Positive and Negative Team Dynamics
Positive team dynamics reflect the environment in which the team works and the nature of the work the team performs. In addition, the personalities on the team and the way they relate to team dynamics are very important. For the team to work optimally, the way each person interacts is critical to the success of the team. The type of person determines their psychological role in a team and how they interact with others on the team, which in turn influences the team’s dynamics. It’s no wonder people like Google have been known for choosing people based on their personalities.
Research shows the importance of personality in team dynamics and efficiency. Recognizing each person’s psychological role and the balance of roles in a team illustrates the team’s ability to succeed. Profiles play an important role and there will be many options available. Team building plays an important role in helping individuals to understand and acknowledge their psychological tendencies in casual and informal situations. Simple ice-breaking games, such as Knowing Me Knowing You, encourage people to remove barriers, explore and acknowledge their own preferences and find others who share their likes and dislikes. Fun and engaging team-building games like Quickfire require individuals to choose from a variety of challenges, such as liveliness, mental, and creative which are excellent at exploring team dynamics. Under time pressure, participants must quickly select a challenge they know can compete or team up with 1 or more people to complete it. The power of individuals quickly surfaced and like-minded individuals.
When you have a fully engaged group of employees that are accomplishing their goals, you’re on the path to success. This road, however, will have curves and bumps along the way. Remember, you’re dealing with human behavior. It’s not just what’s happening in the workplace that shapes this but also what’s occurring in employees’ personal lives.
There are several positive team dynamics examples, that a team must strive for:
- Alignment: Each member of the team understands the direction and goals. There is no ambiguity around what needs to be accomplished, resulting in less tension. Apprehension and uncertainty indeed make people tense.
- Transparency: Issues will come up in teams, there’s no way around that. It’s best to meet this head-on with openness and honesty. When people think there is something to hide, they become suspicious and untrusting, which is a sure way for team dynamics to suffer.
- Accountability: Lack of accountability drags down teams. Without it, there can be no trust. Ensuring that each team member is aware of their responsibilities and understands the importance of following through is crucial to having a solid team.
Using these three central themes, you can improve and build team dynamics with these strategies.
There are also negative team dynamics. Group leaders and team members can contribute to a negative group dynamic. These are the examples:
- Weak leadership: when a team leader is not appointed collectively, a more dominant member of the group can often take charge. This can lead to a lack of direction, conflicts, or a focus on the wrong priorities.
- Excessive deference to authority: this can happen when people want to be seen to agree with a leader, and therefore hold back from expressing their own opinions.
- Blocking: this happens when team members behave in a way that disrupts the flow of information in the group. People can adopt blocking roles such as the aggressor who is a person who often disagrees with others or is inappropriately outspoken, the negator who is a group member that often critical of others’ ideas, the withdrawer a person who doesn’t participate in the discussion, the recognition seeker a group member who is boastful or dominates the session, and the joker person introduces humor at inappropriate times.
- Groupthink: this happens when people place a desire for consensus above their desire to reach the right decision. This prevents people from fully exploring alternative solutions.
- Freeriding: here, some group members take it easy, and leave their colleagues to do all the work. Free riders may work hard on their own, but limit their contributions in group situations; this is known as “social loafing.”
- Evaluation apprehension: team members’ perceptions can also create a negative group dynamic. Evaluation apprehension happens when people feel that they are being judged excessively harshly by other group members, and they hold back their opinions as a result.
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