How To Conduct A Discussion (1952)

[Music] we need to discuss and do counsel together keep our democracy great and strong and if we're discussion we must have those who can lead it who can in groups that are small enough so that each person may contribute bring Harmony and unity out of difference apathy and Discord if one is to be a good leader one must know the principles on which good group discussion operates we asked over 50 groups to think about this question what does a good group need to be and to do in order to be successful stated another way what are the elements of good group discussion if we can answer this question we will know what kind of a situation the good group leader must construct this film is a report on the result our investigation now our 50 odd groups were not all alike some of them were what we call Natural groups springing up by themselves and continuing if they do continue on very informal lines some like this PTA parent Educators group per formed to deal with specific problems and some like this great book seminar arose in response to the need for a discussion of broader and more basic issues among the 50 were some discussion groups which use outside speakers to give Focus to the discussion sometimes a book or a film or a magazine article provides the spark and sometimes a current issue or problem is the center of attention and the group relies on its own knowledge so the groups we asked to study themselves were not alike in their structure or in their use of resources there was another difference too in regard to the type of leadership the groups had many groups get along very well with one discussion leader this focuses the discussion puts the responsibility on one person's shoulders and gives a sense of that helps hold the group together on the other hand some groups get along better with two leaders who share the responsibility and keep group from being dominated by any one person some groups rotate leaders it gives everyone a good chance to understand the problems of discussion leadership and some groups get along very well with no leader at all the group members share responsibility among themselves everyone knows where the group is going and everyone is willing to help it get there so far you see the discussion groups we studied different in their organization and in the type of leadership they had there was wide variation too as to the practices and procedures they followed people honestly do disagree about many of the techniques which should be used take for instance the question as to whether there should be a summary at the end summarize certainly not if there one thing that's bad for people it's to close off their minds with a stereotype or a a flourish of ruing when that happens you might just as well say goodbye to thinking of course we've got to summarize how else are we to know what we'd accomplished and how much we agree and disagree and besides you get a kind of satisfaction from a summary a sense of completion which is very important to the way you feel as you leave the meeting I find myself think more between sessions than during the sessions themselves and the summary would tend to shut my mind no sir no summaries for me thank you and so it went all our questions bringing out big differences in discussion groups differences of structure of leadership of attitudes toward techniques if when we analyzed the thinking of all these groups we found that there was a hardcore of common agreement on two points first most people agree about what qualities a good leader should have second there really does seem to be a list of basic qualities for a good Discussion Group let's see first what a good discuss discuss leader should be like well a leader ought to be intelligent of course I think a discussion leader should be interested in people and the people in the group should be interested in him and respect him a leader ought to do more than just answer questions I mean well he ought to draw people out well whatever else you may say about someone who leads a discussion I think he's got to provide balance not just Express his own point of view and after all a lot of different people and ideas come together in a group like ours so I think we should have a leader with broad experience broad enough to handle the difference we bring to our distance well from the looks of things a leader is expected to be a pretty allaround person probably nobody is ever an ideal leader but just the same it's good to know what the ideal is and now what about those qualities of a good Discussion Group under what conditions do groups flourish and Thrive from our analysis of the groups we concluded there are at least 11 basic qualities let's start with the first the uh order doesn't really matter one group's experience will provide a good illustration its leader writes our group had barely started its first session before we realized one thing that was radically wrong and look I don't like to interrupt but isn't it awfully stuffy in here oh it's terrible I'll second that we're all right now we have haven't carried Comfort too far just far enough to make a difference and what a difference it does does make yes the physical setting of a discussion does make a difference usually the situation isn't as bad as that we just showed but still all too often groups struggle against poor physical environment usually something can be done to provide a remedy now the second principle we've listed is related to physical Comfort it's involved in what you might call all social Comfort I imagine most of you can sympathize with this experience and I believe we should not allow Financial considerations to enter into this kind of a problem excuse me do you know who gentl is no I'm sorry I've never met him by the way I don't think we've been introdu my name is Emily ja how do you do I'm it's nice to know you it a shame we didn't have a chance to meet before the Myers it seems that all of us are not listening Miss uh is there anything you'd like to say to the group yes there there is but it isn't exactly on the subject I think it's a shame that we're all such strangers here we don't even know each other's names not to mention knowing anything about our backgrounds or other interests or what we hope to get out of this meeting so a second principle that good leaders ought to practice is keeping a friendly atmosphere make sure that people know each other well enough so they can relax and get down to the business of discussion and now a third principle is one that practically every group mentioned in one way or another usually they said it in terms of what they didn't like it seems to me that that leads us on logically to consider what the president's relations to Congress should be oh you're wrong Joe we ought to discuss the president's role as leader of the party this leader had it all laid out in advance and if it didn't go according to plan it was wrong but according to most groups it is just as wrong to be this way well anybody got any idea what we ought to talk about tonight we've seen in a rather negative fashion the two extremes now is there a balance our groups thought so they believe that the leader before he comes to the meeting should have some kind of a plan of operation he ought to be aware generally of where he thinks the group might go and what it might do but then he should be prepared to abandon or adapt his plan in terms of the will of the group itself he should be at once resourceful and flexible speaking of flexibility let us turn to the next principle which is discussed in a very interesting letter we received from one [Applause] group we decided that there ought to be a certain flexibility to the discussion itself there was a time in our group when everything was rooted through me as the leader well if it has any meaning justify itself in society the business of a university ought to be to provide a liberal education well I'd say that depends on what you mean by liberal wouldn't you agree Dan yes I guess so I guess you have to begin there good let's begin there now can we have a definition of liberal well I think a liberal education is one that prepares for life all right that's one man's point of view how about another our discussion would go on like that meeting after meeting everybody throwing his comments to me and waiting for my reply before going ahead all it was clumsy and slow and not much fun well finally one I realized what was wrong perhaps because I'm a coach at the high school I saw it in terms of a sport and so I tried to get some of that interplay into our discussions so it seems to me that the artist doesn't need to be politically active if his work there a need to be do you realize what happened in Germany when the Nazis came to power where were your artists then why talk about Germany in the past what about right now it seems to me artists have an even greater responsibility in a Time of Crisis no that's just it it is in times of Crisis that you need men and women who are removed from removed there's no place to remove too not anymore well all right now let's let's try to see Dan's argument in a little different light the principal can be said this way the leader must see that the discussion flows back and forth among the members who want to participate and this brings us to our fifth principle encouraging people to participate remember people join and discussion groups for personal reasons involving their own AIMS in life their ideals their personality no thoughtful leader can afford to neglect the progress of any of his people take for instance the case of a young man whose name is given only as Ralph Ralph joined our group one evening in the fall he sat around quietly for several meetings listening carefully but saying nothing until something finally pushed him into asking for the floor yes Ralph I uh well I think the point that we're trying to make is uh well the point that I'm trying to make is uh well what I mean is I think what Ralph is trying to say is that if we take a vote on us obviously he had a long way to go and all of us decided that we had our job laid out to help him isn't that along your line Ralph well maybe Ralph can tell us something about that what do you think Ralph Ralph ought to be able to contact those fellows uh the other side of the question is this with the abolition of the electoral system it worked it usually does and we think it's a worthwhile technique for every leader and every group to keep in mind yes it certainly is for if the individuals in a discussion group remain frustrated and unable to express themselves the group can make no real progress of course every leader and every group wants to know how to bring out the best in their people and our next principle attempts to provide an answer it's based on the idea that everyone in a group can contribute in terms of his own unique experience and background but if it's going to take thick sheets of lead to stop the slightest radiation but that's not true Alpha radiation can be stopped with a sheet of paper or ordinary window glass and V Rays can be stopped with a sheet of aluminum oh I didn't know that and furthermore we have special hand in tools and with Geer counters we can measure the exact amount of radiation we're being exposed to so the possibility of harnessing atomic energy Isn't So remote after all well it certainly helps straighten out a discussion when someone can give information like that thank you Harold in every group there are people with interesting and diverse backgrounds in fact everyone has something unique to contribute it takes all the skill and subtlety of a good leader to draw out his people let each of them enrich the discussion after his own fashion sometimes the individual eccentricities will tend to interfere with the proper functioning of a group and that suggests till another of our principles here's the way one group tells it you wouldn't have to look twice at our old group to realize that something was wrong as leader I was having a tough time keeping order keeping the discussion going keeping one or two individuals from dominating the whole show and things like that so I decided to take action something has to be done and done right away otherwise we're going to disintegrate as a group well I'm sure we three are willing to cooperate bill but why not throw the question to the whole group and that's just what I did I put the question to the whole group things are going a lot better with us now they've learned that it's a matter of everybody's concern not just my problem or the problem of a small click of people loyal to me everybody realizes now that he plays an important part in the success or failure of a group and that is our seventh principle all of the members should feel a responsibility for the effective conduct of the group this matter crops up in a slightly different way in the next principle that High School coach went on to say take football for instance the Big H is a well-known symbol for the goals of a football team but if you think about it the goal post represents only one level of the goal even in football as far as the team is concerned the immediate goal is the next 10 yards and every man on the team has got to have that goal upper most in his mind the next goal might be the goal posts but in the back of their minds many of the players may be nursing ideas of the conference Championship or a bid to one of the bowl games and the same thing we think is true of Discussion Group it was true of ours in short the sales tax is the most Equitable form of tax because it falls upon all equally now Stan I think you've missed the point let me illustrate by telling you how the income tax functions now it operates just a minute Oscar I thought we were going to stay with a sales tax tonight well comparing the two would help us understand what the sales tax really is but before we compare them we have to understand them right now we've decided to concentrate on the sales tax and so the idea is worthy it seems to us of the status of a principle the group should understand and accept the goal sought the goal of each session and of the series of sessions and that is our eighth principle the leader must see to it that all members of the group understand both the immediate and the ultimate goals the specific goal of each meeting and the general goal of the series you know discussion meetings like anything else that lasts over a period of time have a way of dragging out leveling off seeming dull and uninteresting what skills does a leader need to handle this problem how do you inject a sense of life in discussion meeting for the details of this principle I'd like to tell you about a meeting I attended not so long ago now just a minute Mr Hamilton the union isn't asking for any favors you aren't of course you are and I'm telling you you're not going to get another raise as long as I'm president of this company I'm tired of all this well if that's the way you feel you can expect to strike by tomorrow morning you can imagine the discussion that broke out after that session of role playing in which group members put themselves into a situation charged with tension then reacted to what they had seen and felt and how they would have handled the same situation that was just one way of varying technique that I have seen in my visits to different discussion groups I've seen outside speakers brought in books used to stimulate discussion films used by the score and the question and answer technique used frequently variety is undoubtedly a good way to keep group interest High playing better than others and it is up to the leader to know his group well enough to know how and when to provide variety variety leads us to our 10th principle for sometimes a certain kind of a variety is not optional but [Applause] essential one group found that out the hard way listen our group was able to keep things going in a lively fashion but sometimes things got too Lively the city manager system has never worked and never will work that's what you say have you ever lived in a city with a manager no have you no but I've read that now just a minute Fells just a minute it seems to me we owe it to ourselves to get some of the facts in a situation like this yes the leader or leaders or the group itself must make sure that personal opinions are not the entire basis of discussion there are times when reference to a book or an expert or some other source of fact is essential and so we come to our 11th principle the last but perhaps the most important for Vital to every discussion group is some time when the group can sit back and take a look at itself well who's first well it seems to me we've learned a lot this year but I'd still like to see more varied programs me too no long about February I was getting rather bored well why didn't you say something Mrs do you see that's the point I've been trying to make we need more frequent opportunities to speak up to uh well to evaluate yes to evaluate that's what I mean to do just what we're doing right now every group has within itself an amazing capacity for appraising its own behavior people are always making judgments of the things they do and it's important that these judgments be channeled so that they lead to progress and understanding not disharmony and frustration the group we saw liked the idea of a general appraisal session others designate one member of the group to take the responsibility each evening for making a judge about how the group is doing still others like to pass out slips of paper with a few leading questions to which all of the group can react there are other devices that can be used all of them illustrate our final principle that all the member group must think about and try to improve their group performance but the leader must evaluate himself too he must ask himself at the end of every session if his group demonstrated all the principles he must practice and reflect practice and reflect a good pianist can make even the most difficult piece seem almost easy but everyone who knows music knows what lies behind this performance he must know know how to read music acquire finger dexterity learn Rhythm pedling fingering all of these aspects and many more must be blended into a finished [Music] performance if the discussion leader wishes to improve he must constantly think about what he does he must ask himself again and again how well his group used all the principles suggested here as well as the special techniques appropriate to the kind of discussion he is leading gradually like The Pianist he will earn use all the various principles and techniques almost automatically you'll be a good perhaps a great discussion leader and then he can do his for in the Democratic process for only as men are brought into Council State their own needs and interests and the general interest of a great people be compounded into a policy suitable