Our next TA Insight comes from Janice Dowson TAPI
Enjoy!
Ghan’s Smiles/Frown Frequency
Organization and group function have long been a cornerstone of transactional analysis theory and application. The late Leonard Ghan measured group effectiveness through the “smiles/frowns frequency” of group participants. In what Berne called “ailing groups,” Ghan argued that this smiles/frowns measure can be ignored by those in leadership positions, resulting in diminishing group membership and effectiveness.
Throughout my 45 years experience with transactional analysis, groups that “Get on With” the business at hand and accomplish goals have a higher number of smiles over the number of frowns and flat faces. Get on With groups create a culture of appreciation through diverse membership that is open to differing viewpoints, making time to establish clear contracts within the group and respectfully keeping contracts within the group.
With this foundation, group trust will grow and the frequency of smiles over frowns will increase, as with the positive strokes over negative strokes frequency.
Leonard Ghan, MSW, TSTA trained with Eric Berne in the early 1960’s and served on the ITAA Board of Trustees in 1965.
Janice Dowson is responsible for the wonderfully important Project TA 101, which you can see on YouTube, check it out!
