Competence of the Team Developer
How can I best prepare if I wish to carry out a team development? Which methods should I apply at which point? These initially understandable questions hide the danger of a great misunderstanding: No team development (here seen as an exercise taking place externally) can really be planned in advance. It is also problematic if one does so, because with it, the actual effectiveness of reflection, namely, that something new can arise, is prevented from the outset. Nevertheless, an attempt is made to prepare as well as possible, in order to be sufficiently equipped to bring the team ‘to where it ought to go’! (machine understanding). Consultants are, therefore, seeking the latest theories, the correct approach and a large repertoire of team exercises. Since, from a team’s viewpoint, simultaneous and understandable (justified) anxieties and insecurities are at play, it is important that the team developer radiates security and is able to convey it. Thus, the question of what this security consists of becomes important, as there should not be and indeed must not be firm planning for establishing security.
The security of being able to carry out a good team development, therefore, does not lie in a firm, structured preparation, which plans everything in detail. It lies solely and purely in consciousness and in the ability of the team developer to competently and appropriately handle even unforeseen situations. The professional competence of a good team developer consists of directing the process and, therefore, helping the team to change unfavourable fixations and ambiguities in the guiding processes. No team is like another, every team situation is different and every team development runs a different course. That is why the demands which are made on the professional team developer are extremely varied. This is because it revolves around finding individual solutions in each case.