 Team dynamics. Inside this chapter, introduction to team dimensions, key terms, team dimensions patterns, individual roles of team members, factors influencing the team focused on innovation process, the PEP cycle, the Z process, alliance tendencies, team roles interactions, individual role interactions, reducing tension, mutual respect, balancing a team, team dimensions stages, introduction to stages, individual stages, roles and communication, roles and meetings, time management, impact of team dynamics, subordinate, senior NCO, mission. You just arrived at your deployed location. You're met at the arrival tent by the senior NCO you're replacing. She's on her way to the departure tent for her flight. She tells you that you'll be working with two Army senior NCOs, three local national senior NCOs, one other Air Force senior NCO and three civilians. All of them have arrived within the past two days and are new to you as the theater and the operations. She mentions that the chief assigns people to teams and these teams stay together for the duration of the deployment. So the people she mentioned will be your teammates. She also said the chief places a lot of accountability and responsibility on the teams of senior NCOs and expects each person to get the job done. So no one is put in charge of the others. The last thing she tells you is that your team will be starting up a large multinational leadership program from the ground up, that team dynamics could be challenging and the chief oversees all multinational teams. You start to worry about how you'll contribute, what the other team members are like and how you'll get along with them as you work with them on your project. I am a member of a team and I rely on the team. I defer to it and sacrifice for it because the team not the individual is the ultimate champion. Mia Ham. Upon completion of this chapter you should be able to terminal cognitive objective, comprehend team dynamics concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Terminal cognitive samples of behavior. One identify team dynamics concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Two illustrate team dynamics concepts and or their impacts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Three predict the impacts of team dynamics concepts on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Affective objective. Value team dynamics concepts and their positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Affective samples of behavior. One enthusiastically dedicate yourself to read and listen to all material about team dynamics and its impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Two voluntarily complete all coursework related to team dynamics and its impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Three openly accept team dynamics and its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Four willingly develop a preference for team dynamics and its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Five strive toward a commitment to apply team dynamics because of its positive impact on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Have you ever been a leader or member of a team and the experience wasn't very positive or you didn't accomplish the assigned task as effectively as possible? Why? Did the members of your team think, feel, contribute and behave the same way you did? You may have even thought, why can't they just see things like I do? That way we could get so much done. Wrong. As a leader and manager, your role is to harness the human diversity and dynamics of groups of individuals to create synergistic, effective, efficient and positive teams of doers. You may be thinking to yourself about now, whatever happened to the old saying, the military isn't a democracy. Do as I say. Well, the airmen of today's and tomorrow's air force, as well as any operations involving sister service, coalition partners and civilian populace expect leadership, not dictatorship. And great leadership starts with you knowing yourself before you can assess and work with anyone else or get others to successfully work together. One way for you to enhance your effectiveness as a senior NCO, help guide any organization towards effective mission accomplishment or bring together the diversity of Air Force warriors, sister service personnel, coalition and multinational partners or civilian populace at every opportunity is to comprehensively understand the dynamics associated with all members of a team charged with taking an idea from conception through implementation successfully. After you read the compliance with credit, copyright and trademark notification disclaimer, this chapter starts off with an introduction to team dimensions. Here you'll go over some key terms along with their definitions. You'll also cover four team dimensions approaches that reflect patterns of thinking and behaviors that people use regularly. This information will come in handy as you move into the material associated with the five team roles that enhance success. Next, your focus will shift to the factors influencing the team focused on innovation process where you'll engage with material on human interactions and checks and balances. After that, you'll combine what you've learned into a thorough understanding of how people filling the various team roles interact. You'll move on to the team dimension stages where you'll learn how to lead a team using semi controlled management to have everyone contributing. Finally, you'll end this chapter by covering impacts of team dynamics on subordinate senior NCO and mission effectiveness. Here's the copyright information you need to know as it relates to the material contained in this chapter. Compliance with credit, copyright and trademark notification. The theories, titles and information used in this chapter are copyrighted and based on the team dimensions profile self report paper instrument. The team dimensions profile facilitators manual volume one, the team dimensions profile scripted seminar volume two, and the team innovation seminar handouts which are all copyright 1995, escape publishing incorporated, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, and the team dimensions profile 2.0 online self report instrument which is copyright 2005, John Wiley and Sons, Incorporated, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. All material used from these sources is reprinted by permission of the publisher. Permission has been granted to the Barnes Center for Enlisted Education to use the copyrighted theory information and a signed memorandum with no expiration date is on file. The registered trademark symbol will appear to ensure registered trademarks, registered trademark of escape publishing, Inc., and registered trademark of Wiley and Sons, Inc., are recognized. Some source material has been modified and some added material has been integrated to reflect enlisted military relevance. The team dimensions profile theories and self report instruments were developed and researched by Alan Fodden and Sam Namakal who have trained corporate personnel on the innovation process for over two decades. Al Fodden, an award-winning creative director of advertising agencies, has managed innovation teams in organizations for over 25 years and is the author of the book, Innovation on Demand. Sam Namakal is a qualitative and marketing researcher who has studied and led innovation teams in industry and government for over 20 years. The team dimensions profile or the team dimensions profile 2.0 can help you discover the approach and role that's most natural to you during a team focused on innovation processes. These instruments can also help you define and assess your contributions to a team. You'll have a better understanding to identify your natural approach and most comfortable role in the team process, develop strategies to help you work on a team in creating, refining, advancing, and implementing new ideas, and determine effective ways to facilitate teamwork in addition to balancing, integrating, and capitalizing on the different strengths of your fellow team members. You can purchase access to either of the instruments and receive a personalized report from various websites by doing a word search on team dimensions profile or team dimensions profile 2.0. With the credit, copyright, and trademark requirements covered for the source documents used to develop the team dynamics material and the roadmap for this chapter, let's begin with an introduction of team dimensions. Introduction to team dimensions. Not knowing basic definitions of key terms and ideas associated with processes and cycles would probably cause you significant confusion as you tried to study more complex material. Fortunately, for some of you, you already learned these foundational elements of team dimensions through your completion of the NCO Academy. The key terms and definitions used in this section are designed to help you organize your thoughts related to the concepts and principles presented. Knowing and understanding terms and definitions are parts of the learning process. This foundational material should help further engage your interest, appreciation, and obligation to use your learning in team dynamics situations to be most effective, appropriate, and positive. In this section, you'll cover several definitions that are important to understanding team dimensions. You'll also cover four team dimensions patterns that people use regularly when working in a team environment. Finally, this section ends with in-depth material associated with five team roles. Here, you'll learn about ways to help yourself as well as others feel most comfortable when in team settings. Key terms. It's important to understand the difference between two terms, group and team, that are commonly and mistakenly used interchangeably. Group. According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, fourth edition, a group is an assemblage of persons or objects located or gathered together. Think of a group as a subway station full of people. Some are getting on the trains, some are getting off the trains. All of them have something in common. Travel, but they're still an assemblage located or gathered together. They really don't care if anyone else is successful in getting to his or her destination, and they don't have a shared identity. Consider another example. Basic military training. There's a group of basic trainees, people getting off the buses, people in various days of training status, and people graduating. All of them have something in common, trainees, and once again, they're still an assemblage located or gathered together. Knowing the definition and examples of a group will help you as the material next focuses on teams. Team. There are many definitions of the word team. However, the Barnes Center for Enlisted Education has created a working definition that relates more closely to military expectations. The working definition is, a group comprised of two or more people, or groups of people, organized to work together using cooperative and collaborative efforts to successfully achieve a common goal. In this definition, several key attributes should catch your eye. Two or more people or groups of people. You can't have a team by yourself. Organized to work together. For a group to start becoming a team, there must be some form of leadership and some form of followership in addition to some form of acceptable coexistence with other people. Using cooperative and collaborative efforts. Each individual of the group must put into action a belief of one for all and all for one in everything he or she does when interacting with each of the other individuals in the group. Each person evaluates how his or her actions, behaviors, and words may enhance the overall working climate as well as how they've all collectively and positively contribute to the overall working climate. Successfully achieve a common goal. There must be some type of plan or standard by which each individual of the group knows, understands, and accepts what's expected and the measurements being used to determine completion and success. When all of these attributes are part of a group's existence, it's considered a team, whether short term for one task or project or long term for an unspecified length of time. Now, what's the difference between a group and a team? Well, let's go back and look at the previous examples. The first one was the subway full of people. If 30 or 40 people of the subway group are the subway employees assigned to a project to improve subway efficiency, then some of the people wandering the station, getting on the trains, and getting off the trains could be a team. Since they're assigned to a project, they've been organized to work together and report to a leader their findings. In addition, to evaluate successfully, there would be some form of collaboration and cooperation to ensure all phases of the project were being evaluated. And finally, they would all be working toward a common goal to improve subway efficiency. By looking at the attributes of a team, the people on this project would be considered a team. Also looking at the other people in the subway, yes, there were two or more people or groups of people. These people were not organized to work together. There was no indication they were using cooperative and collaborative efforts. There was also no indication they were trying to successfully achieve a common goal. Based on these indications, they were a group, but not a team. The second example used basic military training. If you climbed to the top of the base water tower, with permission, of course, and looked over the base, there would be hundreds, if not thousands, of trainees about. Basically, a very large group of trainees, probably several groups. After safely climbing down from the tower and meeting some of the groups, you'd probably find numerous teams. One flight, Flight C, is on day 22 of their training, participating in the obstacle course. It's comprised of 35 people. Do you think they're organized to work together using cooperative and collaborative efforts to achieve a common goal? If you said yes, you're correct and they'd be considered a team. Now you also see another flight, Flight T, and they're in service dress uniform and in formation with about 25 other flights on their last day of basic training. There are 55 people in each of the flights and they're currently performing the pass and review activity. Is there one team or 26 teams? Consider the attributes to determine your answer. Are there two or more people or groups of people? Yes. Is each individual group organized to work together? Yes. Are all 26 groups organized to work together? No, but the MTIs are. Is each individual group using cooperative and collaborative efforts? Yes. Are all 26 groups using cooperative and collaborative efforts? No, but the MTIs are. Is each individual group attempting to achieve a common goal? Yes. Successful pass and review and graduation. Are all 26 groups attempting to achieve a common goal? Yes. Successful pass and review and graduation. So as you can see, there isn't one team. There are 26 individual teams. Using attributes of any definition is very important when determining if something fits or doesn't fit the description. With the differences between a group and a team covered, let's now look at what team dynamics means. Team dynamics. The Barnes Center for Enlisted Education developed a working definition for team dynamics. It's the working relationships, personalities, thoughts, actions, and behaviors that arise within a team that influence the synergy of the team members and the direction of a team's performance. Team dynamics can have significant impacts on a team's performance. By having ineffective, inappropriate, or negative team dynamics environments, unproductive conflict, mistrust, increased demotivation, increased dissatisfaction, deteriorated relationships, reduced communication, reduced participation, and possible loss of personnel could occur. Knowing your team members, addressing problems quickly, being able to help with roles and felt responsibilities, reducing barriers, and encouraging open communication will help you pay attention to your team's dynamics. And this chapter's material will help you guide, coach, mentor, and lead others towards successful goal accomplishment. Team dynamics are part of a team's existence, and so is innovation. Innovation. According to the Team Dimensions Profile scripted seminar, the term innovation is the end product of the team process. Innovation can be used hand in hand with change, and there was a whole chapter focused on change management that preceded this one. For our purposes, change or innovation is going to cause people to be comfortable and feel uncomfortable, work alone, and work within teams, and deal individually and collectively with diverse ideas, behaviors, thoughts, and actions. An important factor for a team focused on innovation is that each person involved will have his or her own tendencies or natural ways to contribute. Remember what you learned in the AI theory chapter? Not everyone has the full range of skills and abilities necessary to turn an original idea into reality by themselves. Even though all individuals are creative, and creativity is a part of the team's existence, when led and managed appropriately, effectively, and positively, it's a team that provides the final innovation, be it a change or new or improved procedure, product, service, or idea. With the key terms defined, group, team, team dynamics, and innovation, as a part of team dimensions, please turn your attention to the four team dimensions patterns along with their associated characteristics. Team dimensions patterns. When working with others on a team focused on innovation, people combine their natural thinking and behavioral preferences into a pattern. Observations by Faden and Namakal, authors of the team dimensions profile, supported by research from InScape Publishing, have refilled four distinct patterns among people involved in a team process, conceptual, spontaneous, normative, and methodical. The material is presented as if we're talking about others. However, you can also think about how you've exhibited or may currently exhibit some or all of the characteristics for each pattern. Conceptual pattern. Those that prefer to come up with new ideas likely have a tendency towards the conceptual pattern. When presented with a problem or an opportunity, they're good at exploring and recognizing alternatives, discussing concepts, and visualizing the master plan or strategic plan while focusing on the future state. Pros. Very helpful in situations that require the development of big innovative ideas. Understand how their ideas fit into the master plan. Needed on a team to ensure the approach to the problem is fresh and new. Cons. Don't always think things through completely. Spontaneous pattern. Those that prefer freedom from constraint and enjoy thinking outside the box likely have a tendency towards the spontaneous pattern. They may find themselves moving from one subject to another, focusing on many things at once, and sometimes showing impatience with those that like to take more time to consider things. They like to have respect and influence and will allow their feelings to guide their decision making, but they don't want to feel obligated to follow tradition. Pros. Like to move quickly. Recognized as a leader, especially when the team needed to act or move forward. Prefer to come up with new, untested ideas. Cons. Operate without any rules. Normative pattern. Those that prefer to put ideas into a familiar context, relying on past experiences with similar situations to guide them, likely have a tendency towards the normative pattern. They prefer to use accepted norms and expectations to steer their thinking, but they also want to address the consequences before acting. They're more inclined to allow others to take the lead and they try to fit in with other people. Pros. Likely to move forward in a careful manner, making sure they have all the necessary experience to guide them to success. Cons. Have a tendency to question all proposed plans and find holes in them before a reviewer does. Can overanalyze proposed idea and one may never be selected because it's not perfect yet. Methodical pattern. Those that prefer order and rationality likely have a tendency towards the methodical pattern. They prefer to follow a step-by-step process, examining the details and thinking things over carefully before acting. Focusing on what they can prove is true, they're good at putting things in order and like to see things fit together. Pros. Likely to move in a very orderly fashion, making sure all the details have been addressed and covered. Get the project completed, but also keep everyone on task to complete the project and help ensure the changes are carried out. Cons. May be viewed as the people who want to slow the process down. As you went over the four patterns, two or more should have caught your attention as most natural fits for you. Of course, by going over the characteristics of each, you can begin to notice how the differences could impact team dynamics environment. Then add the diversity of different Air Force specialty codes, sister service cultures, coalition partners beliefs and values, and civilian populist circumstances into the team's setting. Whew, there are a myriad of indicators for you to pay attention to as you strive to maintain a synergistic team focused on the implementation of some established goal. With your understanding of the four patterns, we can next define individual roles of team members and provide a structure that you can follow to help your team achieve its goals by effectively identifying team dynamics situations. Individual roles of team members. Working on a team can be uncomfortable or exhilarating. Being a member of a team that's responsible for creating and implementing change in an organization can be particularly distressful or exciting. No matter how focused members may be on the team's ultimate goal, as humans were fortunate to be made up of a combination of personality temperaments, traits, strengths, experiences, attitudes, work styles, and skill sets that can also be distractors for the team and our fellow team members, keeping it and them from working toward and accomplishing that goal. Remember the problem B material from the AI theory? According to Fodden and Namakal, there are five team roles that people in team settings find most comfortable fulfilling based on their most natural thought processes and behavioral tendencies. They represent the key roles that people perform along with their felt responsibilities of contribution on successful teams to accomplish a shared mission to reach a desired result. These felt responsibilities are not dictates for each team role. They're how people feel about how they could contribute as members of a team focused on innovation. Please understand, no one is locked in to any one role. That's why their felt responsibilities aren't directive in nature. Most people have a complex mix of attributes using more than one pattern, resulting in a combination of roles. In fact, when part of a team, you may often find yourself performing roles and feeling responsibilities that aren't natural for you because you want to help ensure successful mission accomplishment. The four primary team roles are Creator, Advancer, Refiner, and Executor, and together they form the acronym CARE. There's also a team role that combines three or more of the patterns, the flexor. As you read about each, self-assess to determine your most comfortable role. Creator. The creator role is a combination of the conceptual and spontaneous patterns. If you're a creator, you often generate fresh, original concepts and new ideas in ways that defy generally accepted structures or rules. Focus on and prefer to live in a world of possibilities. A self-contained think tank. Look for activities that are unstructured or abstract and thrive on innovation and unique solutions. Are good at reframing a problem and looking for and achieving breakthrough solutions that may be unusual, unique, and or outside the boundaries of traditional thought. Moving in a new direction and examining possibilities without necessarily perceiving risk as risky. Aren't limited by fear of reprisal or failure or by existing rules, regulations, or boundaries. Want freedom from constraint? And when a rule exists, may bend or break it. See problems or situations from a globalist perspective and perceive the big picture so you're often able to recognize alternatives that others miss. May act impulsively, letting your feelings guide actions, decisions, or behaviors. Derive satisfaction from the process of creating, discussing concepts and ideas and overcoming problems. Are imaginative, abstract thinking, unstructured, artistic, and unconventional. Contribution. As a creator, you have a tendency to come up with more and generally better ideas than others on a consistent basis because you prefer the process of creation. By bringing spontaneity, excitement, and energy to brainstorming sessions with a willingness to solve problems, you exhibit a sense of optimism and the possible. You're motivated by exploration opportunities, creativity during brainstorming sessions, and originality when generating ideas. Concern. Because you're a creator and enjoy generating ideas, you may move from one idea to another without stopping to evaluate the consequences. When everything is in its place, you may become restless, get impatient, and have a tendency to move from one subject to another, thinking about what should happen next. If left alone, you may try to solve smaller, unrelated, or insignificant problems within the major problem and may eventually lose sight of the main objective. Throughout the process, you may come up with marvelous breakthroughs or unmitigated disasters. Creators need teammates who provide structure, are practical, attend to details, are results oriented, and follow through. Advanced. The advanced role is a combination of the spontaneous and normative patterns. If you're an advanced, you recognize ideas and new directions in their early stages and develop ways to promote, communicate, or advance them. Use insightful planning based on past experiences and proven successful methods to advance ideas toward implementation. Manage the human component of any solution. Enjoy whipping up enthusiasm for a project and get people excited about new solutions. Prefer familiar ideas but aren't inclined to let rules and boundaries be discouraging. Recognize new opportunities and carry new ideas forward. May initially respond to ideas with skepticism, but will let accepted norms and your feelings guide thoughts, behaviors, actions, and decisions. Derive satisfaction from instilling a sense of purpose in the team and promoting that purpose with single-mindedness and determination. Direct actions toward achieving objectives by the most direct, efficient means. Are able to focus on many things at once and may move from one subject to another. Enjoy respect and influence and focus on the interaction amongst team members. Are typically comfortable identifying interesting ideas or possibilities and moving swiftly to see them implemented. Are people focused, extroverted, talkative, outgoing, and expressive. Contribution. As an advance, you energetically promote team objectives. When presented with an idea you like, you think of how to get it implemented. You're motivated by environments that foster expression, climates that allow connectedness, and situations that require interaction. Advanceers need teammates who provide objective skepticism. Enjoy lengthy and complex analysis. Are methodical. Concern. If left alone or working only with someone with a strong conceptual pattern, you may move ahead to implement concepts that aren't completely thought through, ignoring danger signs and realistic barriers to successful implementation. Refiner. The refiner role is a combination of the conceptual and methodical patterns. If you're a refiner, you challenge and analyze all concepts, ideas, or plans under discussion, often playing the devil's advocate to test the soundness of an idea or theory for merit and try to improve it. Will detect flaws, identify potential problems, and suggest alternative solutions. Focus on the analysis and are comfortable being methodical. Use a methodical process to analyze things in an orderly manner to detect possible flaws, catch errors, and identify potential problems, second and third order effects under discussion that others may have missed or don't want to address. Are good at reviewing ideas and implementing plans, modifying those ideas, or coming up with new ideas, and rationally reviewing them to ensure successful implementation. Use logic and a systematic approach to redesign a solution and make sure that ideas are sound before moving them to the next level. The idea or plan is passed back and forth among the advanced, creator, and you until you're satisfied that the idea or plan is ready for implementation. Believe that consequences matter. Want to plan how new endeavors are implemented and try to foresee and prepare for surprises, complications, and the unknown. Prefer and like to create order from chaos by improving the process by which ideas are implemented. Derive satisfaction from the mental exercise of the debate and may lead others to examine the merits of an idea using a systematic process in generating and exploring ideas. Our analytical, objective, logical, skeptical, and reflective contribution. As a refiner, you find it easy to articulate the problems caused by new or unique ideas making sure that the concept is thought through and examining how it can be improved and implemented. You're motivated by accuracy of all aspects of the plan, each team member's competency level, and having a thorough understanding of all aspects of the plan. Concern. If allowed to control the group or the process, you may lead the team toward choosing low-risk ideas, filtering out ideas that may have greater risks, but also bigger payoffs. Refiners need teammates who generate enthusiasm, like networking, encourage communication, enjoy selling an idea, executor. The executor role is a combination of the methodical and normative patterns. If you're an executor, you lay the groundwork for implementation, manage the details, and ensure that the process moves forward in an orderly and organized manner to achieve high-quality results and process completion. Follow up on team objectives and implement ideas and solutions. Deliver concrete, quality results, and seek successful implementations. Focus on ensuring the implementation process proceeds in an orderly manner, based on a well-thought-out plan. Prefer to let others take the lead on creating and refining ideas because you enjoy the task and responsibility of final implementation. Pride yourself on your ability to meet objectives professionally and efficiently. Prefer proven, familiar ideas over novel and untried ones. Are comfortable being methodical and pay attention to specifics and the details. Tend to be cautious in trying out a new approach and prefer to think things over carefully before acting. Perform extensive follow-through to finish what you start and do things right. May have little interest in group discussion until specific objectives and plans are identified. Are realistic, detail-oriented, structured, organized, and traditional. Contribution. As an executor, you're very effective at spotting potential problems before they occur and minimizing inefficiencies and errors during implementation. You're motivated by accomplishment of small tasks and major segments, completion of projects, and order in the process flow to meet expectations. Concern. If working without clear and focused objectives or guidelines, you may lose sight of the goal and pursue irrelevant strategies. Executors need teammates who take risks, are imaginative, think conceptually, focus on the big picture or strategic plan. Flexor. The flexor role is a combination of three or more of the patterns, conceptual, spontaneous, normative, methodical. If you're a flexor, you monitor the contributions of all team members, identify what's missing, and step in to fill gaps in the team during the various stages of the process to allow for uninterrupted progress. Can focus on everything. Can often adapt your approach and role to fit the needs of the team, and you probably view issues from different perspectives. Are very good at monitoring the team process and the contributions of all team members and when necessary, are able to step in to fill gaps in order to keep the development or implementation process moving in the right direction. Are able to connect and negotiate with all types of people. Are tolerant and understand different members of the team. Are willing to offer suggestions to improve the process. Understand, demonstrate an equal preference for, and empathize with, at least three of the four team roles. Are able to move with ease into a variety of roles, and take on the tasks associated with each role. Contribution. As a flexor, you objectively view the activities of the team to see what's missing in the process and step in at the appropriate spot to keep things moving. You play an important role in moving the group toward its objectives, particularly if conflicts occur that threaten to divert team members from their goals. Concern. Unless a well-defined role in the team is assumed, you may be ignored by others who are more strongly committed to their own role. With a comprehensive understanding of the foundational ideas related to team dimensions finished, let's review what you learned. In this section, you learned a few key terms and definitions that are important for you to understand before you actually get into team dynamics. A group of persons located together could transform into a team if they work together using cooperative and collaborative efforts to successfully achieve a common goal. Collaborative and collaborative efforts are part of team dynamics. The dynamics are the relationships and all the characteristics associated with being human that influence the synergy and direction of a team's performance towards innovation. Innovation is the change or new or improved procedure, product, service, or idea of a team's endeavors. Then, you covered four personal patterns. Conceptual, spontaneous, normative, and methodical. Conceptual people prefer generating fresh new ideas and like brainstorming sessions. However, they don't always think things through. Spontaneous people are the outside-the-box thinkers and like to move from one thing to another. Left alone, they would operate without any rules which would be problematic. Normative people rely on past experiences to address consequences before acting. They prefer to ask questions and find holes with ideas. The problem occurs when they overanalyze everything. And finally, methodical people prefer order and logic. They're good at keeping people on track. However, can be perceived as slowing progress. After the patterns, you moved on to individual roles of team members in which C-A-R-E, care, plus F would help you remember them. Creator, advance, refiner, executor, and flexor. Their creator role is a combination of conceptual and spontaneous patterns. Creators produce fresh ideas very quickly and bring a sense of optimism to brainstorming sessions. The problem is creators don't think about what happens next or the details. This is where advanceers come in. The advance role is a combination of spontaneous and normative patterns. Advanceers promote team objectives and think about implementing strategies. However, they have a tendency to ignore shortfalls and realistic barriers. Thank goodness for the refiners. The refiner role is a combination of conceptual and methodical patterns. Refiners think through each idea and address potential risks and unintended consequences. They also examine how ideas can be improved. If refiners control the team, they could choose low-risk ideas because they're less complicated. The executor role is a combination of methodical and normative patterns and is very good at spotting problems during implementation. They require clear specific guidelines and focused objectives to be effective. The final role is the flexor, which is a combination of three or more patterns. They can fill in any gaps on the team to keep the process moving along. Flexors can also be very effective at minimizing any conflicts that lead the team off course. It's important to remember that key roles that people perform, along with their felt responsibilities of contribution on successful teams to accomplish a shared mission to reach a desired result, are based on most effective, most appropriate, and most positive team environments. These felt responsibilities are not dictates for each team role. They're how people feel about how they could contribute as members of a team focused on innovation. Please understand, no one is locked in to any one role. That's why the felt responsibilities aren't directive in nature. When individuals form as a team focused on some form of innovation, it's extremely important for each member to understand his or her preferred role, along with the associated characteristics. In addition, when each member understands the other member's preferred roles along with associated characteristics, a more effective team environment, as well as more focused innovation efforts will be possible, because everyone will know the strengths available to be successful. As a senior NCO, you must be able to harness the diversity associated with any team. In order to be able to create synergy amongst team members, you must also know yourself and how you contribute or can hinder goal accomplishment. As a leader and a manager, you must be able to identify what each person brings to a team and the importance of his or her preferred role. Remember, your decisions when building a team or taking over as the leader of a team can determine how successful the people and the team may be at accomplishing the mission. Individuals bring diverse thoughts, feelings, behaviors and contributions when part of a team focused on innovation. Imagine a team of 15 people all like you as far as an individual role of team members is concerned. Would that team be the most productive, most effective, and most successful at accomplishing the goal? With a better understanding of individual roles of team members under your belt and how they relate to team dynamics, you will next focus on factors influencing the team focused on innovation process. Factors influencing the team focused on innovation process. It's noon on Tuesday just before a three-day weekend. Chief Sorrell, Master Sergeant Spurge, Master Sergeant Elm, Master Sergeant Teak, and Master Sergeant Uppas have been tasked to come up with a plan to continue the unit's preparation for the upcoming inspection. The commander wants a plan for using the three-day weekend without damaging morale. No one had an idea. It was silent for over five minutes. Master Sergeant Spurge was feeling really uncomfortable because she usually could come up with inputs on the spur of the moment. Master Sergeant Uppas was very confident that Master Sergeant Spurge would generate some good options because she always has in the past. Master Sergeant Elm, recognizing the stall in progress, suggested everyone break for lunch and then reconvene at 1600. When the team got back together, the chief asked for everyone's options. The only person with any options was Master Sergeant Spurge who was in good spirits as she presented her thoughts. Master Sergeant Uppas didn't have any options and he stated that he didn't hear any from Master Sergeant Spurge that he agreed with. Master Sergeant Elm didn't have any options and she didn't hear any that she could even begin to analyze. Master Sergeant Teak was worried that his people were going to be very upset about their three-day weekend no matter what plan was adopted. In fact, he couldn't figure out why working the three-day weekend was so important. They could easily work 12-hour shifts during the week instead. The chief finally said, Let's call it a day. Tomorrow we'll meet at 0900, put some ideas on the table. We'll pick two or three that sound good. After analyzing them for merits and shortfalls, we'll pick the best one. We'll modify it to be the best plan possible and come to an agreement. That's the one we'll go with that I'll brief the commander on and we'll put into action. How does that sound? Master Sergeant Spurge and Master Sergeant Uppas were feeling good about getting more time to think about some options for tomorrow's meeting. Knowing when and how to get through and helping team members get through distressful and happy times through the innovation process will enhance your effectiveness, your subordinates and team members effectiveness, ultimately enhancing the mission's effectiveness. In this section, we're going to cover the PEP panic elation panic cycle, explain and illustrate a team innovation model called the Z process, and finally look at and answer questions following three scenarios integrating material that you covered. Once again, compare your responses to the possible responses at the end of this chapter. Team dynamics are inherent throughout the material related to the team focused on innovation process. The team focused on innovation process centers on a problem, challenge, improvement opportunity, or change that has surfaced and a solution, an idea, a process, or a procedure that is needed. Two or more people must come together as a team to successfully meet the objective. Diversity and team dynamics will be present, however, focus and synergy are needed to meet the objective most effectively, appropriately, positively and comprehensively. So let's look at the factors influencing this process starting with the PEP cycle. The PEP cycle. If you've been in a similar situation like the one opening this section, then you probably had some type of reaction, an emotional reaction, a physiological reaction, or both. Some of the negative emotional reactions people experience are anxiety, tension, fear, frustration, or annoyance, while some of the possible negative physiological reactions are increased heart rate, damp palms, or even attention headache. All of these reactions reflect a state of panic according to the team dimension's experts, and all team members experience some type of reaction when the team is focused on innovation. The important thing to remember is that reactions are temporary, especially panic. Explore. Panic is a powerful emotion or feeling occurring spontaneously, caused by worry or anxiety about something that impedes a healthy state of mind or reduces reasonable thought, action, or behavior temporarily. Panic is the first stage of the PEP cycle, and it's extremely common in any innovation process. Looking back at our scenario with the chief and the long weekend schedule, depending on each team member's preferred role, all or some of the members may have been panicked at first. For example, silence for over five minutes, and Master Sergeant Spurge feeling uncomfortable. For some, the panic stage didn't last very long at all. Upon reconvening, Master Sergeant Spurge had some options to present, and Master Sergeant Teague thought of an option but didn't say anything. The reactions to getting the ideas are also both emotional and physiological. The emotional responses include feelings of excitement, relief, self-confidence, and calm, while the physiological responses include steadier, less erratic heartbeat, slower rhythmic breathing, and palms that no longer sweat. Basically, this is what the team dimensions experts call elation. Explore. Elation is a temporary feeling of high spirits, happiness or satisfaction based on some positive situation. Back to the scenario. Now Master Sergeant Spurge was probably feeling elated when she came up with some options and going into the meeting presenting she was probably feeling really good. When the Chief opened the meeting and asked for options, there may have been several people that were in a state of panic. During the silence after her presentation and after Master Sergeant Oopas said he didn't agree with any of the options, Master Sergeant Spurge was probably feeling disappointed, leading to panic all over again. As you can probably tell from the material so far, each person will react differently during the pep cycle based on his or her team dimensions preference. Let's now look at how creators, advances, refiners, executors, and flexors typically think and react internally during an innovation process when they first experience panic, elation, and then panic again. Creator. Panic for a creator is a short-lived stage because he or she likes to generate ideas in brainstorm. Elation occurs when he or she gets an idea. Panic sets back in when he or she begins to think, what if they don't like my idea? Advance. Panic for an advance occurs because he or she doesn't have any ideas right away or in a timely manner. Elation sets in when he or she is thinking, I hear an idea I like. I had a positive experience with a similar idea. Panic returns as he or she listens to people poke holes in the ideas and raise objections to them because the advance liked an idea and was ready to move it forward as a viable option towards resolving the issue at hand. Please refer to the advance creator graphic at the top of page 15. Refiner. Panic for a refiner occurs because he or she doesn't have any ideas right away or in a timely manner. The refiner has to wait on the advance to bring the ideas forward. Elation occurs when he or she has opportunities to clarify objections, poke holes in ideas, and make ideas better. Panic again sets in when he or she begins to think, what if they can't handle the new requirements? Executor. Panic for an executor occurs when he or she thinks, oh, there's going to be a change. Elation comes about when he or she thinks, I have the information I need and can implement the plan or idea. Panic for an executor occurs again when he or she starts believing that the plan or idea is flawed or won't work or encounters problems during implementation. Flexor. Panic begins when the flexor thinks to himself or herself, we have nothing. Elation happens when he or she gets to play the role of dealmaker by filling the gaps on the team and providing team balance. Panic sets back in when he or she begins to think, what if they don't buy into the plan or idea? The pep cycle is obviously a very simple way of describing the extremely complex process of people's emotions and feelings when participating on a team focused on innovation. It may be challenging for you to produce quality innovation on your own, and the same holds true for others. The good thing about being a member or leader of a team is you'll have the opportunity to work with people that have talents different from your own. And when working on a team consisting of creators, advances, refiners, and executors, all members experience the panic, elation, panic of the pep cycle as they perform their different roles in the process. By realizing how common the pep cycle is, you'll be able to understand why some members may be thinking and behaving the way they do on the team, and also help others to understand that panic and elation are natural responses when people are asked to be members of an innovation process. You're probably thinking right now, I have these people who approach thinking differently, assume roles when dealing with innovation, and feel panic and elation at different times. How do I create synergy to get the most out of everyone? Let's next look at how the pep cycle integrates into a process the experts call the Z process. The Z process. Before we actually run with the Z process material, let's get into the right mindset by using a track and field illustration. Most track events include two 400 meter races, the dash and the relay. Which event do you think would have the fastest time? Did you think the 400 meter relay? If so, then you're correct. As of 2015, the world's record for the 400 meter dash is 43.18 seconds, while the world's record for the 400 meter relay is only 36.84 seconds. The same distance, but nearly seven seconds faster. Working as members of a team rather than as individuals is what created the faster time. That and the ability of each team member to hand off the baton smoothly and at the appropriate time. The quality of the handoffs is critical. The Z process is considered the ideal structure for a team focused on innovation, because it integrates a natural democratic system of checks and balances using handoffs. The key to the Z process is knowing when to and how to turn to fellow team members and hand off an idea or task to them. The most effective handoffs occur when you're able to capitalize on the natural strengths and tendencies of the rest of the team. To be most effective, you as a team leader must create the environment and be able to assist others to let the handoff occur so that the others could run with the idea or task to help ensure the goal is reached through successful mission accomplishment. For this to happen, an open flow of communication between team members is just as critical as the handoff process. One major difference between the relay illustration of handing off the baton and moving forward and the Z process is that the Z process contains some back-and-forth collaboration. It's time to discuss this process and will also integrate elements of the PEP cycle along the way. Please see the illustrations on page 16. The Creator in the Z Process Creators experience elation when brainstorming and generating new ideas. Successful teams focused on innovation work in an open environment where you, if you're a creator along with other creators, are encouraged to express your ideas and made to feel new concepts are both welcome and valuable. This helps reduce the amount of time you'll feel panic about generating and then disclosing your ideas and speeds up the cycle back to elation. Now that you've presented your ideas, you may go back into panic wondering, will anybody like any of these ideas I presented? This is where the Advancer comes into the picture. The Advancer in the Z Process When the creators are coming up with ideas, the Advanceers are most likely in panic because they're waiting and it takes a little longer for them to come up with ideas. But as soon as creators present their ideas and Advanceers can see the ideas in a familiar context, the Advanceers see the possibilities of these ideas, elation sets in, and they begin their process. So if you're an Advanceer along with other Advanceers, you'll immediately move to the innovation process forward by serving as champions and key promoters of the ideas. In your elation, you'll do what you can to ensure that the ideas are feasible and acceptable to the organization. If the idea becomes confusing or needs further clarification, your elation may turn to panic very quickly, especially as the refiners start asking their questions. What would you, the Advanceer, need to do when ideas are confusing or need clarifying? Since you already learned about the characteristics of each of the roles in addition to the handoff process, should you hand off the idea back to the creators? Or should you hand off the idea to the refiners? You may need to refer the idea back to the creator or pass the idea on to the refiner depending on what needs to be clarified, so both are correct responses. The Refiner in the Z Process Refiners enjoy analyzing ideas and identifying problems, suggesting revisions, and proposing alternative solutions. As the creators and Advanceers are doing their things within the team, the Refiner is in panic because he or she hasn't come up with an idea and the ones being tossed around haven't been finalized enough yet. And then the Advanceer finally hands off an idea. If you're a Refiner, along with other refiners, you desire to achieve a sense of satisfaction, even elation, at clarifying ambiguity, ensuring all potential problems that could affect short-term as well as long-term success of an idea have been answered, and planning the implementation process. Of course, you too may panic if you run into problems that require a fresh approach. What would you, the Refiner, need to do if there were problems or a fresh approach was needed? To keep the Z Process working smoothly, you may need to turn back to the Advanceers that promoted the idea, or in some cases, the creators for some new ideas, the executor in the Z Process. Once again, while the creators, Advanceers, and Refiners are doing their things to get the idea moving along, the executor sits in panic thinking about how things keep being modified or changed. Finally, the Refiner tells the executor the basic implementation plan. If you're an executor, along with other executors, after a typical initial sense of panic, you take command of pulling everything together and getting the work done, feeling elation along the way. Once the idea is implemented, panic may enter as you wonder if everything will go smoothly. Will everything work as planned? Will most or all of the people affected by the idea get back to the contentment phase in a relatively short period of time? The Flexor in the Z Process The flexor's role throughout this process is to ensure that all functions are working in an orderly fashion and step in as needed to fill gaps on the team. As the dynamics of the team play out in thoughts, behaviors, and actions, the flexor starts to panic as everything is like jello and nothing is hardening like cement in relation to the task at hand. As the flexor feels more comfortable and begins to help lead his or her teammates to perform their roles or takes the responsibility to perform the role that's missing, elation sets in as the balance becomes evident. As the flexor presses on, panic may set in as he or she starts to lose self-confidence about whether the plan or idea will be accepted by his or her teammates or others that will be affected by the change. One much less effective practice is when leaders and team members try to ignore, cut out, or exclude components of the Z Process for various reasons to include saving time, money, or effort. Alliance tendencies Often people who approach things from the same way find they have more in common with each other. Remember AI theory? More adaptive or more innovative? Also, earlier in this chapter you learned about approaches. Creators and advances both use a spontaneous approach, while refiners and executors are more comfortable with a methodical approach. As you can see from the information you just read and from all of your personal and professional experiences, people are complex mixes of attributes and characteristics. There's no rubric, matrix, checklist, or assessment that can help you to accurately predict who will get along with others. So therein lays a danger, the danger of labelling people. If you use this information and any of the other information presented as your only means to make judgments about people, your leadership effectiveness would be significantly reduced by causing some people to question their self-worth and self-esteem while creating a false sense of overworthiness in others. Earlier in this chapter you learned about the challenges people often have working in a team setting. You also covered the various strengths and weaknesses of people with different team dimensions patterns. This knowledge was then integrated into the factors influencing the team focused on innovation process material, using team dynamics situations. Once again, it's time to close out another section. You first went over the PEP panic elation panic cycle. You saw that team members fulfilling the different team roles will experience panic and elation at different times throughout the innovation process. During these times is when true Airman's Creed Wingman come out to help their fellow team mates. Airman's Creed Wingman are also key players during the Z process. Cooperation, collaboration, and taking care of each other are needed to ensure timely and effective handoffs occur. Knowing when and how to help team members through distressful and happy times along with how team members can reduce distress during the innovation process will enhance your effectiveness, your subordinates and team members effectiveness, and ultimately enhancing the mission effectiveness. With the knowledge you've gained so far, you're now better prepared for the unexpected team dynamics that'll occur when you're leading a team or a member of a team. There's no doubt when two or more people get together the interactions could be chaotic or they could be productive. Take some time now to focus on ways the team roles interact with each other. Team roles interactions. As a team leader you're going to be involved with relationships that exist between the team roles and the people that fit into those roles. Being able to identify these relationships as they're occurring and then minimizing any negative impacts that might occur will be key to your success as well as the mission success. Over the last several pages you learned in general about characteristic dynamics between members of a team. Now you're going to cover in more detail the ways in which people with different team dimensions roles interact together. Remember the definition of team dynamics as you go through this material. Also remember what role you've decided is most natural for you from the previous material. You can write down some things that come to mind as you look at each of the interactions as you reflect on some of your experiences and team dynamics situations. There are some questions and scenarios with questions that you'll provide answers to. Compare your responses to the possible responses at the end of this chapter. Explore. Team dynamics is the working relationships, personalities, thoughts, actions and behaviors that arise within a team that influence the synergy of the team members and the direction of a team's performance. Individual role interactions. Creator interactions. If you're working with a creator, try to give him or her credit for the inputs presented. Also, let him or her know that crazy ideas are okay because they help break up the stagnation of complacency. And finally, ensure you understand what the creator is presenting before you give feedback. Creators are always seeking advances to promote their ideas. In fact, creators would put advances in touch with others just to show and affirm that support exists for their ideas. During this interaction, creators must be able to briefly explain in some detail their ideas to help advance. This working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. Creators often view refiners as devil's advocates, obstructionists, or even wet blankets who slow down the interchange of ideas by constantly bringing up practical and detailed considerations. Creators view the refiners' continual reality checks as disruptive and discouraging during the process of creation. While creators are prone to emotional bursts of ideas, refiners are typically methodical individuals who are concerned about the order of the process being used and having people get carried away with enthusiasm before examining things carefully. Refiners are more focused than creators on the viability of ideas and the planning of specific tasks. The creator is impatient while the refiner patiently creates order out of chaos. Creators need to know refiners are trying to make their ideas better, so their comments and needs for specifics are focused on being as precise as possible for a great idea or plan to go forward. This working relationship would probably generate significant team dynamics issues that would have to be effectively managed. However, rather than taking any feedback personally, creators should ask specific questions to the refiners. Creators tend to get along with executors as long as they're not pressed for too many details or directions about implementing ideas. Creators may find it frustrating to deal with people who expect everything to be clear and well-defined. This working relationship would probably generate significant team dynamics issues that would have to be effectively managed. Creators must ensure that executors can work on implementing ideas and can't rush the process. Once the idea has made it to implementation discussions, creators should assist to make the process flow smoothly. Advancer Interactions Advancers are always seeking fresh and unique ideas that will help them meet their organization's challenges. Advancers are mainly concerned with achieving objectives and earning respect and influence as the result of their efforts. They take advantage of past experiences knowing what will be successful and what roadblocks they might encounter. Sometimes, advances need support to keep promoting ideas, especially when facing scrutiny from others on the team. Advancers are attracted to creators because creators provide them with the ammunition for their presentations. Advancers like the idea generation and look forward to expounding on the possibilities. This working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. Advancers need refiners to add more details to the process of implementation and interpret the implementation rules advances set. This working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. However, refiners are also looking at the ideas generated by the creators and handed off by the advances with a fine tooth comb. In this situation, just like the creators, advances will most likely perceive the refiners as devil's advocates, obstructionists, or even wet blankets who slow down the advancement and implementation of ideas by constantly bringing up practical and detailed considerations. Advancers will view the refiners' continual reality checks as disruptive and discouraging during the process of creation. This area of the working relationship would probably generate significant team dynamics issues that would have to be effectively managed. So, advances must withhold feelings of being judged and must not get angry or upset with refiners. Advancers must keep open communication with refiners to determine the best way forward. Advancers often get along well with executors who share their tendency to be results-oriented and select proven methods. However, advances must ensure they don't grow impatient with executors if they have questions about potential shortfalls. In addition, advances must let refiners be involved to help executors understand the idea fully. This working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. Mental Fitness Slash Positive Thinking Information processing, applying knowledge, and changing preferences through restructuring, positive reframing, making sense out of a situation, flexibility, reappraisal, refocusing, having positive outcome expectations, a positive outlook, and psychological preparation. Comprehensive Airman Fitness Refiner Interactions Refiners are continually seeking improvements during the innovation process. While they might, from time to time, contribute potentially valid ideas, they're primarily synthesizers, taking many elements of the conversations, experiences, and ideas, then bringing everything together into a realistic proposal. They enjoy the intellectual challenge of questioning ideas and producing order from chaos. Refiners like to work with creators at the conceptual level, improving ideas and plans. As long as the refiner didn't want too much detail or extensive explanations, this working relationship would probably generate some team dynamics issues. However, too much challenging by the refiner, without advance or flexor involvement, would require the team dynamics climate to be effectively managed. Open, two-way communication about the ideas being presented will enhance team dynamics if refiners show appreciation for the idea and keep creators involved in making it better rather than just poking holes in the idea. Intellectual Perseverance Using intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations you may face. Being comfortable struggling with confusion and unsettled questions over an extended period of time in order to achieve deeper understanding. Critical Thinking Refiners tend to get frustrated with advances at times, but they recognize their importance in the innovation process. Once again, as long as the refiner didn't want too much detail or extensive explanations, or didn't want to scrap the idea completely, this working relationship would probably generate some team dynamics issues. However, too much challenging by the refiner, without flexor involvement, would require the team dynamics climate to be effectively managed. Refiners should also consider and support the efforts advances put into their evaluations of ideas. Refiners should consider open discussion with advances about how to improve ideas and ways to implement rather than putting the idea down. Refiners tend to work very well with executors and are good at specifying the parameters of the tasks and an orderly process that needs to be completed to assure a smooth process flow. Specifics and completeness are what the executor needs, and as long as they're being provided, this working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. Executor Interactions Executors are focused implementers who prefer to keep changes to a minimum and work effectively within the system. They take pride in punctuality, dependability, and predictability, and at completing the tasks at hand. Executors must be reminded that the whole team is focused on the best idea or plan and problem-free implementation. As the idea gets close to finalization, ensure executors questions are all addressed. Executors may shy away from working with creators. This is because creators often provide ambiguous and conflicting directions, which upset the typically detail-oriented executors. This working relationship would probably generate significant team dynamics issues, which would require the team dynamics climate to be effectively managed. However, a refiner and an advance could help with the details, reducing the executor's frustrations. Executors tolerate advances because advanceers think through the implementation process using past history to create a sound plan that executors carry out. However, advanceers may not have all the answers. This working relationship would probably generate some team dynamics issues, but probably nothing too dramatic. Executors should allow refiners to work with advanceers before getting too involved in the implementation discussions. Executors tend to work well with refiners. This working relationship would probably generate positive team dynamics environments with little to no conflict. Executors must understand where potential pitfalls might occur during the implementation, so they shouldn't rush refiners to or grow impatient with the clarity process. Reducing tension. The next area focuses on ways to reduce tension. Remove obstacles and get the best results from a few different patterns. The material you just reflected on may be a good source of information as you respond to the next set of questions. Answer questions one, four, and eleven. Then for each team role section, answer the ones that fit your role's preferences. You can check your responses with the possible responses at the end of the chapter. How to Relate with Creators. Question one, if you're the team leader, what might you do when you recognize a creator to help him or her collaborate smoothly and cooperate effectively with the other members of the team? Think about some ways you can help reduce tension, remove obstacles, and get the best results from one or more creators on your team. Question two, if you feel you're an advanceur based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more creators that are your teammates? Question three, if you feel you're a refiner based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more creators that are your teammates? How to Relate with Advanceurs? Question four, if you're the team leader, what might you do when you recognize an advanceur to help him or her collaborate smoothly and cooperate effectively with other members of the team? Think about some ways you can help reduce tension, remove obstacles, and get the best results from one or more advanceurs on your team. Question five, if you feel you're a creator based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more advanceurs that are your teammates? Question six, if you feel you're a refiner based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more advanceurs that are your teammates? Question seven, if you feel you're an executor based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more advanceurs that are your teammates? How to Relate with Refiners? Question eight, if you feel you're a creator based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more refiners that are your teammates? Question nine, if you feel you're an advanceur based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more refiners that are your teammates? Question 10, if you feel you're an executor based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more refiners that are your teammates? How to Relate with Executors? Question 11, if you're the team leader, what might you do when you recognize an executor to help him or her collaborate smoothly and cooperate effectively with other members of the team? Think about some ways you can help reduce tension, remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more executors on your team? Question 12, if you feel you're a creator based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more executors that are your teammates? Question 13, if you feel you're an advanceur based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more executors that are your teammates? Question 14, if you feel you're a refiner based on the characteristics mentioned earlier in this chapter, what might you need to do to help reduce tension? Remove obstacles and get the best results from one or more executors that are your teammates? Unless roles and responsibilities are known to all and most importantly accepted by all, there will be opportunities for confusion, frustration and maybe even unproductive conflict. A team leader, team member or external leader with flexor preference must step in to guide the team members back to understanding, respect, cooperation and collaboration. Mutual respect. You should realize from all of the information presented so far that a highly successful team is one that has a combination of innovation patterns, is conscious of the process of innovation, the Z process and takes care of each other as each member of the team experiences the PEP cycle. This team will experience less distress because when one team member begins to feel panic another team member steps in to move the process along. Members depend on one another and respect each other as teammates. This is why instead of focusing on how different people are as individuals on a team, all team members should concentrate on how each person's differences makes the team stronger. And it's important that each team member be recognized for his or her strengths and how he or she contributes to the implementation of the innovation project. If for some reason you notice people being put in roles they're not comfortable with, you should determine if others have strengths that would better fit and negotiate role swaps to encourage the best out of each team member. As with any human interactive situation there are common problems that occur when individuals or groups are called upon to work as a team. More often than not leaders feel that position power especially legitimate power along with a directive style are the ways to get the mission accomplished because leading and managing team dynamics and teamwork takes time energy and involvement. One of many possible reasons that a team is ineffective doesn't accomplish its mission completely or just plain fails is because of poor leadership or its members fail to respect or value the contributions of each other. Productive time withers away and energy is misdirected while individuals defend their own turf, champion their own contributions or hidden agendas, deny and resist change, and attempt in one way or another to undermine, sabotage, dictate, or control the efforts of others. Okay, here's another example. Let's say you're leading a team and right away it's clear there'll be conflicts among team members about roles and responsibilities. These conflicts stem from different ideas about whose contributions on the team are the most essential in the overall scheme of things. Question 15, how could you help resolve this situation? Balancing a team. You've covered a lot of material about the importance of balancing a team with people with tendencies that reflect the different team dimensions patterns but how can you ensure that your team's balanced? If you only have a small pool of people then balancing a team can be challenging. Even a cross-functional team, one where people come from different areas of your organization or base, is by no means a guarantee that the people represent the diverse team dimensions roles you need on your team. If you had to lead a team of individuals with whom you weren't familiar there are ways for you to determine indications of each member's strengths. One way is for you to ask each person what role in his or her organization is he or she most comfortable performing. This can give you some insight into the kinds of contributions they may be likely to make to your team focused on innovation. For example, creators are likely to be most comfortable in the planning stages of a project. Keep in mind that role doesn't mean job or position. People take on different roles in the performance of their jobs. So far you learned that people do best when they perform roles that are most natural to them. Another point to keep in mind is that many people have overlapping areas of strength. Flexibility may make it possible for people to serve effectively in more than one role on a team focused on innovation or even swap roles or tasks with other members. If you had to summarize in one sentence the best way to work effectively on a team focused on innovation with people who have different and even conflicting tendencies toward change, what would it be? The authors of the team dimension selected understand, respect, appreciate and value the contributions of each member on the innovation team. Positive interactions on any team will enhance its ability to complete the mission successfully. The material and questions provided you with comprehension opportunities using team dynamics solutions. Before moving on to the next section, let's close this one out. In this section you went over in more detail the ways in which people with different team dimensions roles interact together. You answered questions in that safe haven to help you better understand the interactions between the team roles and the team dynamics that could occur. As a team leader being able to identify these relationships as they are occurring and then minimizing any negative impacts that might occur will be keys to your success as well as the mission success. There's no doubt when two or more people get together the interactions could be chaotic or they could be productive. How will you guide interactions? Having a team of individuals representing the four roles would definitely provide some lively interactions related to team dynamics. However there are times when you may or may not have that luxury. One way to overcome shortfalls in roles or short suspense goals is to integrate team dimension stages. Team dimension stages. Wow, I learned some great stuff in this team dynamics lesson, but I have a short suspense and don't have time to let individuals or small groups of individuals form up to be a team focused on innovation to solve this problem. I don't want to go directive. So instead of focusing on individual people to perform the roles you just learned about you may need to treat the innovation project and the team members as one synergistic entity and focus on team dimension stages where you lead everyone to contribute through semi-controlled stages. This is where your leadership skills can really be assets. In this section you're going to go over team dimension stages. You'll see some familiar terms that were used in the roles section of this chapter. You'll also see how the Z process still works for the stages. Let's look at the Z process from this perspective of stages. Introduction to stages. During the creating stage the team can focus on the possibilities. Of course any creators on the team may find this the most comfortable or natural stage. However the point is for everyone to contribute. This is where new ideas are born. Team members look at problems from perspectives that are unusual and unique. Discussions may be highly conceptual and focus on the big picture. The atmosphere is receptive open and uncritical. When you decide that the creating stage has created some worthy ideas you can lead the team into the advancing stage. In the advancing stage the team can focus on interaction. Once again any advances on the team may find this the most comfortable or natural stage. However the point is for everyone to contribute. Those new ideas from the creating stage are given more structure and broad strategies for implementation are considered. Ideas are continuously communicated. Efforts are made to show everyone how the idea is valuable and clarify the role each may play in the project. When you decide that the advancing stage has taken the worthy ideas and given shape to them you can lead them into the refining stage. Progressing into the refining stage the team can focus on analysis. Any refiners on the team may find this the most comfortable or natural stage. However the point is for everyone to contribute. The new ideas that have been given shape are scrutinized to see if they're realistic. Things are analyzed in an orderly fashion to find flaws and avoid problems down the road. Detailed plans for implementation are developed and evaluated. This stage may require you to focus the team back into the advancing stage or even the creating stage of the innovation process to fix current ideas or come up with alternative ideas. Once the team is comfortable with the way forward you can lead them into the executing stage. During the executing stage the focus for the team is on realities. Once again any executors on the team may find this the most comfortable or natural stage. However the point is for everyone to contribute. Here's where the ideas are put into action. The team follows through on the plan to get concrete results. The focus is on the details and progress is made through an orderly well thought out process. Even though we're talking about stages instead of individuals per se it may be necessary for the process to work backward especially when ideas need to be reevaluated and reconceptualized. Thus creating the Z for the Z process. As the leader it's important for you to understand where a project is in the Z process so that team members know where to focus their energy and maybe more important where not to focus their energy. In the team dimension stages concept the team leader can either have a flexor preference or become a facilitator. If you're not comfortable with preferring three or more roles then you must adapt by subordinating your role preference and become a facilitator to effectively appropriately and positively guide your team through stages. It's now time to focus on what should be happening in each of the stages in much more detail starting with the creating stage individual stages the creating stage. The primary goal of the creating stage is to focus on possibilities by generating as many new ideas as possible. This means seeing things from a new angle and perhaps modifying or breaking some traditional rules. Although the team will need to evaluate the merit of new ideas toward the end of this stage the creating stage should start with an open brainstorming session in which no ideas are rejected as unrealistic or impossible. Think about ways those creators on the team can use their preference for abstract and unconventional thinking during this stage. Generating fresh ideas is both an art and a science. Setting expectations can be critical in this process because some people will naturally want to impose more structure and tradition than is ideal in this stage. Here are some tips to help create a positive environment for positive team dynamics when you're leading team members through the creation stage. When creating ideas When scheduling a meeting call it a creation meeting to set expectations that the structure will be loose and the goals less defined so there'll be less likelihood of frustration and confusion particularly among those who prefer more structure. Consider starting with the biggest picture possible restating the mission of the project and asking if that mission is limited by unnecessary assumptions and traditions. Create a wish list that gives people the freedom to brainstorm about project outcomes goals or characteristics that might seem impractical or unrealistic on the surface. Don't get bogged down in details too soon because discussing the specifics of an idea can result in a premature commitment in one direction for the project. Avoid the temptation to move on before all of the team's options have been explored. Toward the end of this stage team members begin to curb their creativity and consider practical solutions. Settling on the direction for the project usually means dropping some attractive workable ideas when sorting through ideas. Consider the scope of the project. Are there bold ideas that can be set aside and pursued once a first phase of the project has been completed? Ask if the team is ready to move forward. Sometimes spending more time on brainstorming up front saves time later on. In other instances it stagnates the team's productivity and takes a toll on morale. Documentation. Document or task someone to document all decisions made and all items that will require future exploration. Document in your personal development journal any lessons learned related to the creation stage. Consider issues that arose and how you handled them. Also include ways that you could have been more effective during those situations. You can also reflect on your interpersonal as well as your interpersonal reactions to these situations and how you could improve. The advancing stage. The advancing stage focuses on interaction where the team moves the idea forward and starts to give it some shape. The team considers the practical issues and begins to put together a broad plan to turn this idea into reality. Communication is also a key element in the advancing stage as the team members attend to the human part of the project. This is where the emotions, feelings, opinions and interpersonal skills start becoming evident. Team members need to know what's going on, what role they might play and why it's important and they also need to maintain energy and optimism around the idea. Keep in mind that refiners often find it helpful to partner with advances who love to sell a new idea. After the brainstorming of the creating stage, the project needs some broad definition to move forward. Furthermore, the team needs to look at the big picture or strategic plan and determine if new ideas are realistic and worthwhile. Defining the project. Determine the simplest way to describe the idea or project to help clarify a common vision for the project and to help team members quickly communicate the nature of the project to those outside the team. Compare the goal of the project with the overall mission of the team or organization to determine if they're consistent. Identify the different stages that the project will go through and estimate the resources that are available during each of those stages to determine if they're sufficient. Have some informal conversations with experts outside the creation team to discuss the idea in big picture or strategic terms to determine if it's realistic and useful to know if it's been done before and to know what risks there could be that you haven't considered yet. Communication is one of the chief goals of the advancing stage, particularly when the team consists of a larger number of people. Everyone needs to understand the scope and limitations of their preferred role so they can participate during all stages. In addition, team members should be very intentional in their efforts to generate optimism and energy around the idea. Consider the following ideas that facilitate the advancing stage. Two-way communication system. Organize an initial advancement meeting where team members and other organization members can ask more focused questions. Take time to go over the big picture or strategic goals of the project again and remind team members and others how it fits into the bigger mission of your organization. Then schedule a follow-up advancement meeting as needed. Brainstorm creative ways to get all members of the organization invested in the project. You may have to call on any advanceers and creators to help sketch out ideas that will help people care about the success of the plan. Identify all of the people, both internally and externally to your organization, who will be affected by the project. Consider whose initial approval and buy-in will be valuable in the long term. Make sure that the people who need structure, particularly executors, have as much concrete information as possible. Create a system to communicate such things as schedules, formal role descriptions and expectations, and progress updates. Assign someone to be responsible for communicating changes in the plan and answering questions that arise for anyone outside the team. Documentation. Document or task someone to document all decisions made and all items that will require further exploration. Document in your personal development journal any lessons learned related to the advancing stage. Consider issues that arose and how you handled them. Also include ways that you could have been more effective during those situations. You can also reflect on your interpersonal as well as your interpersonal reactions to these situations and how you could improve. Senior NCOs translate the vision, values, and strategy into day-to-day activities and behaviors. Guides others to action. The refining stage. The refining stage is concerned about analysis where the team talks about and evaluates the idea to determine what's realistic. Team members examine project ideas for holes and flaws. They scrutinize and analyze plans to determine if they'll work in the operational world. In addition, during this stage the team puts together a more specific plan for implementation. Among other things this plan considers what could go wrong, what could be more efficient, and how communication will flow. For your refiners on the team the objectivity and skepticism needed in this stage will probably come very natural to them. Evaluation occurs as part of the refining stage. The team looks critically at new ideas and asks what could go wrong. Will this plan work? And are we really ready to move forward? Here are some ideas to encourage production in the refining stage. Evaluation. Make sure to get feedback from people who weren't involved on the creation team. These might be members of a larger group not involved with the team but it's also valuable to contact those outside the organization, particularly external people or organizations who will be impacted once the idea is implemented. Consider discussing some of the specifics with experts in the field. Set up refinement meetings that are specifically designed to find holes in the project plan. Consider assigning people to play the role of devil's advocate. Make sure you draw on the expertise of individuals who indicate a preference for creating and refining during these meetings. Set up meetings to identify risks and general strategies for responding to mistakes, setbacks, or miscalculations. Remember that the scope, budget, and timeline of your project are dependent on each other. Changing one usually means revising another. Another aspect of the refining stage is implementation planning. Here you map out a detailed path to turn new ideas into reality. This involves defining tasks, assigning tasks, estimating resources, calculating budgets, and developing schedules. Here are some things to keep in mind during this time. Take some time to separate out each project task. Specify which tasks are dependent on each other and which can take place simultaneously. In addition, determine which tasks have fixed or flexible deadlines. Map out the resources you have available to you. A budget should include the money, people, and time. Be specific when clarifying how much time and resources each task will take. When planning timelines and deadlines, it's usually advisable to put extra time into the schedule for unforeseeable obstacles. Most people tend to be a little optimistic when estimating the amount of time that a task will take. Have some creators take a look at the implementation plan and ask if there are non-traditional alternatives that haven't been considered. Could it be done faster, more efficiently, or with less distress to the team? Consider if pieces of the project can be handed off for execution while others are still being refined. This will help ensure that resources aren't sitting idle. Documentation Document or task someone to document all decisions made and all items that will require further exploration. Document in your personal development journal any lessons learned relating to the refining stage. Consider issues that arose and how you handled them. Also include ways that you could have been more effective during those situations. You can also reflect on your interpersonal as well as your interpersonal reactions to these situations and how you could improve. The executing stage During the executing stage, the teams focused on realities. Now it's time to set the plan into full swing. This stage requires considerable dedication, organization, and scheduling. Team members need to have the willpower and patience to follow through on routine or repetitive tasks. Here's where the cognitive domain is extremely evident. For executors, this is often the most fulfilling stage as it allows them to see finished products. Other people, like many creators, may be easily bored if routine tasks are involved. Consider ways that executors can offer organizational skills and detail orientation during this stage. To help ensure the plan's smooth implementation, there are some systems and processes that can be set up ahead of time. Beginning Implementation Define milestones that mark the team's progress. Not only does this help keep the task on schedule, it also helps maintain momentum and energy about the work. Empower people, particularly executors, to ask for clarification and direction if they need it. Appoint someone, perhaps an advance, to be the project help desk. Create a system for quality control. Make sure your plan and timeline are flexible enough to react to the demands of the operational world. For many long and intricate projects, tracking progress is crucial and needs some attention to keep this part running efficiently. Tracking Progress Schedule regular implementation meetings where team members give reports on their progress. Allow for last minute refinement. Be willing to revert the project to an earlier stage for redevelopment. Design a process to assess changes and alternatives that arise as the project takes shape. Be open to insights that were unforeseeable earlier in the project development. Revisit your timelines on a regular basis. Pay particular attention to those parts of the project that have a direct impact on the other sections of the plan. If resources need to be redistributed, make sure everyone on the team hears about the change and understands the reasons. Most teams look forward to finishing a project. Closing the project After the project is completed, create an archive. This invaluable step is often lost in the celebration of a finished project. However, it frequently saves much time and frustration later. This archive should contain records of decisions, communications among team members, and other important documentation. You can use all of the notes you documented during the other stages of the project instead of trying to remember everything that happened. Recognize each person for the role he or she played. This might be a good time to pull in an advance to help with this communication. Documentation Document in your personal development journal any lessons learned related to the executing stage. Consider issues that arose and how you handled them. Also include ways that you could have been more effective during those situations. You can also reflect on your interpersonal as well as your interpersonal reactions to these situations and how you could improve. During the stages process you'll be leading your team as well as managing the team dynamics environment. Three factors as they relate to the four roles will be important in this environment. Communication, meetings, and time management. Roles and communication. People have different priorities and preferences that affect how they communicate. By understanding these differences teams can drastically reduce misunderstandings and miscommunications. Flexors often have an ability to understand all of these perspectives but may lean toward one or two. The following are descriptions of how each team role typically views their duty when it comes to the process of communication. Creators may get most passionate and engaged in imaginative and abstract discussions. They often prefer to live in the world of concepts and may express ideas in a way that others find vague or ambiguous. Others may consider their conversational style scattered or quirky. Creators may be easily bored with discussions that are too concrete and detailed. Advanceers often pick up on the subtle feelings expressed in a conversation. At their best they look beyond the facts and see the real feelings behind what someone's saying. Advanceers may get frustrated with those who aren't as attentive to emotional needs. They may feel that their concerns are ignored or unvalued. Others, however, may feel that advances are too sensitive or base their decisions on intuition rather than logic. Refiners are most attentive to the facts and ideas in a conversation with less attention to the feelings expressed. They may be wary of how emotions cloud reason and may be skeptical of someone who's too enthusiastic about something. Others may feel threatened by their skepticism. They may feel that refiners are judging their ideas. And they are. But it's important that everyone realizes that they aren't judging them as people. Executors tend to have a communication style that's practical and concrete. They're likely to discuss topics that are relevant to their personal experience and may get bored with theoretical discussions. Executors may feel frustrated with those who don't express their concerns in a way that's clear and direct. Others may feel that executors are too literal and concrete. Roles and meetings. Group meetings can be a source of frustration if people don't value the perspective of their team members. Understanding how others approach meetings can help to reduce this tension. Flexors often have an ability to understand all of these perspectives, but may lean toward one or two. The following are descriptions of how each team role typically views meetings. Creators tend to approach meetings in an unstructured way. They're usually open to exploring all new ideas and not closing off their options. They're comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty. Others may feel that they don't set clear goals and that their style lacks direction. Creators in turn often feel their creativity is attacked or dismissed. Advanceers pay particular attention to the social interaction within a meeting. They value cooperation and harmony. They may get frustrated when others make decisions without considering feelings. Others in turn may feel that advanceers focus too much on relationships and not enough on the task. Refiners assure that the team meeting leads to decisions that are logical and well thought out. They encourage the group to think through all of the implications of a plan or idea. Others may feel that refiners are criticizing their ideas. Refiners in turn may be frustrated with those who seem to make decisions based on their emotions or gut. Executors tend to be very task-oriented in meetings. They like to have clear goals and direction. They prefer to get down to business. They may feel that long theoretical discussions are impractical or unproductive. Others may feel that executors aren't open to new ideas and don't take time to consider the big picture. Roles and time management. People use time differently because they perceive time management differently. Understanding the perspective of other team members is the first step toward addressing concerns and frustrations. Flexors often have an ability to understand all of these perspectives, but may lean toward one or two. The following are descriptions of how each team role typically views time management. Creators often prefer to leave their time unscheduled and unstructured. They tend to avoid planning and are open to meeting demands as they come up. They often get their energy when rushing to meet a deadline. Others may get frustrated that creators wait until the last minute to get things done. Others may want plans from creators that are more organized. Advanceers are willing to find time to build relationships. At their best, they recognize the value of spending time to strengthen communication channels and coordinate team efforts. They understand that good teams are interdependent and freely share information and concerns. Others, however, may feel that advances spend too much time socializing or discussing personal issues. Refiners are often efficient time managers. At their best, they're good at prioritizing and developing long-term plans. They're not bound to their schedules, but they frequently like having timetables. They're often inclined to work in isolation and may find unnecessary interruptions or meetings to be a nuisance. Others may feel that refiners work in a cave and don't spend the time to communicate their progress. Executors tend to be dutiful planners. They usually don't mind doing work that's routine and highly scheduled. They dislike situations where they need to rush to meet a deadline. They may be particularly frustrated when other people put them in this situation. Others may feel that executors are too rigid and inflexible in their use of time. Using the team dimension stages when appropriate can help you, as a senior NCO and team leader, develop subordinates and provide a positive team dynamics environment for others that you have to work with. With this understanding, this section ends. When you get an opportunity to lead a team using the stages method, you'll have more control of the process. Just like the individual team roles, the stages consisted of creating, advancing, refining, and executing, where you had to be the flexor or facilitator or ensure somebody was filling the role of the flexor or being a facilitator. You also are responsible for ensuring the handoffs during the Z process occur at the appropriate times. Creating a personal development journal and documenting your experiences, feelings, decisions, and ways to improve will assist you in lifelong learning for self-improvement. The section ended by showing the relationship of team roles to communication, meetings, and time management, all of which are critical considerations during the stages process. During communications, you learned that people may be very passionate, very attentive, very practical, and straightforward, or very subtle and sensitive. During meetings, you learned that people may be very unstructured, very social, very logical, or very task-oriented. Moving on to time management, people may use time in unplanned ways to build relationships for scheduling and planning, or to reduce rushing to meet deadlines. Your leadership skills will be challenged as you focus your attention on forming one synergistic entity to work through the team dimension stages. And that's what you have to do. Lead and manage your team to ensure mission success. Now, do you really think you need to go directive? Or should you lead and manage in ways that you develop others? You've learned a lot about team dynamics. Let's focus on subordinate, senior NCO, and mission effectiveness. Excellence in all we do. Teamwork is essential to triumph at every level. Airmen recognize the interdependency of every member's contribution towards the mission and strive for organizational excellence. USAF core values. Impact of team dynamics. The source, modified, and new material used to create this chapter along with other lessons in this course provide you opportunities to be more effective, more appropriate, and more positive when facing similar as well as unfamiliar team dynamics situations. By comprehending the team dimensions, you'll be in a better position to identify creative, original thinkers, as well as team members who can recognize, critique, and successfully implement innovative ideas. Most importantly, you can determine ways to facilitate teamwork by assessing, balancing, integrating, and capitalizing on the different strengths of your fellow team members. Subordinate effectiveness. Putting together a team from a group of individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and expertise can be challenging, especially when you don't know each person individually. For a team to work effectively with positive team dynamics, individuals must learn to recognize and appreciate, and respect each other. One of your roles is to help your subordinates become aware of their own strengths and areas of concern, so they can realize how their individual preferences, behaviors, thoughts, and actions impact the team dynamics environment. There are many problems that hinder positive team dynamics environments. You probably won't have the luxury, very often, of picking who you're going to work with or have on your team. When you get your subordinates together, you'll most likely be dealing with different personalities and personal agendas, which are common challenges in working within a team. Other common challenges like poor leadership, ineffective communications, and lack of focus can be reduced or eliminated by helping your people through these challenges by mentoring, coaching, and teaching them how and why positive team dynamics environments will enhance their effectiveness as individuals, team members, and future supervisors. To enhance subordinates development and fulfill the institutional competency of leading people, you must create an environment where your people can share experiences and provide each other open and non-threatening feedback. Positive feedback is directly related to the Air Force core value Integrity First, more specifically, accountability. By sharing experiences, team members can generate insight and become effective problem solvers through a collaborated effort which will have a direct relationship to their effectiveness and self-development. These elements are crucial to a positive team dynamics environment and subordinate growth. Important aspects of a team that works well together are how individuals react with each other and how individuals react with the other team members during the innovation process. Positive relationships are important in a team setting, and understanding them is equally important. In order to develop positive team dynamics, your people must first develop good relationships. Without respectful team dynamics environments, the Z process will most likely fail at some point, negatively impacting subordinate and team member effectiveness, increasing the time team members stay in the panic mode of the PEP cycle, and causing you increased tension and time spent on problem B situations. AI theory. However, as your people are working on developing effective relationships, another way to foster positive team dynamics is to help them identify their strengths and weaknesses and help them determine which team role or roles they feel are most natural. For a new team that hasn't worked together, this could be very time consuming, but very rewarding and ultimately helps set your subordinates as well as the team up for success. Everyone should be responsible for brainstorming, problem-solving, and providing their experience and knowledge, but some roles are more generic and may or may not vary by task. Ultimately, it's up to your subordinates and team members to be willing to learn about themselves so that they can be the most effective by applying the most appropriate skill sets to create the most positive team dynamics environment. Senior NCO effectiveness. A key to leading an effective team is to understand team dynamics. Positive team dynamics begin with good relationships, both on an individual basis and the relationships of individuals within the team. Once you've established good relationships, identifying others' preferred characteristics and most natural team roles will give a team the opportunity to be successful. By identifying possible pitfalls that may hinder positive team dynamics, you'll provide yourself opportunities to combat the negative aspects and develop a more productive and successful team. Your ability to create synergy amongst subordinates and team members is directly in line with AFI 36-2618's Senior NCO General Responsibility. Senior NCOs must lead and manage teams while maintaining the highest level of readiness to ensure mission success. There are many problems that hinder positive team dynamics. As stated previously, you don't usually have the luxury of picking who you're going to work with on a team. Challenges of diversity in relation to team dynamics include dealing with different personalities, personal agendas, poor leadership, ineffective communications, and lack of focus. And these aren't just pointing to your subordinates or team members, you could also be at fault. The first challenge that hinders positive team dynamics environments is poor leadership. There are few things you can do if the poor team leadership is your boss or someone with authoritative power. However, if you find that your leadership is negatively impacting the team, make sure you have someone in the refiner role or you're leading your team through the refining stage so that a devil's advocate is free to bring up alternatives. Once alternatives are out in the open and debated, you, as the poor leader, or the poor leader in charge over you, may see that the new idea is better. Ineffective communications is a quick way for a team to be unproductive and ineffective. By documenting lessons learned, meeting decisions, progress, and activities, a team can easily be kept up to date and in the loop. By staying involved in all aspects of the innovative process, you can task and hold people accountable for their contributions, insight effective communications, and enhance your team leader and senior NCO effectiveness. Lack of focus can also make a team just a group of individuals. Keeping the team focused takes constant effort. A good leader can keep teams focused and on task by helping individuals identify their most natural role and enforcing accountability. In addition, you can ensure the individual Z process is being integrated into your team dynamics environment or you're leading your team through the team dimension stages. A good method to keep teams focused is by using an agenda, which is part of documenting and distributing it prior to any meeting. An agenda can get people on the same page and will encourage them to prepare based on the topics under discussion. The institutional competencies, fostering collaborative relationships, more specifically build teams and coalitions and leading people, require you to improve team performance and develop direction, roles, and responsibilities while promoting collaboration and teamwork. One way to accomplish these is to ensure all of your team members feel included. When individual team members feel the environment supports their need to share, be acknowledged, be connected, and be accepted by others, they've established a self-sense of belonging. Another way to meet your obligations under these institutional competencies is to manage the way the team dynamics environment is controlled. Pay particular attention to individuals' needs to influence, be responsible, feel competent, and have authority over others. These needs can create a period of turmoil and upheaval as some members try to dominate while others resist or withdraw. The final way to meet your obligations is to ensure the team dynamics environment fosters trust, provides emotional support, and allows team members to be authentic. It also refers to their need to feel safe and experience friendship during all team interactions. It's highly probable that if you're feeling something within the team, most likely other team members are feeling the same thing as you. To enhance your effectiveness, you need to speak out and share your feelings or thoughts with team members. By doing these things, you can act as a catalyst to move the team into a more mature or productive phase. The development of your team's dynamics is contingent on resolving needs as they arise. As you, your subordinates, your peers, and even your supervisors and superiors go through EPME resident and DL courses, all of you either learn about or actually complete many self-awareness instruments, assessments, and estimators. The learned material or actual self-awareness results should be used in your organizations. You know yourself, but you should be asking people about themselves and having group meetings to discuss these things so that everyone improves their interpersonal communication and team dynamic skills. You could start to put together a matrix of everyone that works for you, that you work with, and that you work for to better understand your work environment. You could also do the same for your personal life. This way you can better recognize individual strengths and natural preferences and better utilize your strengths in addition to being better prepared to address those areas that may become hindrances to effective teamwork and healthy relationships. Over time, you'll be able to recognize indications in others and generalize behaviors to help you better lead in your organization and enhance your relationships. Mission effectiveness. When the team process is executed effectively, a team can be used to pool the ideas and experiences of its members in search for a collective outcome. Teams can help organizations of all types be more efficient in problem solving by pooling experienced personnel to work together. This sense of teamwork focused on successful mission accomplishment is directly tied to the Air Force core value, excellence in all we do. When you're part of a team or are leading a team that displays positive team dynamics, mission effectiveness will be enhanced by the power and feeling of satisfaction of individuals working on the team. The trusting relationships that lead to better sharing of knowledge and understanding, achieving objectives because individuals are working together, team members holding one another accountable, an environment where the input from all team members is valued, providing a process and place for multiple perspectives to be applied to complex problems and issues, and creating a climate where innovation and new ideas are supported and team members listen to diverse points of view. Achieving desired mission success is one of the biggest end results of any team, but there are many more things that make this interdependent process of work not only a success, but also extremely important. A team that works well together promotes innovation, productivity, and increased levels of clear communication and coordination amongst all team members. It helps in better information sharing, which leads to reduced mistakes and misinterpretations. As you can see, applying team dynamics concepts and principles appropriately, effectively, and positively can have favorable and developmental impacts on subordinate, senior NCO, and mission effectiveness. In addition, you can apply these same tools in any environment where you'll be working in charge of, with, or for others in order to create environments to enhance teamwork and coalition building. After the progress check, the conclusion will briefly close out this chapter on team dynamics. Summary. We all have natural strengths that enable us to perform certain roles comfortably on a team. Our individual tendencies toward change make us less effective on our own than as members of a team. We need to balance our strengths as team members so innovative ideas are not only conceived, but successfully advanced, refined, and implemented. The team dimensions material you learned about in team dynamics will help you identify your most natural approach and the most comfortable role you perform in the team process. Whether you're a creator, an advance, a refiner, an executor, or a flexor, each has inherent strengths and challenges that will impact the team dynamics environment. The key is to understand how the team dimensions material is useful in interacting successfully with team members with different patterns. Paying particular attention to the PEP, panic, elation, panic, cycle can definitely help you lead team members through interpersonal and team dynamics difficulties more effectively. The Z process is another way to identify role interactions and team dynamics that demonstrate how each team member's strengths can be used more effectively. This process is most effective when you and the other team members understand, respect, appreciate, and value the contributions of each other. In addition, team dynamics concepts help team members work together with fewer conflicts. As a leader, you must help others recognize their own strengths and how to respect the strengths of others. By educating others, you'll help them be better able to accept their personal roles and responsibilities. Through this awareness, team members will begin to find others' behaviors less threatening, and since there's less negative emotion, there's less conflict. The bottom line is the success of a team depends on the participation and contribution of each member in the team process. When dealing with human beings, there's a complex array of characteristics that makes each of us an individual. The material associated with the team dynamics chapter provides you with a partial description of how individuals are likely to interact with others. Since these behaviors and thoughts are cross-cultural, team dynamics concepts can be used in almost any situation. Unless everyone you come into contact with has taken the team dimension profile instrument and carries the results with them to share with others, you'll have to rely on what you learned in this chapter and your observation skills. By looking for indicators as to individual preferences, you'll be better able to monitor any team's progression and provide guidance in a more effective, efficient, appropriate, and positive manner which could lead to successful and effective mission completion with higher morale, trust, and respect among team members. Understanding how to identify how you and others most naturally approach things and which role you and others tend to fit into on a team will enhance your effectiveness as well as the effectiveness of the particular mission being worked. By helping people to identify the creators, advances, refiners, executors, and flexors on their teams, you can help members capitalize on their strengths and skills. When you can identify individual people's preferences, you can help put together well-balanced teams whose members offer complementary strengths and skills. And because team members reinforce each other, innovation occurs faster with greater likelihood of success. Finally, team dynamics concepts help you create opportunities to enhance motivation and self-esteem. Instead of projects making team members feel inadequate or uncomfortable, as the leader, you can help individual members see how his or her existing strengths can contribute to the team's success. Building teams and coalitions doesn't necessarily mean picking and choosing who you want to be on your team. It means taking who you currently have or who you're given, then knowing how they operate, their feelings, behaviors, actions, or at least being able to identify significant and minute characteristics and leading them and building them into more effective, appropriate, and positive team members. When you build people, that means you're developing them. You have a self-awareness, then identify characteristics and others by applying some EPME tools, and then help them develop. There are numerous other factors that have to be considered and some of them are presented in other chapters of this course. By weaving different chapter material together you'll create a well-defined and detailed roadmap for your life-long journey of working with others effectively, appropriately, and positively. Key terms. Advancer. Page 9. Conceptual Pattern. Page 6. Creator. Page 8. Executor. Page 10. Flexor. Page 11. Innovation. Page 5. Methodical Pattern. Page 7. Normative Pattern. Page 7. PEP cycle. Page 14. Refiner. Page 10. Spontaneous Pattern. Page 6. Team. Page 4. Team Dynamics. Page 5. Z Process. Page 16. Team Roles Scenario. Situation Response. Question 1. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Acknowledge their originality by praising their concepts or ideas when appropriate. When praising make sure I'm sincere and it's authentic. Realize that creators break the rules at times. Let them know I understand and appreciate the original way in which their ideas deviate from the norm. Respect their desire to be different. If an idea strikes me as unusual, acknowledge how it's different by comparing it to the present way of doing things and pointing out how the new idea could be an improvement. I have to be sure I get feedback to ensure I understand the idea completely. Question 2. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Offer to take the creators ideas a step further and test them out for possible implementation. Try to create positive energy and excitement to get creators to brainstorm and generate options or ideas if there's tension from stalled progress. Question 3. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Give the creator problems to solve, not just solutions. Respect the creator by giving him or her strategy, not just data. Involve creators early in the refining process so everyone is on track. Acknowledge they have good ideas before I challenge them. Be open to their fixes when I express concerns about their original ideas. Once the best idea is presented, no enough to stop challenging. Question 4. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Give them ideas or leads on ideas. Give them the confidence to keep new ideas alive. Question 5. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Give advances the names of people who would like and support my ideas. Explain how the later steps for each idea would work. Question 6. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Respect their plans and schedules. Be particularly aware of and sensitive to their original plans or schedules. Talk about the next steps. Question 7. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Wait until the refiner has been involved before implementing. Be particularly aware of and sensitive to their original plans and schedules. Question 8. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Respect their judgment, opinions, contrary views, need for detail, and desire for clarity. Appeal to their sense of pride and precision by referring detailed questions to them. Question 9. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Don't become defensive, belligerent, impatient, or bad-tempered when dealing with them. Support their efforts to consider different options but still be willing to engage in constructive debate or new directions. Question 10. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Ask them where we'll run into trouble with these ideas. Don't begin implementing until all the problems have been worked out. Question 11. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Assure them that we all want things to proceed smoothly. Ask them what their implementation needs are and take care of them. Question 12. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Give them enough time to do their jobs well. Stop the process of creating once an implementation plan has been approved. Question 13. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Be patient when they want to stop the process to examine a flaw. Allow the refiner to work out the problems before involving the executor. Question 14. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Ensure that all major issues have been settled before they get the project. Question 15. Responses. Your answers should show a relationship to the following possible responses. Suggest that the team agree up front on an overall strategy or process. Once everyone understands when and how they're involved in the overall process and when each handoff occurs, they're likely to appreciate the interdependent makeup of the team. Ensure that each member is recognized for his or her contributions, ideally when the team is all together. It's also important for individuals to let each other know they value and respect the work they each do, and that the overall success of a project is based on, and due to, the contributions of them all. Encourage individuals who may have to perform several different roles to focus on those tasks at which they excel at, if possible, swap their other tasks with people who have strengths in those areas. This sort of flexibility to change and awareness of one's most comfortable roles and tasks in the innovation process will enable you and your teammates to capitalize on your strengths for the betterment of the team.