9 Final Meetings

Case Summary

The group is now in the performing stage. They have worked through their primary and secondary tensions and have gone through most of Tuckman’s development model. They get along relatively well and have continued to stay focused on the common goal. The group struggles with direct communication at times and this causes frustration among the group members. Additionally, the leader of the group, Lauren, doesn’t listen to the needs of others (from a verbal and nonverbal perspective) and makes final decisions that the group has not agreed upon. Each decision has worked out to be successful; however, this has still put a wedge between the group members.

Trust is not as high as it once was even though tensions are low. The group remains meeting virtually due to the pandemic.

In the past month, Harold has been preoccupied with his parent’s death and he has made several meetings uncomfortable (he takes important calls during the meeting and asks the group to wait for him until the phone call is complete). He talks over the leader and questions her decision-making. Harold and Sandra stopped talking to each other during the start of the pandemic (March timeframe) because Harold overheard Sandra talking about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and how important it is to our country and their communities. She was talking with Franklin and Lauren, both of the members were providing positive nonverbal feedback and verbally agreed with Sandra. Harold did not agree with the conversation and felt alienated by their side conversation. Sandra did not know Harold overheard the conversation; she would have included him if she knew he was in close proximity. Harold refused to talk to Sandra on a 1:1 basis after that.

Lourdes and Franklin became close and started to date each other – Lourdes took on more than half of Franklin’s work to support him during a difficult time. The group was unaware of this until the month before the final presentation because Franklin mentioned that Lourdes had “all of his work” on her computer. They decided to share the details of their involvement/task roles and that Lourdes did most of Franklin’s work. The group did not believe this was “right”; however, this late in the project, they “let it go”. Franklin was able to catch up on the nuances of the project through reading Lourdes’ work and present his part. Patrick carried out his tasks but lost motivation to socially engage with the group. In the end, he seemed bored and uninterested in the work, it showed in the presentation.

Lastly, Lauren led the group through their performing stage; she felt confident in their work and knew that the group worked well under the circumstances (life changes, COVID-19, social uprising, and virtual meetings).