Group Life Cycle Patterns
Your life cycle is characterized with several steps, and while it doesn’t follow a prescribed path, there are
universal stages we can all recognize. You were born. You didn’t choose your birth, your parents, your
language, or your culture, but you came to know them through communication. You came to know
yourself, learned skills, discovered talents, and met other people. You learned, worked, lived, and loved,
and as you aged, minor injuries took longer to heal. You competed in ever-increasing age groups in your
favorite sport, and while your time for each performance may have increased as you aged, your experience
allowed you to excel in other ways. Where you were once a novice, you have now learned something to
share. You lived to see some of your friends pass before you, and the moment will arrive when you too
must confront death.
In the same way, groups experience similar steps and stages and take on many of the characteristics we
associate with life. [1] They grow, overcome illness and dysfunction, and transform across time. No group,
just as no individual, lives forever.
