Team Development - Research Paper Example

After a few practices, I was beginning to question whether I was right to take on the role of the leader of a dance group. The initial few meetings with the group can best be described by Woodcock’s analysis of team development. During this time, the objectives of the group were unclear and feelings were not expressed among group members. This stage of team development is otherwise known as the “Undeveloped Team” (Woodcock 1979). The group members were more interested in checking their cell phones or simply chatting with each other.

Because of this, everything that I said had to be repeated more than once so that everyone could follow along with the lesson plan. This inevitably led to two, three, or four-hour classes instead of just the usual hour. I was the one responsible for making the decisions of the group, and I felt like I wasn’t getting through as I would have liked. The experience that I had with this group was in direct contrast to the work of Wheelan et al. (2003), who state that the first stage of group development is dependency and inclusion (p. 224). In this theory, group members are unsure of where they are heading and rely on the leader to provide direction.

The first part of this statement is true except that the group that I was working with had no interest in performing at any great level; if they had the motivation to achieve highly, then I am sure that they would have warmed to me at the beginning. As time progressed, I began to grow weary at my attempts to try and get the group to take hold of what I was teaching them. Before the lessons began, many of them seemed interested in taking the class; there weren’t any other youth activities in the church for them to participate in.

Perhaps it was simply that they took dance lessons for granted because there was nothing else to interest them. However, for me personally it felt as though I was banging my head against a brick wall. I knew that I had to do something to