Virginia Beach leadership Workshop is a week long program for high school students from around the city to learn about the dynamics of leadership. Three key lessons I learned from the workshop were group dynamics, the decision making process, and group roles.

We start off the week by getting separated into councils and group dynamics begin. The first stage of group dynamics is forming. This stage is how my council started because no one knew each other and no one wanted to step on anyone's toes. From this stage we had a project to complete. Come up with a five minute skit about your council name and your members. We had to do this thought the decision making process. The process has seven steps: develop constraints, set goals, brainstorm ideas, discussion, keep scratch, implement idea, and housekeeping. This has been the most efficient decision making process I have ever used. One of the keeps the process being successful is the discussion. No one is allowed to talk negatively about an idea, only why they like a certain idea. This ensures a free judgement environment where everyone feels they can contribute. 

 During the process however is when the storming began. Everyone had a vested interest in the end product and wanted to make sure their idea went though. This was the hardest stage to get through but people eventually understand that when the group is leaning one way sometimes you have to fight another day. Another disagreement we had was about the roles of the group members and who should take on each responsibility. 

Once the project was completed my council had to reflect and establish rule and roles for the team and team members. I This can be characterized by the norming stage. I believe through this stage we developed an increased level of trust and team support. was elected the president of my council. As the leader of the group I had to take on different roles at times which included information giver, coordinator, energizer, and at times harmonizer. Through this we developed a sense of cohesion; the interpersonal  bonds that hold a group together and the most important aspect of a group. 


From then on we became a very focused group hitting on all cylinders. This is know as the preforming stage. We knew exactly how the DMP process went and knew how to operate to achieve the best results efficiently and effectively. Stress was easily handled  when the deadline to finish the future projects were approaching.


Virginia Beach Leadership Workshop was a wonderful experience where I learned a ton about leadership and developed my leadership skills. Once the workshop was over we began the adjourning stage where the completion of goals was finished and it was the end of the group. 


http://managementhelp.org/groups/dynamics-theories.htm

http://www.abacon.com/commstudies/groups/roles.html

http://www.selfempoweringtips.com/decision-making/8-Steps-Decision-Making-Process-Example-Management.html