Expect the Unexpected (Episode 9, Chapter 2)
Going into the last Tribal Council it seemed like the alliances had been pretty securely formed and, both seemed to be operating with an established set of group norms. This is worth noting because, as the text points out, the creation of norms is an influential factor in a group’s ability to pass from the forming to the performing stage. The performing stage is exactly where I thought Jeremy’s alliance had settled into until people started making some very unexpected moves. That being said, many people in this episode did things that surprised me.
For starters, I was not expecting Reed’s behavior in this episode. When Reed returned from seeing Josh sent home at the last Tribal Council, he commented that he didn’t “know who to turn to now” and, he just had to worry about himself from this point on. From these comments, I thought he was going to try to align himself with Jeremy and the stronger alliance but, instead, he chose to take the route of nonconformity. Although Reed was resisting the group norms, his decision resulted in constructive nonconformity because it kept the group from ignoring the important fact that Keith was holding onto an Immunity Idol. In this way, his nonconformity was still working to promote the overall group goal.
In another unexpected move, Jeremy and Natalie decided to give up the trips they had won from the Reward Challenge in order to give them away to Jon and Jaclyn. Both Jeremy and Natalie said that they had made this decision in order to show their gratitude to Jon and Jaclyn for joining their alliance and supporting them at the last Tribal Council. As newly formed alliances, they were trying to motivate Jon and Jaclyn to stay true to their alliance by using an extrinsic reward. However, as the episode progressed, Jeremy and Natalie began to have doubts about the new couple’s loyalty.
Perhaps it was for this reason that, at Tribal Council, Natalie encouraged her alliance not to be distracted from their long term goals. She used team talk as she spoke about “our” goals and, her sentiments seemed to allude to a sense of meaningfulness created by the alliance’s meaningful goal. She knew that each member in the group wanted to make it as far in the game as possible and, she was doing her best to promote the group goal of making sure that happened. This is part of the reason why she chose Jon to take her place for the reward. He was a strong member of her alliance and, he needed food. By meeting Jon’s need for sustenance, Natalie was promoting a sense of meaningfulness in the goal her alliance was pursuing. However, that wasn’t all she was promoting. This move also allowed her a chance to balance the group goal with her own hidden agenda of moving forward in the game. As Reed point out, this wasn’t “selfless giving”.
It follows that, despite their strategic moves, Jeremy and Natalie seem to have a hard time keeping the members of their alliances motivated. In part, this could be due to the fact that motivated group members feel that they have a sense of choice. With Jeremy and Natalie running the show, the other members of their alliance may not have felt like they had any power to help make decisions. The text points out that group members are motivated when they feel “a greater sense of personal control and responsibility.” It is for this reason that I believe Missy and Baylor followed Jon’s lead to vote Jeremy out of the game. In a new alliance with Jon and Jaclyn, Missy and Baylor will share a more equal share of the power. They will have more decision-making power and, thus, they will be more motivated to promote the group goal.
It seems like a whole new ball game now that the two emergent leaders are both gone. Will it be dog eat dog now or will new leaders rise up from the stubble? I guess we’ll find out next week….
