In this
week’s reflection blog, I had to read the article “The evolving group: towards
a prescriptive theory of intentional group development” by Kleio Akrivou,
Richard Boyatzis, and Poppy L. McLeod. After reading the article, I am now more
aware of how Intentional Change Theory (ICT) ties into group development. This
understanding allows me to reflect and understand why the US Olympic Women’s
Soccer team was able to achieve the gold medal, while the US “Dream Team” Men’s
Basketball team performed so poorly during the Olympics of 2000 and 2004. There
are five steps to ICT: ideal self, real self, the learning agenda,
experimenting and practice, and the development of close-meaningful
relationships.
In the
first step of the ideal self, in the group level it is an image of the ideal or
a shared vision with the three underlying elements of hope, image of a desired
future, and core identity (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). The women’s
soccer team had an ideal shared vision that featured hope, an image of a
desired future, and a core identity as well as dreams and possibilities of
being able to win the Olympics game. In other words, the women’s soccer team
was full of positive emotions that helped bring the more together towards their
shared vision of winning the Olympics. Unfortunately, the men’s basketball team
did not have a shared vision of their ideal self as they all believed within
themselves on their own alone abilities to win the game. In other words, they
were professional players and each of them with their own ego thought they
would single-handedly win the game. In my opinion, I believe part of the reason
for team’s poor performance was also due to the experienced groupthink. Somehow
the leader thought that by bringing back a few of the past Olympic players who
won the tournaments, the team would work just as good and win the Olympics once
again. As a result, this brought negative emotions to the players and those who
weren’t professional NBA players; it probably made them feel worthless and
helpless.
For the
second step of the real self, this phase serves as a reality check in the group
and creates the tension, experienced as the gaps or threats to the
accomplishment of the shared ideal. In the initial iterations individuals can
experience disappointment in the group, as the group may not be consistent with
the ideal self or vision (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). In my opinion,
this could also be part of the reason why the men’s basketball team performed
poorly. From the beginning of team coming together, the team became
inconsistent with their ideal self and/or vision. As I mentioned before, I
believe part of the reason was because as some players were professional NBA
players, their ego got in the way as these players thought they had enough
skill to overcome any issues and even be able to win the game. Just because you
posses the skills or knowledge, it does not mean you actually know how to apply
it. Fortunately for the women’s soccer team, each team member was in-tuned with
their real self, self-aware, and even aware of the strengths and weaknesses of
others in the team.
The
third step involves developing a learning agenda that focuses commitment to
change goals and action steps (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). Prior to
the Olympics, the women’s soccer team would often get together to practice. As
practice continued, as a team, the ladies began developing their own learning
agenda that was tailored to them as a team. This helped the ladies more by
developing an action plan on how to overcome their weaknesses and use their
strengths as a team to win the Olympics. Sadly, the men’s basketball team did
not have the same fate. As some of the players were professional NBA players
they were able to grasp quickly what needed to be done. But, the players who
were new to the team and were not considered professional NBA players, it felt
like they had a lot to catch up on and the learning agenda and action steps
were tailored more towards them to try and get them on the same professional
level as the NBA players.
The
fourth step involves experimenting and practicing the action steps outlined
during the learning agenda phase. During experimentation and practice, the
positive emotions attractor plays a critical role in sustaining curiosity and
mindfulness, optimism and group efficacy, about the novel way for them to
function (Akrivou, Boyatzis & McLeod, 2006). In other words, this involves
a shared mood. In part, this was part of the reason why the women’s soccer team
was able to succeed as a team. They had a shared positive mood of wanting to
become their ideal self and reach that shared vision as a team. This shared
mood helped them overcome issues, obstacles, and gaps that were in the way
their ideal self. In the other hand, the men’s basketball team had a shared
mood, but it was not a positive mood. The negative mood the basketball team was
feeling during the Olympics became infectious to the rest of the team, which
ended up setting them for failure. Not to mention that as the learning agenda
was tailored more towards the members who weren’t professional NBA players,
when it came time to experiment and practice new norms and behaviors, the whole
team faced inconsistency.
Lastly,
in the final step of developing close, trusting, supportive, and meaningful
relationships group members develop resonant relationships. In the case of the
women’s soccer team, the coach made sure that all the ladies received full
support and made them trust each other on and off the field. In turn, this made
each team member feel secured and close to each other that in the field the
teams’ dynamics were right in line with their ideal self. Unfortunately, this
cannot be said about the men’s basketball team, as they did not develop any
close, meaningful, or supportive relationships on and off the field.
Reference:
Akrivou, K., Boyatzis, R. E.,
& McLeod, P. L. (2006). The evolving group: Towards a prescriptive theory
of intentional group development. The Journal of Management Development, 25(7),
689-706. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02621710610678490
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