Personal experience of working with groups
In this essay, I would like to talk about my experience in working with groups. I will talk about how this assignment contributed to my study of Health promotion, what difficulties I faced, and how I managed to overcome them. I will also discuss how this activity helped me develop skills valuable for my future career and communication skills.
First of all, I would like to mention that performing individual assignments help students develop new knowledge and necessary for their future professional skills. However, there is a great benefit of working with groups. I consider this a necessary part of life which helps people become more socialized and be more capable of working in a team. Moreover, working with groups provides individuals with wonderful opportunities to get practices that individual working does not provide.
As I discovered, the practice of working with groups focuses on management processes, decision-making, and behavior. I work with several groups as a participant and as an instructor.
Before I began working with groups, I considered that my work will be simply advertised and persuade people to change their lifestyle and habits to make their life healthier. However, when I start my activities, I understood that working with groups is a much difficult task and requires special skills. Having passed this practice, I discovered that working with groups requires good communication and negotiation skills, the ability to think strategically, be caring, and supportive. Moreover, I concluded that the one who works with groups should be non – judgmental and be able to find a specific approach to the needs of every member of the group, as well as take into consideration the need of a group as a whole. I also understood that the one who works with groups should be committed to his/her work and pay attention to every individual to encourage him/her to participate in the activities.
My first practice was far from my expectations. I thought that I will start with the introduction of the health information in the form of a lecture, but when I entered the room for the first time, I understood that the first thing I should do is to develop an effective team and make people involved in the subject matter. Thus, I started with “introducing” activities. First of all, I introduced myself and them each member of the group provided information about himself/herself which he/she considered essential. Then I presented the “working plan” and topic for discussions. I asked everybody to share personal life experiences and express an opinion on why health promotion is important. In such a way, I managed to get the group members together. The next day, I discovered that people in the group are friendlier to each other and contact with me easier than it was during our first meeting.
I decided that for the next meeting I need a plan to avoid unpredictable situations that is why I wrote some tips to which I could refer if something went wrong. I based health promotion activities on a communicative approach. Thus, I organized debates and interviews, as well as provided a problem question, and divided the group into two teams (pros and cons teams). This, helped me promote communication among members of the group. During our last meeting, I asked the participants to prepare short speeches about what they gained from our meetings and how it can help them change their lives.
Working with groups helped me acquire the necessary knowledge and practical skills of working with people. I consider it a valuable contribution to my future career.