Paige Cone
Steve Amodio
Brandon Daniel
Linsey Ditchman
March 24, 2000
Symbolic Convergence: Fantasize to Realize Group Goals
General Purpose: The purpose of this speech is to explain and demonstrate Symbolic Convergence Theory can and how it can help task oriented groups to establish group identity, to benefit from the group experience, and to accomplish group goals.
Introduction:
In a galaxy far, far away the planet Smallgroopia was struck by a large meteor composed of small group Kryptonite. The meteor’s impact was so intense it broke all cohesive bonds on the planet, sending every small group member spinning into the universe enveloped in animosity toward their other group members.
The High Priest Cragan foretold in his sacred text of one small group, the Chosen Ones, who would rise above the Kryptonite’s power and bring cohesion back to Smallgroopia. The Chosen Ones would restore productivity, group pride, and motivation to all the small groups lost in this parallel universe.
This Group is the Symbol Squad!!!!!
Captain Convergence: the fearless task-leader, initiator of group fantasy, wearer of red tights. His pride in his team members is rivaled only by his pride for his good looks, rippling muscles, and snazzy uniform.
Symbot: the endless fountain of information, a geyser, if you will. The only thing more interesting than his infinite warehouse of knowledge is his ability to crack corny jokes at precisely the right moment disabling all small group adversaries.
Theoretta: the central negative, creative genius, and sociopath. This ruthless diva keeps the group in line by eliminating false group consensus. She attacks any problem with creative vigor and deviant wit.
An accomplished speaker. She gives one mean SPEEOTCH!!!!
Princess Symbola: the socio-emotional leader, fashion expert, and daughter of the High Priest, Cragan. She smoothes over conflict like calamine lotion at a summer camp. She is as well liked and supportive as a Soccer Mom.
Their mission: to explain and demonstrate Symbolic Convergence Theory can and how it can help task oriented groups to establish group identity, to benefit from the group experience, and to accomplish group goals.
Symbol Squad, HHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
I. What are the three fundamental assumptions of SCT?
A. Reality is created symbolically.
1)"Through conversations, speeches, small group discussions, and mediated messages, people build a shared or collective view of reality that orders the world around them."
Cragan, John F., Donald C. Sheilds. Symbolic Theories in Applied Communication Research Cresskill, New Jersey: 1995.
2) "Our words, our language, reflect how we view the world, how we define our realities, hence all realities are symbolic realities. If you want to understand how persons think just listen to their words. If you want to understand how a person view the role of men and women in a relationship just listen to their words." Words are not only the symbols we use to communicate, but they reveal our beliefs about the world and our views of "reality." Chris quote
3) Lets see what Dr. Cragan has to say.
Show video
B. Groups engage in common fantasies.
1) What is fantasy?
a) "Fantasy is the creative and imaginative shared interpretation of events that fulfils a group psychological or rhetorical need. Rhetorical fantasies are the result of homo-narrans in collectives sharing narratives that account for their experiences and their hopes and fears. Rhetorical fantasies may include fanciful and fictitious scripts of imaginary characters, but they often deal with things that have actually happened to members of that group or that are reported in authenticated works of history, in the news media, or in the oral history and folklore of other groups and communities."
Bormann, Ernest G. "Symbolic Convergence Theory: A Communication Formulation". Journal of Communication. Autumn 1985.
b) Superhero video
c) This video is a dramatization of our real group experience. At first, we all put our own personal goals in front of our group goals. None of us felt like we were a part of the group and we certainly didn’t know what roles to play. All this tension was preventing us from being productive and it was tearing apart the extremely delicate bonds that held our group together. Then we got wise we decided to put all this symbolic convergence nonsense to the test. We already had a slogan and a "fantasy" so we decided to use it. We were a team of superheroes, the Symbol Squad. We had a mission and a role to play. Suddenly we had a common dream. Together we could make this happen.
2) How will we recognize that the process of group fantasizing is happening?
The experts say : " Other Evidence of the sharing fantasies is furnished by cryptic allusions to symbolic common ground. When participants have shared a fantasy theme they have come to symbolic convergence in terms of common meanings and emotions that can be set off by an agreed-upon cryptic symbolic cue. The communication phenomenon of the inside-joke is an example of such a trigger."
Bormann, Ernest G. " Symbolic Convergence Theory: A Communication Formulation" Journal of Communication. Autumn 1985.
Lets break this down quotation down in layman’s terms.
a) Cryptic allusions to events in the teams history.
In simpler terms, a "cryptic allusion" means a reference to something that happened in a team’s history. They are stories only the team members know that brings a sense of unity and nostalgia.
1) "Often group fantasies become powerful sources of motivation and influence. they are retold time and again, to reinforce a norm, to inspire, to invoke a rule". Chris Quote
b) The inside joke
1) Ask audience members about inside jokes with in their teams
2) Interviews with students about how and inside jokes.
3)Cragan Interview Quote on inside jokes.
c) Cragan interview quotation on sacred stories.
C. Fantasizing builds group consciousness.
How does fantasizing build group consciousness?
a) It helps give meaning and purpose to the team shared experience.
The experts say:
"When people share a fantasy they make sense out of what before may well have been a confusing state of affairs and so in common with them. They have created a group consciousness and have come to share some symbolic common ground. They can then talk with one another about that shared interpretation with code words or brief allusions like the inside joke in a small group."
Bormann, Ernest G., John F. Cragan, Donald Shields. " In Defense of symbolic convergence Theory: A Look at The Theory and its Criticism After Two Decades." Communication Theory. Nov. 1994.
II. What are the stages in the development of consciousness-raising?
A. Self-realization
"Each group member learns about themselves when their
role in the group forms."
Former New York Knicks star, Bill Bradley, believes that role formation is a key element to the development of a good team. In an article he wrote for Sports Illustrated, Bradley uses Willis Reed as an example of role emergence in a professional basketball team. When the Knicks obtained Walt Bellamy in a tradeoff in 1968 , Willis Reed was moved to the center position. Because of this transition, Reed’s physical traits as a 6’10", 240-pound basketball player fit the physical requirements needed to play center. Also his innate leadership qualities began to show. It was like Walt Bellamy initiated a transformation in Reed that contributed to the cohesion of the team.
B. Group identity
"In the 1970’s, CR was used systematically by many religious groups. By the 1980’s, major American corporations were using the process as a means for creating, heightening, and sustaining an employee’s identity with his or her work group and company." "we describe not only the stages of CR in work groups, but also the technique that are used at rallies to make participants believe that they are part of a larger "we"."
Cragan, John F. and David W. Wright. Communication in Small Groups. Wadsworth Publishing. Belmont, CA. 1999.
1)Student Interview
"Have you ever been in a group that was also a part of you identity?"
"Values 'provide a sense of common direction for all employees and guidelines for their day-to-day
behavior' (Deal & Kennedy, 1982, p.21) and originate in the needs of individuals. People - as well as organizations-value most what they perceive they need the most. An organization's culture is built on the values which motivate members' behavior."
Deal, T.E. , & Kenedy A.A. Corporate cultures. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. 1982.
Meyer, John C. Tell Me a Story: Eliciting Values From Narratives. Communication Quarterly. Vol. 43, No. 2, Spring 1995. 210-24.
III. Why is creating group identity/consciousness important?
A. Builds group pride
"Group cohesion causes groups to form a sense of pride."
Lacoursiere, Roy. The Life Cycle of Groups. Human Sciences press; New York, 1980.
Langston Hughes, a famous black author, wrote a column for the Chicago Defender from 1943-1966. The column was called "Simple." Simple was an African-American male who lived in Harlem. His thoughts and views reflected the thoughts and views of ordinary blacks living in Harlem at that time. Simple was a spokesperson for the experience of the Black Masses, and his message wasn't about negative issues concerning racial differences between Black and White Americans. The emphasis of his message was about African-American pride. Simple encouraged blacks to love themselves and to appreciate their culture. He believed that the love of one self was not only something that blacks could relate to, but other races could identify with it as well. The stories of "Simple" expressed self-love as the vital first step in consciousness raising, and when any small group has this type of love for their organization the bonds of
their group are sealed.
"Can you tell of one of your most proud group accomplishments?"
B. Increased productivity
"Some of the factors contributing to positive moral also help productivity. For example, a certain amount of group cohesion, some tasks, increasing skill, and a lack of preoccupation with various negative feelings. There are other gains from good morale, such as decreased voluntary absenteeism and reduced job turnover.
1)Student interview
"Do you feel you worked harder with a group you were close with?"
"Have you ever been in a group where negative feelings between group members caused you to be less productive?"
I competed with the Bradley Speech team for a year and a half. As you may know the speech team holds the most successful record of any college extra-curricular activity in the nation. We are constantly reminded of our team history and the sacred stories of those who fought to establish the tradition of excellence. Whenever I would get discouraged someone would say "your standing on the shoulders of giants, you have a tradition to uphold, do it for the team". Our tradition was our motivation to work harder and to believe in ourselves.
IV. What obstacles or barriers may prevent a team from developing a shared identity or shared consciousness?
A. An individual’s identity does not embrace the group identity.
"A symbolic transformation must occur for an effective work group to exist. An individual must come to believe that he or she is a member of a new identity or the individual’s productivity and membership satisfaction will suffer."
Cragan, John F. and David W. Wright. Communication in Small Groups. Wadsworth Publishing. Belmont, CA. 1999.
Without limits
The movie "Without Limits" is a portrait of the real life track star Steve Prefontaine. Although Joe was a suburb runner, he didn’t see himself as part of a team. His insistence on being a "frontrunner" hurt his performance and his team’s. Although he ran as a solo effort, he was still part of a team and his refusal to cooperate with the other members caused the entire team to suffer.
C. Group members don’t feel responsibility is evenly distributed.
" If responsibility were gold we’d all take our share. But it’s not so leave it to someone else."
D. Individual goals compete with group goals.
"Small groups are held together by their need to cooperate in the achievement of a group goal. When individual goals are in conflict with group goal, cohesion dissipates, and productivity and member satisfaction decrease."
Cragan, John F. and David W. Wright. Communication in Small Groups. Wadsworth Publishing. Belmont, CA. 1999.
V. How do you use communication to strategically build a shared group consciousness?
A. Tell sacred stories.
"Sacred stories are sacred because they are stories that reveal beliefs with respect
to productivity, social behavior, and company policy that long-standing members of the organization understand and normally follow."
Cragan, John F. and David W. Wright. Communication in Small Groups. Wadsworth Publishing. Belmont, CA. 1999.
Order of the Ice
My dad comes from a family of five boys. Over the years the five of them came up with a few kooky traditions. Every fourth of July my family gets together and we make ice cream in an old-fashioned hand crank ice cream maker. After the ice cream is done, they have a competition. (The Order of the Ice). Each brother must hold his forearm in the salty ice water for at least 30 seconds. Whoever holds the record for the longest time is celebrated as the "Cone Master" or head of the family.
B. Initiate group fantasies.
"The result of the chaining process, often stimulated and fed by others chiming in with dramatizing messages, is a shared group fantasy. Central to the theory is the distinction between a message that contains a dramatization and the shared group fantasy that only comes about as a result of audience members actively appropriating, modifying, and sharing the drama publicly. Dramatizations that are shared result in the symbolic convergence process and create common ground that serves to unite the participants. A shared group fantasy is a dramatizing message that has been publicly displayed and has been appropriated be the sharers so that each has, as it were, made the dramatization part of his or her consciousness."
Bormann, Ernest G. "Why do people share fantasies?" Communication studies; Central States Communication Association, Euphrata, PA. 1997.
When we constructed Go-Go the giraffe for the Tower of Babel project our group engaged in a group fantasy. We came together quickly with a common vision of our final project. In our minds we were working on a top-secret project and were dedicated to keeping our methods a mystery. When we discovered that another team (You know who you are!!!) was using methods similar to ours were angry. We villanised the other team we thought of them as thieves and felt that we had just suffered a major breech of security. Although it was just a team building exercise, to us it was a serious underground project.
C. Create symbols and slogans
"In the film, Dead Poets Society, the student group achieved great
cohesion by continually celebrating the central fantasy of the group
which was "Seize the day!". When a group names itself, it spontaneously
produces one or more fantasies that help it create its we-ness and the
members begin to see themselves as a unique symbolic reality.
Lacoursiere, Roy. The life cycle of groups. Human Sciences press;
New York, 1980.
Audience Participation
"Can you tell us of a group that you were in whose name or symbol effected group attitude?"
Conclusion
After our four heroes found their roles realized their mission to save planet Smallgroopia, they set out on their journey to defeat the small group Kryptonite and reestablish cohesion. The team quickly located the source of the planetary disturbance and with the strength of the four lifted it out of the ground and threw it toward the Black hole of Tiverzzzoe where it could no longer harm anyone. They then set out across Smallgroopia to spread the word of the Tablets of Cragan.
1) Thou shalt observe the three fundamentals of SCT
2) Thou shalt raise consciousness within thine group
3) Thou shalt covet thine group’s identity
4) Thou shalt smite the barriers to Consciousness Raising
5) Thou shalt develop a consciousness that is shared
After the word of Cragan was spread to the good members of Smallgroopia, cohesion was once again restored. Group Identity was once again established, the entire planet benefited from the experience, and the Symbol Squad accomplished its group goals.