N GROUP -- A NEW FORM OF ADULT LIFE LEARNING & VALUES
by Linda Samuelsen

[note: The Western Behavioral Sciences Institute in La Jolla,
California conducts a two-year executive development program
called the School for Management and Strategic Studies which
includes f-t-f seminars and intensive online courses and
experiences. In 1985, WBSI added a "community group" component
to the program which provided the opportunity for voluntary
participation in small groups as an adjunct to the academic
program.]

For over a year and a half, I've been part of a revolutionary
group. It's not political. It wasn't formed with much purpose
in mind, especially by the 15 or so who started it. What makes
it `revolutionary', using a specific meaning of Webster, is
that it's a complete change. It doesn't overthrow, nor intend
to rebel. But because it's unlike anything which has gone
before, and the particular people involved are noted for their
willingness to try out new things enthusiastically, it's
become revolutionary.

I can tell you what it is _not_. This is not a T-group, nor a
therapeutic gathering. Nor is its primary purpose to always
support its members as we get knocked about while life laps
like a current around our feet, sometimes gently, sometimes as
a riptide. It isn't only a bunch of students gathered to hear
a master, nor convened by an expert who stays in that role.
Nor are we a group of professionals who only swap work war
stories. One glib and pat description of this group taken from
any one of those categories won't fit.

This `revolutionary group' is my small teleconferencing peer
group on Western Behavioral Sciences Institute's (WBSI) School
of Management and Strategic Studies (SMSS) network. It's
called `N' group. The name `N' came from "Network" Group, the
first informal learning group WBSI convened in November 1985.
Later the moniker "community group" was given to us, but we'd
melded our group identity as `N' group, and wouldn't
change...somehow "Comm Group" didn't fit. We're a feisty bunch.

Volunteers were asked to join in this experiment.
Fifteen joined at random, or so we thought. Now I know better.
These 15 were risktakers, people who were quick to spot
something different which could be interesting. All showed
signs of being pathbreakers. This was not random chance at
work.

After 22 months of continuous operation, and thousands of
comments, 12 of the original 15 are still active. Our
facilitator left. Later we invited four more into the N-group
to keep an active core of 15+. One of those four took an
active part talking in "the rolling present". Now, another
year later, we've asked two more to join us to keep the mix
lively.

We've formed habits of checking in with this conference first
when we're on-line, no matter which other teleconferencing
groups beckon. There has been an active dialogue going on for
nearly two years between people ranging in age from their late
30's to 70ish. There are now 6 women and no racial minorities.
Too bad. Because this group can really tolerate differences.
We've got polar extremes in views on abortion, aid to the Con-
tras, management philosophies and agreement on being decent and
loving the sea, to mention a few foods for thought.

What makes this group what it is? Can it be reproduced or simu-
lated? What is its dynamic, its orientation? Many of us have


wondered why the group has had this effect, and why it's lasted.
What makes us tick? Knowing our history might help.

The N group began on-line without us first having met in person.
We'd volunteered to start this experiment in late 1985 between
regular biannual class meetings. The facilitator was a psych-
ologist who had group leadership experience, but not on-line.
The range of on-line experience ranged from novice who barely
typed to whizzes with early computer experience as builders or
users. Seasoned leaders and experienced group facilitators,
most were business execs in high tech, and running second were
people who'd had years of training in psychology and sociology.

Once we were all on-line, and gathered a critical mass of 15,
we began trying to figure out what we were doing there. A big
puzzle was how we were supposed to do whatever it was we were
doing. Many began to get frustrated, then each one began to
tell a little about him/herself. Slowly the 15 began to coa-
lesce into a group. The N group started to define itself and
its "groupthink" and values. What we believed in, the limits
to power and influence in and outside the group evolved and
was later tested. All this came about from people who had only
known one another in the context of formal executive training
or who were work acquaintances. Some had known each other for
years, while others were strangers or were barely acquainted.

The mechanism which formed the N group was our telling of our
thoughts, experiences and opinions. We had serious discussions
and floated ideas and vented our feelings. Sometimes there'd
be 8-9 comments in a day, while other days there'd be nothing.
Hot topics or heated discussions were fodder. The facilitator
gave us his evaluation of our traits, sort of a guessing game
since he hadn't seen us. (Remember, many had not met in real
time. Only our electronic profiles, from what we'd written
on-line and how we'd expressed themselves, were the clues).
Some guesses were amazingly accurate and others hilariously off.
It showed us how we presented ourselves vs. how others saw us.

But it was when our `leader' mentioned the experience of being
on, of all things, a riverboat, that many in the group recalled
their own experience with paddlewheelers and calliopes and
boats plying the Mississippi or California delta. This turned
out to be our first group experience which had some resonance.
It was an unplanned kickoff event which baptized the group by
each one sharing an overlapping memory. Now the comments flew !

We all met in person for the first time two months and hundreds
of comments later. Our acquaintance was no longer limited to
the scheduled time and place in July and in January at La Jolla
or on-line.

As time passed something endearing happened. We began to tele-
phone one or two people with whom we felt close. Then we made
plans especially to see our new friends. N'ers would call,
connive and plan trips around visiting each other. We'd
describe what we were seeing in our N friend's milieu with our
own eyes, borrow their computer to get on-line and check into N
from a new place. Sometimes we played keyboard duets.
Friendships, flirtations, debate, camaraderie and the trauma
of unexpected events were the live wires of N group, as we kept
in touch through computer and modem, telephone, letters, and
face-to-face visits on business trips.

No ordinary friendship process, nor medium, we found out that we
had a round-the-clock friend or someplace to be which mattered
when we chose not to be alone. The ability to speak up and
leave electronic tracks any moment of the night or day began to
have a more lasting and perhaps seductive effect. Some of us
started to speak up more and write more easily, less afraid of
what others might think. We'd tell tales, spin dreams, blow up
or be depressed when it wasn't easily expressed anyplace else.
Nearly always there would be a response, and a quick one. Our
collective senses multiplied and we began to know the world as
we'd never known it.

One chap visited Russia and passed on his observations of Glas-
nost and the changing work world. Music events, good books,
what it felt like to leave a job, and losing loved ones were
mentioned. Slowly over time we had formed a real community.

During the first six to twelve months we tried to describe what
N group was like. "A cocktail party, where you can go from one
conversation to another, and feel as though you heard them all".
"Summer camp for adults". "The neighborhood and neighbor tavern
where the word gets out fast". "An old-fashioned party line".

We found out what we had in common and what we didn't. The re-
lationships in the group, over time, were many and complex.
There were three to five working relationships, either as col-
leagues in the same company or pairs working on projects, and two
employee-employer relationships, both of which derived from on-
line acquaintance via WBSI. Topics covered ran the gamut but
as time passed, more and more life experience and feelings about
life changes were mentioned. Not a bad learning experience,
since we got to hear from our own whom we'd come to respect and
trust. There have been two retirees, and in the company of one
who'd already retired, there was gentle encouragement into a new
arena. Tough times at work brought one woman balloons on her
front door early one morning, although the person sending them
was hundreds of miles away. There were tough times without
work. New business ventures, devastating disease and the fight
to get well. Personal tests and challenges of family, work
tensions and coping were all mentioned in this forum, now a mix
of public and more private concerns. And above all, resources.

What this group _is_, I think, is an adult learning group who
learns by sharing experience. Each person is an equal to ano-
ther. No one takes a back seat, despite great variances in
external success signs: wealth, position, heritage, media expo-
sure, and name. There are some unspoken base rules operating
here: mutual respect, caring which has grown over time, and a
fundamental belief shared which is that we do make a difference,
and we listen to each other. Being an active participant, even
if nonverbal, is the thread, the vital link.

For a long time I've watched what our values and traits are and
wondered if they could be extrapolated, and somehow fitted onto
the rest of the WBSI SMSS group. Here's what N group stands for:

CUTTING EDGE: definitely. The medium and the group. People
who join first have more risktaking, innovative characteristics,
and N'ers certainly like innovation.
CURIOUS, and TRUTHSEEKERS.
ACTIVE: mental, emotional, physical, spiritual. Real doers.
GLOBAL INTERESTS.
LOVE OF LEARNING: cognitive, experiential, affective; any kind.
APPRECIATION OF COMPLEXITY, and the ability to tolerate ambi-
guity, paradox and dilemma.
CARE, which pours out into needs being met, affection, and love.
RESPONSIVE.
CONNECTS ideas, events and people in unexpected ways.
A NEED FOR EXCELLENCE, appreciating and creating it.
OBJECTIVE, despite intense personally-held beliefs.
COMMUNICATES well and has a willingness to speak up.
KNOWS THE MERITS OF THE ISSUES AT HAND.
GETS TO THE HEART OF THE MATTER QUICKLY. HAS THE BIG PICTURE.
STRATEGISTS.
CREATIVE.
WIT and appreciation of irony.
APPRECIATES beauty, nature and the outdoors, along with indoor
pleasures.
CARES ABOUT WORLD AFFAIRS, AND WHAT HAPPENS AT HOME.
WANTS TO MAKE THIS A BETTER PLACE, AND ACTS ON THAT WISH.
INTEGRATES SELF, WORK AND HOME LIFE WITH BELIEFS, FRIENDS AND
BEHAVIOR (in varying degrees, by individual).
RESOURCEFUL.
PASSIONATE.
INDIVIDUALIST, yet places high value on cooperation and interac-
tion.
OPEN TO NEW IDEAS, PEOPLE AND WAYS OF DOING THINGS (if perceived
valuable).
HUMBLE .

What I've come to know is that with a p.c., electricity and modem
I don't ever have to be isolated. What is most exciting as N
group gets on in life are the possibilities for us. We're peo-
ple who learn from each other as we move towards being more of
a life action research group who learn firsthand and are deeply
engaged in living. As we go, we mention our experiences to one
another. We benefit from this even as we express ourselves.
Wisdom and kinship has developed from sharing our lives. We've
discovered a marvelous enriching set of friends and a process.

Surely this embellishes our approach as we work our way toward
the 21st century.