This is an “ideal type,” as in Your Mileage May Vary etc. It’s loosely based on the hype cycle, for what that’s worth.
I wrote about this in the context of Strategic Action Fields a few years ago, it never got published. I should dig that out. Whatever.
The “Extreme Ways” phase (“then it fell apart, like it always does”)
The Honeymoon Phase
There’s the excited announcement and the good turn out.
(nb many groups fail to prosper beyond the first meeting. Fewer people at the second usually [this is not necessarily a bad sign, if it means you’ve been shaking off the tourists and the glory hounds who will come back when you do something interesting/newsworthy, to say they were present at the outset, offering encouragement etc).
In the “work group mentality” mode, members of the group ignore/repress irritation at usual problems; the mansplaining, lunching out, the misorganisation and disorganisation, the so what speeches, the Roger Irrelevancies etc Why? Because they Still Believe in the possibility of success. They want to push through to Achieve the Goal, keeping their eyes on the prize They figure there will be enough attention/glory/whatever to keep almost everyone happy
The honeymoon ends
Once it becomes obvious that that Goal is not going to be achieved (and sometimes it is, of course, but usually not in the timescale initially thought of), or at least not quickly, then all those little niggles and micro-aggressions – people stop biting their tongues, rolling their eyes and the conflicts break out into the open (maybe – it may be that particular people, too fearful of conflict and believing that they will not be listened to withdraw their labour without saying that they are doing this, or saying why, (a kind of “silent strike.”) This will go unspoken, but not un-noticed, especially to those who are sensitive to the mood and the performance of the group.
The “Extreme Ways” phase (“then it fell apart, like it always does”)
Next up, open conflict or simply the disintegration of the group (see below – nobody turns up to meetings, or the few that do are engaged in open warfare, meaning that no business gets done, and new-ish (and for that matter older) recruits are repelled by the internecine fighting. In Bion-ic terms, the switch from predominantly work group mentality to basic assumptions mentality.
To counter this, leaders (and there are always leaders, whether they allow anyone to call them that or not) will make vociferous appeals to “unity.” Usually they will do this without dealing with – or even acknowledging – the underlying issues, These appeals are in effect (if not always in intention) a command to the people raising the issues to either get loyal or get lost (see Exit Voice and Loyalty by Albert Hirschman). If those speaking out are not “loyal” (or even if they are) they are expelled, or leave. People who don’t see their issues getting addressed realise that there’s not much point sticking around, so they vote with their feet.
The aftermath
There’s three basic paths.
- The group may cease to exist (no more newsletters, meetings etc)
- It may stagger on as a tiny groupuscule, but basically functionally extinct (1).
- It may “revive” a little, with a few of those left managing to rope in acquaintances for a “new” version. This new version however is probably going to repeat the pattern (at a lower volume) of the old group…
Meanwhile, there is an awareness in the “wider community” (not that wide!) that another one has effectively bitten the dust.
And meanwhile, the carbon dioxide accumulates. And so do the consequences.
Footnotes
(1) A “functionally extinct” organism is one that may have a few individuals still living but will never recover (think Martha the passenger pigeon or Lonesome George the Pinta Island tortoise). Some organisms are “extinct in the wild,” meaning they can no longer be found in the areas they once inhabited.
marchudson.net 
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