Punctuated Equilibrium and Team Composition

Punctuated Equilibrium

• groups don’t always follow Tuckman’s Model
  • groups may establish periods of stable functioning until an event causes a dramatic change in norms, roles, or objectives
  • the group then establishes and maintains new norms of functioning, returning to equilibrium

Building Effective Teams

• the most essential considerations in building a group into an effective team
  • collaboration
  • trust
  • performance goals
  • motivation
  • team composition
  • team roles
  • norms

Collaboration and Trust

• collaboration: the act of sharing information and coordinating efforts to achieve a collective outcome
• trust: reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behaviors

Performance Goals and Feedback

• teams are individuals organized for a collective purpose
• the team’s purpose is defined in terms of specific, measurable, and performance goals with continual feedback to tell team members how well they’re doing

Motivation and Team Composition

• motivation through team member interdependence
  • extent to which team members rely on common task-related team inputs, and the number of interpersonal interactions needed to complete the work
• team composition: reflects the collection of jobs, personalities, values, knowledge, experience, and skills of team members
  • teams perform better when members…
  • have a high tolerance for uncertainty
  • possess high levels of emotional stability
  • are diverse in their backgrounds

Team Roles

• roles: a socially determined expectation of how an individual should behave in a specific position
  • two types of roles within a team:
  • task roles: consist of behavior that concentrates on getting the team’s tasks done (ex: initiator, information seeker, opinion giver, elaborator, coordinator, evaluator, recorder)
  • maintenance roles: consist of behavior that fosters constructive relationships among team members (encourager, harmonizer, compromiser, standard setter, follower)

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