It has definitely been an interesting semester. With class, we’ve learned of certain concepts that can affect our leadership approaches, and more importantly, we’ve learned about some of the factors that will influence our group as we grow together over the next few years.

We have discussed things like, groupthink and cohesion. We’ve talked about the way that in-groups can behave. We have also reflected over the different things that bond a group together, and what can tear them apart.

I think one of the really interesting things that we went over is the stages that a group goes through. These would be the forming, norming, storming, performing, and adjourning stages. I remember when we were discussing these stages in class. At first, everyone was pretty chill, just going through the motions of taking notes and answering questions. But of course, when it came time to evaluate our cohort in terms of the new information that we’d learned, things got a little patchy.

Lol, I love our group. I promise I do, but naturally we don’t see eye to eye on all things, not even the way that we should be governed (or govern ourselves).

Another one of our classes that really resonated with me was when we were talking about what type of conflict people we are. So we did the little questionnaire to see whether we, individually, had more fighting or compromising personalities. I found this particular class important because it forced us to look at ourselves and the way we manage our relationships with each other.

I won’t say that it changed anything for me personally because I pretty much knew where I fall on the spectrum. I try to stay aware of my interactions with people and how my behavior and mannerisms factor into those interactions. However, have another source confirm those things that I already assumed about myself did make it more real, and as a result, I am taking it more seriously now. I want to be the best person that I can be. In order for me to do that, I have to be aware of my strengths and my flaws. I also have to try to be aware of those things in others.

Finally, I appreciated the class that we spent talking about decision making. In grades K-12, students are taught how to make decisions for themselves. Yes, we also did group projects but those were more about being aware of yourself and communicating with others to accomplish a task. I feel that it was an important class because it addressed the way that groups make decisions, together and as a whole.

Some groups don’t receive or accept input from all of its members, but typically decisions are impacted by the thoughts, experiences, and opinions of more than one person. Because these perceptions are not all coming from the same person, they are not all the same, and bringing them together to form a decision can be really hard.

I struggled a little with our group projects in this class, for this very reason. I can appreciate and respect it because of the things that I’ve learned about myself and some of the others in our class.