Discussion 05: Ethical, Cultural, and Group Management Issues
Please note: In order to successfully complete the program, you must respond to this post. Your comment/response should answer the questions/show that you completed the given activity (if any). Read the post carefully and implement the learning in the chat rooms. If you didn't participate in Discussion 04: Group Leadership
, then check here!
This discussion highlighted some of the major points related to ethical, cultural, and group management
The competent group leaders act ethically in leading the groups. And, achieving this type of competence requires more than good intentions. Many well-intended group leaders have engaged in an activity while lacking solid ethical principles. It could probably be because of unawareness of the code of conduct and guidelines. So, a high level of familiarity with the guidelines is important so they act as professionals and leaders while leading any group.
A few points to remember:
Privacy and Confidentiality. It could be possible a group leader may also be a long term listener for a member. Members might have shared their situation in detail with them in a 1:1 setup. But, when you are a group leader, you need to ensure you are not bringing up the matter discussed in 1:1 with members unless the members themselves bring up the topic and discuss it with the rest of the group as well.
Follow Community Guidelines. Preach what you can follow. As a group leader, you would need to intervene from time to time to ensure the group is running effectively. Reminding users that they follow community and chatroom guidelines while participating. But, at the same time, remember to be the first to follow the guidelines too. So, you are able to model the role behavior in the groups.
Make unbiased decisions. In a group, everyone is equal to you as a leader. Even if you communicate with some of them more frequently than others. If anything goes wrong or you find anyone being unsupportive or unacceptable behavior, take the decisions without any bias. So, the group could trust you and know that you are impartial and there for everyone and against wrong behaviors. For more, here are the community guidelines.
Members in the group come from different backgrounds, demographics, and cultural differences. So, as a leader, it is significant to respect and acknowledge the cultural differences and highlight the common grounds to connect all members of the group. Such behavior allows members to feel inclusive and comfortable in the groups to share.
And the group management issues include conflict management. You may observe that sometimes misunderstanding or disagreement causes conflict between two or more people leading to an unsupportive and unhealthy environment in the room. So as a leader, it is your time to take action and settle down the conflict to ensure room and group stay supportive and comfortable around each other. Spontaneity is the key to restrict such events from happening.
Discussion: What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Activity: Respond to at least two of your fellow trainees' comments with thoughts on their share.
After fulfilling the requirements of this post, please check out the next discussion here. Ensure to implement the learning from these discussions in the chat rooms to build and support the group. You must take part in the brainstorming/activities given in all of these discussions to successfully complete the program.
Question : What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Answer :
1 cultural issue I recognize in the chatroom is the tendency for participants to speak in languages other than english. I personally don't encounter this trouble a lot but have seen this happen and cause confusion in the room. What I would do in that situation is to gently remind the participant to use english since not everyone understand that language and it can make other participants in the room feel excluded and divert everyone's attention from the topic.
@BloomingSakura i agree with your point <3 sometimes, other people will be speaking different languages which can confuse 7 cups members and discourage them from talking in the group chat. it is definitely important to remind people to speak english when using the group chats so that everyone will feel involved and included :)
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Cultural exchange is healthy. But when many people from same culture gather in a group, it can lead to a clique.
To avoid that, we need to ensure that the inside jokes and references are kept to a minimum or avoided.
If there is something funny being said, we need to ask the person to explain so that people from other culture can also understand and relate.
@DonaldDraper
I've heard that same thing about cliques many times, but I haven't run into it yet. I've been lucky, I suppose, and will keep my eye out. I want everyone to feel included.
@DonaldDraper
That is totally understandable and crucial to keep everyone feeling included! Great job <3
@DonaldDraper
Sometimes cliques also not because of the same culture, but because some people have been in the support room as regulars for years that they kind of feel that it is their place and tend to ignore the rules / guidelines in the room.
I've noticed that some members become upset if they can't immediately start sharing in the Sharing Circle chat room. That's especially true if the queue is closed. I try to remind them that the queue will open back up shortly and that a new Sharing Circle starts every hour, so if you can't share this round, just wait until the next. If they can't wait, then I point them to the 1-to-1 listener chats or towards the Support Group 24/7 chat room. Sometimes I encourage them to stick it out and offer support to the person who is sharing right then. Listening and giving encouragement often uplifts me, so I figure it might help them too.
@ASilentObserver
Discussion: What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
An ethical issue I’ve encountered is listeners divulging chat details in the Teen Listener Room. Usually, more than five words about the chat are discouraged. This can be clarified by simply stating the rules to the listener and warning them of repercussions that could occur if they continue with the practice.
@usefulSummer3139
I have seen that happening too Summer, and yes absolutely, a quick reminder can usually help to calm everything down!
@usefulSummer3139
I didn't even think of this 😮 100% yes!
@ASilentObserver
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
One group management issue that I have recognised would be that when members are not following the rules correctly e.g. by sharing confidential information. I would handle it by calmly educating them on the rules and why following these rules is essential. I recognise that some members might simply forget or not realise their actions are incorrect so its important to calmly respond.
@Reemhelp
That is a really good point, and I like your reaction to it! Keep it up Reem! 💛
@ASilentObserver
Discussion: What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Experience: I have never had a ethical, cultural or group management issue, which I am really grateful for. I can still imagine many difficulties though. So how would I handle them?
What I would do: I would remind people to please respect our community guidelines, in case that should not work, I would drop them a private message, warning them to please respect the guidelines. In case the member or listener still goes on about the issue, I would call a mod into the room to handle the situation the right way.
Thank you for reading this! 💚
@MelodyoftheOcean It's great to hear that you have encountered no issues in the chat support room. And in this scenario, I agree that doing those steps will help greatly, since most will just listen to your advice and go along accordingly :)
@RandomAravyre
Glad to hear that you agree Ara! ❤️
@ASilentObserver
Discussion: What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
@SpecialSnow9454 is absolutely right"Sometimes a discussion turns more into a 1-1 chat and others feel excluded from the chat."
My suggestion to avoid this is to have a queue and have certain rules like no one can interrupt a discussion. No one - one in the room and make sure that non-verbal queues which show the persons geographical location should be banned like when an indian uses the word "Bro" in all setences and there are a couple of indians who join in leaving the rest of the crowd behind.
I've definitely been in situations where one person accidentally offended a religious group. In this situation, I have gently let them know that what they said was hurtful and given them a chance to apologize and learn from the situation, then try to quickly move on to prevent conflict. However, if anyone from the group is present, education can be a way to diffuse.
@WarmLightXOI think that's the right approach. Indeed education and empathy can really be a good way to resolve conflict. I really love how you try and take control of the discussions and move it away from the conflict as fast as you can :) That's something I need to do more often too!
@WarmLightXO @RandomAravyre
GLDD mentors: Richuyulin, blissfulForest7074 , 29Amy , HealingFox210 , AriadneLove, CaringHeart123
Agreed! There are many ways to resolve a conflict, and empathy and education go hand in hand.
@ASilentObserver
What is one ethical, cultural, or group management issue you recognized in the room? What would you do to handle it?
Ethics:
Most of the times there are members who take their turns to share soemthing in a group. Then someone joins a group and then type a whole paragrah about whats wrong without waiting for their turn while this should be discussed in a 1-1. After politely pointing out the rules, they can keep interrupting, which ruins the experience for the group.
@niens
@Ninziesss
Whenever there is a potential disruption in a structured support room I think we need to try to step up. Just about two days ago, a member tried to pick up a fight/arguments by pointing out something in another member who just came into the room, that they found upsetting. I saw the room is getting disrupted, I just said the queue is open, so that people focus on the purpose of the room, luckily there were members who were not provoked and the situation was de-escalated.
@ASilentObserver
One Ethical, cultural, or group management issue I've recognized in a chat room is distractions, both by members and listeners alike. In the middle of discussions, members would come in with a different topic or subject and kind of derail the whole conversation. Or on the side of listeners, they might try to say hi to the members they talk to and they might get into their own topics.
I have seen a lot of different responses and approaches to that. In my opinion, normally in the cases of members, most of them are really upset about something and they desperately needed someone to talk to. In which case, empathy works wonders. I will try to understand them and link them somehow to the discussions at hand.
As for listeners, the same approach applies. Although in this scenario, just a slight reminder that they are in the middle of a discussion will work :) I find that most if not, all of them are really awesome and cooperative!
@RandomAravyre
Aravyre, that is a well-spotted issue and Your approach is great. Empathy and a kind reminder will definitely help. Additionally, we also can invite (especially if you are the host) such members to your pms and listen to their private chat there or if you are unavailable to support 1-1 offer them assistance in connecting with another listener or guide them to other rooms like (24/7 support room) where they will not need to limit their share to the topic or wait for their turn. It is Ok to welcome newcomers to the session, you can give an example of writing in brackets, like (Hello, User. Welcome, we are talking about X, please join us). In the worst-case scenario, if someone is disrupting the session with unrelated topics and not reacting to reminders, do not hesitate to invite mod or emergency request form, since disrespecting the session is a violation of chatroom rules. Your answer shows absolute understanding and good observations, so I am sure you can manage disruptions well.☺️💖
GLDD mentors: Richuyulin, blissfulForest7074 , 29Amy , HealingFox210 , AriadneLove, CaringHeart123
@AriadneLove Thank you for your kind words, Adriadne. I think what you said is right, there are many solutions to this problem and some of the suggestions you have offered have kind of broadened my perspective in a sense :) In my case, I tend to extend a bit of leniency to the members, considering the room and the state they are in.
For example, I am the room supporter of Anxiety Support, and there are certain moments that some of them might go off-topic during discussions and talk about situations, which is understandable, considering that anxiety can be a powerful emotion and there's a high chance that some of them are undergoing through some panic attacks. When that happens, I try to be a bit more adaptable and just go out of the box a little bit, asking questions and empathizing with them. What I find is that fellow members of the room would more often give their insights, which I feel will help tremendously in generating a more supportive atmosphere and group identity.At the end of the day, I feel that it's more important to understand what is our role as chat support and act accordingly. If going out of script can help someone in need and strengthen the cohesiveness of a group, then as a room supporter, it's a win for me. :)
@AriadneLove I don't know if you're on the site anymore P but I appreciate your response. How have you dealt with diversity? The kind that OBS was referring to. I don't know if this can count as my second one but I can you do a third just to make sure.