Management Sciences for Health 891 Centre Street, Boston MA 02130. This is an experiential exercise about inter-group dynamics.
Groups operate on rational and irrational levels.
When task, roles, boundaries, and leadership are not clear, or are not managed well, irrational processes such as stereotyping, social projection, and scapegoating are more likely to take hold. Although we cannot avoid or prevent irrational processes, we can try to recognize, understand and manage them for the good of the group and its individual members, so that everyone can make choices about his or her role and function in the group setting. The purpose of this exercise in a classroom is to help students understand the concept of irrational inter-group processes at a gut level, rather than at an intellectual level. The assumption is that this kind of gut understanding is more likely to stick and will help students in real life situations to recognize such behavior in themselves and others, and, more importantly, recognize the emotional experience of such behavior, which they have experienced in this exercise. As soon as the groups are formed we ask them to find a place in the room to sit together.