cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

Team changeusually some highly individualistic or minority member of the group, and thentreat this person as some kind of scapegoat. They all become very concernedwith remaining part of the group, greatly fearing exclusion. They show strongtendencies to conform to rapidly established group norms and suppress theirindividual differences, perhaps they are afraid of becoming the scapegoat… theone thing they hardly do at all is to examine the behaviour they are indulgingin, the task they have actually been given.The situation described in the box offers a way of exploring some of theunconscious group processes that are at work just below the surface.These are not always visible in more conventional team situations. Thework of Bion (1961) and Scott Peck (1990) is useful to illuminate thephases that groups go through and highlight the challenges for leaders.Moving through dependencyIn any team formation the first thing people look for is someone to tellthem what to do. This is a perfectly natural phenomenon, given thatmany people will want to get on with the task and many people willbelieve someone else knows what the task is and how it should be done.In any unfamiliar situation or environment people can become dependent.Jon Stokes (in Obholzer and Roberts, 1994) describes what Bionobserved in his experience with groups and called basic group assumptions:a group dominated by basic assumption of dependency behaves as if itsprimary task is solely to provide for the satisfaction of the needs and wishesof its members. The leader is expected to look after, protect and sustain themembers of the group, to make them feel good, and not to face them withthe demands of the group’s real purpose.The job of the leader, and indeed the group, is not only to establish leadershipcredibility and accountability but to establish its limits. This willimbue the rest of the team with sufficient power for them to accomplishtheir tasks. The leader can do this by modelling the taking of individualresponsibility and empowering others to do the same, and by ensuringthat people are oriented in the right direction and have a common understandingof team purpose and objectives.83