Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups (HBR) Flashcards
What have most executives accepted about emotional intelligence by now?
That EI is as critical as IQ to an individual’s effectiveness.
Does individual EI have a group analog?
Yes, and it is just as critical to groups’ effectiveness.
To make teams more effective, is it useful to focus on the task processes that distinguish the most successful teams?
No, identifying the need for cooperation, participation, commitment to goals is not that useful! These processes cannot be simply imitated by other teams with similar effects.
What does the real source of a great team’s success lie in?
The fundamental conditions that allow effective task processes to emerge, and that cause members to engage in them wholeheartedly.
What are the three conditions essential to a group’s effectiveness?
- Trust among members
- A sense of group identity
- A sense of group efficacy
What do teams need to create, to be most effective?
Emotionally intelligent norms, attitudes and behaviors that eventually become habits, that support behaviors for building trust, group identity, and group efficacy.
What is the outcome of the creation of EI norms?
Complete engagement in tasks.
Does a team with EI members make for an EI group?
No! A team, like any social group, takes on its own character.
What does creating an upward, self-reinforcing spiral of trust, group identity, and group efficacy require?
More than a few members who exhibit EI behavior!
It requires a team atmosphere in which the norms build EMOTIONAL CAPACITY and INFLUENCE EMOTIONS IN CONSTRUCTIVE WAYS.
What is emotional capacity?
The ability to respond constructively in emotionally uncomfortable situations.
Why is team emotional intelligence more complicated than individual emotional intelligence?
Teams interact at more levels.
What are the chief characteristics of someone with high EI?
They are AWARE of emotions, and able to REGULATE them. This awareness and regulation are directed both inward, to one’s self, and outward, to others.
It consists of both PERSONAL competence and SOCIAL competence.
What is the additional level of awareness and regulation required by a group?
Mindfulness of the emotions of its members, its own group emotions or moods, and the emotions of other groups and individuals outside its boundaries.
What is the importance of having a norm that encourages interpersonal understanding?
When a member is not on the same emotional wavelength as the rest, a team needs to be emotionally intelligent vis-a-vis that individuals, BEING AWARE OF THE PROBLEM.
This, for instance, includes picking up on someone’s defensiveness.
What does a norm that emphasizes interpersonal understanding consist of?
Working together to accurately hear and understand one another’s feelings and concerns, to improve member morale and a willingness to cooperate.
How does individual member’s perspective have to do with team EI?
Many teams build high EI by taking pains to consider matters from an individual member’s perspective.
This considers: “Are there any perspectives we haven’t heard yet or thought through completely?”
What is the more effective approach to perspective taking?
Ensure that team members see one another making the effort to grapple with perspectives.
This creates the kind of trust leading to greater participation among members.
When there are high levels of ______, teams are more creative and productive.
When there are high levels of PARTICIPATION, COOPERATION, and COLLABORATION AMONG MEMBERS, teams are more creative and productive.
What is at the heart of the conditions of trust, identity, and efficacy, in teams?
Emotions! Groups need to build their emotional intelligence.
What is group emotional intelligence about?
- Bringing emotions deliberately to the surface, and understanding how they affect the team’s work
- Behaving in ways that build relationships, both inside and outside the team
- Behaving in ways that strengthen the team’s ability to face challenges
- Exploring, embracing, and ultimately relying on emotion in work that is deeply human
What are the components to the Model of Team Effectiveness?
- Group Emotional Intelligence
- Trust, Identity, Efficacy
- Participation, Cooperation, Collaboration
- Better Decisions, More Creative Solutions, Higher Productivity
What are the two ways that groups can become more aware of their members’ perspectives and feelings?
- Interpersonal Understanding
- Perspective Taking
What is the most constructive way to regulate team members’ emotions?
Establishing norms in the group for both confrontation and caring.
What do teams need to work effectively?
- Mutual trust
- Common commitment to goals
What norms are critical for group emotional intelligence that facilitates group efficacy?
Norms for GROUP SELF-AWARENESS, of emotional states, strengths and weaknesses, modes of interaction, and task processes.
How do teams gain norms for group self-awareness?
Through self-evaluation, and by soliciting feedback from others.
What are ways to raise group emotional awareness?
- Articulating the issues
- Norm in which people are encouraged to speak up when they feel the group is not being productive
What characterizes emotionally competent teams?
An emotional capacity to face potentially difficult information and actively seek opinions on their task processes, progress, and performance, from the outside.
What is a popular method to build a sense of collective enthusiasm?
Team-building outings.
What norms do effective teams have that strengthen their ability to respond to emotional challenges?
The norms they favor accomplish three main things:
- Create resources for working with emotions
- Foster an affirmative environment
- Encourage proactive problem-solving
When are groups more creative?
When members collaborate unreservedly, when there is mutual trust rooted in emotionally intelligent interactions.
What are important resources that teams can draw on to deal with group emotions?
- A common vocabulary
- The practice of making time for a “wailing wall”, a few minutes of whining and moaning about some setback, to acknowledge negative emotions (venting)
What does an affirmative environment bring? What norms are associated?
A “can-do” attitude, brought about by group norms that favor optimism, and positive images and interpretations over negative ones.
What are norms helpful to make teams aware of the broader organizational context?
- Have various team members act as LIAISONS to important constituencies, to take on a CROSS-BOUNDARY PERSPECTIVE
- Employ norms that encourage a group to recognize the feelings and needs of other groups, for INTERTEAM AWARENESS.
What does the ability to regulate emotion at the cross-boundary level consist of?
Developing external relationships and gaining the confidence of outsiders, adopting an AMBASSADORIAL role rather than an isolationist one.
What is an example of a ‘closest to the ideal’ emotional intelligent team?
At IDEO!
What does IDEO believe great design is best accomplished through?
The creative friction of diverse teams, rather than the solitary pursuit of brilliant individuals.
What do IDEO teams do that make them highly emotionally intelligent?
- Awareness of individual team members’ emotions, and adeptness in regulating them
- Confronting each other when they break norms
- Seeking feedback from both inside and outside the organization
- Providing outlets for stress
- Ensure awareness of the needs and concerns of people outside their boundaries, and development of relationships with those individuals and groups
What is the key to making teams click?
Norms that build trust, group identity, and group efficacy.
Where do norms come from?
Five basic directions:
- Formal team leaders
- Informal team leaders
- Courageous followers
- Through training
- From the larger organizational culture
What describes the ways informal leaders or other team members enhance emotional intelligence?
They are SUBTLE, though often just as powerful.
Why are training programs helpful in building emotional intelligence?
They sensitize team members to the importance of establishing emotionally intelligent norms.
What are the key takeaways from the article “Building the Emotional Intelligence of Groups”?
“Just like individuals, the most effective teams are emotionally intelligent ones, and that any team can attain emotional intelligence.”
Despite having the brightest and most qualified people, access to resources, and a clear mission, how could a team fail?
If it lacks group emotional intelligence.
Norms That Create Awareness of Emotions: At the individual level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Interpersonal Understanding?
- Take time away from group tasks
to get to know one another. - Have a “check in” at the beginning
of the meeting – that is, ask how
everyone is doing. - Assume that undesirable behavior
takes place for a reason. Find out what
that reason is. Ask questions and listen.
Avoid negative attributions. - Tell your teammates what you’re
thinking and how you’re feeling.
Norms That Create Awareness of Emotions: At the individual level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Perspective Taking?
- Ask whether everyone agrees with
a decision. - Ask quiet members what they think.
- Question decisions that come
too quickly. - Appoint a devil’s advocate.
Norms That Create Awareness of Emotions: At the group level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Team Self-Evaluation?
- Schedule time to examine team
effectiveness. - Create measurable task and process
objectives and then measure them. - Acknowledge and discuss group moods.
- Communicate your sense of what
is transpiring in the team. - Allow members to call a “process check.”
(For instance, a team member might say,
“Process check: is this the most effective
use of our time right now?”)
Norms That Create Awareness of Emotions: At the group level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Seeking Feedback?
- Ask your “customers” how you are doing.
- Post your work and invite comments.
- Benchmark your processes.
Norms That Create Awareness of Emotions: At the cross-boundary level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Organizational Understanding?
- Find out the concerns and needs
of others in the organization. - Consider who can influence the
team’s ability to accomplish its goals. - Discuss the culture and politics
in the organization. - Ask whether proposed team
actions are congruent with the
organization’s culture and politics.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the individual level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Confronting?
- Set ground rules and use them to
point out errant behavior. - Call members on errant behavior.
- Create playful devices for pointing
out such behavior. These often emerge
from the group spontaneously.
Reinforce them.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the individual level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Caring?
- Support members: volunteer to help
them if they need it, be flexible, and
provide emotional support. - Validate members’ contributions.
Let members know they are valued. - Protect members from attack.
- Respect individuality and differences
in perspectives. Listen. - Never be derogatory or demeaning.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the group level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Creating Resources for Working with Emotion?
- Make time to discuss difficult issues,
and address the emotions that
surround them. - Find creative, shorthand ways to
acknowledge and express the emotion
in the group. - Create fun ways to acknowledge and
relieve stress and tension. - Express acceptance of members’
emotions.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the group level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Creating an Affirmative Environment?
- Reinforce that the team can meet a
challenge. Be optimistic. For example,
say things like,“We can get through this”
or “Nothing will stop us.” - Focus on what you can control.
- Remind members of the group’s
important and positive mission. - Remind the group how it solved a
similar problem before. - Focus on problem solving, not blaming.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the group level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Solving Problems Proactively?
- Anticipate problems and address them
before they happen. - Take the initiative to understand and
get what you need to be effective. - Do it yourself if others aren’t responding.
Rely on yourself, not others.
Norms That Help Regulate Emotions: At the cross-functional level, how can teams facilitate the norm of Building External Relationships?
- Create opportunities for networking
and interaction. - Ask about the needs of other teams.
- Provide support for other teams.
- Invite others to team meetings if
they might have a stake in what
you are doing.
What are the Norms That Help Regulate Emotions, at the individual, group, and cross-boundary levels?
Individual:
- Confronting
- Caring
Group:
- Creating resources for working with emotion
- Creating an affirmative environment
- Solving problems proactively
Cross-Boundary:
- Building external relationships
