by Getting along is pretty important in all walks of life, including it turns out, if you want to have a high-functioning team. Australian Futurist colleague Maree Conway pointed me to a New York Times piece on What Google Learned from its Quest to Build the Perfect Workplace. The gist is that when arguably the world’s greatest data geniuses sorted through, analyzed, cut, pasted, manipulated, etc. mountains of data looking for patterns (and as they say, they are good at this) the only thing that emerged was that teams that established group norms outperformed the rest. Say what?
A while back I posted on Social Physics, which has some terrific research on how social networks work best. Among the key concepts were the importa
nce of Idea flow and social learning, including “social pressure,” which we might relate to group norms.
I am also going through a year-long leadership training course, and, not surprisingly, a key learning I’ve taken away so far is the importance of building and nurturing relationships – which one could relate to group norms. There’s been a lot of self-discovery, including the Gallup Strengths Finder (which we are also using in the Houston Foresight program in Alternative Perspectives class)
Recently, I was reminiscing about previous work experiences and observed how much I enjoyed my corporate gig with Dow Chemical, in particular our underground Explorer’s Network, where informally we developed group norms that enabled that network to unofficially flourish for years.
As my old friend Agent Cooper said “when two separate evens occur simultaneously pertaining to the same object in inquiry we must always pay strict attention.” In my case, we have four! Andy Hines
PS: Anyone else excited by the coming Twin Peaks revival?
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