A Group and Its Leader

This was a group that was put together by the Leader after several years of seeing various entrepreneurs individually who have many issues relating to their business operations. The Leader has a background in legal writing and investment sales and obtained an MSW degree eight years ago.

After realizing that many similar issues arise with business owners, especially when partners have gone into business, the Leader thought that the group context might be a useful way to air issues in a setting where there was a generally shared knowledge base. The group "formed itself" (personal communication, September 2, 2003) out of suggestions to various individual members that they might want to try the group process. Not every partner to whom she suggested forming the group had receptive, but this group comprised four partners in two different businesses, one partner in a business, and two individual owners.

The group had been meeting on alternate Thursday evenings for 90-minute sessions for two months when I attended. They met at an office that the Leader (who divides day-job counseling time between clients at UCLA and Kaiser) borrowed from a longtime private practitioner. This evening session was part of the counselor's modest private practice.

The atmosphere before the session began was professional, resembling the "networking" environment of professional meetings and conventions. The participants were very capable and

. . .
, they were gradually being brought around to the idea that some of their perceptions about their business problems were misguided, that some came from within instead of from without. Group 2. Informal meeting of counselors to organize serial inebriate program (SIP). This is in the nature of a report on a group in which I was a participant, not simply an observer. An ex-colleague in the police department transferred to San Diego six years ago and during the summer expressed interest in organizing a "serial inebriate" program to cover the Inland Empire. He had just spent over three years completing an MBA program through distance learning but is interested in working in the nonprofit sector. He contacted me as well as one cop in Long Beach and a social worker in San Diego, with the idea of trying to replicate the structure of an intervention program that would be based in Riverside. This meeting happened in July 2003. My ex-colleague who organized this meeting functioned as the group Leader. His personal observation of changes in the behavior of program members in San Diego was the reason he said he wanted to organize a similar program in the Inland Empire. I would characterize this Leader as advanced to the degree he was concer
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
UCLA Kaiser, Riverside SIP, Leader Yeah, , Deadlines OK, Sounds I'm, San Diego, Inland Empire, Diane That's, Wow Thanks, san diego, kottler 1994, leader yeah, informal meeting, aa #1, york times, serial inebriate program, push buttons, leader, 2 2003, #3 yeah, york times laughter,
Approximate Word count = 2765
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on A Group and Its Leader