A group is not just a collection of personalities, it is an organism, and quite complex, functioning according to its own laws and unwritten scripts. Not only the welfare of its members, but also people outside this collective depends on group cohesion.
Signs of a close-knit team
What primarily distinguishes a friendly team from a disparate one is mutual support and empathy. The second is a favorable psychological atmosphere, the fair distribution of freelance duties, the conduct of full joint leisure, low staff turnover, team participation in professional or art competitions, well-coordinated fruitful activity of all members of the group.
Close-knit team is the key to success
There is nothing more pleasant than feeling like a necessary part of something larger than yourself. If each member of the team is a valuable part of the process, then the productivity of the group will be at the highest level. This applies to both children's groups and adults.
Cohesion is manifested when there is a strong emotional connection between its participants. It can arise as a result of many years of “grinding”, in the course of solving a common serious problem, and also be evidence of psychological compatibility.
Groups that are not only motivated by the achievement of the goal, but also united by friendly relations, will show a much better result than those teams where everyone performs their duties dryly.
Methods for diagnosing team building
A person can determine this fact from the outside in several ways: during observation or by becoming part of a team. But what if he has too little time? For this, psychologists invented several methods, for example, to determine the index of group cohesion of Sishor.
This test consists of only five questions with 4-6 answer options. The survey participant must choose one based on his own opinion. It turns out that the final result is the average statistical set of opinions.
The answers of leaders will always differ from the opinions of outsiders, and many factors can influence the outcome of a result: the presence of conflicts during the passage of the technique, the temperature in the audience, the mood of the participants, the personality of the psychologist, or the presence of other unauthorized persons.
The disadvantages of the methods
Tests that ask the subject’s opinion will always be subjective, since opinion is the most subjective thing. And even the totality of opinions does not always give an objective result.
In addition, their outcome may be affected by the situation, physical indicators, audience temperature, lighting, time of day, and much more.
For example, if you conduct a methodology for determining group cohesion in a class in the last lesson before the holidays, the index will be much higher than if you conduct the same methodology in the first lesson before the test on Monday after the holidays.
This means that the result of the methodology is not the ultimate truth.
The influence of team cohesion on personality development
If the team is friendly, then the performance and development of individual individuals in it is taking leaps and bounds. It is not necessary to carry out many psychological techniques to understand what atmosphere reigns in a group and how its members are tuned in relation to each other.
Even at school, activist children are usually from a close-knit, united class. They participate in various contests, matinees, evenings, they are also trendsetters at school and the rest of the students are equal to them. Despite the heavy workload, they are not as morally tired as schoolchildren of less cohesive classes.
The same situation is transferred into adulthood: if the atmosphere at work is friendly, then the probability of emotional burnout decreases sharply, as the potential is spent on achieving common goals, and not on clarifying relationships.
Group Cohesion Factors
Cohesion rests on several pillars: an individual, interpersonal contact, and general emotional compatibility. One person can cause a close-knit team if it has diplomatic and leadership qualities. In the same way, one person has the power to destroy the friendly atmosphere of the collective or to prevent the possibility of such a formation.
Do not forget that the team is not even a training group, but a set of interpersonal contacts. In a group of 30 people at the same time 15 acts of communication can occur, the contents of which will not be known to the rest of the group.
General emotional compatibility is seen in those cases when team members get together. These points are very important, as they provide an opportunity to trace possible conflicts, solve them or prevent them.
However, the absence of conflicts is not evidence of a close-knit team. In a friendly atmosphere, they arise, but have a purely constructive nature and do not drag on in time.
What positively affects cohesion
- Positive and favorable psychological atmosphere;
- The credibility of a boss with leadership qualities and the ability to act constructively.
- The similarity of goals, life priorities and views of team members.
- Representatives of one generation more easily find a common language.
- Approximately the same social composition of the group.
- The presence of a competitive moment between the teams.
- Fair remuneration for team members.
- Common desire to develop.
- Joint achievement of goals.
What negatively affects cohesion
As mentioned earlier, the great responsibility lies precisely with the official or unofficial leader of the team. He can create a favorable atmosphere in the team if he chooses a democratic management style, set the group against himself if he is an adherent of an authoritarian style, and thereby rally it against himself. A liberal management style often leads to the "birth" of an unofficial leader.
Lack of proper incentives in work, which leads to lack of initiative of employees, sluggish development of production, which affects interpersonal relationships and the eternal search for the “extreme”.
The disintegration of the team into small groups with different goals, level of productivity and the moment of competition often leads to staff turnover, emotional burnout of employees and fragmentation of the group.
A previously close-knit team can also undergo disintegration if a change of leader occurs or the group is diluted with new people who emotionally do not fit into the current situation.
Strong emotional connections among the staff of the team can in some cases shake its integrity.
Teamwork psychologist
First, you need to diagnose possible problems that interfere with cohesion. This can be done using techniques, for example, Sishor, during observation or in a game form.
The same game, “Chair”: participants are asked to stand in a circle, turn 90 degrees to the right and slowly kneel down behind them. If everything is in order with trust in the team, then this exercise will not cause any difficulties. In the place where there is an open circuit, and you need to look for a problem.
The game "Scala" is also used both as a diagnosis and as an exercise in developing trusting relationships. It is carried out as follows: a line is glued with colored tape on the floor along which all the members of the team stand. Each participant needs to "climb over the cliff", which symbolizes the color line, holding on to the other participants. It is important that he does not step on the tape, otherwise everything is repeated again.
The proper organization of leisure activities for workers also bears fruit. Best of all is a trip to nature or the organization of excursions to another city. Weekend trips enable people to get to know each other better. The presence of a psychologist in this case is optional, it is enough to give the task to make a photo or video report.
It has been noticed that teams that often have to travel are more united.