Faiths and further education - Church of England

37From working group to multi-faith team122The working group that originally worked together to set thechaplaincy up will normally be willing to work with the chaplaincyas it builds itself up into a team. It may be transformed into asupport group for the chaplaincy team. In a multi-faith chaplaincy,special care should be taken to build up the team into a smoothworking unit, in agreement about its goals and objectives, and howthey should be achieved.The overall goal – to serve the studentsand staff in a particular college – will have drawn those fromdifferent faiths and cultures together, but some may have had littleprevious experience of college or FE contexts, so team-building isessential.Action point:You may be just starting out or have been together for some time.• What stage has your team reached?Getting the team together123Before we arrive at the smooth working unit that functions almoston an unconscious acceptance of its values and goals, the workinggroup that gathers together for the first time in a small room in thecollege or in a corner of a noisy canteen must be seen as thebeginning of the chaplaincy activity.This group will develop its ownmethod of interaction, as does any group. Key factors are:• effective communication between all members• a collective identity and shared goals.124It could be expected that individuals who share the same overallvalues about tolerance and open-minded acceptance would quicklygel into an effective team.Well, let’s hope so. However, research hasshown that groups develop and mature as the individuals thatcomprise them get to know each other while working to achievethe shared goals.Tuckman’s (1965) model for group developmentidentified four stages.• Forming: This starts with the initial informal meetings in thecafeteria.At this stage, people are starting to get to know eachother on a personal and professional level.• Storming: This is a usual stage, even for people engaged in aspiritual enterprise, where conflict and fallings-out can beexperienced as the negotiation of shared goals and objectives isentered into, perhaps where easy compromises are not available.• Norming: As the name suggests, at this stage, smoother water isreached as norms about ways of working and interacting aredeveloped.• Performing: At this point, perhaps it can be said that the grouphas turned into an effective, performing team.