"Social loafing occurs. It occurs, of course, in small group projects and on tug-of-war teams but it also occurs in our friendship groups and in our churches. But before you quickly label those you feel are “users”, “lazy”, “uncommitted”, etc.

Please understand that many times social loafing occurs because people do not feel valued or that they can add value based on their skill sets or their circumstances. If we understood the concept fully we might change our perspective and interact differently with those folks. There is no guarantee but who knows we might possibly see more engagement and involvement in those we might quickly dismiss as weak links.

Just a thought I had after discussing the concept in my AP Psychology class this week."

--Julie Paynter Heineman

When my friend Julie posted this, it grabbed my attention. There is something about the nature of my consulting and coaching that exposes me to many stories featuring social loafing. 

• Students experiencing their first group projects with imbalanced input (It's not fair!)
• Arts performances with varied investment, natural talent or commitment (They're just not taking it seriously!)
• Business people worn out from carrying others' loads, to ensure quality is not dropped (I don't want the customer to suffer.)
• Non-profits struggling from a lack of engaged volunteerism (There are too many people just "sitting in the pews.")

I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about interacting differently. What are your success stories?