GUIDE TO EFFECTIVE TEAMS WITH GDQ AND THE GOAL MATRIX

Step by step towards effective teams

WHY US

You and your team are interdependent, or you wouldn’t be a team

Team building – a term often used to describe group activities and games used when it’s time for kickoff. To get off to a good start in the coming period, we are challenged to compete against each other in teams, often gathered without logic to mix, get to know each other and lighten the mood.

Team building with a scientific basis

Maybe you recognize yourself – or even plan an activity like this. You see that you need to do something extra for the employees to feel included and engaged and are looking for what can help.

Team building in the form described above is often a waste of time and money, according to Dr. Susan A Wheelan, creator of today’s only scientifically validated group development model IMGD (Integrated Model of Group Development).

She and her team, who have devoted 30 years of research specifically to group development, have taken all the research available in the field, compiled it, and tested it.

Today, they have huge amounts of data about groups that work and are continuously measured to get answers about how the group is developing and what actually makes them effective teams. In her research, she has been able to prove that all groups, without exception, go through the same four well-defined stages before winding down to a fifth.

IMGD Stages

Stage 1: Dependence and inclusion

The group members focus on feeling a sense of belonging and creating security. A lot of time is spent getting to know each other and fitting in. At this stage, they avoid conflict and express unwelcome opinions and perceptions that risk standing out.

Stage 2: Counterdependency and fight

Group members in the second stage tend to go in opposition to each other. At this stage they question each other and the formal leader. Conflicts arise.

Stage 3: Trust and structure

In stage three, the group’s members know each other’s competencies and how they complement each other. They know what others think of them and conflict management takes place constructively on an ongoing basis. Everyone takes responsibility for their role based on what the task requires.

Stage 4: Work and Productivity

The groups that have reached the fourth stage are, according to Susan Wheelan, “high-performing teams”. They understand and accept their roles and spend their time working on the main mission. They have a unified view of the group’s goals and have effective methods for solving tasks and conflicts. Everyone has a high responsibility and trusts each other’s contribution and competence.

Efficient and productive teams

Susan Wheelan and her team believe that team building in the sense that at a conference we are sent into various chaotic exercises is quite useless and can even be harmful to the team by helping to create conflict.

What they have been able to show is that some important prerequisites and methods need to be in place for teams to take the steps forward and leave the stages characterized by getting to know each other, inefficiency, conflict.

The research group has developed and scientifically validated tool GDQ (Group Development Questionnaire) over several decades to determine how a group’s stage of development can be determined.

Here you get an insight into what conditions the team needs and some different methods to use to make groups into efficient and productive teams.

Self-awareness

To become effective and productive teams, the group, including all of its members, must each understand where the group is in the stages of development that all groups go through. The group’s members, regardless of role, answer a number of questions, predetermined in the GDQ.

Everyone answers individually about their perception of the group, independently of the others. All answers must be based on the perception of the group as a whole. No questions or answers should be about individuals. It has a good effect if everyone is gathered in a room and answers at the same time, but without talking to each other. It can also be done via a link, which can be sent to everyone – but it is important that everyone responds individually, based on their own perception of the group.

Knowledge

Everyone needs to have a common understanding of what affects the group’s ability to be efficient and productive. A GDQ consultant works with examples and reference cases – to give the group knowledge, recognition and empathy. In an inspiring lecture and associated workshop, the GDQ consultant together with the team creates an openness, curiosity and willingness to understand where the own group’s challenges and opportunities lie.

The current stage of the team

When everyone has knowledge of what the research shows and has seen examples, everyone is motivated to understand where their particular group is.
This is when the GDQ consultant presents the team’s results.
The consultant has used tools, experience and knowledge to analyze the results from the group’s answers. Based on that, the group’s stage of development can be determined. The group also receives specific feedback, anonymously, on how the group members describe the group, how it works, what works and what could be done differently.
When the group’s current situation is presented to the group, the work begins with reflection and action.

Reflection, action and conflict resolution

Based on what emerges in the GDQ, the consultant, the group and the manager reflect on what is needed as the next step. The work of forming an action plan begins. Here, the approaches differ depending on the group and what challenges they have.
Groups marked by conflicts need help to resolve them and find a common language in order to move forward.
In a combination of exercises, workshops and individual conversations during the walk, the team members are helped to;

* Understand the background to the other person’s behavior
* Put into words their own needs and goals
* Be solution-oriented instead of problem-oriented
* Listen to the other person’s feelings and needs
* Practice active listening and hearing more than just what is said in words
* Give clear feedback during and at the end of the conversations and receive feedback in a constructive way

It happens, albeit less often, that it is decided that the group needs to be disbanded and take shape in a new constellation. Another group may be ready to embrace tools like the goal matrix and begin working to collectively build their action plan.

Action plan

At this stage, the group’s task is to set up the action plan they need to follow in order to reach the next stage of group development. The GDQ consultant guides through established methods to help the group and each member has their own individual responsibility to participate, contribute and share information Here it is particularly effective when information sharing is high.

“We bring in another dimension through the structured way we work with walking“, says Maria Runesson, GDQ consultant and Process Development & Scale Up Manager at Walking Talking. “It is more likely that a person will share their thoughts and knowledge in a group if they know in advance that someone else in the group also has that information. Therefore, the conversations that individuals have one-on-one when they walk together are very valuable for group development.“

The action plan is structured in several steps and is primarily based on what goals the group must achieve.

Rules of conduct

An example from the work with the goal matrix is how the team in various workshops and exercises receives guidance in setting up its own rules of conduct. What should apply to us as a group? What rules apply and how do we follow them? Why are these the rules and how do we remind each other of them? How do we go about following them? What do we do when the rules need to be updated?

The goal matrix

Maria Åkerlund and Christian Jacobsson have taken Susan Wheelan’s solid research further in GDQ Associates with the mission and objective of ensuring that the research continues at a high scientific level and that the methods are disseminated. In his work with group development, Christian Jacobsson has developed a method to help the team create their action plan towards the company’s and the team’s goals. It is called the goal matrix. Åkerlund and Jacobsson’s research shows that 100% of all teams that work through the goal matrix make it from the current stage to the next. Because late-stage teams are more productive and efficient, working with the goals matrix is a constructive way to ensure that the team is working more effectively to achieve their and the company’s goals.

The goal matrix takes the team through several steps. To begin with, the framework is set.
* Time for goal achievement.
* Place for goal achievement.
* Six target areas depending on the time and place of evaluation.
* Purpose, Members and Stakeholders.

After that, the team works through a number of points that, depending on the stage of development and for each team, will look different, but help the team move forward in group development. They are formulated as follows:

1. Internal standards: How should the team behave to have a good working climate?
2. External standards: How does the team want to be perceived?
3. Developmental goals: What is the team aiming for in its teamwork?
4. Operative goals: What the team is paid to accomplish.
5. Guiding stars: The dream of the ideal team.
6. Vision: The team’s valued direction.

With guidance and workshops, the team continues the work and agrees on a common and well-motivated goal image, which is anchored in each individual and towards the organisation’s goals and therefore also very effective.

Feedback and new measurement

Teams that work consciously with the goal matrix, rules and action plan move forward in the group’s development stages. They are also better prepared when the team changes. It provides a common language that facilitates when change occurs. For a group that does not have the common language, it takes longer to get back to productivity and efficiency after changes that have affected the group.

What the researchers were able to show is that teams that have high self-awareness and work with the tools of the goal matrix can quickly bring in new members and reshape themselves to move to more efficient and productive stages.

Therefore, it is valuable to work long-term with group development in a structured way and to give the teams tools to understand what is happening.

A good way is to regularly take the GDQ measurement and to get help when things change.
Another is to regularly work with information exchange between colleagues and also between different teams. Having a structure to meet in informal ways, like going for a walk, between colleagues, pays off.

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