One
of the traditions for my group of friends is camping. Its been a tradition for
us for four years, beginning in the senior years of high school. We try to go
camping in Payson every year, whether it’s in the spring, summer, or winter. My
best friend, Kody, is Mormon and has been in mission in Brazil for the last two
years. He just got back two weeks ago so we’ve decided to go camping next week
to celebrate. So right now we’re in the process of figuring out who all can go
and what everyone is bringing. This is very convenient for me because a needed
a topic for this blog post. I realized that camping is just on big collaborative
project for survival. While camping a group has to coordinate what they’re
doing. If a group is not collaborating correctly, then the trip could turn out
bad. My group of friends have been camping for a while so we each have our own
knowledge and things to bring to the table.
Image by By Saadbinshahbaz (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0] Wikimedia Commons
The first stage in Tuckman’s stages
of group development is forming. In this stage the group I starting to come
come together and getting familiar with each other. My group is already
familiar with each other, so it would seem that we could skip this stage. But
when it comes to camping this stage is every important. Not everyone has the
same schedule so we have to pick a date that is good enough for everyone. The
camping trip that we are taking next weekend was planned on short notice so
only half of the group is going. The next thing that we need to do after
figuring out who is going is figuring out what everyone is bringing. We usually
take two trucks when we have the full group. But we’ll only need one since half
the group is going. I typically bring my tent because it can hold up to seven people.
When we think about food for the trip, we usually say that whoever is driving
pays for the gas and propane for the trip and everyone else will split the cost
of food. So in this way camping is a good example of a collaborative project
because before you can start you have you get use to the other members on the
trip and see what they are bringing.
Image by myself
When you get to the campsite the
real challenge begins. The group needs to collaborate to get the gear unloaded
and starting setting up tents and canopies. My group goes to the same campsite
in Payson each time we camp. So we know already know where each tent goes and
when to put the gear that we’re not using yet. See above. But the first time we
went camping it was mess. We could agree where each tent and canopy went so we
had space to move around. When we unloaded the gear we brought we put it
anywhere, so when we needed something we often couldn’t find out. As we went to
camping again and again we started to coordinate better so now these problems
have been solved. We know where to set up each tent and the place where our
gear will be accessible.
Donelson Forsyth defines a role as a
coherent set of behaviors expected of people who occupy specific positions in a
group. In a collaborative project it is important that each person know their
role. If a person does not know their role and does not perform their role,
then the objective of the group will be in danger. The performing stage of Tuckman’s
stages is where the group is performing their roles. When I go camping with my
group of friends, we each have a role. Some people are in charge of cooking
while others are in charge finding woods for the bonfire. I personally enjoy to
be on trash duty because it is the easily. I’m not that good of a cook and don’t
enjoy the manual labor that comes with chopping wood. When we each do our roles and do it to the
best we can, the group performs well. We do not have to worry about being cold
at night because whoever was in charge of finding wood did his job. So the bonfire
is able to go all night.
I included this video not because it
has any deep meaning about collaboration. I’m adding it because it makes me
chuckle and shows the spirit of camping. I really enjoy to go camping because
you have to find ways to survive. After you go enough times you start to build
traditions. On of the traditions that my group has is that we always give up
half way through the trip and take a break. We’ll nominate my poor soul to stay at the
campsite. The rest of us will drive into town and have pizza. I once drew the
short straw and had to stay at the campsite by myself. I decided to set up a
hammock and take a nap. A slept for a good two hours and my friends still were
back. I had enough time to take a hike by myself before they got back. I was
dying of boredom. Another tradition is that we always get Denny’s at the end of
the trip. Camping is a big project that needs coordination. If everyone collaborates
properly the trip can be get. You will get closer as a group and understand
each other better. But when collaboration is low, a lot of problems can arise. The
first camping trip that my group went on had a lot of problems mainly because
we were nor collaboration together very well. As over the years of going back
camping, the problems have disappeared because we have a better understanding
of what each of us brings to the table. Camping is a big collaboration project.
If you do it right then everyone has a good time.
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