Star Ensemble Structure
If one combines the distance pole, the freedom pole and the uniqueness pole, teams develop with a star ensemble structure. The members need the team to bring expression to their uniqueness, i.e. they are something special, because they belong to this team (‘The Three Tenors’, ‘American Allstars’). In principle, everyone can also manage without the team and is a star in their own right, too (distance and freedom).
Such teams occur in organisations where there is a dependency on a high level of technical competence. This is often the case in marketing, research and development, or in the media, fashion and advertising sectors, as well as in scientific establishments and innovative fields.
In such teams, the expectations of each other are small. One mutually bows to the magnificence of the others, uses them for one’s own purposes and is nice to each other. During conflicts, the ambition to learn from them is rather reduced.
If such teams slip into extreme manifestations, then distance becomes grandiosity (“Each one of us can also manage on our own!”), freedom becomes egocentricity (“Everyone does as they wish here!”) and uniqueness leads to the belief of invincibility (“We are unbeatable!”). Such teams are always endangered because of their low level of cohesion and due to the chronic over-valuation of themselves.