Good and bad and “keepers”

At a Manchester Climate Forum meeting on Weds 20 January, people were invited to say what made for a good group, a bad group and what techniques for “retention” could be used…
Here, with no editorialising, are the results…

Good Group
Aims set by consensus
Sense of purpose as a group and as an individual within a group
Shared values
Good chair
Everybody able to contribute
Achievements/ACTIONS
Have fun/a laugh
Balance between action and how you get it done.
“Managing expectations” – most important thing
Consensus decision making- but only with a group focussed and similar in approach
Good management of personality conflict
Opportunity for new ideas/development
A plan!

Bad Group
Boring meetings
Meetings for their own sake
Unfocused
Bad outreach- no effort for recruitment strategies
Wrong people in the group/bad group dynamic
Obsession with correct procedure
badly chaired
Gender imbalanced
Centralisation of work/allocation
No support given to new members
Too much housekeeping (i.e. admin tasks) at meetings

Ways to Retain people
Give small discrete tasks with “buddy”
Small regular victories
Fun
Humour
Common Aim
Friendship
Socialising
Ownership- needs to be nurtured
Direct communication… phoning!
Clear purpose for each meeting/overall aim
Retaining people does not necessarily make a good group!
Appointing someone to help introduce/engage new members
Balanced/regular rotation of new members
Mixed activities
explain basics of group on A4/A5 for newcomers
Good internal communications