How many consultants have taken part in a team start-up that got bogged down? What makes people behave in “helpless” ways?

Toni Hupp, the founder of Organizations by Design, and co-author of Designing Work Groups, Jobs and Work Flow (Jossey-Bass, 1995), portrayed the art of team start-up as similar to that of the midwife in a birth. 

Overview: When ordinarily resourceful and competent people act wimpy, it is likely to be the result of old patterns of fear, dependency and lack of accountability. Then, many of the cognitive (read, “brain only”) panaceas for group development don’t work. Most individuals don’t want to be “a spoke in the wheel of the economy.” 

We are growing organisms. As such, we need to be engaged in a “purpose that matters.” We need interdependent work in order to be fulfilled. The team we are part of must engage our hearts—not just our heads. It must stimulate our curiosity and cultivate learning. 
Toni’s metaphor: Does a parent succeed by “micromanaging” a child? More likely the child will flourish when provided a healthy context in which to grow and to learn. Similarly, teams develop best when provided a supportive context.

Developmental Stages: Working with the Team Performance Model from Allen Drexler and David Sibbet, Toni presented seven stages of team development from 1) Orientation to 7) Renewal, by way of 2) Trust Building, 3) Goal/Role Clarification, 4) Commitment, 5) Implementation, and 6) High Performance. She described resolved and unresolved issues that may be encountered at each stage.

Chartering: Head and Heart: The team’s charter needs to address the issues that rise at each of the developmental stages in ways that reach both the heads and the hearts of the team. For example, when addressing the purpose, goals and boundaries of a new team it is just as important to create a sense of “going on a journey together” (heart), as it is to list the team’s mission and goals (head). Toni furnished a full set of templates for spelling out a Team Charter, personalized to ODN/C as if it were a consulting firm doing a start-up.

Experiential learning: Toni devoted most of the evening to hands-on practice that reached participants’ minds and emotions. These are exercises teams can do to help them manage their movement through the stages, and review their progress in achieving their chartered goals. 

The energy in the room rose as ODN/C members divided into four groups to experiment with 1) Exports, Imports, and Unwanted Baggage, 2) Ground Rule Scenarios, 3) Key Milestones, and 4) Switching Archetypes. 

“Exports, Imports, and Unwanted Baggage” was built like a bus trip. The experience felt like a way of introducing myself and receiving introductions by all the other team members. What do we bring? What do each of us hope to gain on the journey? What do we each want to leave behind from our past ways of working that would bog us down?

In “Ground Rules” the group explored straight talk vs. pretense; discovery vs. control. Participants looked their values and assumptions that limited inclusion and contrasted them with their less restrictive assumptions and behaviors. Fear and embarrassment seemed to be the guiding emotions motivating the more restrictive behaviors.

“Key Milestones” brought a sense of history and direction to the team’s journey. A long strip of butcher paper and markers provided an opportunity to draw a timeline of the events that shaped the team’s story. The discussion that followed the mapping allowed newer members of the team to get to know the “good old days” and what they were good for. It helped uncover elements of the team’s culture, how it has changed, and what predictions could be made for its future.

By uncovering and then “Switching Archetypes” the members were able to try new ways of reacting to recurring situations. If the team or a member has habitually acted in the role of a “caregiver,” what might be the benefits and drawbacks of switching roles to a “seeker”, a “sage” or a “warrior,” for example. The safe experiments allowed team members to look at themselves in regenerative ways.