This article was interesting and did a pretty good job revealing some attributes of teams that make them more successful than others. I’ve been a part of many teams, both in college and in the military, and as I look back on those experiences, I agree with a lot of the things the article mentioned about why some of those teams were either successful or disfunctional. My particular career field in the Air Force was 1 of 3 “rated” career fields along with Pilots and Navigators where everyone in your same year group and rank were constantly being compared and ranked against each other. While this separated the high performing officers from the others to highlight potential future leaders, it also led to a lot of back-stabbing and people trying to stand out and take control. This cultivates a toxic environment where those that have a Type B personality of are soft-spoken, these people don’t feel like they can speak up and make suggestions. Instead of having a diverse pool of inputs from the entire group, the decisions usually end up coming from a small minority of the group.
On the other hand, I’ve been a part of groups that were exactly the opposite where everyone felt comfortable to contribute and feedback/critiques/criticism can be made in a safe space. Emotional intelligence is another major player that the article mentioned because group members can identify how other members are feeling based on verbal and nonverbal cues.