Reflecting
on a military study, the Stress Doc analyzes the contrast in performance
between demographically homogeneous and diverse teams. And he tops off the essay with a lively
“Resiliency Rap.” Enjoy! MG
Link
to entire article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/who-says-theres-i-team-diversity-driven-performance-mark-gorkin
Who
Says “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”?: Diversity-Driven
Team Performance
Decades back, I read about a Naval
research project involving submarine personnel.
The study examined the differences in small-group problem-solving performance
between demographically homogeneous versus diverse teams. (This study was run
before women were integrated into submarine service.) Invariably, while taking more time to reach
consensus, the diverse groups generated more creative problem-solving
outcomes. Why would this be?
Actually, homogeneous groups were able
to reach a solution more quickly. Isn’t
that a benefit? In a critical or crisis
situation, when time is of the essence and all perspectives cannot be weighed, rapidly
getting on the same page may provide an advantage. However, when multifaceted insights and unanticipated
problem-solving tactics and strategies are freely in play, then good surprises
may happen: a “helmets off” or “no rank
in the room” climate that encourages input from all, (I know, I’m mixing
military headgear if not metaphors), novel approaches emerge, there’s greater breadth
and depth in questions and analysis, viewpoint-expanding conflict from challenging
the conventional, time for disagreement and dialogue, even some off-the-beaten-path
discoveries, all provide a “survival of the fittest” edge.
Problem-Solving
Barriers and Bridges
Because the homogeneous groups reached
agreement quickly, perhaps, prematurely, they tended not to stretch their minds
and answers beyond familiar, “tried and true” problem-solving territory. According to Joshua Shenk, author of Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative
Pairs, “When members of a group look at situations the same way, and fail
to appreciate difficulties coming down the pike, loyalty and devotion can
outstrip independent thinking.” Or as I
once penned, “There may be no ‘I’ in team…but there are two ‘I’s in WINNING!” And these “I”s can “C”: in mutually reinforcing fashion, “Winning
Teams” blend Individual Creativity and
Interactive Community. With Yin-Yang design flow, the Individual
Creative pushes the Interactive Community to make the familiar strange; the Interactive Collective pushes the Individual
Creative to make the strange familiar. (More elaboration below.)
In contrast to the homogeneous, diverse
groups first had to spend more time recognizing and understanding different
motivations and assumptions, hidden agendas and biases. Accounting for multiple points of view, the
team had to design a more varied and complex operational mind map, as it
were. (Of course, there’s always the
possibility that excessive conflict consumes too much time or results in a
breakdown of communication, subverting the problem-solving process. An inability to agree upon forest from trees
not only exhausts energy, but can lead to a sense of being lost. Perhaps because of their prior training, in
this study, the diverse teams mostly circumvented such traps.)
One might say the diverse
problem-solving milieu fostered “getting raw (as in raw and open beginner) and getting real.” Then, wrestling with difference challenged
teams to expand both their problem-defining arena as well as problem-solving
tools, rules, and strategies. From a high
task perspective, positively grappling with conflict reaffirms the exploratory value
of uncertainty and sharing; from a human touch vantage point, the yield is increased
camaraderie and trust. I’ll call this high task-human touch pairing productive team synergy. Yes, the “whole is greater (less conventional
and/or more original) than the sum of its parts.” That is, the enriched and unexpected
communication among the parts, gets teams operating out of the box. But, in addition, an optimal level of
conflict and collaboration, leading to a real-time successful outcome, often achieves
magic: The parts have potential to become partners!
Endings
and Beginnings
Finally, diversity is not only found in
groups or teams. As I am presently rediscovering,
“dyadic diversity” also can generate synergetic problem-solving and partnership-performance
punch. Actually, the aforementioned read,
Powers of
Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation
in Creative Pairs, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014, provides potent
illustration: “The heart of creative
connection is the felicitous and complementary combination of the familiar and
the strange” (e.g., as noted earlier, the paradoxical aphorism, make the strange familiar, the familiar
strange). “The individuals in great
dyads will be very much different and very much alike. (Think John Lennon and Paul McCartney,
Shenk’s prototypic example. Lennon
tempered McCartney’s tendency for soppy romanticism, while McCartney helped
soften Lennon’s angry, hard-edge.) These
simultaneous extremes generate the deep rapport and energizing friction that
defines a creative pair.” I particularly
like this line from Shenk: We need similarities to give us ballast and
differences to make us move.
And in a subsequent essay, I will
illustrate recent partnerships helping provide both project focus and the
opportunity for moving and exploring the creative potential of dyadic
diversity. But in closing, a revised rhythm
and rhyme “Resiliency Rap” proclaiming the potency of individual voice and
vital diversity or IC2 – Individual
Creativity x Interactive Community – Teams.
Enjoy! MG
~~~~~~~~~~~
Who
Says “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”?
Do you ever want to scream
When you hear that tired
theme?
Or see the poster in your
dreams?
There
is no “I” in team!
Of course, you need to check
EGO
As you relate with sis and
bro
But please, tell me it ain’t
so:
Who
needs an “I” for us to flow?
Groupthink makes it all
mellow.
There’s no “I” in our
team!
A group requires but one
mind
Even if a little blind.
Leave complexity behind.
Just fall in line with the group
grind!
No “I” in team means no
brainstorming:
Revere (or fear) the one
all-knowing.
And this is only the
beginning…
But wait…an “aha” has me
grinning:
Look…two
“I”s in the word “WINNING!”
Who needs an “I” in team!
Marching to a different drum
No “hurry up, just get it
done.”
Jazz riff bands now on the
run
Still, keep fighting…Here Comes the Sun!
Crews that live by give and
take
Despite ideas that seem
half-baked
Are ones that learn from their
mistakes
So, take those lead feet off
the brake
To leave “No ‘I’ teams” in your
wake!
I
scream, you scream
Maybe
there’s an “I” in team!
Open channels make all
smarter
No superheroes or those
martyrs.
Factions work a little
harder
If not just “parts” but
truly “partners.”
When heads do battle with
their sighs
And
conflict clears the darkened skies…
“Whole greater than its
parts” surprise:
For parts that sing shall
make wholes wise
A kaleidoscopic enterprise!
Can we be a diverse team?
I
scream, you scream
We
all design our own team!
© Mark Gorkin 2015/17
Shrink Rap ™ Productions
Mark
Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a
nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a founding
partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali
Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative. Current Leadership
Coach/Training Consultant for the international Embry-Riddle Aeronautics
University at the Daytona, FL headquarters. A former Stress and Violence
Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous
Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army.
Presently Mark does Critical Incident Debriefing for organizational/corporate
clients of Business Health Services. The Doc is the author of Practice Safe
Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High-Tech
World. Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com –
was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR). For more info, email:
stressdoc@aol.com.
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