I remember how I described my first T-Group experience to other as if a skin had been peeled off my eyes, and that I could now see people as persons. Even though, at that time I was working with people, I had (as I see with hind sight) seen them, unconsciously, more as mere participants of my programs, rather than as persons with their own needs and self worth.

Some years later, a quote from a participant in BHP Lab. brought out this tendency clearly:"We love things and use people, instead of loving people and using things".

My first T-Group was in 1965, facilitated by Rolf Linton and held in SIET Institute, Hyderabad. Two of us from Industrial Team Service , Bangalore attended it. During the T-Group ,my colleague walked out because of hurt feelings. Immediately I suggested to the group that we fetch him back. There were no comments from the facilitators. I then went alone. After we both came back to the group, it was taken up for process observation,where I understood that my going out to call my friend back may not have been helpful for his growth. I was later appreciative of the facilitation at that time which allowed me to experience this.

In 1967 summer, I attended a Lab. in NTL , Bethel , Maine on "Consultation Skills " facilitated by Robert Tannenbaum . An incident that occured there comes to mind ; A fellow participant a manager from U.S.A. and I sat on the floor in the middle of the group to continue an interaction. He was sharing an experience of intense emotion, and in the interaction broke down sobbing. I was holding his hands in mine and our heads were touching. After some time, when we joined the group, the facilitator asked me, with a slight touch of sarcasm as it then appeared to me, what had happened to my concern for people I had probably talked about this earlier. I got angry , and told Bob to ask the participant whether he had experienced my concern - while he had been sobbing, my hands were tightly holding his and my head pressed against his, and I was sure that he had experienced my empathy and had felt strenghtened. He said that he had. Today, probably I would more easily put hand around his shoulder and hold his head. Even though I had expressed myself differently, I was happy that I was able to communicate my concern. I felt vindicated on what the facilitator had remarked!

In the early 70s IIM , Calcutta had organized a program for Trade Union Leaders from all over India.I joined that as a co-facilitator in a group facilitated by Nitish De. There were many other groups facilitated by others in the Behavioural Science Group in IIM. An impression left in me was that one needs to be rigorous and tough while, at the same time , facilitating with sensitivity.

The Industrial Team Service , Bangalore , of which I was a member for many years, undertook a massive change effort in a large public sector industry with over 30,000 employees. The organization was going through bad times. The initial tool we used was the T-Group for the top managers, middle managers and trade union leaders. I remember at the end of the 7-day trade union leaders,lab in which the Presidents and Secretaries of six or seven unions participated , including those affiliated to CITU,AITUC,INTUC and DMK along with Independent Unions. At the end of the Lab, these men , who had been fighting with each other, were talking to each other with understanding, and were so excited about it that they wrote to PTI and UNI about their future course of action, and also presented both facilitators with a cup engraved, and a poem composed in Tamil on the facilitation.

In the same large public sector we had conducted a T-Group for a cross section representing different levels, from the Director to the Union representative. A remark made by a participant at the close of the lab was, "when I came I thought I will experience what happens in a circus when wild animals are let loose, but instead I experiened human beings in interaction."

In the middle 70s,my colleague Alan Batchelor and I experimented with a Marathon T-Group which started in the morning one day, and continued throughout the night till the lunch time the next day. Participants were free to go out and come back as they wished. Food, hot tea and drinking water were made available outside the room. I remember during the night some dozed off, at least parts of the time, though interactions continued between those who were awake. At the end of the Lab, a young student from abroad remarked that he had come to realize that, while there were differences between and others in respect of race, colour and culture, and he had been very conscious about this, he now saw that a bottom we were all the same: human beings.

I was about to break down on two occasions while facilitating groups. This was when I was at a loss to know how to cope with a situation where a section of the group members who had known each other earlier chose to deliberately play-act and make fun to avoid the stress of being their authentic vulnerable self. It took some time for me to control myself and continue to facilitate, and to get the group to look at what was happening. In both the Labs , it led to a breakthrough to important learning and growth.

For three or four years in the late 70s I kept away from engaging in process facilitation work and so did not come to any ISABS Events. This was because in 1974 I had come to a deeper awareness of the macro dynamics in the political ,economic and socio-cultural organization of society leading to exploitation of large numbers of people. From this perspective, the focus on or preoccupation with facilitation of the intra and inter-personal and group process seemed like running away from more urgent and fundamental issues in life. It was like Nero fiddling while Rome was burning! But then gradually I realized that the concern for the micro processes in human relationships need not lead to masking,avoiding, ignoring or emphasizing less than macro processes, and that both are necessary and important. I am sure that it is consciousness as this led ISABS to take up Labs on Community change and to decide on the Social Development Stream. It is in this vein that we took up both in the National Event and in the Calcutta Region an experiential exploration of the Communal issues and also Extension Motivation.

-----Paul Siromoni