I've been a part of a lot of groups: high school hockey team, band, school projects, fraternity, etc. However, one group comes to my mind that I find particularly interesting and that's my family. This would probably result in a short (and boring) post if I only considered my immediate family, so I'll draw upon my dad's side which consists of 3 uncles, 5 aunts, 33 cousins, and more distant relatives who are too numerous to try and count.
The inputs to our "group" are pretty varied. The personnel range from a greedy uncle who runs his own business to a burnt out cousin looking for acting jobs in LA to a corporate-lifestyle aunt fresh into retirement. Clearly these are very different people with a wide range of desires and needs. Ultimately, they have to come together to accomplish certain tasks like taking care of grandma, host family functions like Christmas parties, and network for the children so they can eventually advance their careers. To achieve these tasks technologies like "the family website" and the telephone are frequently used to keep in contact and organize meetings.
The processes vary from Christmas parties to business interactions, but everyone plays some specific role and often these roles result in conflicts. For instance, my one uncle is a wedding singer and when my cousin got married they didn't want him to perform. He was irritated that his own group members didn't help facilitate his role, but they clearly preferred to go outside the group to accomplish this task.
The outputs in a group like this are both positive and negative. While some group members may benefit from the family connections in prestigious banks in the city, others are set back in life by being taken advantage of in the family business. This results in tightened bonds within the group (almost like a feedback loop that strengthens the inputs) and sometimes rifts in the group that prevent it from continuing to operate.
With regard to proximity, some group members live in the US while others are across seas. This increases the dependence on technologies such as "the family website" and emphasizes the role the technologies play. Without the internet we could never have met up in Holland with relatives who we barely knew we had.
Hopefully this glimpse into a large family demonstrated some of the common aspects of working in a group, particularly the benefits and detractors of such interaction. I hope you found this entertaining as well, I know I do living with these people.
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Very interesting post. I was wondering if your family has encountered any permanent problems in the group, i.e. people who may be impossible to work with again, so to speak. A family isn't like a company or a project group where you can essentially quit and walk out. Is there a lot of flexibility and compromise on issues in your family (I have a tiny extended family, just an aunt, uncle and 2 cousins, so I don't know much about this), so that they can continue to work together in the future?
ReplyDeleteI particularly like the original idea to do your family. It certainly never dawned on me to consider this group a collaborative unit to write about, but your explanation of it fits wonderfully. First of all, I can't believe you have so many cousins! And also I'm impressed that your family spans so many different interests. The other commenter has a point with the fact that family can't quit on family and it is clear that any group this size must have strong ties in order to get everyone together. If only my family could all learn how to use the computer, maybe we could all come together more often.
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