Sometimes a little insight can mean the difference between success and frustration.

I was sparring with a friend who was a multiple title holder in Mixed Martial Arts. I was getting a pummelling and bewildered by his speed. He was super-fast and seemed to be able to predict all my moves and counter them before I had even begun to execute my techniques. In a thinly veiled attempt to get some respite from the pummelling, I asked, “How did you develop such speed?” Thankfully he paused and delivered some insight. “I am not actually that fast” he explained. Yeah right, I thought but resisted saying that out loud just in case he ended the lesson and resumed the training. “I am just observing what you are missing.”

He then went on to explain where the focus of his attention was. Once you have the fundamental skills of sparring you need to place your attention on much smaller cues. The “tells” that inform me of your intentions. That way I can react earlier than others do. My attention was on his fists, which seemed natural considering that was what I needed to avoid. The problem was his fist were halfway to my face before I realised what he was doing. Again and again, my reactions were just too slow to get out of the way. My defence was informed by watching his gloves. By contrast, he explained his attention was on my hips and shoulders. “They are the earliest, “tells” of your intentions. Before you throw a punch you will be loading up your hips or shoulders. That is what I am observing and why I am able to read your moves so early.”

Likewise once the fundamentals of teams are in place you need to begin to read some of the subtle “tells” that may hinder performance. I call these the 6 glass ceilings of team performance. Leaders can find themselves banging their heads on these glass ceilings unnecessarily. These ceilings can be broken through but first, you need to know that they are there and what you are dealing with.

The First Glass Ceilings of Team Performance

Every team has ‘plateau points’ where they come up against a glass ceiling hindering their potential. Points where the performance will begin to Plateau for reasons that seem irrational. They are very subtle and if they are not monitored they cannot be remedied. This can leave you frustrated with why your team is not performing to the level that you know it is capable of. Being aware of these six ceilings enables the appropriate actions to be taken.   

The Communication Ceiling.

Team size has a large bearing on team performance. This is particularly true if your team has grown in size. I am not talking about the after effects of too many staff lunches but the team has grown numerically. You may begin to notice that the growth of your team has been correlated with a decreased performance. Sociologists have discovered the subtle complexities of communication that exist when people work together. As each member is added to a team the permutation of communication pathways increases exponentially. People need to read, interpret and respond to messages, non-verbal cues and subtle nuances of different team members. Sociologists explain that when there are just two people together there are two lines of communication that are monitored that are called ‘signal counts’. When there are three people the signal counts will grow to nine. This number grows exponentially as the team grows.

2 People      2     Signals counts

3 People      9     Signals counts

4 People      28    Signals counts

5 People      75    Signals counts

6 People      186   Signals counts

7 People      441   Signals counts

8 People      1016  Signals counts

9 People      2295  Signals counts

10 People    5110  Signals counts

 At eleven people the signal counts grow to in excess of twelve thousand. The natural correlation of this exponential increase in signal counts is that as the teams get bigger they communicate less. There are fewer ideas being put forward, less discussion around issues and less human capital being harnessed. This can mean that people leave team meetings with things unsaid and opportunities unexplored.

Similarly, educators know that a class size impacts on student participation levels.  A class of eight people will enjoy approximately a  seventy to eighty percent participation from the members.  Classes of around ten students the participation level drops to fifty or sixty percent. When the group grows bigger than twelve the participation level drops to as low as ten to thirty percent.  Since communication is linked to our ability to develop relationships the amount of communication signal counts makes this harder as the teams get larger. Inevitably, the bigger the team the faster you hit the communication glass ceiling.

Application

1. Divide your teams into two sub-teams. Much like sports teams will train the ‘forwards’ and the ‘backs’ separately with unique instruction and then bring both together to operate as a collective whole. Is there a natural sub-group your team can be designated into?
2. If you cannot divide the group use a technique called snowballing. In team meetings initiate discussions in groups of three first. This ensures 100% participation and all ideas are brought forward. Then bring all the discussion together for a collective feedback which is actually each group of three putting their ideas forward.

By Aiden Holliday

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