Sunday, June 7, 2009

Britain's Got Talent!


This week's entry would be on the popular UK based show, Britain's Got Talent! The winners of BGT 2009 are a group of dancers called Diversity and they comprise of 11 extremely talented dancers. After watching Diversity perform week after week, I am able to relate them to what we learnt about group communication. 

In Diversity, I am able to see the characteristics that a group possess. They work well together, and show interaction, interdependence and a collective identity. In this case, they common goal would be to work towards winning the competition. As they perform together in a group, they would need to learn how to work together to achieve the best results. Group socialisation may or may not occur in the group itself. As Diversity joined the competition as a group together, each individual definitely wants to be able to win the competition. They would then try to work and influence each other to work as equally hard so that they would be able to gain something out of the competition. There would also be group pressure amongst the group as the competition moves to a higher level. If they were not able to combat group pressure and succumb to placing individual needs above group needs, Diversity would not have been able to emergy as winners of the competition. That being said, I would not know of the difficulties faced by the group itself. There may be certain internal conflicts that are not known to the public. However, Diversity has shown that being in a big group and working well together has its advantages.

Personally, I feel that even though working in a group is challenging, the end product is definitely rewarding. The important thing is that while in a group, you do not take for granted that there are others to finish up the job for you. Instead, if you are able to give input and learn from the others in the group, the work given would be finished at a faster rate and of better quality. 

6 comments:

  1. YES BRITON'S GOT TALENT :-D very happy with this post.its always America, America...anyway yeah this is great example of how a group that works well can achieve great things. In regards to group conflict, I think we can imply from the the groups name Diversity that they must of had timing problems and so forth.otherwise again great example of group cohesion.

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  2. must of had? that's real talent from britain.. coming up with nonsense phrases..

    and swr, you are right.. it takes talent to succeed alone.. but it takes a lot more than that to succeed as a group. to overcome all the weird dynamics and idiosyncrasies in the group to come out tops.. talent talent..

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  3. "if you are able to give input and learn from the others in the group, the work given would be finished at a faster rate and of better quality."

    Absolutely agree with the statement you wrote in your last paragraph :) In the many years of our lives, I am sure that everyone of us would have gone through some form of group work or having to work as a team. And I realized that there were a minority of people who were not able to work amicably and peacefully with the rest of the group. These people always wanted their way of doing things, and always rejected other group members' ideas. I felt very taken aback by their actions and realized that it was very important to compromise with the rest of the group members, even though sometimes it may be difficult to do so.

    Group work MAY have the disadvantages of an unfair workload, but if all is well and succeeds, then the advantage and results would be much, much more fruitful than if it were to be completed by a single individual :)

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  4. Nice conclusion! It's important for all members of a group to understand that such pros would easily outweigh the cons as long as each member does his/her part. Maybe it isn't easy, but it isn't all that hard either.

    And it's important to inform their group members of any problems they may be facing and seek understanding and perhaps better communication and hence cooperation.

    I've encountered and worked with people who just refuse to do their part/acknowledge any problems they may have cause, and it's really annoying. ): Such people often fail to realise that the problems they cause (by refusing to cooperate/take up their own responsibilities as members of the group) are often greater than the problems the group is already experiencing.

    'Diversity has shown that being in a big group and working well together has its advantages.' True that! And I believe the same can be said for any group (big or small) that manages to work like Diversity does.

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  5. I agree with you that the end product of team work is very rewarding. The work load in a group is definitely more than an individual's. However, when everything works out well, the feeling of the achievement is indescribable.

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  6. Working in a group is definitely challenging. People may have their own way of doing things and thus, compromising with one another may be difficult.
    Despite that, there are advantages when working in a group as well. Teamwork represents a set of values that encourage behaviors such as listening and constructively responding to points of view expressed by others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, providing support to those who need it, and recognizing the interests and achievements of others. This way, everyone will be able to work well and learn together.
    And yes, the end product is definitely rewarding (:

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