In each of the group decision-making activities we have participated in during class, the stakes have been pretty low. From making decisions about which letter in the alphabet is used the most to choosing which people are worthy enough to repopulate the planet in the event of the apocalypse, we have had fun discussing our different stances on each of these issues. This past week, however, we engaged in a group decision-making activity that was much different from those in the previous weeks. In this activity, we were given a scenario about a young girl (Lucy) who got pregnant, paid for an unauthorized abortion, and unfortunately died. We were then told to determine who was responsible for Lucy’s death, with options such as her parents, the abortionist, her boyfriend, and even herself.
This topic was much different than the others because we were given a real world scenario instead of one that was free of values or determined by a goal (like repopulating the planet). Before we started the conversation and decision-making process, a few of us made opening statements to emphasize the separation of our personal views and the issue at hand. We all agreed that in the scenario, the system and society as a whole failed Lucy, not any one individual. We also established group norms and set expectations for the conversation so that every person could be heard and everyone’s opinion would be respected.
Throughout our conversation, everyone took extreme caution when expressing their opinions. Since this issue is so real and could happen to any one of us, we made sure to be sensitive to everyone’s perspectives and only one person spoke at any given moment. We actually didn’t even get to finish the exercise because we were taking a very long time and being quite careful in navigating the discussion. Toward the end of the class, we realized that this exercise was much more closely-related to the decision-making process we will have to follow during our grant proposal presentations. We have come very far as a class in terms of our group dynamic, but we still have more lessons to learn before we vote on our grant proposals. Although we will have more time than one class period to make our decision, we still have to learn how to make decisions based on real-world situations without talking ourselves in circles for hours.