Resonance

Document prepared by Pascal Gayet based on a supervision session

Resonance, for a group, is the ability of its members to ensure that 1+1> 2, that what is produced by the group exceeds what would have been produced by adding up the individual contributions.
NLP tells us that the generative force of a group comes from the alignment and integration of multiple intelligences

• The intellectual intelligence - the head - which comes from our brain and our cognitive mind
• Emotional intelligence comes from our somatic mind centered in the body, one could say: the heart and guts
• The systemic and relational intelligence that comes from a "field" that emerges from our connections and relationships with other systems around us.

When these three minds work together, the result is what Milton Erickson called the creative unconscious.

Here are some questions we asked ourselves during the session:

• When did we feel the group in resonance? How did we feel it? Are we able to describe it concretely?
• By what adjective could we define a group that does not resonate or just a little? A group that resonates well? On a scale of 1 (= no or very little) to 5 (= very strongly), where do we put the cursor for our own supervision session?
• How to improve our score, the quality of our collective intelligence?

In response to these questions, here are the contributions of the supervision group:

• The resonance is related to the sense of belonging to a group. It facilitates the assembly of differences: it is how others make me smart
• Another way of expressing it would be talking about synchronization
• The resonance increases at each work-session because we learn to know each other: we are developing our maturity and our ability to listen. We feel it progress throughout the supervision day. It appears when we find similarities on all the cases addressed.
• Resonance can be made "with" the person working the case (the client), but it can also be made "against", that is to say that the group as a whole sees or feels something which the customer does not (or not yet)
• It's like a musical instrument: it may sound wrong, but the important thing is that it resonates!
• Resonance exists on a purely intellectual level, and also through shared emotion. It is expressed through various channels, for example when we give feedback to each other or to the client through a drawing and words

Resonance can be identified by the following signs:

• A set of specific body signals: ease of eye contact, laughter, attentive listening to what is happening.
• When all participants are very happy with the work done together; when each person writes his/her "gift" with good humor and reads it with satisfaction
• When resonance improves, fewer words are spoken and everyone feels more presence
• A group that does not resonate would probably be quiet and boring

Resonance can help develop qualities of collective intelligence such as:

• Paying attention physical behavior like gestures
• Feeling recognized and important
• Balancing between what is happening inside of me and what is happening in the field
• Developing active listening

Ways of moving forward?

• Understanding that each session supplies a learning loop, and taking the time later during the session to say when one has felt or not this resonance
• During a group coaching, learn to develop together a common collective coaching “strategy”, rather than each participant pursuing his/her own train of thought. This requires developing our observation and listening skills, for example:
  • listening to the client’s emotions
  • spotting when the other group members want to contribute (balancing individual contributions to the team)
• And then develop a “meta” posture that pays attention to self, to others, and to the field of relationships, both powerful and humble, trusting both self and others.

It is undeniable that the quality of work of the supervision group is strongly dependent on its degree of resonance. This notion is not to be confused with that of consensus. Not only it is not at the same level, but resonance values ​​the person in its specificity together with the group in its ability to be and to act collectively.