Guiding Process Goal Setting
In a team, it is just as important to define a goal, as it is, when necessary, to change or renew it. The question, whether this is necessary, forms one of the six guiding processes of team dynamics. The guiding distinction consists of the question; “Do we maintain the set goal or do we adapt it?”
A team is formed only when it has a shared goal. Its purpose arises from tasks which cannot be solved individually. The goal and the related tasks must either be kept stable, or renewed in the case of changes in the external or internal environment. This decision – does one adhere to the goal or does one adapt it? – is continuously made, explicitly or implicitly. If the common goal ceases to exist or if it is no longer functional, then the social system ‘team’ also ends.
The existential dependence of each team on the choice and processing of its primary task should be kept in mind by every form of team management, counselling and development, because all further guiding processes are characterised by the decision about the goal and its continuous adaptation. A team is a social system for processing a task, not a collection of people! Clearly, therefore, the way the task is undertaken (is it specified in advance or influenceable?), how the team members describe this task, including their attitude to it, has a major effect. Occupying itself with these questions substantially affects a team.