Cohesiveness in the Conference Room

As the final week of my internship at FTI came to a close, my fellow interns and were tasked with presenting a summer’s worth of research on healthcare provider types to the practice, as well as laying out potential work opportunities within the healthcare industry for FTI.  At the beginning of the summer, the thought of presenting to the entire health solutions practice seemed daunting. However, the cohesiveness of our intern class and ability to work under the pressure of a deadline helped us to prepare and give a great presentation at the end of the day. One theory of leadership that I noticed we exercised within our group dynamics as an intern class was the Social Identity Theory of Leadership.

The Social Identity Theory tells that an individual’s knowledge that he/ she belongs to certain social groups together with some emotional and value significance to him of this group membership. While each of us came from different schools and backgrounds and had our own individual identities, because we spent so much time together both inside and outside of work we adopted a group identity. I also noticed this pattern among other practice segments (such as data analytics and strategic communications). Most of the interns company wide at FTI had their own desks and were dispersed amongst the full time employees. However, for the Health Solutions practice, rather than having our own desks or cubicles, the other interns and I sat in a conference room around a table during the summer. This gave us the chance to get to know each other very well.

When it came time to divide up parts for our presentation and make it cohesive, our cohesiveness, friendships, trust, and overlapping goals amongst team members allowed us to be successful and work together as a team. This shows that being in a certain context (for us this was sitting around a conference table most days) influences group identity. Because our goals were aligned, and each of us started at the same level (intern), power differences did not exist and we were all both leaders and followers when working on our final presentation together.

Looking back, this showed me the importance of cohesiveness when working towards a group goal. Each of us was staffed on different projects throughout the summer, some of us busier than the others. When one of us was busy, the others would pick up their work for the presentation and vise versa. Overall, our group’s shared goals and work ethic towards this presentation showed and we received really positive feedback from the leaders of the practice.