Case Study On Building A Coalition

The stages of group development consists of the following: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Forming, the first stage, involves the establishment of the basic rules, as group members have yet to acquaint themselves with one another. Storming provides group members with ample room for expressing their own ideas, which may most likely conflict with one another. Norming stands as the warming-up stage, within which group members have already made their effort to integrate their ideas with one another towards the common goal set by the group. Performing entails the erasure of hierarchical views shared among group members, as they improve their understanding that they have a common goal to reach as a group. Adjourning, lastly, is reached when performance assessment has already been done, which in turn allows for the rotation of roles. The group, formed by the Woodson Foundation, the Washington, DC school district and the National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education (NCPIE), is still in the storming phase, given that members classified into two of its teams – the development team and the program team, have yet to reach the consensus when it comes to the issue of improving student outcomes through the experimental after-school program. Group members from the Woodson Foundation, the Washington, DC school district and the NCPIE have yet to attempt making middle grounds for one another.
The primary problem faced by the Woodson Foundation concerns the need to introduce improvements to student outcomes via the experimental after-school program in the Washington, DC school district. Under said primary problem are three secondary problems. The first secondary problem emphasized the need for using hard-data performance measures, which is not compatible with what the Washington, DC school district espouses culturally. The second secondary problem focuses on the concern of Washington, DC school district over the possibility that the Woodson Foundation would usurp its operational control over the experimental after-school program. The third secondary problem stresses on issues over demographic incompatibilities in implementing the experimental after-school program as noted by the NCPIE, citing that the predominantly African-American Washington, DC school district may be incompatible with the Caucasian-dominated Woodson Foundation. The Woodson Foundation, in light of the foregoing primary and secondary problems, should understand that it helps to use its group membership to pay attention to the peculiarities of the Washington, DC school district in terms of educational quality and demographics. The invaluable expertise provided by both the Washington, DC school district and the NCPIE stand to empower the Woodson Foundation in its goal to help establish the experimental after-school program, although it must also work out to form measures supporting the goals of the other two groups.
In managing diversity issues, it is essential for project leaders from different organizations to focus on the need to hold talks with one another all the time as a strategy that can build trust and rapport with one another. The rather visible barrier of racial differences must be countered by a strong sense of community through participative discussion of the main issues at hand – in this case, the need to improve student outcomes through the experimental after-school program. Organizations in a group must be ready to adjust their respective frameworks they present as solutions to the issues confronting them in order to help accommodate one another constructively. Otherwise, unwanted conflicts may arise in the form of claims on marginalization or dominance among organizations. Overall, openness in communication helps establish and maintain smooth connections between project leaders from different organizations forming groups.