ABSTRACT
One of the places where the psychological maturity of a group is on display is at the group’s meetings. The group demonstrates its maturity in the way they meet but at the same time, meetings offer significant opportunities to develop the maturity. This chapter investigates these opportunities.
The text presents three dimensions of meetings – framework, content, and process – and particularly probes into the process dimension. The authors claim that the process dimension can be subdivided into three components: the emotional, the communicative, and the symbol-creating component. During meetings, these components will be active mostly at a subconscious level.
Facilitating meetings involves being aware of the three dimensions and how they influence each other. But even more importantly, the facilitator should make the group aware of the subconscious activity in the three components. What happens at the surface of the meeting, and what goes on under the surface which might impede the group’s ability to focus on the purpose of the meeting?
The text is illuminated by cases.
