Groups and Teamwork - Pearson Canada

Chapter 5 Groups and Teamwork 193
• A second phase of inertia follows the transition.
• The group’s last meeting is characterized by markedly accelerated activity.
This pattern is called the punctuated-equilibrium model, developed by Professor
Connie Gersick of the University of California at Los Angeles, and is shown in Exhibit
5-5. 51 It is important for you to understand these shifts in group behaviour, if for no other
reason than when you’re in a group that is not working well or one that has got off to
a slow start, you can start to think of ways to help the group move to a more productive
phase.
Phase 1
As both a team member and possibly a team leader, it is important that you recognize that
the first meeting sets the team’s direction. A framework of behavioural patterns and
assumptions through which the team will approach its project emerges in this first meeting.
These lasting patterns can appear as early as the first few seconds of the team’s life.
Once set, the team’s direction becomes “written in stone” and is unlikely to be reexamined
throughout the first half of the team’s life. This is a period of inertia—that is,
the team tends to stand still or become locked into a fixed course of action. Even if it gains
new insights that challenge initial patterns and assumptions, the team is incapable of acting
on these new insights in Phase 1. You may recognize that in some teams, during the
early period of trying to get things accomplished, no one really did his or her assigned
tasks. You may also recognize this phase as one where everyone carries out the tasks, but
not in a very coordinated fashion. Thus, the team is performing at a relatively low state.
This does not necessarily mean that it is doing nothing at all, however.
Phase 2
At some point, the team moves out of the inertia stage and recognizes that work needs
to get completed. One of the more interesting discoveries made in these studies was
that each team experienced its transition at the same point in its calendar—precisely
halfway between its first meeting and its official deadline. The similarity occurred despite
the fact that some teams spent as little as an hour on their project while others spent six
months. It was as if the teams universally experienced a mid-life crisis at this point. The
midpoint appears to work like an alarm clock, heightening members’ awareness that their
Exhibit 5-5
The Punctuated-Equilibrium Model
(High)
Performance
First
Meeting
Phase 1
Phase 2
Transition
Completion
(Low)
A
(A+B)/2
Time
B