Who Says “There’s No ‘I’ in Team”?: Diversity-Driven Team Performance

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

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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.

I scream, you scream

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!”

I scream, you scream

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!

I scream, you scream

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.

NEWS FLASH: Not the Same Old “D & I” – Diversity & Inclusion – Program

My mental health advocacy and education work with the Nepali professional and lay communities (http://www.bewellinitiative.com/) is encouraging me to expand energy and ideas into surprising cultural/educational realms.  More specifically, Dr, Anita Nahal, "The Diversity Doc," a recognized cultural diversity expert, both in the US and in India, and I are teaming up to offer an uncommon mix of East and West, "Diversity & Inclusion," and Stress Resilience ideas and interventions.  Our goal: recognizing and transforming unconscious workplace "Assumptions, Biases, and misguided Communications."  These are the "Cultural ABCs" that weaken team resilience, resourcefulness, collaboration, and creativity.  And while this partnership breaks new ground, it sustains the "Get FIT" spirit of all Stress Doc programs:  by being FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking!

For more info on how this unique partnership can help boost your team's, organization's, or company's productivity and purpose, energy and community morale, please send a linked-in text or email to stressdoc@aol.com.

Don't miss your appointment with the Diversity Doc and the Stress Doc!

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NEWS FLASH:  Not the Same Old “D & I” – Diversity & Inclusion – Program

Dr. Anita Nahal, PhD, CDP, acclaimed author, administrator, professor, and D & I Consultant, the Diversity Doc, and Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, acclaimed speaker, team building consultant, and Motivational Psychohumorist ™, the Stress Doc ™, have joined forces.  This dynamic duo will help you and your company or organization discover the possibility and power of “human touch in a high-tech world” through their innovative D & I, East-West Synergy Model & Method.  Recognize and practice how an awareness of bias enhances self-discovery, mutual empathy, and stimulating diversity. And this applied learning helps build an inclusive cultural climate of trust and civility as well as the sharing of ideas, positive conflict, and productive energy, i.e., stress resilience, greater morale, and interpersonal/team creativity!

Through lively and en-light-ening presentation and real world small group exercises, Anita and Mark will help your team “Get FIT” with their FUN-Interactive-Thought-provoking program.  Discover tools and techniques, skills and strategies (see objectives below) for applying a novel approach that brings bias barriers to light and “D & I” to life!

Don’t miss your appointment with the Diversity and Stress Docs!

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The Beauty and CHALLENGES of Diversity & Inclusion (D & I)

“THE EAST-WEST SYNERGY Model” for Overcoming Unconscious Bias

while Strengthening Resilience, Trust, Morale &

DROI – Diversity Return on Investment

Overview:  This UNIQUE workshop BROUGHT TO YOU BY TWO VERY DIVERSE PROFESSIONALS will inspire individuals and groups to develop workable solutions that transform the opportunities and challenges of diversity and inclusion (D & I) into stress resilience, trust- and team-building.  Learn to view unconscious bias (UB) as a window to self-understanding and human connection. More specifically, participants will learn to release stress, transform conflict, build cultural-interpersonal bridges, evolve “winning teams,” and achieve the “diversity return on investment.” This has never been more critical…in today’s always on TNT – Time-Numbers-Techno – Driven, Distracted & Distressed (3-“D”) World.  In fact, recent research reveals one out of two employees leave their job because of burnout!

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

1. Understand the Overviews of D & I and UB, and Stress and Burnout/Stress and Conflict Resilience Concepts and Theories:  An INTER-CULTURAL Partnership and Program

2. Grasp the Layered Nature of D & I:  Psychological-Cultural and Self-Other-Environment Awareness

3. Learn to Disarm Power Struggles and Engaging Critical (or Passive) Aggressors:  Communication Tools for Increasing Understanding, Respect, and Trust

4. Understand the Concepts of Unconscious Bias and Their Impact on Perceptions, Value Judgments, and Actions

5. Use Mind-Mapping for Meaningful Self-Analysis and Understanding to deal with ONE'S own Unconscious Bias; Discover the Universal Judgmental Error through Attribution Theory

6. Explore and Apply the Inter-Cultural Conflict and Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Styles:  Models, Methods, and Problem-Solving Exercises; develop workplace workable strategies and solutions

7.  Confront the Intimate FOE and Experience the Power of Writing and the Creative – East and West – Expressions

About the presenters:

Anita Nahal, PhD, CDP is a poet, children's books author, professor, administrator, D&I Consultant, & Founder & Chairperson, http://www.diversitydiscover.com/   Dr. Anita Nahal resides in New Jersey with her blessing, her son. Some of Nahal's past positions include: Mellon Fellowship Program Administrator for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture; Assistant Provost for International Programs, Howard University, Washington D.C.; Visiting Associate Professor of History at the State University of New York at Binghamton, New York; and Associate Professor of History, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, India. Nahal has held various academic honors, such as the Fulbright and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Besides two academic books, Nahal has one book of poems (Initiations-1988), three children’s books, & over 30 articles in journals & blogs. She writes periodically on LinkedIn. Nahal's most recent data oriented study on Ethnic and Cultural Diversity at HBCUs was published as a chapter in a book in 2015. Her second volume of poems is ready for publication, and some of the poems form this volume can be found in Aberration Labyrinth, Better Than Starbucks, Confluence & aaduna. Nahal has travelled to over 15 countries, speaks three foreign languages, and comes from a family of writers and educators. Nahal has two awards in diversity awareness and promotion, and has three certifications to her credit in diversity and inclusion training. More info on Nahal at: http://diversitydiscover.com/founder.html

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, known as the "The Stress Doc" ™, is an acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a Leadership Coach/Training-Retreat Consultant for the international Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University at the Daytona, FL headquarters. Mark is also a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative.  Over the years, the Doc has trained and consulted with many hundreds of government agencies and corporations.  A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous transformative – silo-breaking and communications bridge-building – Pre- and Post-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for US Army Senior Officers and Sergeants.  The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress:  Healing and Laughing in the Face of Stress, Burnout & Depression, The Four Faces of Anger:  Transforming Hostility and Rage into Assertion and Passion, Fierce Longing…Fiery Loss:  Relearning to Let Go, Laugh & Love, and Preserving Human Touch in a High-Tech World:  Writings, Raps & Rhymes.  His award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).  The Doc also provides Stress Resilience and Burnout Recovery In-Person and Phone-Skype Counseling as well as Communication/Public Speaking Coaching.  For more info, email: stressdoc@aol.com.

Taking off the Blinders: Viewing Blind Culture/Competence in a New Light

Planning for and leading an “Interactive Playshop” for the TX Govt Division of Blind Services both revealed and helped bridge gaps in my CDI – Cultural Diversity Intelligence.  From a madcap/multi-GPS car ride worthy of a scene from a Marx Brothers movie to an art therapy-like group drawing exercise, flesh and blood, integrity and guts were added to my mental skeleton of “the blind.”  But it was the guiding insight, gentle humor, and genuine empathy of a blind attendee who helped me learn three foundational steps for open engagement, enhanced multi-cultural competence, and showing true respect.

Taking off the Blinders:  Viewing Blind Culture/Competence in a New Light

After a summer’s sabbatical, it’s back in the writer’s saddle.  Actually, a few events have transpired that deserve mention and reflection.  Let me presently illustrate one.

 

In early September I led a two-hour Stress and Change Resilience Keynote Playshop for the Texas Division of Blind Services (DBS).  One-third of the 100+ employees in the audience were blind.  I had never done a speaking or workshop program with anywhere near this number of non-sighted individuals.  Beyond the newness of the experience, in anticipation of the actual program, I had some questions if not reservations about a major group activity with this audience:  how effective and participatory could an exercise be that asks small groups to:  1) identify workplace tensions and conflicts, 2) capture these stressors in a group drawing, and 3) culminates with a “show and tell” segment having one or two team members briefly describe and explain the group’s illustrated images and visual story?

 

At the same time, I strongly believed the exercise would be critical to the success of the event, especially as this State Govt. Division was in a state of uncertainty and flux.  DBS was anticipating major program and position reorganization.  One large program was slated to be dismantled.  Even though none would lose their government positions, many would feel some sense of being displaced and devalued.

 

The Play of Art and Heart (Even without Sight)

 

Based on many years of experience, I knew the aforementioned group art therapy-like activity was an ideal medium for positively challenging participants to vent and express their tensions and frustrations in a supportive and creative manner.  As it turned out, any worry was unfounded.  As advertised, the keynote was more “playshop” than workshop.  While the images depicting this reorganizational journey might have elements of danger, e.g., crossing a narrow, shaky bridge over a roaring, piranha-infested river, the laughter and group buzz affirmed a sense of “we will survive” along with “one for all and all for one” camaraderie and community.  And, as is their wont, sighted and non-sighted (or visually impaired) participants worked very effectively as a team, even during the “show and tell” the entire audience about your team’s picture.

 

Actually, most of my uncertainty was relieved the evening before the keynote.  As a group we were heading to a BBQ place for dinner; hey, we were in San Marcos, TX.  While waiting for car assignments, I was standing around making small talk with a few folks – sighted and non-sighted – trying not to appear self-conscious.  One sharp and vivacious, non-sighted woman in her 40s quickly picked up on my “fish out of water” discomfort.  Anne immediately said, “Don’t be afraid to use words like ‘see’ or ‘blind.’  Speak as you normally would…and if you’re not sure about something, ask questions.”  Her insight and guidance definitely helped break the ice and relaxed my mind.

 

The Power of Self-Effacing Humor

 

For me, another ice-breaker was the free and easy, good-natured kidding about this disability among blind and sighted employees alike.  For example, they frequently remind one another to “watch where you poke that guide stick.”  One amusing anecdote shared was how when walking with their guide stick on a crowded street, most people nervously run and part as if there tapping were a fire engine blasting its horn…or the non- or limited-sighted individual becomes a Moses parting the Red Sea!  Clearly, these men and women had done some “head work, heat work, and homework” to achieve this level of comfort in their own skin.  (A few days later, I shared my experience with a former Army First Sergeant, who certainly had seen his share of battlefield casualties.  His immediate response:  “They owned their disability!”)

 

Actually, these folks use of self-effacing humor reminds me of a wonderful quote from Ernst Kris, psychiatrist as well as student of Freudian psychology and humor:  What was once feared and is now mastered is laughed at.  That is, we now can look back at a difficult or fearful time, and perhaps appreciate how we were once overwhelmed or had, in hindsight, inflated the size of our demons.  But now, based on our track record, more self-assured, we can laugh at our former, “smaller” self.  (Of course, for some, those demons were truly terrifying and not so easily laughed at, even with the benefit of hindsight or strengthened mind-sight.  Oh, btw, the Stress Doc’s inversion of Kris’ quote:  What was once feared and is now laughed at is no longer a master!)

 

Are We there Yet?

 

Getting back to our dining adventure, driving in the car proved to be a near madcap experience.  Carol, the driver of the car and I were up front, while Anne and Billy, a sharp-witted gentleman in his fifties with a refined Southern drawl, were talking up a storm in the back.  The madness reached its peak when we appeared to be lost.  Carol asked me to check her Smart Phone’s directional GPS, while Anne and Billy were doing the same with their audio GPS systems.  People are calling out wildly different route options.  While I was fumbling around with Carol’s phone, not making much headway, and knowing how far I am from a technology maven, a thought suddenly arose:  What we have here is the technologically blind leading the blind!  Alas, I was unable to spontaneously voice this… However, the next morning, during my opening keynote remarks, I shared our road trip story, including my self-conscious/self-censored quote.  The audience’s laughter was palpable.  Finally, I thanked one and all, especially Anne, for being such an enlightened guide in my awakening to the integrity and richness of the blind and sight-impaired community and aiding my appreciation for the array of individuals therein.

 

Workshop Feedback

 

As mentioned, my “3-D” – Discussion-Drawing-Diversity – Team Building Exercise was the hit of the program.  Here are some testimonials:

 

Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services – Division of Blind & Visually Impaired; Keynote, "Stress and Change Resilience through Humor:  An Interactive Playshop"; 2-hr, 100+ participants

Sep 10, 2014

Hi Mark, hope you are experiencing safe travels.  The comments related to your presentation have been very positive!  Here you go:

Enjoyed the variety of activities
The interactive activities made the presentation fun
The activities were very engaging; different from the usual lecture style speaker
As an audience we were involved and active
Loved the drawing activity as a means of depicting our perception of the changes that are occurring within our agency 
Mark did a good job of personalizing his presentation for our specific needs.

It was great to meet you and the presentation was very well received!  Thanks, Cathy

Cathy Rufenacht, M. Ed.
Vocational Rehabilitation Teacher Program Specialist
Division for Blind Services
cathy.rufenacht@dars.state.tx.us
622 S. Oakes, Suite D  San Angelo, Texas 76903
Phone: (325) 659-7928
------------------------------

 

Final Reflections:  In my work as a therapist, with my own struggles trying to climb out of family-tree depression, and from extensive readings on creativity and creative individuals, I’ve come to appreciate that, while a significant challenge, having a major disability is also double-edged.  To compensate for a lack or limited aptitude in one domain an individual is often compelled to develop other senses and sensibilities.  While admittedly a small sample, the folks I met had evolved uncommon empathy and insight, if not imaginative inner vision.  And they definitely understood team collaboration.  Why should I have been surprised?  Clearly, my lack of exposure with this culture contributed to my naiveté, if not somewhat narrow perspective.  Alas, sometimes we can become so focused on an apparent individual lack or on an obvious impairment that we lose sight of the full person – the array of traits and temperaments, the variety of individual and group qualities and strengths, as well as the all too human flaws and foibles.  Remember, whatever the degree of personal ability-disability, the more we can acknowledge our own imperfect humanity, the more we can see, touch, and embrace a diverse world.  So too can we better appreciate the heightened integrity and en-light-enment forged from darkness and adversity.

 

In closing…to be genuinely receptive, to attempt to understand whenever possible – with both head and heart – an individual’s strengths and vulnerabilities, to be curious, to inquire about and pay careful attention to each person’s life journey – their sun-filled peaks and somber shadowed valleys – in my book, this is the true meaning of showing respect.  And Anne’s message remains a beacon for almost any human encounter or endeavor:  When you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to ask.  Amen and women to that!

 

 

Mark Gorkin, the Stress Doc ™, www.stressdoc.com, acclaimed Keynote and Kickoff Speaker, Webinar Presenter, Retreat Leader and Motivational Humorist, is the author of Practice Safe Stress and The Four Faces of Anger. A former Stress & Violence Prevention consultant for the US Postal Service, the Stress Doc leads one-day "Stress Resiliency" workshops for "METRO" Managers and Supervisors of the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority (WMATA).  "The Doc" is also a Team Building and Organizational Development Consultant as well as a Critical Incident/Grief Intervention Expert for Business Health Services, a National Wellness/EAP/OD Company.  Mark leads highly interactive, innovative, and inspiring programs for corporations and government agencies, including the US Military, on stress and brain resiliency/burnout prevention through humor, change and conflict management, generational communication, and 3 "R" -- Responsible, Resilient & Risk-Taking -- leadership-partnership team building.

Email stressdoc@aol.com for his popular free newsletter & info on speaking programs and phone coaching sessions.  And click https://vimeo.com/69053828 for the Stress Doc's wildly pioneering "Shrink Rap" video.

Stress Doc Mantra: "Think out of the box, perform outside the curve (the Bell Curve) and be out-rage-ous!"