My book, How NASA Builds Teams (Wiley, 2009) describes the management of technical team performance by managing the social context. Team members manage their social context by measuring and managing their team’s behavioral norms. The research cited in the book is mostly from aerospace project and engineering teams. The methodology, however, has much broader applicability as I base everything in core attributes of human needs and behaviors. This paper provides a more expansive definition of “team,” and applications that may not have been obvious. I propose extending these potent leadership and teambuilding processes beyond technical into novel, unexpected areas.
What is a “Team?”
Most of us think of a “team” as people organized to work together as a group on a goal, as in a NASA flight project. While this is an apt definition, our work suggests one more inclusive. We define team as groups of people who interact sufficiently that their behaviors affect others’ behaviors. These collective behavioral norms define the team social context that shapes the experience of people in the team environment, whether temporarily or over long durations.
Looking at over 500 team assessment score distributions, we see that the perceived behavioral norms (by assessment participants) mostly distribute normally (like a bell-shaped curve). From this, we infer that there is usually a collective behavioral norm, or a team context. Conversely, if the assessor’s perceptions scatter randomly (which we do not see in the data) we would conclude there was no collective behavioral norm, or a team context.
Further, our experience with workplace teams shows that the behaviors of the hierarchal leaders are the most influential on the other team members’ behaviors. Thus, the doctors and dentists who manage (own) the practice powerfully drive both the office staff behaviors and patients’ experience favorably upward or negatively downward.
Are, for example, doctor’s offices “teams” with contexts that must be managed? Do the collective behavioral norms of the staff affect patient experiences in important ways?
Context in Doctors’ Offices:
I am struck by the difference between medical practices that understand the potency of context, and those that do not. It is even more interesting to ponder that some practitioners do not manage people’s emotional experience, the most potent result of context management. As Carl W. Buechner is commonly attributed with saying, “They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
Doctor practice “A” charges an annual fee ($1500 per person) which includes some extra tests, e-mail, and after hours cell phone to the doctors. Next year, patients will decide on renewal. The doctors are good and responsive practitioners of medicine. Will their practice flourish under the new paradigm? Let’s look at the context they present.
When you enter the office, the receptionist is in the distance beyond a very large waiting room, shared with some diagnostics services. My first reaction is “how long am I going to wait” knowing there are only two doctors here and these look like the same tacky chairs from the old practice.
The receptionist sits so an entering patient sees the side of her face. She asks me to identify myself, even though I have announced that I am there for my 11:15 appointment with a particular doctor. As she fishes around on her desk for what is apparently the schedule for the day, I ask if I came at the correct time. She does not answer right away and I feel anxiety rising as I really need the appointment.
Next, I must take the famous grungy clipboard and provide my name, address, and sign a document—I believe a release of some sort. I don’t like handling things in doctors’ waiting rooms, because one presumes that most of the people there are sick. Moreover, I have been a patient here for years. They could have filled out my name, address, and insurance information before I arrived. This small statement of “our service is really different as a result your membership fee” would have created a much more positive context for what followed.
After some 10 or 15 minutes, an assistant takes me for the usual weighing, blood pressure, and temperature. This is conducted in a public location in a corner in the hall. There’s more but I will stop here and talk about doctor practice “B” which is actually a dental practice where they understand the power of context.
Doctor practice “B” understands the importance of managing context to manage the patient experience. A week before my appointment, I receive the paperwork in the mail. Thus, I am able to fill it out at my leisure at home. Although I had never been there before, the receptionist (who faced the entryway) greets me with, “Hello, you must be Charlie.” When I said I was, she walked around the small room she worked in saying, “I’ll take you right back.” I went immediately to a typical dental treatment room, and the technician made sure I was comfortable. Service began shortly afterwards.
The atmosphere was upbeat and cheerful, unlike the grumpy, indifference of the service personnel in practice “A.”
As I left, I took a closer look at the waiting room. The practice had taken care to decorate it with cheerful paintings, plants and even a few small burning candles. It felt cozy and comfortable, completely unlike the waiting room of practice “A.”
If the only task were caring for teeth, the receptionist’s behaviors and upbeat, cheerful supporting staff would seem to be of little importance. However, we people are more complex, integrating our total experience with service providers into a whole event.
Is it possible to manage “team” contexts in families and marriages?
Context in Marriages:
People sometimes express surprise when I mention how happy my marriage is. When they ask me how this is possible, I tell them it is by managing our martial context. (This might be simpler to understand if I use the word “environment” for context.) How do I do this? We use exactly the same methods I describe in How NASA Builds Teams. In fact, I will now tie our martial-environment management to the book’s eight core behaviors.
1. Express Authentic Appreciation—people enjoy being with and willingly support people who appreciate them. We take the time to express appreciation for the acts of kindness we do for each other.
2. Address Shared Interests—bring your attention to the interests you both share; (This is a lot easier if you married someone who shares your values, wants, and pleasures.) For example, we both enjoy foreign travel, so I make time and resources available.
3. Include Appropriately—create a sense of belonging to each other and the mutual relationship. Actually, the more potent arrangement we have is that we do not push each other to participate in social events (including family) that they do not want to.
4. Keep All Your Agreements—thus demonstrating integrity. Many couples fight about money. We have mutual agreements about living within our means and avoiding debt while meeting our most important needs.
5. Live in Reality-based Optimism—this is the only way to access one’s full potential and creativity. We bring candor to anything of mutual importance honoring each other’s truth and facing difficulties with hope.
6. Be Outcome Committed—and, the path to happy marriage appears before you. I remain 100% committed to a life in service to my wife, Junko.
7. Avoid Blaming and Complaining—marriages do not need Blamers and Victims. We rarely blame each other or complain,
8. Clarify Roles, Authority, and Accountability—vital to any personal (or business) relationship. We have clear, honored boundaries in our marriage.
I realize that these short descriptions are inadequate. You will have to read How NASA Builds Teams for a full understanding of the interrelationships between context and behaviors, and these specific behaviors
Advised Actions for any “Team”
- Give everyone a copy of How NASA Builds Teams to provide a proper intellectual foundation for action. This step is necessary, but not sufficient. Intellectual knowledge is generally inadequate to stimulate behavioral change. (If business books worked, our workplaces would not be such messes.) Amazon sells the hardcover for about $25 and the Kindle version for less.
- Next, conduct a Team Development Assessment to benchmark your team’s initial condition. Assessments are available in a free version (along with many other assets), at www.NASATeambuilding.com. If the assessment benchmarks you in the bottom quintile, look for which of the “Seven Deadly Sins” (Chapter 18 in How NASA Builds Teams) are present and remedy them.
- If you benchmark in a higher quintile, you can choose from a menu of developmental options described in my book and at our website. At a minimum, run Individual Development Assessments for the leadership (e.g. the doctors and dentists who own the practice) and announce your intention to reassess your team in the near future. Individual Development Assessments measure individuals’ contribution to the team context, positively (i.e. “above average” and better benchmarking) or negatively (i.e. “below average” and lower benchmarking.
The assessments reveal the context that everyone in the team’s “field” experiences. Assessments are effective with teams of people working in close task collaboration, or people merely working in a common social setting.
What are some other teams that could benefit from context management?
- Top management (headquarters) and leadership teams—behaviors flow powerfully down
- Where technical teams are critical to competitiveness and even survival:
- Information technology teams—efficiency
- Pharmaceutical development teams
- Defense (aerospace)
- Aircraft design and manufacturing
- Energy companies
- NGOs / non-profits
- Training companies—so they can model what the advocate others do
- Financial management firms—especially the customer interface segment.
- Companies owned by venture capital firms—ensure return on their investment.
- Airline service crews—improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Any project – a project is an endeavor with a beginning and an end with a defined outcome and specified processes for each phase.
- I think you get the idea . . .
Here are the truly amazing things:
First, if you are a training company, you can join the 4-D International Network. If you want to present our three-day workshop with average “smiley-sheet” ratings of 9.3 (out of “10″) because that is what we receive, we will provide you our 250 highly animated PowerPoint slides free. You can come to our workshops and observe free. We license you your own assessment management dashboard at modest fees. Our coaches include two past presidents and chair of the credentialing committee of the International Coach Federation (“ICF”). One of our Network Members, RENOIR, specializes in recruiting and “4-D Certifying” coaches already certified by organizations like ICF.
Secondly, you can cite quantitative results from hundreds of NASA teams that your clients can expect. (See page 48 in How NASA Builds Teams for a graphical display.) Simply put, teams who work with you can expect an average of 5% performance enhancement in activities that require communication/collaboration from each 15-minute team reassessment!
