..

In today’s exercise, you will be practicing and developing your ability to assess group dynamics during a conversation.

Click the “More” button to view the exercise.

The Workout

  • Task 1: Determine the relationship between the woman highlighted in the white box and each of the two people (a man and a woman) who approach her once the video starts playing.
    • Make the initial assessment about the relationships right as the greetings occur (in the first 10 seconds of the video).
    • Then pause the video to make a determination before moving forward. Note your reasons why.
    • Your choices for the four relationships are: Intimate, Personal, Acquaintances or Strangers
  • Task 2: Watch the rest of the video and determine if your initial assessment were correct based on everything else that you observe.
  • Task 3: Identify if any of the three people in the conversation do anything to try and change the initial group dynamic and behavior throughout the conversation, and if so, determine how effective it was.
  • Write your answers on a sheet of paper before viewing our answers

[expand title=”View Our Answers”]

  • The initial assessments:
    • The woman and the man who approaches
      • I assess this relationship as being acquaintances as I observe them falling into the “social distance.”
      • The reason for my initial assessment is the hug that occurs right at the onset between these two.
      • The hug could imply either an “intimate” or “personal” relationship, however, because the hug is very brief, their heads are kept away from each other and because their lower bodies are extended so that only their upper body touches during the hug, I assess it as falling into the acquaintance relationship of two people who know each other, but are not close friends or intimate.
    • The woman and the woman who approaches
      • I assess the relationship with the woman who approaches as being strangers who have no pre-existing relationship.
      • The reason for this is because the blond woman who approaches does not close the distance for any touching during the greeting and stays a bit further away from the woman than the man does, implying that the space she has chosen falls into the “public zone.”
  • The follow on assessments
    • The Man
      • Continue to assess as being acquaintances as they quickly re-establish separation between them after the hug.
      • The conversation itself is fairly short, which makes sense for a chance encounter in a public location between two people who aren’t that close.
      • The end of conversation hug is similar to the greeting hug, quick and with separation in their lower bodies.
    • The Woman
      • Continue to asses them as being strangers as she remains further away from the other woman than the man who approaches.
      • Displays indicators from the uncomfortable cluster during the conversation.
      • Not a part of the conversation.
  • Attempts at change
    • What we wanted you to notice is when the man changes positions in the group and moves to the far side of the circle.
    • By re-establishing his position, he creates an opportunity for the blond woman to become a part of the circle and not interact as a stranger, but as a participant.
    • When assessing whether it is successful or not, you can see that following his shift, the blond woman rises to her tip toes, as if trying to move closer, before taking a step closer to position herself at the same distance from the original woman as the man is.
  • Add a comment with the assessments that you made, but that we didn’t make, so that we can check for those assessments and provide feedback on those specific observations.  We will add them to our answers in the post itself for future viewings of the exercise.[/expand]

Enhance The Workout

  • Repeat
    • One of the goals for this exercise is to think about the relationship that people display during their first interaction.  This is when the least amount of information is available to you, so becoming more accurate here leads to an easier time as additional information presents itself.
    • So, watch the first 10 seconds of the video a few times and really examine the hug that the man and woman display.  We know that the quality of the video isn’t great, but you should be able to see how each portion of the body is used during the hug and betrays a less intimate hug than what you might expect out of two friends (personal space/distance).
  • Reflect
    • A second goal of the video is to think about how to bring people into a group and make them feel welcome.
    • Observe the blond woman’s behavior once the man moves to the far side of the circle, and compare her actions to a time when you have introduced someone to someone else.
    • How did they behave when you introduced them? What distance and relationship would you have observed in that situation? What could you have done to make them feel more welcome, and how would have you confirmed that you were successful by observing their behavior?
  • Act
    • In an encounter with a friend this week, intentionally position yourself a little further away from them than you normally would.
    • How do they act? When you position yourself where an acquaintance would at the social distance, do they cut the conversation short because they sense the distance? Do they try to close the distance and re-establish a separation that makes sense for friends?

Related Content: