Part 4: Understanding individual, interpersonal and group dynamics
The best-laid plans for an organisation can come to a crashing halt if you do not take into consideration the needs and motives of the individual.
The fourth part of the book focuses on understanding individual, interpersonal, and group dynamics, and how factors such as trust, group cohesion, empowerment, and decision-making modes change how organisations need to engage, train, and manage their employees and sub-organisations.
Failure to take these into consideration can fundamentally undermine the ability of groups to achieve and execute, even when participants are fully supportive of the intended activities and outcomes on a theoretical level.
Part 4 will include descriptions and implementation guides for four tools:
13. Trust radar
Establishing and maintaining trust is foundational to many aspects of organisational performance, including efficiency, engagement, and knowledge loss.
Using the foundational work of Mika Vanhala, the trust radar tool looks at five dimensions of trust, split across interpersonal and impersonal trust categories.
14. GWCS: Cohesion scoring
Leveraging the existing research on group cohesion in high-volatility, high-stress military environments, and particularly the work of Gary Williams, the instrument focuses on measuring the key factors of affiliation, safety, purpose, and trust.
Teams can survive in low-hazard environments without a strong emphasis on cohesion, but the higher the stakes, the greater the need for cohesive teams.
15. MAPLE: Morale and empowerment diagnostic
Spreitzer and Jackson’s research into the relationship between employee morale and empowerment and their performance suggests a six factor test looking at both someone’s self-perception as an employee, and whether they perceive their organisation is treating them respectfully and equitably.
The six factors are: competence, meaning, self-determination, internal impact, recognition, and fair play / justice.
16. DMM: Decision making modes
Kahnemann’s influential book about Thinking, Fast and Slow identifies crucial differences in reflective versus instinctual thinking and decision-making.
We can build on this to provide more nuanced insights into our individual and group thought processes, and educate and prepare staff appropriately, by evaluating how a particular situation requiring a decision varies across three axes:
Speed — Does the decision need to occur immediately and without conscious thought (automatically), with intent but under time pressure and likely without full information (rapidly), or by taking the time necessary to gather information, assess, and respond fulsomely (reflectively)?
Agency — Is the decision forced to be made due to circumstances (reactive), or one initiated by the individual or group (proactive)?
Situation — Is the decision independent of others (individual), or influenced and conditioned by the actual or predicted behaviours of those around us in similar situations (social)?