Week 6 Studio Class

This weeks guest speaker was from UNSW School of Psychology. Tom Denson's talk explored the psychology of teams and how a group dynamic functions differently to that of individual work.
Tom gave us references to previous psychologists works and experiments in social psychology. He compared these social experiments to the everyday workplace and explained that group collaboration has their advantages as well as their disadvantages.

He illustrated how human behaviour is influenced by a majority and those around us. Conformity and public compliance is an overwhelming facet in human behaviour. The mentality to comply when pressured in a group is a very strong yet natural practice.
I found the talk very stimulating and relatable. Everyone has experienced a time when they've had to make a public decision within a group. Whether they have the ability to fight for what they believe is the right solution, or to "go with the flow" and support the group ideal is something everyone deals with diversely.

I thought Tom's presentation was successful in relating to our current group assignments and found the class entralled during his lecture on what they believe was key to social influence in the workplace. Group decision making and the process for efficient team work is fundamental to the outcomes we wish to achieve in this course and Tom Denson gave us a glimpse of what part of that is influenced by human psychology.