Team dynamics
Understanding human behavior in groups is highly useful in design experience based events since group dynamics play a role in any human interaction. FIRO® is a comprehensive and widely-used theory of interpersonal relations created by Will Schutz. Schutz originally devised the theory to measure and predict the interaction between people for the purpose of assembling highly productive teams.
FIRO stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation, developed by American Psychologist Will Schutz in the 1950s (followed by 40 years of research) and one of the most well-used team development models of all times. Many of you have also probably heard of similar models such as Tuckman’s (forming, norming, storming, performing) and Wheelan’s, that give similar insight into growing teams and leadership. What makes FIRO so useful is that it’s simple, with only 3 dimensions and a few working principles.
Simply put, any group goes through 3 stages when developing into a well-functioning team: Inclusion, Control, Openness. Here are some paragraphs written by Will Schutz about each of them.
Stage 1: Inclusion
Aim: Help people feel welcome, important, “I want to be part of this!”
“The inclusion phase begins with the formation of the group. When I’m confronted with other people, I look for where I fit in this group. Am I in or out? Am I going to be paid attention to or be left out and ignored? If the answers make me anxious, I may start talking excessively, withdrawing, becoming exhibitionistic, or telling personal stories. At the same time, I am deciding how committed I will become to this group. (...) In the inclusion phase, I watch the leaders’ commitment to the group, their attendance, their interest, their participation, their punctuality. If they falter, I may feel, “If you don’t care, why should I?” If the leaders are not committed, the group is of less interest to me.”
At each event the first objective is to “include” the participants. After that, the focus and energy goes into the next phase, if the group is ready! And it’s our role to help it get ready. Inclusion literally starts as soon as the participants step into the event venue. It’s in how we greet them, how things have been set up to make everyone feel welcome: the room is ready, the music
playing, and most importantly the team is ready to welcome everyone as they come in, present themselves, start memorising names (it helps to practice beforehand!) But the fact is that “inclusion” dominates the whole recruitment process as well: we need to make people feel that they want to join the event in the first place! That it’s for them, that they can identify with the team running the event, that they want to be part of something done by you etc. Think about how you want to keep in touch with the participants that sign up long before the event - that’s all inclusion.
By the time your participants come to your event, most of them will have already decided that “they want to be there”, but not how and how much. Therefore, the opening phase is all about this. Let’s help your participants feel included by setting the tone, by encouraging them to get to know each other throughout all the activities, by splitting them up into smaller groups (often), by mixing the groups, by having them start sharing about themselves. And let’s not forget the power of names: if people know your name, you’ll know (subconsciously) that you belong. Do what you have to, do name games, use name tags (and again, practice beforehand, so that the leader team knows all the names before the participants event get there!). The first interactions are about setting the tone and a clear frame for the event, then getting a sense of who else is in the group, sparking some interest to learn more and start doing something. You want to give the participants the feeling of “I’m not alone. I’m not the only weirdo thinking about where the world is going and wanting to do something about it.”
Stage 2: Control
Aim: Help people feel competent, capable, “I can do this!”
“Once we have resolved inclusion issues (at least temporarily), we turn to control issues, which is characteristic of groups in mid-development. Behaviour at this stage includes competition for leadership, determination of procedures and methods of decision making, and distribution of power. My concerns centre on whether I have as much or as little power, responsibility, and influence as I am comfortable with.”
This is the phase where the concrete project work and role negotiation kicks in. You might present the participants with unexpected situations, challenges and questions that need to be solved creatively and as a team. At the same time, while solving these issues participants will realise that they don’t agree, don’t have have the same goals and the same way of working. In their frustration, they may turn against the leaders of the event or get into conflict with each other. It helps to see this as a sign that the group is actually moving forward and getting into real stuff. And then try to find out what they need help with...
As people are developing ideas and project and whatever their preference is with regards to how much they like to influence and take leadership, it will push those limits and provide lots of opportunities to “step out of their comfort zones” (if they want to!).
Your role as facilitator is to help them succeed, by challenging them to succeed and making them feel that they can do it.
Everyone will at some point fear that they’re actually not capable of pulling off a social project, they’ll feel inexperienced or even helpless, and fear embarrassing themselves. All these fears live on the border between the comfort zone and the stretch zone, so it’s no wonder we all hesitate to “jump”!
Stage 3: Openness
Aim: Help people feel appreciated, liked, “I can be myself!”
“By the third stage of group evolution, crucial for any team that is going to work over the long term, I now have an idea of our boundaries and of our commitment and methods for distributing power. Now I turn to other questions: How close should I get? Shall I be completely open and express all my feelings honestly? Or shall I keep my relationships superficial and task-oriented? Shall I find some middle ground?”
Openness sets the tone for the event as a whole. It plays out in the way we try to be “transparent” about the way the event will work and what will happen (without “giving away” details that will spoil the exercises, but also without pretending that everything is a “big secret”). It plays out in the way we talk about our own experience as leaders/entrepreneurs/facilitators, valuing our strengths and sharing the knowledge we have but also being able to say “I don’t know” instead of “pretending” that we have all the answers. This is leading by example, this will make the participants feel that we’re all in the process of learning, that they can express doubts and that they’re allowed to be who they are!
Time & Tools/ Materials
This method can be used in any event, workshop, team meeting that you organize. It’s really helpful to understand both team dynamics and human behavior in group settings.
Personal experience with the method
Using the FIRO theory on group dynamics we aim to create an event that is both really safe and really challenging and that helps participants get ready fast to dive in and get COMPLETELY engaged in the work and the learning. Also, because so much of experienced based learning is based on the interaction of participants, the closer the group becomes the more collaboration and mutual support takes place, the more participants will inspire each other to dare more and the greater their experience will be. FIRO helps us as leaders and facilitators keep an eye on group dynamics, firstly to gain some perspective on what is going on (and not get super scared when participants get into conflict, for example! with you or with each other...), secondly to gain some insight into the challenges that our participants face and to support the group’s evolution.
Getting a group into Openness is the real deal since this is where the actual work starts and transformation happens. However, it is also the most challenging phase to hold as a facilitator because this is where the depth of human emotions, dreams, values, and pains come into play.
Sources and Further literature
Excerpts (in italic) are from “The Human Element - Productivity, Self-Esteem and the Bottom Line” by Will Schutz, pp. 124-126. More info can be found on: www.thehumanelement.com
Adapted from the euforia Facilitation handbook, originally written by Magdalena Musiala, licensed FIRO and The Human Element Practitioner.
Severin von Hünerbein is in charge of the design and facilitation of collaboratio helvetica’s Catalyst Lab, a learning and design process created to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Switzerland. He started his career in training and facilitation with euforia in 2010. After graduating from the University of St. Gallen (HSG), he has been determined to bring social innovation to the business world through creating brave spaces that allow a diverse group of people who would usually not meet to find new forms of collaboration, dream together and to co-create innovative and sustainable solutions for systemic change. He is decorated with a MA degree in International Affairs and with a mind full of jokes, joie-de-vivre, and patience.