Assignment Five: Reflection Paper

Ana Laura Villarreal Garza

Pepperdine University

March 16, 2013




As a Learning Group (LG) we had a consulting task assigned: a branch of a leading national
insurance company searching to increase diversity within their workforce in terms of women
and people of color. The client main goal was to understand how to make sure that the makeup
of their force field looks like the country.
The experience was very enriching, not exactly because of the consulting project itself, but
mainly thanks to the self-knowledge gained from the analysis of our interactions with other
team members and the client.
I would divide the knowledge gained in two categories: knowledge about myself and knowledge
about group dynamics.
What struck me the most about myself was my change in attitude and behavior as the project
advanced. In the beginning of the project I was very engaged in following our plan and creating
a great recommendation for the client. However, as we matured as a consulting group, we
started developing norms that were not serving well the task in hand. In addition, the pressure
of time was a factor that increased the stress level and, in some team members, the need for
control. So, as I noticed other members had little flexibility for change and a lack of ability to
work efficiently under pressure, I started to disengage. In addition, as I detected that the client
needed much more than a 3-day intervention, my engagement decrease even further given
that I was getting to the conclusion that in order to get the client to reach a sincere decision to
act, it would take something bigger than an outside recommendation; I was sure that it would
take a change in culture.
This experience brought me awareness of my own attitudes, actions and prejudice towards
behaviors and mindsets I dont resemble with. I am now aware of my tolerance level, and
furthermore, I am now working on how to identify what actions I take in a professional setting
that are based on tolerance, bias or predisposition rather than on a fairness, objectivity and
detachment.
As for the knowledge gained about group dynamics, well, I am actually still trying to put all the
pieces together. The experience gave me an abundance of data which may be interpreted using
different models, from Lencionis five dysfunctions of a team to consulting frameworks.
However, what I am now realizing is that the experience was not over in Laguna. The
experience is still on! Dynamics and norms are being transported to the online/distance world
in which the LG is now operating. I can see how Tuckmans stages were not done in while the
team was physically together. As these stages have their own unique timing within each team,
our LG is still working through them.
This experience has left me with a particular conscious learning, the understanding of the
development of collective narcissism. By this I refer to how the group might be use by one, or a
few, to build-up their own perception of self-worth by the search of external confirmation of
the teams value. I wouldve liked to have more time to see how this collective attitude would
have affected the relation of the team with other teams.
An interesting observation of my behaviors is how fast they evolved. As the environment
around me changed, my behavior portrayed a ray of attitudes. I went from confident to doubt,
from trust to distrust and from interested to unresponsive. Still, some attitudes remained
constant during the project, such as hardworking behavior, sincere concern and genuine
expression of beliefs and judgments.
I think attitudes and behaviors impacted the most on the group performance and its dynamics.
The skills, however, impacted on the consulting task. During the consulting assignment, I had
the opportunity to practice skills such as problem solving, teaching, analytical reasoning,
assertive communication, dealing with resistance, ability to provide insight and ability to
synthesize.
The consulting and group work experience gave me information to support every theory
revised during the weeks prior to the intensive. As I write this paper, I am focusing more on the
group dynamics portion within the project, rather than the technical aspect of consulting
experience.
I agree with Schein (1999) when he stated that the most important thing to understand in any
relationship is what goes on inside the head, especially ones own head(pg 86). This is the focus
I have taken to analyze the experience. I am really searching to understand what is going on
within my own head and then relate it to every other members own experience and behaviors.
Schein mentioned how we can only see only what we are able to think and talk about. He
talked about how the consultant cannot deal with a reality that he or she cannot perceive.
However, I want to take this further and say it also applies to the client: in this project it applies
to our LG and to our client. During our LG discussions it was evident how some members had a
difficult time understanding others peoples point of view since it was not something they could
see clear enough to define it. As for our client, he found it difficult to understand the roots of
the problem; he was not able to see them. This experience taught me that as consultants,
whether working with our team or a client, no work can be done over a reality that is not
perceived. For our client to take action, we would have had to work on his ability to perceive
the problem. This requires a dive into predispositions, stereotypes and preconceptions; process
that needed way beyond a three-day intervention. For us as a LG, in order to be more open to
others initiatives, we would have had to learn to overcome our own history of experiences and
learning.
This specific part of the learning is what I see most transferable to intercultural experience. If
within the same culture we all have different ways of perceiving reality due to what is going on
inside our heads, the gap between these perceptions may just get bigger as we add on to the
diversity factors. As we work with clients in an international setting, analysis and awareness of
our own assumptions, conclusions and decisions must be present. We have to make sure we
understand where the client is coming from and how he is different from us. We need to
recognize our own ladder of inference and ORJI process and ask ourselves why we think that is
the right thing to do, whether we are basing actions on facts and if it resembles with the client
beliefs or not. Selecting and interpreting data in an international setting should be done with
greater cautiousness. As much as an advantage as a diverse point of view might be, we should
also make sure we do not fall in the flaws found in the gaps of perception.
Having disparity in the perception of reality will directly affect one of the most important parts
of the consulting process: the assessment. A lack of perception of the reality, will lead to assess
the wrong issues. Not doing an accurate assessment of the situation will then lead to failure of
the intervention. Recommendations given and actions taken, which are based on the initial
assessment, will not be directed towards the root of the problem. It is during the assessment of
the situation that the consultant has the opportunity to analyze the client (and himself), to
confirm the interpretation of data is objective and to ensure data will lead to conclusions that
will result in resolution of the situation. The importance of the assessment should never be
underestimated, because even though an accurate assessment will not ensure good decision-
making, an inaccurate assessment will surely lead to the wrong decisions.
The consulting project assigned ending product was a group of recommendations based on an
initial assessment. These recommendations, if based on a precise assessment and if properly
delivered, would have ended up in a sincere decision to take action. Overall, the groups
dynamics within this process affected directly the results of the task. As a group, we were
happy with the delivery of the recommendations and the clients reaction at the delivery
meeting. In my opinion, personal satisfaction will come from a truthful willingness to change
the actions that result in the stating problem.