SUSAN WHEELAN:

Functioning groups offer
A BETTER WORLD

People are happier and business goes better. Schoolchildren receive better grades and more people survive the operating theater. All this happens only if work groups function optimally, maintains Susan Wheelan, one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of group dynamics in connection to productivity.

Susan Wheelan is a bright-eyed and charming woman who throughout the duration of the interview often comments on her own research results with “that's pretty cool stuff, isn't it?” What is cool, she believes, is the connection between group dynamics and high productivity.
Last summer Susan Wheelan visited Sweden in order to, among other things, be the keynote speaker at a research conference about group dynamics. But she has other ties to Sweden as well. For a long time she has been working together with Swedish consulting firms and it is her theories which are behind The Swedish National Defense College’s transformation of the dynamical group leadership course UGL, Development the of Group and Leader (see article in P&L [Personnel & Leadership] number 4, 2008).

Her message is very clear-cut and is based on 40 years of research, much of which is her own as well as a line up of meta-studies. First and foremost she determines that group dynamics is something eternal. “We have this in our DNA. We have to adapt in order to survive and to not be expelled from our groups and communities”. Questioned about whether any differences have emerged between then and now, differences between men and women, or between cultures, the answer remains the same. No, no, no, she has not found any differences worth mentioning. We people function similarly when we end up in a group. The phases that the group goes through always look the same even though they may take on different strengths of expression.
For a great many years she has been working on basic research; studying groups with the aid of a video camera. When she began her studies there was not much research surrounding the area of group dynamics and Susan Wheelan believes that this was due to the lack of technical resources at that time.
In order to study what is happening in a group you require cameras that are easy to manage as well as computers to process the data. This is necessary in order to find out what happens in the group, she points out. The connection between productivity and an efficient team is to be found as much in Susan Wheelan’s research as it is to be found in the research of others. For example – if the surgical team functions well, mortality is reduced in the operating theater. If the teaching team is not disrupted by conflicts, then schoolchildren perform better. And if the management team is welded together, productivity is increased accordingly.
Susan Wheelan is irritated about the lack of understanding concerning the time it takes to build a team. She often is asked to quickly fix teams and send the bill. “But it takes three to four months, at least, for a group to manage to go through the phases that are required in order to become a high performance team”. Plenty of time and an understanding of the basics of the theory of group dynamics, as well as the possibility of calling in professional help if things get stuck - this is the recipe for turning a new group into a high functioning team, Susan Wheelan believes.
“Instead of trying to create a functioning team in two weeks, hand the task over to an already tightly welded high-performance group and they will solve it in three days”. She believes that there is already far too much focus on leadership and far too little focus on collaboration and group development. Susan Wheelan has sometimes offered companies the service of free employee training. But no, they only want to have management training.
When problems arise within the group it is often the leader that is fired or removed. “Keep the leader and help the team instead”, says Susan Wheelan. You can either work with the group dynamic or similarly change at least six out of ten of the group. If you change them one by one the dynamic will not change. I came into contact with a group that had been performing poorly for 19 years. All the members were changed, but one at a time...”

To be a well functioning team does not imply freedom from conflicts. "Conflict of issues is good but interpersonal conflicts kill the group”. “Get away from each and on to the task”, encourages Susan Wheelan

According to Susan Wheelan there are four phases on the road to the well functioning team.
The first phase is characterized by belonging and security. After that comes phase two, with opposition, conflict and questioning of the leadership. “Everybody then thinks that the leader is an idiot” summarizes Susan Wheelan. Phase three implies trust and structure, a little bit along the road to phase four, which leads to work and productivity.
But how do you piece together the optimal team who will quickly and elegantly sail through the four phases? “Seek out people who know how to do the job that is to be done, who know the content of the task”, says Susan Wheelan who believes that all too much prominence is given over to finding personality factors. “I have seen teams fitted together according to Myers-Briggs personality tests, but who didn’t know how to do the job. •

PERSONNEL & LEADERSHIP 7/8 2008





[Caption under the portrait p. 18]

“If the computer is not functioning you can often get immediate help, if the team is not functioning you should have the right to similar immediate help”, is the opinion of Susan Wheelan, a leading figure in the research surrounding group dynamics.


[Caption box on p. 19 right side of page]

Four phases on the road to high-performance>>

1. Belonging and security
The leader needs to provide structure and make decisions. You know that the group is at phase one when the leader asks a question and nobody answers — everything the leaders says seems to disappear into the Bermuda triangle.

2.Opposition and Conflict
The challenge that a leader faces is not to oppose and attack on a personal level. You know that the group is at phase two when you would rather pull out all your teeth without an anesthetic than to go along to the next group meeting.

3. Trust and structure
The role of the leader is to be consultative and delegating; the challenge is to listen and coach. You know that the group is at phase three when you notice that you want to smile broadly at the colleague who drove you crazy last month.

4. Work and productivity
The leader needs to facilitate, support and develop; the challenge is to stand back and let go of the control. You know that the group is at phase four when you can’t imagine anything better than being part of this particular group.

(SOURCE SWEDISH TRANSLATION: SANDAHL PARTNERS)






[Caption under the portrait p. 20]

Group dynamics is eternal and unalterable, Susan Wheelan believes. She does not see any great changes over time; neither does she see any difference between men and women or between people from different cultural backgrounds.





[Caption box upper left p. 20]

Personally>>

Name: Susan Wheelan.
Age: 61.
Roots: Scotland.
Residence: Cape Cod outside Boston.
Career: Teacher, researcher and professor of psychology at Temple University, Penn¬sylvania. Has written a long series of books, as well as innumerable scientific articles on group dynamics. Working presently as a consultant.
Leisure: Crazy about tennis. “I began playing when I was 40 and each time I'm like an eleven year old who is going off to have fun with pals”
Dream: To get to live to see aliens “Only then will people stop fighting on the earth”.


[Caption Box p. 20, lower right]

READING TIPS

CREATING EFFEC¬TIVE TEAMS
— a guide for mem¬bers and leaders, Susan A Wheelan
Sage publications ISBN: 141 29 1376 4


[Caption Box p. 20, lower left]

SUSAN WHEELAN´S MESSAGE

• The group dynamic is the same, regardless of historical epoch, sex or culture.
• It is much more effective to invest in group development than managerial
development.
• It takes between three to four months for team to go through the phases that are necessary if it is to function optimally.
• Putting money down on superficial team-building activities is the same as throwing
it into the sea.


PERSONNEL & LEADERSHIP 7/8 2008


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