“Forget formal declarations about authority, responsibility and who will pay your salary for a moment. Even if you are “formerly” assigned to a group, how does it feel to be in it? What is the difference between operating as one and feeling left out?”

“As a group, we’re self-organizing when we:

See ourselves in others and others in ourselves. Demonstrated, for example, by:
Group members are certain that there are no hidden agendas in the group
Role switching (people temporarily taking on and thinking from the perspective of each other’s roles) first within the group and then with some others outside the group Role sharing (people moving back and forth between roles) first within the group and then with some others outside the group.”

“If you can be a member of a group, it is also possible to be a non-member. Some people are “in”. Some are “out”. This is not about some high school popularity contest. It’s just … every group, including project teams, has boundaries. In the meaning of Johnson-Lenz: “The functions of boundaries include defining group membership; delineating group identity; and marking group rhythms, beginnings, and endings.”

“These “boundaries” help you to define if you are part of a group, or not. For example group rhythms. If we seem to have the same rhythms, same patterns in meeting each other, that can indicate we share a group. In the examples above: same meetings, same room and the coffee corner.”

Excerpt from the “BOUNDARIES. HOW DO YOU KNOW YOU ARE PART OF A GROUP?” By: By Bas on October 5, 2011

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