Male Bonding
It’s barely into my second week of my S2 course, and I’m beginning to observe a social phenomenon that I have not seen in many years. This is how a group of men, who through the process of working together under extreme duress, form a close knit bond with each other. It has been a subject of much research about group dynamics, but the experience is a harder to come by. One of the clearest manifestations is during military service, of which I have experienced on several occasions before during my time in active service, but never before in my reservist service.
Our course work requires us to work in small groups of about 6-7, and we were split into groups about 6 working days ago. My initial sentiment was that of discomfort, because all them were strangers to me - some of them were almost half my age and others were career officers.
We were asked to complete tedious tasks requiring everyone to commit to intense working sessions lasting until 10-11pm at night. There was a lot to do: drawing map overlays, making decisions, performing analysis and recording its conclusions. This happened over the past week and we spent a lot of time together, often under conditions of duress and frustration.
Today, I felt something change. It was an almost imperceptible shift in the way we treated each other. It was like a new-found respect and unspoken understanding as we finally understood each other and was willing to make sacrifices for the collective benefit. Everyone gravitated towards their own role in the group and contributed without holding back.
This is an amazing revelation. I had nearly forgotten how strong this experience was. It borders on being spiritual in nature.