Emulating the Circle of Friends
Modern societies contain a variety of different group-like associations, for instance circles of friends, adolescent posses, street gangs, small terrorist cells, and religious sects. Groups develop a sense of togetherness. In everyday life, groups consciously ‘perceive themselves as a social unit’ and thereby draw a line between them and their environment. They adopt names as a shorthand for referring to themselves and being identified by others. And they may make use of particular clothes, rituals, or greetings to mark the boundaries between themselves and the ‘rest of the world’.
The feeling of togetherness among a group – as opposed to an organization, for example – depends on the fact that it consists of a particular and unique circle of people. A group may not automatically disintegrate when people leave or new people join, but its capacity to compensate for the loss of people and to integrate new ones has a limit.
Another difference from organizations is that the feeling of togetherness in the case of groups emerges on the basis of rather vague relationships between its members. While organizations such as businesses, public administrations, and universities have specific expectations regarding the roles its members have to play, groups provide a space for a more diverse self-presentation. In a group you are not just a pupil, sportswoman, or bruiser. Rather, almost anything about a group member can become a topic of conversation.
Groups which form in the context of group dynamics training or supervision and coaching obviously differ from circles of friends, schoolyard posses of adolescents, or street gangs. The participants at a group dynamics training session or in group supervision come together in pursuit of an obvious goal known to all participants. There is no need for them to meet outside of the context of that goal, and once this goal is achieved, new motivations must be generated if the members of the group are to continue meeting each other.
However, many of the elements we are familiar with from circles of friends, schoolyard posses, or street gangs can also be found in group dynamics training or in group supervision. This is why research into groups is relevant in these cases as well. There is the same feeling of togetherness; the absence of members of the group does not go unnoticed; group norms are established; and members of the group find it difficult to avoid answering questions about even very personal topics.
But it is also possible to understand the features that characterize group coaching and coach supervision, and to a large extent group therapy and group dynamics training, against the background of the disappearance, in modern society, of groups as a central means for the creation of order. In the tribal communities that were common in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas 10,000 years ago, the fundamental order was that of the group. Until the emergence of civilization, people were organized into groups of 10 to 100 individuals; all members knew each other and any new entry into or exit from the group was registered by all.
In modern society, however, groups have lost their central role in structuring society. Modern society is to a much greater extent structured by organizations. Someone who never attended school, did not do military service, did not find a job, and never belonged to a club is obviously missing out on things. It is possible to go through adolescence without belonging to a group of friends and to attend football matches without joining a band of hooligans. A person might conceivably pursue a career in politics without being a member of a sub-group of the party. The CEO of a public company might find it helpful to go on regular mountain hikes with a group of fellow CEOs, but his career does not depend on such groups, and it is not even certain that the hiking helps.
Only against the background of the decline in importance that groups have suffered in modern society is it possible to explain the surprising successes achieved in group supervision settings or group coaching – and especially in group therapies and group dynamics training. In modern society, I would suggest, it has become so easy to withdraw from group processes that the dynamics in groups, with their vague relationships and their feeling of togetherness, create a surprising experience that supports learning processes by shaking up routine expectations and habits.
