Team development is anything but linear
What separates a great team from a mediocre one?
I’ve been on some high-flying teams and some not-so-great ones. Several years ago, I found myself on a team that was obviously oriented around supporting one of the “stars” of the company (though no one would’ve said this aloud). This person had lots of experience and skill, but they sort of overshadowed everyone else. And we did get things done! But not nearly as much as I’ve gotten done on teams that actually played like teams. You know, teams of equals.
Medium staff engineer Jacob Bennett uses the 2004 NBA finals match between the Detroit Pistons and the Los Angeles Lakers as an example: “The Lakers played like five superstar individual contributors while the Pistons played like a team. Against 8-to-1 odds, the Pistons won and showed the world that great teams beat great individuals.”
Bennett adds nuance to psychologist Bruce Tuckman’s oft-cited four stages of group development:
- Forming: the awkward moment of learning roles and names
- Storming: struggles for power, testing of boundaries
- Norming: settling into a rhythm, cohesion
- Performing: getting stuff done!
Organizational psych courses cite this model constantly, but it’s actually based on a meta-analysis of research that primarily focused on group therapy. And people in therapy behave much differently than people doing team-based work for money. At work, teams often absorb and lose members over time. This can lead a once-Performing team to bounce back to Forming all over again when Q2 starts and they get a new engineering lead, for example.
The lesson here is that team development is far less linear than most of us think.
What else we’re reading
- Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, tells a personal story of almost turning down a job at Google because he was afraid of flying. Thankfully, he got over his fear, moved to California, and took the job (which later led to him co-founding Medium). One lesson: “Sometimes the biggest obstacles in our path are placed there by ourselves. My fear of flying weirdly turned into a stepping stone by teaching me the power of seeking help when needed.”
- Open relationships are becoming more acceptable in the U.S.: 50% of Americans under 30 think open relationships are totally fine (though over 70% of people over 65 frown upon them). Illustrator Sophie Lucido Johnson, who wrote a book about being polyamorous, debunks common misconceptions about non-monagamy. Polyamory is not about sex, Johnson writes, it’s about communication. “Every sitcom I’ve ever watched has convinced me that our cultural capacity for communication is achingly small (to the point that it’s hilarious!),” Johnson explains. Redefining the boundaries of a relationship can help us get more comfortable having difficult or inelegant conversations in any area of life.
Your daily dose of practical wisdom
Trying to be the best at one thing isn’t the smartest path to success. Instead, put your effort into mastering a unique combination of skills. The best skills to choose are those that don’t tend to go together but complement each other well.
Written by Harris Sockel
Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
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