Gd Info By Experts

wizkid

Have you ever seen a football game? Or have you ever been a part of a football team? These questions seem awkward and absurd when the issue at hand is "How to crack a Group Discussion to get into a top B-school". But through these questions, a student understands the nuances of a Group Discussion.
Simply emphasizing the clichÃ© that a Group Discussion, or a GD as it is commonly called, is a group process or a team building exercise does not help students. As in a football game, we play like a team, passing the ball to each of the team members and aiming towards a common goal, similarly, in a GD, we work as a team incorporating views of different team members so as to reach a common goal.

A Group Discussion at a B-school can be defined as a formal discussion involving 10-12 participants in a group. A topic is given to them, some time is given to them to collect their thoughts and then the group is asked to discuss the topic for 20-25 minutes. The GD process is generally used by the B-schools to assess a candidate's personality traits. Most important personality traits that a candidate should possess to do well in a GD are: -

1. Team Player
It is very essential for a manager to be a team player because managers always work in teams. In the beginning of his career, a manager works as a team member and later on as a team leader. Management aspirants who lack team skills cannot be good managers. So B-schools give heavy weightage to this parameter.

2. Reasoning Ability
Reasoning ability plays an important role while expressing your opinions or ideas in a GD. Reasoning ability is building bridges between two ends. For example, an opinion like "Reduction in IIMs fee will affect its quality" can be better stated by demonstrating your reasoning ability and completing the missing links between fees and quality as "Reduction in IIMs fee will lead to less funds being invested on study material, student exchange programmes, research, student development activities, etc. More over, it costs money to attract good faculty, create good infrastructure and upgrade technology. With reduction in fees, less money will be available to perform these activities which will lead to deterioration in the quality of IIMs".

3. Leadership
There are three types of situations that can arise in a GD.
1. A GD where participants were not able to establish a proper rapport and do not speak much.
2. A GD where participants get emotionally charged and the GD is full of chaos.
3. A GD where participants discuss the topic assertively by touching upon all its nuances and try to reach the objective.

A leader is a person who facilitates the third type of situation in a GD. A leader has the following qualities: -

A leader shows direction to the group whenever group moves away from the topic.

He coordinates the effort of the different team members in the GD.

He contributes to the GD at regular intervals with valuable insights.

He also inspires and motivates team members to express their views.

Caution: Being only a coordinator in a GD does not help. Coordinating a GD is a secondary role. A person who is contributing well to the GD with his ideas and opinion can only act as a coordinator. Acting only as a coordinator is seen as a negative trait.

4. Flexibility
Flexibility means openness to other person's ideas and also being open to evaluation of your ideas. To demonstrate this personality trait, always remember "Never ever start your GD with a stand or a conclusion". For example, if the topic of a GD is "Should India go to war with Pakistan", some participants will get emotionally attached to the topic and take a stand either in favour or against the topic, i.e., "Yes, India should..." or "No, India should not..." By taking a stand, a person has already given a decision even without discussing the topic at hand or listening to the views of his team members.

More over, if a person who has taken a stand encounters an opposition with a very strong point at the 11th hour in a GD, he is in a typical catch22 situation: -

If he changes the stand, he is seen as a fickle-minded or a whimsical person.

If he does not change his stand, he is seen as an inflexible, stubborn and an obstinate person.

5. Assertiveness
Assertiveness means putting your point in the group in a very emphatic, positive and a confident manner. Participants often confuse assertiveness with aggressiveness. Aggressiveness is all about forcing your point on the other person. An aggressive person starts acting as a threat to the group. An aggressive person demonstrates a negative body language, where as an assertive person demonstrates a positive body language.

6. Initiative
A general trend amongst students is to start a GD and get that initial kitty of points ear-marked for the initiator, but initiating a GD is a high-risk high-return strategy. Initiate a GD only if you are well-versed with the topic. If you start a GD and fail to contribute at regular intervals, it gives an impression that you started the GD just for the sake of the initial points.

Also if you fumble stammer or quote wrong facts in the beginning, it works against you. Remember that you never ever get a second chance to create a first impression.

7. Creativity / Out-of-the-box thinking
An idea or a perspective, which open new horizons for the discussion on the GD topic, is highly appreciated. For example, while conducting a GD on "US invasion on Iraq", a participant came out with an innovative point related to the theory of "Euro vs Dollar", the point was put across so convincingly that it was discussed at length by the group. The participant who contributed this point found its place in the good books of the examiner.

8. Inspiring ability
A good group discussion should incorporate views of all the team members. If in a GD some of the team members want to express their ideas but are not getting an opportunity to do so, giving them an opportunity to express their ideas or opinions will be seen as a positive trait.

Caution: If a participant is not willing to speak, you are advised not to go out of the way by pointing him to express his views. This will insult him and will also hamper the flow of the GD.

9. Listening
Listening is a very important skill. It is said that humans have been gifted with two ears and one mouth. But only good listeners are not preferred. In a GD, there should be a proper balance between the expression of your ideas and imbibing ideas of others.

10. Awareness
In today's dynamic environment, a manager should be well-versed with both the micro and macro environment. Your awareness about your environment helps a lot in your GD content. The content of a GD carries maximum weightage. So awareness plays an important role in GD.

Caution: The content or awareness generally constitutes 40-50% marks of your GD.

Apart from these qualities, qualities like communication skills, confidence, and ability to think upon one's feet, which are self-explanatory, are also very important. If a candidate is able to demonstrate these personality traits in a group discussion, his chances of cracking a group discussion increases

wizkid

In the previous article, we discussed about the personality traits required to excel in Group Discussion. In this issue, we will see how a GD is initiated and summarized.

A group discussion can be categorically divided into three different phases: -

I. Initiation / Introduction
II. Body of the Group Discussion
III. Summarization / Conclusion

In this article, we will be discussing about the First and the Third phase, i.e., initiation and summarization in depth.

Initiation Techniques

Initiating a GD is a high profit high loss strategy. Whenever a candidate initiates a GD, he apart from grabbing an opportunity to speak also grabs the attention of the examiners and his fellow candidates. So if a candidate, who initiates the GD, is able to make a favorable first impression through his content and communication skills, it will help him sail through the GD. On the other hand, if a candidate while initiating a GD stammered, stuttered or quoted wrong facts and figures, the damage done is irreparable. Moreover, the candidate who initiates a GD has the onus to put the GD into right perspective or framework. So one should "Initiate a GD" only when one has an in-depth knowledge about the topic at hand.

If a candidate has initiated a GD and after that he does not speak much in the GD, even if his initiation was impeccable, it gives an impression that he started the GD just for the sake of starting it or getting those initial kitty of points earmarked for an initiator.

There are different techniques to initiate a GD so as to make a remarkable first impression. A candidate can initiate the GD through any of the following techniques: -

Quotes

Definition

Question

Shocking statement

Facts figures and statistics

Short story

General statement

Quotes
Quotes are an effective way of initiating a GD. If the topic of a GD is "Should censor board be abolished", one can start with a quote, "Hidden apples are always sweet". For a GD topic, like "Customer is the King", one can quote Sam Walton's famous saying, "There is only one boss - The CUSTOMER. And he can fire everybody in the company from the Chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else."

Definition
One can start a GD by defining the topic or an important term in the topic, for example, if the topic of the GD is "Advertising is a diplomatic way of telling a lie", one can start a GD by defining advertising as, "Any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services through mass media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio by an identified sponsor".

Similarly, for a topic, like "The Malthusian Economic Prophecy is no longer relevant", a candidate can start by explaining the definition of Malthusian Economic Prophecy as "Malthusian 'Principle' states that population increases 'geometrically' or exponentially and that subsistence increases arithmetically. Thus, population increases along the order of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32..., whereas subsistence limps along at the rate of 1, 2, 3, 4..."

Question
Asking a Question is an emphatic way of starting a GD. It does not signify asking a question to any of the candidates in a GD so as to hamper the flow, it implies asking a question and then answering it yourself. If in a GD a question is being asked to hamper the flow of a GD or to insult a participant or to play devils advocate, it should be discouraged, but if a question is being asked so as to promote the flow of ideas, it is appreciated.
If the GD topic is "Should India go to war with Pakistan", you can start by asking a Question, "What does war bring to the people of a nation. We had 4 wars with Pakistan till date, but a pertinent question is what have we achieved?"

Shocking statement
Initiating a GD through a shocking statement is the best way of grabbing immediate attention and putting forth your point. If a GD topic is "Impact of Population on Indian Economy", it can be started as, "Near the center of the Indian capital stands a population clock that relentlessly ticks away. It tracks 33 births a minute, 2,000 an hour, 48,000 a day, which calculates to nearly 12 million every year. That is roughly the size of Australia. As a current political slogan puts it, 'Nothing's impossible when 1 billion Indians work together'."

Facts figures and statistics
When a candidate decides to initiate his GD through Facts, figure and statistics, he should quote them accurately. Approximation is allowed in macro level figures but micro level figures need to be correct and accurate, e.g., we can say that approximately 70% of the Indian population stays in rural areas (macro figures, approximation allowed), but we cannot say 30 states of India instead of 28 (micro figures, no approximations).

If a person ends up stating wrong facts it works to his disadvantage. For a GD topic, like "China, a rising tiger", a candidate can start, like, "In 1983, when China was still in its initial stages of reform and opening-up, China's real use of FDI only stood at USD 636 million. China actually utilized USD 60 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2004, which is almost 100 times that of its 1983 statistics."

Short story
A short story can be used in a GD topic, like "Attitude is everything". This topic can be initiated with the help of a short story as follows, "A child once asked a balloon vendor who was selling helium gas filled balloons whether a blue coloured balloon will go as high in the sky as a green coloured balloon.
The balloon vendor told the child that it is not the colour of the balloon but what is inside it which makes it go high."

General statement
A general statement can also be used so as to put the GD into proper perspective, e.g., if the GD topic is "Should Sonia Gandhi be the prime minister of India", one can start the GD by putting it into proper perspective, like "Friends, before jumping to the conclusion, 'Yes, Sonia Gandhi should be...' or 'No, Sonia Gandhi should not be...', let's first find out the qualities of a good Prime Minister of India. Then we can compare these qualities with the qualities possessed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi. This will help us in reaching a conclusion in a much more objective and effective manner."

Summarization Techniques

Most of the GDs are not being concluded but every GD is being summarized. This statement means that conclusion represents a final stage in the GD, where the whole of the group decides in favour or against the topic, but in case of summarization, a candidate summarizes in nutshell what all the group has discussed in the GD.

Following points should be kept in mind while summarizing a discussion: -

No new point should be spoken in the summary

A person should not speak only his own view point in the summary

A summary should not dwell only on one side of the GD

It should be brief and concise

It should incorporate all the important points spoken in the GD

If a candidate has been told by the examiner to summarize a GD, this means that GD has come to an end. It is not advisable to add anything once GD has been summarized

A simple framework for summary can be, "We had a very healthy group discussion and we as a group have evaluated this topic from different perspectives. Some of my friends spoke in favour of the topic and the reasons that they gave were... where as some very good points against the topic were... In all, we had a very good discussion where everyone participated with their full enthusiasm and vigour.

***gaurav200x***

Awesome article by whizkid... dude.. u rick!!

p.s. Bhavin, i think it deserves to be sticky.. ur take?

bhavin_3

Hmm yah its a great article by wiz kid..!! I guess not many ppl hv read this 1... So currently making it a sticky 1...

Nd guyz its damn good advice do read the article will help ya alot...!!