Lexington, KY - Stereotyping and prejudice are human behaviors that tend to have negative connotations. However, by understanding group dynamics, we can discover two powerful tools to harness group energy, enhancing team and organizational productivity to achieve superior results.
Let's begin from an evolutionary psychology viewpoint. We know that we humans are more likely to survive by collaborating. Groups can achieve goals that individuals alone cannot. However, an important factor in collaboration is trust. If groups do not exist, then we must trust everyone - a state of altruism.
Sadly, genuine altruism does not work as a long-term strategy. Therefore, groups form as a collection of individuals whom we can trust. It serves to limit our cost - a sort of conditional altruism.
Secondly, let's look at the background of what psychologists call ingroup and outgroup dynamics. The "ingroup" is any group that we are a part of, and the "outgroup" is anyone outside that group. Stereotypes and prejudices often surround outgroups.
One of the most potent ingroups is our family of origin. Both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud based much of their work on early childhood experiences. All of us have had specific values indoctrinated or embedded into us during our formative years. We generally carry these values throughout our lives, and they frequently crystallize into firmly held beliefs that can either help or hinder future relationships. Whether we like it or not, our values lead to bias and a propensity to favor individuals within our ingroup and question - or even shun - individuals outside our group. We are frequently unaware of these biases.
Do you think even like-minded people will form stereotypes and prejudices of one another? Surprisingly, they will. One of the most famous illustrations of bias is an experiment with 22 11-year-old boys at a camp in Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma during the summer of 1954. The boys were placed into one of two groups and isolated from each other. Norms and a hierarchy formed within each group. Near the end of the first week, the experimenters allowed each group to become aware of the other. The energy in each group instantly rose, and motivation increased dramatically.
Then the groups were allowed to intermingle, and competitive events were held, pitting each group against the other. The week-long series of contests were manipulated to maintain near parity, in order to allow rivalries to emerge. Despite the fact that these boys came from similar middle-class, religious families, prejudices and stereotypes quickly formed. After a week of competition, not a single boy wanted to be involved with anyone from the other group, their outgroup.
The experiment illustrated how quickly and for little reason such rivalry and conflict can occur. The experimenters then spent the third week furtively introducing goals that could not be achieved by each group alone, thus encouraging the two groups to work together. The interactions slowly dissolved the prejudicial barriers between groups, and conflict was significantly reduced.
Harnessing the power of outgroups
So how can we as leaders harness some of this energy to our advantage? The experiment clearly illustrated a phenomena frequently employed to motivate individuals - create a contest or an enemy. We see this occur from the organizational level up to the national level.
Just as in the experiment with the 11-year-old boys, the tool you can use to increase the energy and enthusiasm within your team is to highlight a competitor and its products or technology. Whether viewed as a matter of survival or simply a wellspring of competitive spirit, a competitive comparison will almost assuredly enliven any project and inject emergent energy into the team.
Transcending ingroups
All but the smallest of organizations have internal groups. The extent to which they collaborate is dependent on the organizational culture. Some cultures intentionally pit one team against the other in order to fuel competition, as described above. However, this can cause problems when the dark side of ingroups emerges.
By their very nature, ingroups tend to cause outgroups, although they do not always have to maintain acrimonious relationships. We often hear the term NIH, or "Not Invented Here." From now on, whenever you hear this term, think of the ingroup and their prejudice against anything from the outgroup. This is the source of NIH.
The second tool at our disposal is to transcend outgroup prejudices and create goals that cannot be met by a single group acting alone. This forces collaboration between groups. If you believe in metrics to measure and motivate group performance you can easily set goals for each group alone as well as collective groups. The collective group goals will encourage collaboration and assist in achieving higher organizational performance.
Some individuals view constant competition as a sign of toughness and strength. They may also view collaboration as soft and accepting of others, or "taking the easy way out." I propose a balanced view. Use competition to motivate and energize your team and collaboration to achieve superior performance toward higher organizational goals.
Joel DiGirolamo heads the firm Turbocharged Leadership and can be found on the web at www.turbochargedleadership.com.