Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams

Transcription

1 Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams

2 Douglass J. Wilde Teamology: The Construction and Organization of Effective Teams 123

3 Douglass J. Wilde, Professor Emeritus Design Division Department of Mechanical Engineering Stanford University Building 530, 440 Escondido Mall Stanford, CA USA ISBN e-isbn DOI / British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Wilde, Douglass J. Teamology: the construction and organization of effective teams 1. Jung, C. G. (Carl Gustav), Group problem solving 3. Cognitive psychology 4. Typology (Psychology) 5. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator 6. Group work in education Case studies I. Title ISBN-13: Library of Congress Control Number: Springer-Verlag London Limited Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. Cover design: estudio Calamar S.L., Girona, Spain Printed on acid-free paper springer.com

4 To Ariana Wilde, my bright one and only grandchild.

5 Preface This book is the product of sixteen years of studying student teams in engineering design project courses, mainly at Stanford University. The book shows how psychiatrist C. G. Jung s cognition theory, a cornerstone of modern personality typology, may be used to form and organize effective problem-solving teams. It does this through a novel quantitative transformation of numbers from the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychological instrument directly on to Jung s eight cognitive modes. The quantitative mode scores resulting make obvious what is needed to make a good team. Using these methods will make an entire team project class perform as well as what would be, without them, the top quartile. This extravagant claim is based partly on experience with the ability of Stanford s graduate teams to win national design prizes. It also comes from direct observation of project courses small and large at Stanford and at other universities as far away as Shanghai. The basic idea is to have every team possess among its members the full range of problem-solving approaches available to the human race. People who individually have only a few problem-solving strategies can pool these on a good team to make it overcome any obstacle it encounters. Since some of these strategies are introverted and thus not readily apparent to outside observers, a questionnaire is needed to discover what modes each person has to contribute. The best questionnaire for this is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); many classes use the smaller 20-item version in the book s second chapter. The numbers from either of these questionnaires are transformed easily into the cognitive mode scores employed to construct and organize the teams. An advantage of using such an objective questionnaire is its avoidance of the cliques and conformity that produce inferior teams. The MBTI also generates in team members the self-awareness and tolerance of different points vii

6 viii Preface of view needed on a cognitively diverse team. This diversity has brought about an expansion of conventional personality type theory that is sure to intrigue adherents of the MBTI. Three audiences are targeted. First are educators in charge of engineering project courses, particularly the capstones of the senior year and first year introductory courses intended to motivate potential majors. This does not exclude non-academics such as project managers and human resource professionals. Extensions to other types of team corporate, medical, literary or legal would seem possible even when not discussed explicitly. The second audience includes students and working professionals on project teams at all levels of Engineering, Architecture and Business. This does not exclude the rare course focusing on personal development through teamwork, a relatively new educational approach suggested by the author s experience with such an undergraduate seminar. Third are the MBTI users and counselors interested in personal selfawareness and the development of interpersonal ability through the book s quantitative transformation of MBTI scores. This transformation into the Jungian domain yields cognition patterns descriptions more detailed than those in the celebrated Myers Briggs Type Table and better suited for the analysis of teams. The book begins by recounting the remarkable improvement experienced by Stanford teams resulting from proper management of the various diversities a good team should have, especially psychological diversity as measured by the MBTI. It also summarizes Jung s cognition theory as an introduction to Chap. 2. The second chapter, probably the one most interesting to MBTI professionals and Jungian analysts, discusses the measurement of Jung s cognition by the MBTI and how to transform the MBTI clarity scores rigorously into cognitive mode scores. Chapter 3, especially of interest to faculty and corporate management, shows how the mode scores can be used to form uniformly excellent teams from a pool of students or working professionals. Although not at all deep mathematically, this chapter is no doubt the one requiring the most concentration by the Team-meister responsible for team formation. For top performance, computer assistance may be needed for large personnel pools. Using mode scores to organize an existing team, no matter how formed originally, is developed in the fourth chapter. The organization meeting in which this is done has been found important for speeding up the team building process. This chapter will particularly interest people already on working teams.

7 Preface ix Chapter 5 interprets modal scores in terms of individual personality. The personality descriptions generated will particularly interest MBTI adherents, for they furnish valuable expanded second opinions relative to the famous sixteen-element Myers Type Table. Although much of the book concerns the normal psychology of Jung s personality theory, the author is a systems analyst rather than a psychologist. The relation between psychology and mathematics here is analogous to the fruitful one between physics and engineering. Well-known elements of psychology, as in physics, are organized in powerful new ways, providing at the same time practical applications and novel interpretations of the underlying science. The psychological elements of the theory, being widely known and broadly accepted, are reviewed but not challenged. It is the system in which the elements are imbedded, analyzed by simple but rigorous mathematics, that is strengthened to yield a new, dramatically expanded typology. This work may thus begin a productive new interdisciplinary activity teamology accessible eventually to system analysts and psychologists alike. A glossary follows the last chapter. References in the text give author and publication date, with citation details collected at the very end of the book. Many thanks to Stanford s Center for Design Research, especially to Professors Larry Leifer and Mark Cutkosky, as well as to Stanford s Office of Undergraduate Education, for encouraging and supporting this rather unconventional research. The very careful review of the previous draft s terminology by Dr. Judith Breimer, Research Director of the Center for the Application of Psychological Type (CAPT) in Gainesville FL motivated the blending of the new quantitative Jungian modal theory with the conventional Myers qualitative theory based on the MBTI letters alone. Mechanical Engineering (Design) and Chemical Engineering Stanford University Stanford, CA, USA Doug (Douglass J.) Wilde Professor Emeritus

8 Contents 1 Diversified Teams Introduction Tripling the Prize Frequency AchievingtheIdeal Evaluation: The Lincoln Design Awards ConfirmationStudies AnOverviewofthisBook Introduction ExperientialVariety ProfessionalVariety SociologicalVariety CognitiveVariety ModeMeasurement ConcludingSummary Questionnaire and Transformation The Cognitive Questionnaire Questionnaire Mind-Set Calculations ModePattern Interpreting the Questionnaire Variables Energy Direction: Jung s Attitudes Extraversion E and Introversion I Information Collection and Decision-Making Orientation: Briggs Attitudes Structure J and Flexibility P Info Collection Functions Sensing S and intuition N Decision-Making Functions Thinking T and Feeling F 16 xi

9 xii Contents 2.3 ValidityoftheQuestions ProofoftheModeScoreFormulas Four Correspondences Other Questionnaires ConcludingSummary Exercises Team Formation by Affinity Groups Introduction TeamFormationRationale Scores Measure Probability of Preference notstrengthoftrait High Preference Probability is Desirable Affinity Grouping Top Scores and Affinity Groups Marginality Cognitive Mode Descriptions PreparationforFormation Non-duplication TeamFormationExample Thresholds ModeMultiplicity Tactics SeedAssignment CoreDyads TheCasualApproach LaterMembers TeamSize TeamArithmetic Newcomers ConcludingSummary Exercises Organizing a Team Introduction AidstoTeamOrganization TheTeamPattern Filling Vacancies TeamModeMap ModeDuplication OrganizationMap MoreDifficultOrganization... 44

10 Contents xiii Reaching for a Vacant Mode ModeSharing TeamRoles Jungian Team Role Keywords Advantages of the Role Formulation Efficacity TheTeamPatternMap OtherTeamSizes ConcludingSummary Exercises Personal Description Introduction Myers Personality Type Descriptions ESTJ PrimaryTypeDescriptions ScoreSignificance Single-TypeExample Double Primary-Type Example Secondary Type Descriptions Double-Type Example TypeLettersfromModeScores Exceptions LettersfromModes Letter-TypeExample AMisleadingLetter-Type PersonalDevelopment Ury sevolution AttitudeBalance Words from a Double-Introvert ConcludingSummary Exercises Innovations and Errors SystemAnalysisInnovations Transformation of MBTI Clarities into Jungian Cognitive Mode Scores Affinity Grouping TeamFormationTactics PatternMatching Filling All Vacancies TeamRoles... 69

11 xiv Contents Secondary Myers Types Abstraction of Personality Variables ErrorsandDiscoveries Creativity Workshop MBTIPrize-Winners Creativity Index for Trios and Quartets UnintentionalRelapse FullModalVariety ErrorandWebsiteClosure Publication of the Team Role Concept Course Split in Freshman and Sophomore Seminars Connell Delson Statistical Study Team Organization Meeting OtherUniversities ResearchNeeds Statistical Significance in Large Classes TeamFormationAlgorithms Micro-Personalities Efficacity Reaching Student Development ArchetypeTheory Midlife Transition Descriptions ModeDistribution DirectModeDetermination ConcludingSummary Appendix Glossary References Index... 89

12 Abbreviations and Notation ag. affinity group ag.s affinity groups c- pertaining to information Collection d- pertaining to Decision-making E extraverted, also extraversion clarity index EC extraverted information Collection (attitude), also score ED extraverted Decision-making (attitude), also score EF extraverted feeling (cognitive mode), also score EF extraverted feeling affinity group membership, regular EF extraverted feeling affinity group membership, marginal Ef Diplomat (team role) ef Conciliator (team role) EI Questionnaire score for Energy Direction EN extraverted intuition (cognitive mode), also score EN extraverted intuition affinity group membership, regular EN extraverted intuition affinity group membership, marginal En Entrepreneur (team role) en Innovator (team role) ES extraverted sensing (cognitive mode), also score ES extraverted sensing affinity group membership, regular ES extraverted sensing affinity group membership, marginal Es Tester (team role) es Prototyper (team role) ET extraverted thinking (cognitive mode), also score ET extraverted thinking affinity group membership, regular ET extraverted thinking affinity group membership, marginal Et Coordinator (team role) et Methodologist (team role) xv

13 xvi F I IC ID IF IF IF If if IN IN IN In in IS IS IS is is IT IT IT it it JP J MBTI N P S SN T TF Abbreviations and Notation feeling, also MBTI feeling judgment clarity index introverted, also introversion clarity index introverted information Collection (attitude), also score introverted Decision-making (attitude), also score introverted feeling (cognitive mode), also score introverted feeling affinity group membership, regular introverted feeling affinity group membership, marginal Critiquer (team role) Needfinder (team role) introverted intuition (cognitive mode), also score introverted intuition affinity group membership, regular introverted intuition affinity group membership, marginal Strategist (team role) Visionary (team role) introverted sensing (cognitive mode), also score introverted sensing affinity group membership, regular introverted sensing affinity group membership, marginal Inspector (team role) Investigator (team role) introverted thinking (cognitive mode), also score introverted thinking affinity group membership, regular introverted thinking affinity group membership, marginal Reviewer (team role) Specialist (team role) Questionnaire score for Orientation structured, also MBTI judgment clarity index Myers Briggs Type Indicator intuition, also MBTI intuitive perception clarity index flexible, also MBTI perception clarity index sensing, also MBTI sensing perception clarity index Questionnaire score for Information Collection thinking, also MBTI thinking judgment clarity index Questionnaire score for Decision-making