Function of Goal Setting

Goal setting forms a focus for the team, which enables the following: • Commitment – Only where there is a (clear) focus, can a team commit to it. If the focus is missing, the commitment fades away. If commitment fades away, the team breaks up into splinter groups or it separates, and a type of …

The organisational dynamics of expectations, with their own polar structure, also inevitably influence the dynamics of team preservation. Expectation poles can be seen as attractors, which act in a pattern-forming way (here you can develop references to fractal mathematics or pattern theories). By this, we mean that a team is dominated by the expectations pole …

The psychodynamics of needs with their own polar structure inevitably also influences the dynamics of team preservation. Need poles can be seen as attractors, which are pattern forming (here you can develop references to fractal mathematics or pattern theories). With this, we mean that a team clusters around a need pole, or members, who have …

If one understands a system as ‘something’ which often or mostly ‘consists’ of elements, then one must bear in mind that these elements, in turn, are usually complex. A team is thus burdened with all the never-ending complexity which the members of the team bring with them in the way of psyche and body. So, …

In order to work upon goals, one must have influence over the result and the manner in which it is achieved. It is very helpful, as per Luhmann, to distinguish between three forms of influence: • Authority: If one has factual expertise and this competence is recognised by others, then one can exercise influence within …

The goal processing pattern of our example team impresses with a clear problem orientation of the team members towards their respective part tasks. Each department leader is strictly directed towards the quality of his part product. All are experienced ‘full-blooded’ engineers and have the highest technical ambitions. They regard ‘non-engineering’ interests as rather disturbing, cumbersome …

The interaction pattern pattern of our example team is characterised by the fact that quick and unambiguous, explicit as well as implicit technical blunders are sanctioned and ‘cool’ solutions are responded to and strengthened with shining eyes and taps on the shoulder. Time delays or the non-adherence to the budget framework, on the other hand, …

The team preservation pattern of our example team becomes strikingly visible by the fact that any interest shown, regarding the concerns of the rest of the organisation, immediately becomes suspect. If one speaks to others, then it is to convince them about one’s own solution or to persuade them about the disadvantage of their concerns …

In the example team, how are team parameters regulated, i.e. included and excluded? He, who wishes to belong, must be a professional, must be calibrated to quality, must love the product and must be prepared to and want to spend hours talking shop about a wheel suspension. Otherwise, one is tolerated but ineffective. Nobody without …

One benefit which the present thinking in dynamic guiding processes offers, is that one can observe them (in this case, teams) as self-stabilising or pattern-forming social processes and, therefore, also describe them. The advantage is that one takes the focus away from individuals and, instead, one observes the communicative system with the aid of well-developed …