Making the decision to change on a personal level only takes one
person, for a team to make an intentional change it takes collaboration. Teams often go through periods of change which
on unintentional, they simply grow as a group and become stronger as a unit, or
they grow apart and become weaker. This
is just a normal part of group dynamics.
Some groups are committed to becoming the best they can as a team, such
as the US Women’s Soccer Team, and others are made up of members who are
focused on personal goals rather than team goals, such as the 2000 and 2004 US
Olympic basketball team.
Akrivou, Boyatzis, and McLeod
(2006) made five discoveries about group development through ICT: the emergence of shared ideal, vision, or dream,
exploration of norms, paradoxes, challenges, and gaps, the group’s learning
agenda, group experimentation and practice, and resonant relationships. In three of these areas, the US Women’s
Soccer Team was much stronger than the Men’s Olympic Basketball Teams. These areas were the emergence of shared
ideal, vision, or dream; the group’s learning agenda, and resonant
relationships.
When a team is looking for its ideal self all members must accept the
emergence of shared ideal, vision, or dream.
The image of the ideal or a shared vision has three core features,
namely hope, an image of a desired future, and core identity (Akrivou, Boyatzis, and McLeod, 2006). The Women’s Soccer Team had this, they were
all united in working towards the same goal; to be the best they could be as a
team. They all agreed on a united goal
or vision and they devoted their time to achieving it. They weren’t without struggles, as Dure
(2016) pointed out no team is without its internal tensions, and the American women
had distinct groupings of age and alma mater, but private cliques never became
public nuisances.
The same cannot be said for the
Men’s basketball teams, they were a group of players thrown together and
expected to play as a cohesive unit, an all-star team of sorts. These teams did not have much practice time
together and never really meshed as a unit, a lot of the players had individual
goals but the team was lacking a vision.
As Leopold and Teitelbaum (2016) pointed out the perception of the team had
diminished both at home and abroad. The
mix of players assembled for the 2004 Team was a mishmash of personalities that
made it difficult to come together as a team.
Some were unable to give up the mindset that they were stars and did not
need to function as a team.
In order for a team to achieve their vision, they need to
have a learning agenda to follow. In the
case of the Women’s soccer team, they had a tight schedule of practice,
conditioning, and strength training.
They spent the majority of their time together and form that they formed
a bond. The time spent together on the
field helped them to learn not only the skills they needed but also how to work
together as a team.
On the other hand, the Men’s basketball team did not spend
that much time together. They all had
just finished the NBA season where they played with their respective teams and
now they were mixed together, given few practices, and expected to move as a
well-oiled machine. This was not a
recipe for success. As Leopold
and Teitelbaum (2016) stated The
United States could no longer throw 12 All-Stars together and hope they would
emerge victorious. The world teams had
improved yet the US had remained the same.
The 2004 team was also made up of some very young talent, talent that
would eventually dominate the NBA, but at the time of the Olympics they were
still unseasoned. This mixed with the
low scoring percentages and Iverson’s “ball hogging” on the court showed to the
world the lack of practice the US had (Fields, 2012).
The final aspect of ICT as a team is creating resonant relationships. On the women’s team, there were some lasting
relationships formed, it is not to say that all the women got along at all
times but they did have a mutual respect for each other and managed to keep any
issues off the field. Chuck (2015)
talked about Title IX being one reason the women’s team was such a cohesive
group, the mere existence of the team had been a struggle and from adversity
comes strength. The opportunities for
women in professional sports if much lower than for men, therefore, there is
more pressure to succeed and more on the line with failure. In order to achieve and maintain this level
of success, certain relationship must be present.
With the Men’s basketball team, most of the players came from
rival teams during the NBA season and yet were expected to play together as a
team. Beyond the fact that every NBA
team has it’s own playing style, they also had their own rivalries and lack of
respect for other players and teams. In
their eyes, there was no reason to create relationships, as they would all be
returning to their own teams after the Olympics were over. When people form bonds or relationships they
are more likely to work well together, unfortunately the men’s teams were full
of members who were unable to look beyond themselves and their own talent. The mindset of the team had shifted and
instead of working together to achieve a goal, each player was out to prove
they could win on his or her own. This
behavior and attitude did not generate relationships.
When a team makes a decision to change intentionally all
members need to be on board and buy into the change. This was the case with the US Women’s Soccer
Team; they were able to put aside any personal differences in order to achieve
the team’s shared vision. The Men’s
basketball team, on the other hand, was never able to do this; they were each
focused on themselves rather than the team itself. All teams go through changes that are
unintentional but in order to make intentional change occur the team dynamics
must be cohesive. Akrivou, Boyatzis, and McLeod (2006)
offered a typology of group
development
theories using three: change, stability, and continuity. A team that faces and overcomes change will
eventually enter stability in which the team has a chance to become even stronger
and from that they achieve a level of endurance that will carry them
through.
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.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/10.1108/02621710610678490
Chuck, E. (2015). A Level Playing
Field: Why the USA Is So Strong in Women's
Dure, B. (2016). Carli Lloyd's
memoir explodes myth that US women's soccer is all
Fields, C. (2012). Ranking Every
USA Basketball Dream Team 1992-
Leopold, B., & Teitelbaum, B.
(2016). Red, White and Bronze: The death and rebirth
of USA
Basketball. Retrieved February 11, 2017, from
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/red-white-and-bronze-2004-death-and-rebirth-usa-basketball
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