cliques to build a healthy group.
Discussion: Share a challenge experienced while building a group in the chatrooms? What did you learn?
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.
@ASilentObserver
Discussion: Share a challenge experienced while building a group in the chatrooms? What did you learn?
The biggest challenge I found was that the chat is new, so most who join on the adult side are less talkative, and typically most join then lurk or join then leave, even when welcomed in and when sharing the current question or discussion.
With the teens there is a lot more participation, but it seems to flow by who is entering. It's hard to get them to all participate at the same time. I've found that I need to open the questions up broader to the teens and ask if they can relate to anything similar, and if someone was participating and then got quiet after a newer member entered, invite them by name to re-engage by do they have any thought on this or can they relate at all.
Sometimes it has worked and sometimes not. I do feel like I talk a lot, but I can do that naturally in chats. I've been doing some pop ups to help bring more people to the room and community and bring attention to it, in hopes more with feel comfortable to participate. I think part of the challenge is it is new again (I see there used to be chats). Another challenge is people joining who want to participate that can't relate and do not have the particular issue but want to just chat. So I need to remember to set the title clearer for community name and....
I'd say the teens are definitely more engaged, so figuring out how to get the adults more engaged is something I'm more challenged on at the moment.
I learned there is a big difference in hosting between adults and teens.
I learned that I'm comfortable with taking up with silence and talking.
I learned that each group has different needs and topics as I've asked them what they'd like to chat about and need support for.
I've learned that I am more nervous about supporting listener chats than member chats.
@KristenHR
I feel nervous about supporting listener chats too. I found what you wrote interesting.
Share a challenge experienced while building a group in the chatrooms? What did you learn?
As a moderator/Listener/ Room supporter and Host I have had my fair shares of challenging experiences, one of them being dismissive members that do not like being told about guidelines. Which I can understand the frustration, because we were all new members at some point in time. However, that does not mean it is okay to interrupt someone and be disrespectful. So the way I defeat these challenging moments is not take it personal for starters, and keep the peace within the other members. I host for sharing circle, as well as guided sessions and open support sessions for trauma community. I apply the same way I run the sharing circle with the way I run the trauma community sessions that I host.
Of course, there will always be a moment in time that there is a challenge the best way to conquer it is to remember that being new is not a chance at disrespect or dismissal of respect, boundaries and rules.
@InsightfulPhoenix
@ASilentObserver
i actually really like your idea of using the sharing circle guidelines in your other discussions. Thank you for sharing! I hadn’t thought of that!
@Kristynsmama
Personally, I thought of the sharing circle guidelines to be added, because of how much I have hosted sessions in there and with those guidelines it does help a lot, especially when it comes to people not listening and being rude, they get 3 warnings then immediately muted because it's a no tolerance policy
@ASilentObserver
the challenge that I have faced the most is people popping in and out.
my solution to this is to keep icebreakers fun and different so participants don’t know what to expect and it will make them want to stick around to find out what’s next.
@Kristynsmama
I like the icebreaker idea. Fun is important.
@Kristynsmama
it can be discouraging when people do not stay in the group especially if the chatroom is already slow and you are hosting for an hour. I like your idea for using icebreakers to draw engagement as that can spark up conversation among the more quiet people
The most important thing is that everybody should feel comfortable in the conversation. You have to pay attention to who is saying what and ask questions that the members can answer. I'm still looking for my place, which chatroom to build a group in. Everyone needs to be seen and respected. It is essential that someone participate in the discussion. The challenge can be lack of participation in some chats. It is understandable; the more people there are, the more difficult it is to join the conversation.
I can definitely agree to this, one of the biggest issues I have faced when hosting/ moderating is seeing the flux of people that want to share then, when a share is mid session more than one person will come in trying to rush the share in progress, rush the host or dismiss everything said.
This is a good point to bring up thank you @Helpfulmindful88
@InsightfulPhoenix
thanks for the answer! :)
@ASilentObserver
Share a challenge experienced while building a group in the chatrooms? What did you learn?
A challenging experience i had in a chatroom building a group was when I first started doing sharing circles years ago. It can be challenging to remember what to do in a conflict situation or even to remember the script, which is why I love the work 7cusp has done to build dashboards for the teams and made the scripts readily available
