Team Dynamics and The Great Escape

Patti Gilchrist, PMP, is a Senior Technical Manager with more than 20 years of IT experience. Visit her website at www.freepmstudy.com

  Communications Management   Talent Management  

“They fight! And bite!
They fight and bite and fight!
Fight, fight, fight!
Bite, bite, bite!
The Itchy and Scratchy Show!”

When you think of the dynamics of your team, what image comes to mind? Is your team behaving like a bunch of knuckleheads? Is your motivational style heavy handed like that of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges? Clearly, this is dysfunctional team dynamics.

Do you know how to build, develop and motivate a team that is not dysfunctional? One that is truly capable of being a high-performing team? Before you can answer that question, you must first ask yourself if you know how to recognize a motivated team. What are the characteristics of good team dynamics?

The first answer that might come to mind is a team where there is no conflict and everyone gets along. Many perceive conflict as negative and feel that it should be avoided or eliminated whenever possible. So how do you eliminate conflict to transform your team to become a high-performing, motivated team?

In the “Itchy & Scratchy & Marge” episode of the second season of The Simpsons (which first aired on December 20, 1990), Marge Simpson attempts to transform the combative cat and mouse cartoon characters to eliminate conflict--thus fitting her view of model behavior. Unhappy that the kids are at home watching “a cat and mouse disembowel each …

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