How to Build Effective Teams
From the stone age to the modern era, teams are vital to allow society to survive. From hunting Mammoths to maximsing your career teamwork is vital. When looking at team performance in the workplace, the go to theory for building high performing teams is Tuckman and Jensen’s (1977) team development stages model (see below).
The Problem
Whilst this model is strong, the problem appears when it comes to the practical application, whether in the workplace on a project, or the dreaded group work assignments at University. The problem occurs when it comes to the Storming stage. This occurs because the majority of teams skip this stage, due to the fear of conflict and potentially offending a team member. As a result of this, it leads to teams not having complete trust in each other and leads to miscommuncation and as a consequence underperformance. This is costing organisations money and damages the culture in organisations over the long term.
The Solution
The Solution is quite simple. When the storming stage is taking place, in the group meeting you would have an autistic person, neurodiverse or someone with a LinkyBrain to be in the meeting. This person would act as a sounding board, with impartiality and due to their lack of filter, it would allow positive conflict to take place. A facilitator, who works for the organsation would also need to be in the room, to maintain focus and also provide the neurodiverse person with support. This would allow the group to be more open with each other and as a result improve communication and team performance. At the same time it would provide the neurodiverse individual to give them a platform in using their neurodiversity to add value to an organisation, but also build their confidence and social skills at the same time.
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