Today’s blog is a short overview of the high stage teams can reach to according to studies done in psychology. If you find my articles interesting and know people who may seek the knowledge that I present please recommend them to my website rightmovesnow.com. Or my blog, Remember you can comment on the articles at my blog. If you have ways to improve my web page, my articles, topics to suggest, or whatever then please email me at alexdail@rightmovesnow.com. Now off to the article I promised about high performing teams.
The last stage for groups is when teams become synergistic. This is called high performing teams. Just like in athletics or competitive games that rely on skill this stage is difficult to maintain. There are so many things that can “throw a team, or person, off their game.” High performance on a team is best described as flow (a state where concentration and progress seem effortless). In sports reach high performance is so rare perfection for a season has only been accomplished in the NFL by one team the Miami Dolphins. In the AFC the Browns according to a Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_season) hit a perfect season in 1948. In the same article the Calgary Stampeders had a perfect season in 1948. Other sports have too long a season or too many games to have a realistic chance (possible not probable in our life span) of attaining a perfect season. In business I propose it is even harder for a upper level management or senior executive team to develop a long streak of wins. There are simply too many factors. Human memory can retain on average seven discrete items. My guess is the limit of what we can attend to at a time is somewhere near there. Conversely there are many more things that can occur during a team project. Information can get stalled due to anything from office politics to technological issues. Heck a team can even be derailed out rightly by a person providing false information. Add to this sickness, natural disasters, misunderstandings, changes in leadership, and changes in team members - well you get the picture.
When the group is functioning optimally those who started in leadership and facilitation roles will move to assuming a role more equal to the other members. Tony Dungy a winning super bowl coach said it right. A paraphrase of it is, when a team is well prepared the coach does not need to be very directive. As I mentioned before the person consulting or facilitating will need to keep an eye on the team. It is easy for a team to drift into behavior normal for the earlier stages, especially when new members come in and/or veteran members leave. Dangers of faltering are at the highest after a team has been in the high performance range for 18-24 months. This is another time when consultants or team leaders will want to show increased vigilance to team performance.
When a change seems to be the cause of a break down in performance this is the time for the person overseeing the team to review the importance of deflecting criticism away from individuals. Along with this the overseer needs get the team centered on resolving conflict by means of members reaching consensus about the issue in question. Other important things for a leader or facilitator to ask at the review times are: is the group on task; on schedule; do all feel like they are being heard; is there a need for clarification; is there actions that need to be taken to improve the team process or progress, are the goals too challenging or not challenging enough (Wheelan, 2005)?
Additional ways to revitalize high performing teams is holding a retreat (to refocus the team), have members switch to other roles they can fulfill competently (or with cross training), rotate in new members while exiting members in need of a rest, change the meeting structure, go to a new meeting time or place, and anything else that injects a little creative into the process (Wheelan, 2005).
Hopefully this gives you good information about how to manage teams at home, in organizations, or corporations. Remember your comments are appreciated. These articles are for you and need to be delivered in a format
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