Carla, our city councilwoman, chose to accept the group norm of meeting as long as it took to complete the group’s work. However, there are pros and cons to that norm. Yes, the work was not permitted to pile up, and the group achieved closure at each meeting. But members were visibly fatigued at midnight, and there was a noticeable loss of concentration and productivity after 10 P.M. Assume Carla’s position for a moment and address the following questions:
As Carla you genuinely believe the group would be more productive and make better decisions if they had more, but shorter, meetings. List at least three choices you have for dealing with this norm.
1. What are the consequences, both to you and to the group, of each choice?
2. What strategy do you think would be most likely to succeed? Why?
3. If you decide to try to change this group norm, how would you go about doing it? In your answer include any planning you might do for bringing this up to the group. Also, describe exactly what you would say to bring this up.
Select five people, including one to play Carla, to role-play a city council meeting where Carla brings up the question of the meeting length norm. After the role-play, discuss as a class what worked and what did not. Make sure to let the participants in the “meeting” express any feelings they might have experienced during the role-play.