Supervision / Social Control Ring- should it be avoided at all costs?

[The Exception]

Here's an interesting article on small groups by Reinin

At the end of the article it mentions about the Social Control Ring:

"Social Control Ring”

In this group three types of relationships are present: Controller [Supervisor], Servant [Supervisee], and Superego. All three kinds of relationships are difficult. Every member has his\her Controller and Servant. Atmosphere in this group is rather tense; people cannot do anything together. Even a simple thing like having a cup of tea becomes unbearable: people get headaches, tension grows, and everyone wishes they’d be somewhere else. It is interesting to note that all these things happen only when the ring is completed. When it is not, the environment for the [three] members of the group is more or less tolerable. But as soon as the fourth member steps into the room and the ring is completed things begin to fall apart. After spending about 15 minutes together the members of this group grow increasingly anxious and nervous.

Take for example a group of an ILE, an LSI, an SEE and an EII – each one of them has a Controller and a Servant and a Superego partner. There are no other relationships in this group. Not only they cannot work on a project together, but also they cannot even be in the same room for more than 10 minutes. They can talk one on one with each other, but it is a scary thing when they all get together…

It is hard to tell what exactly happens, but there is a deep and very unpleasant premonition of disintegration.

Once we were offered a problem for analysis: during negotiations in a company office one of the participants got up suddenly, stormed out of the room and ran outside, took his shoes off and trotted the snow for quite a while before he was brought back to senses. It turned out that accidentally a social control ring had been formed in the negotiations room. Coupled together with serious emotional tension because of a work situation it lead to a nervous breakdown in one of the workers.

When working with a "Social Control Ring” group it is important to remember that people are not the problem it is the negative relationship between the types that causes trouble; and most important here is that there is a way to avoid trouble: the group may be moved to a different setting, or some of the types may be removed or replaced to change the relationship between the types.


Anyone experienced such a group? What was it like?

Do you think there's some truth to this?

[Pookie]

Ive never been in a ring that fully completed, but in a IEI SLI ESE situation us IPs just teamed up to destroy the EJ

[ClownsandEntropy]

I've been in a IEE-LII-SLE group before. It was okay because the SLE was my literal supervisor, and I was the literal supervisor of the IEE.

I got along with the SLE because we understood and enjoyed using Ti when we were solving problems, and because he was older than me he saw my Se-POLR as just me being immature and something he helped me deal with.

I get along with the IEE because we always talk about really off the wall and interestng topics, and because the IEE isn't stupid the Ti-POLR doesn't become that much of a problem (yet!) and I also appreciate IEE's Fi skills to deal with emotions.

Any volunteers for an ESI to see what happens? I can just imagine. SLE thinks ESI is trying to undermine him, expects me to assert my Se-dominance and take ESI down. LII (me) feels I'm being pushed too hard, expects IEE to be super on-the-ball with keeping things going and thinking logically. IEE feels overwhelmed at all these new details she needs to deal with, expects ESI to be a little bit more flexible with the way things get organised. ESI can't deal with the confusion and the lack of decison-making, blames SLE for starting it all and tries to undermine him.

[epheme]

I've been in a SLI-IEI-LIE ring before and it wasn't that great. I was the boss of the LIE (my socionics supervisor) and we worked well together. The SLI and I had the same position and I often found it strange that the SLI intimidated the LIE - because I found her super aggravating and passive aggressive - but it makes sense on a socionics level. (Just wanted to note that while I could hardly stand to be around the SLI, she was a hard worker and contributed a lot. We just had a lot of communication problems.)

*I recall that there was also an ESE but he left around the time the LIE started working there so we never all 4 were working together closely.

[Alomoes]

Here's an interesting article on small groups by Reinin

At the end of the article it mentions about the Social Control Ring:

"Social Control Ring”

In this group three types of relationships are present: Controller [Supervisor], Servant [Supervisee], and Superego. All three kinds of relationships are difficult. Every member has his\her Controller and Servant. Atmosphere in this group is rather tense; people cannot do anything together. Even a simple thing like having a cup of tea becomes unbearable: people get headaches, tension grows, and everyone wishes they’d be somewhere else. It is interesting to note that all these things happen only when the ring is completed. When it is not, the environment for the [three] members of the group is more or less tolerable. But as soon as the fourth member steps into the room and the ring is completed things begin to fall apart. After spending about 15 minutes together the members of this group grow increasingly anxious and nervous.

Take for example a group of an ILE, an LSI, an SEE and an EII – each one of them has a Controller and a Servant and a Superego partner. There are no other relationships in this group. Not only they cannot work on a project together, but also they cannot even be in the same room for more than 10 minutes. They can talk one on one with each other, but it is a scary thing when they all get together…

It is hard to tell what exactly happens, but there is a deep and very unpleasant premonition of disintegration.

Once we were offered a problem for analysis: during negotiations in a company office one of the participants got up suddenly, stormed out of the room and ran outside, took his shoes off and trotted the snow for quite a while before he was brought back to senses. It turned out that accidentally a social control ring had been formed in the negotiations room. Coupled together with serious emotional tension because of a work situation it lead to a nervous breakdown in one of the workers.

When working with a "Social Control Ring” group it is important to remember that people are not the problem it is the negative relationship between the types that causes trouble; and most important here is that there is a way to avoid trouble: the group may be moved to a different setting, or some of the types may be removed or replaced to change the relationship between the types.


Anyone experienced such a group? What was it like?

Do you think there's some truth to this?

OH MAN. I love this. There is some truth, yes. Take an ESTj, INFp, and an ENFj, and the ESTJ will run out screaming. Why? Because suddenly, the person they respect is siding with their enemy. Or take my father, and put him in a room with my brother. There used to be tears, but now I understand. I can tolerate it.

[bolong]

Oh god my mom, brother and I are almost like this (LSE-ILI-IEI). My brother and I are not super-ego, but my mom and dad are (LSE-EIE). However my dad usually avoids us completely. When it's just us three, things break down so quickly and can become VERY unpleasant if one of us does not take a break and leave the situation for a while.

With the addition of my EIE dad, my brother gets a supervisor too, and that actually brings more stability to the group, though we rarely ever have a "good" time. My mom is probably the most "extroverted" but her attempts to socialize annoy the rest of us. As I'm getting older though, I'm appreciating her a lot more - she is always the one to let go of her ego first, and she's down to earth and friendly (none of these things really apply to the rest of us, all Ni-users.)