A long time ago, I attended a management training seminar on team building. Of all the classes I've taken throughout my career, this one has had continued relevance to me in both my professional and personal life. I think this is relevant to this discussion because, with new members coming in and others graduating, the dynamics in a GLO are always changing.
The premise of the class was that, when a group of people come together for a common purpose, there are four quadrants of team dynamics. The first phase is getting to know each other--in this phase people tend to be polite, and there's not much drama because folks tend to ignore any issues that may occur.
The next phase is the drama phase. Lots of infighting. You bring up the issues, but don't do anything to effectively resolve them. In this phase, there's lots of distrust.
Ideally, you move beyond drama to the third phase. The group members decide they're tired of the drama and begin to work things out. They come up with approaches to resolving issues and stick to them.
Finally, you're a fully functional team. The problem resolution processes work and the team is able to deal with issues and resolve them. All team members contribute to whatever the group's goals and objectives are.
Just because you got to phase four it doesn't mean you'll be there forever. It's possible to slip back to the drama when new members join the team or when new things need to be accomplished.
Whenever I'm in a situation where there's a lot of backstabbing or frustration, I remember this concept. If it's a new situation, I tend to be encouraged that we're moving forward. I realize it's possible to get beyond the conflict, if you really work at resolving the roots of the conflict. Continuing to be polite, and ignoring the elephant in the room, only prolongs the drama, it doesn't get you past it.
Probably one of the reasons that fraternity and sorority members tend to do well in their careers is that through their membership, they learn how to deal with group dynamics and are ahead of the curve when they get out in the real world.
