Groups and Goals

Spring 2009

Casual friendships can go awry, often with dangerous consequences, if roles of a group aren't clearly defined

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

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by Michael Pardy

As an outdoor guide and instructor with a busy outfitting business and a family, I don’t get many chances to tour for fun. When I do, I don’t want to take on much of the responsibility of organizing and leading these trips because I want a break from work. The reality is though, that I have a lot of leadership experience and have most of the gear, which makes me a logical choice for group organizer. These competing interests can cause problems, as I found out.

A few years back we planned a five-day trip for family and a couple of friends to the Broken Islands Group. We discussed the goals of the trip – a relaxing week in the islands with friends and time to explore. What we hadn’t discussed were individual responsibilities, leaving it entirely to chance. In particular, I was deliberately avoiding most responsibilities related to navigation and scheduling. More importantly, I didn’t want to spend much time in the kitchen or on other camp chores. To their credit, my wife, Kari, and friends Bill and Karen recognized my implicit desire for a work-free week and tried to take on as much of this work as possible.

The issue of responsibility came to a head a couple of days into the trip after a rough crossing. My wife pulled me aside and expressed concern about our safety. She reminded me that our friends had little experience, seemed scared, and that we needed to do something or this trip might turn them off paddling forever. She also reminded me this was my area of expertise; she was willing to help, but I needed to be more involved in this trip.

We set up camp, and over dinner we discussed the day’s events. Bill and Karen said they enjoyed the day but were scared by the crossing. The water was rough and controlling the kayaks was harder than they expected. This loss of control left them uneasy. My seeming indifference only served to exacerbate their anxiety. What they needed from me were some tips for handling their boats in rough water and reassurance that the conditions were within their ability. Bill and Karen needed to know I would be there to provide emotional and technical support when they needed it. I realized that I had become a passive member of the group, essentially isolating myself from the others and our shared experiences.

Once we sorted through these issues we agreed that I would take responsibility for heading up discussions about weather, sea state and other kayaking-related issues and the others would take responsibility for running the campsite. This is not to say that I sat around and watched as my friends worked to set up camp and cook dinner, or that they followed me blindly on the water. We each simply had our area of responsibility based on our strengths. I needed to become an equal and active member of this group in order to achieve our goals.

This trip highlighted for me the importance of agreeing not only on the location and the obvious format of the trip, but also the implicit goals and expectations of group members. In my professional work as a guide, goals and expectations are laid out by the organizations for which I work. Individual responsibilities are delegated by the trip leaders. In the context of a peer group, I needed to take a step back and work with the others to develop and agree to a shared set of goals and expectations.

Goals and expectations should include the following:

Goals of the trip: What is the group trying to accomplish by going on the trip?

Membership: Who gets to be a group member? Are there specific requirements for membership including financial commitment, skills, equipment, and time?

Expectations of the group members: What does each group member expect to get out of trip?

Location of the trip: Where is the trip happening?

Duration and time of year of the trip: How long is the trip? What time of year is the trip?

Money: What are the costs of the trip and who pays for it? What is the budget for incidentals?

Style of travel: How does the group want to travel?

Leadership: How will the group establish roles and responsibilities?

Decision making: How will the group make decisions?

In peer groups, these topics must be addressed by the group members. Many peer groups have paddled together on several trips as well as shorter paddles and have developed a shared understanding of many of the fundamental topics without explicitly discussing them. Under most situations, this is not a problem. But under stress, either because of external factors such as weather or challenges to logistics, or internal factors such as injury, illness, conflict or anxiety, peer groups can experience difficulties in gathering information, making decisions and solving problems. A crisis is not the time to resolve potential conflicts around goals and expectations. Longer and more challenging trips require greater clarity and acceptance of group goals and expectations.

Clearly articulated goals will also help answer other fundamental questions such as membership, style of travel, and leadership. Many trips have an obvious outcome, such as the circumnavigation of an island. Other trips have less tangible goals such as experiencing and exploring the local ecology. On many trips there is an explicit goal clearly articulated, but embedded within this goal are a series of goals and expectations not articulated. Groups should dig deeper and bring these implicit goals and expectations to the surface and include them in the planning of the trip.

Implicit goals and expectations often relate to the style of travel of the group and the individual responsibilities of group members. Personal expectations should match the group goals. If the group is planning an island circumnavigation and a group member is actually more interested in exploring the local ecology, then the group may experience conflict when it comes time to leave the beach in strong winds and waves.

In my situation, I first had to accept that although I was physically on the trip, I was not actually working with my friends and family toward the goals to which we all agreed. My passivity was undermining the trip; I needed to become an active member of the group, bringing my skills and experience to our shared experience.

What I learned was that not all paddling is work. I can share my skills and use my experience in new ways in peer groups to not only meet my needs but the needs of others. But this can only happen if we share our goals and expectations and work together toward our common goals.

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Michael Pardy lives in Victoria, where he runs SKILS Ltd. He can be reached at info@skils.ca.