A T-Group™ or Training-Group is a type of experience-based learning style. Participants work together in a small group of 10-14 people, over an extended period of time.

Learning comes through analysis of their own experiences, including feelings, reactions, perceptions, and behavior. The duration varies according to the specific needs of the participants, but most groups meet for a total of 30 to 40 hours.

The T-Group™ is a part of a larger laboratory design which may include role playing, case studies, theory presentations, and inter-group exercises.

A TYPICAL T-GROUP™ STARTER

The staff member in a typical T-Group™, usually referred to as the trainer, might open the group in a variety of ways. The following statement is an example:

This group will meet for many hours and will serve as a kind of laboratory where each individual can increase his understanding of the forces which influence individual behavior and the performance of groups and organizations. The data for learning will be our own behavior, feelings, and reactions. We begin with no definite structure and organization, no agreed-upon procedures, and no specific agenda. It will be up to us to fill the vacuum created by the lack of these familiar elements and to study our group as we evolve. My role will be to help the group to learn from its own experience, but not to act as a traditional chairperson nor to suggest how we should organize, what our procedure should be, or exactly what our agenda will include. With these few comments, I think we are ready to begin in whatever way you feel will be most helpful.

Into this ambiguous situation members then proceed to inject themselves. Some may try to organize the group by promoting an election of a chairperson or the selection of a topic for discussion. Others may withdraw and wait in silence until they get a clearer sense of the direction the group may take. It is not unusual for an individual to try to get the trainer to play a more directive role, like that of the typical chairperson.

Whatever role a person chooses to play, he also is observing and reacting to the behavior of other members and in turn is having an impact on them. It is these perceptions and reactions that are the data for learning.

UNDERLYING ASSUMPTIONS

Underlying the T-Group™ are the following assumptions about the nature of the process which distinguishes T-Groups™ from other more traditional models of learning:

• LEARNING Each participant is responsible for their own learning. What a person learns depends upon their own style, readiness, and the relationship they develop with other members of the group.
• STAFF ROLE. The staff person's role is to facilitate the examination and understanding of the experience in the They help participants to focus on the way the group is working, the style of an individual's participation, or the issues that are facing the group.
• EXPERIENCE and CONCEPTUALIZATION. Most learning is a combination of experience and conceptualization. A major T-Group™ aim is to provide a setting in which individuals are encouraged to examine their experiences together in enough detail so that valid generalizations can be drawn.
• AUTHENTIC RELATIONSHIPS and LEARNING. A person is most free to learn when they establish authentic relationships with other people and thereby increases their sense of self- esteem and decreases their defensiveness. In authentic relationships people can be open, honest, and direct with one another so that they are communicating what they are actually feeling rather than masking their feelings.
• SKILL ACQUISITION and VALUES. The development of new skills in working with people is maximized as a person examines the basic values underlying the behavior, as they acquire appropriate concepts and theory, and as they are able to practice new behavior and obtain feedback on the degree to which the behavior produces the intended impact.

GOALS and OUTCOMES

Goals and outcomes of a T-Group™ can be classified in terms of potential learning concerning individuals, groups, and organizations.

• THE INDIVIDUAL POINT OF VIEW. Most T-Group™ participants gain a picture of the impact that they make on other group members. A participant can assess the degree to which that impact corresponds with or deviates from their conscious intentions. They can also get a picture of the range of perceptions of any given It is important to understand that different people may see the same piece of behavior differently - for example, as supportive or antagonistic, relevant or irrelevant, clear or ambiguous - as it is to understand the impact on any given individual or a specific event.

Some people report that they try out behavior in the T-Group™ that they have never tried before. This experimentation can enlarge their view of their own potential and competence and provide the basis for continuing experimentation.

• THE GROUP POINT OF VIEW. The T-Group™ can focus on forces which affect the characteristics of the group such as the level of commitment and follow-through resulting from different methods of making decisions, the norms controlling the amount of conflict and disagreement that is permitted, and the kinds of data that are gathered. Concepts such as cohesion, power, group maturity, climate, and structure can be examined using the experiences in the group to better understand how much these same forces operate in the back-home situation.
• THE ORGANIZATION POINT OF VIEW. Status, influence, division of labor, and styles of managing conflict are among organizational concepts that may be highlighted by analyzing the events in the small group. Subgroups that form can be viewed as analogous to units within an organization. It is then possible to look at the relationships between groups, examining such factors as competitiveness, communications, stereotyping, and understanding.

One of the more important possibilities for a participant is that of examining the kinds of assumptions and values which underlie the behavior of people as they attempt to manage the work of the group. The opportunity to link up a philosophy of management with specific behaviors that are congruent with or antithetical to that philosophy makes the T- Group™ particularly relevant to understanding the large organization.