Dave Kashen contrasts pseudo teams, which have formal structures but suffer from complaining, defensiveness, and low morale, with authentic teams that practice vulnerability, candid communication, and rigorous accountability. The shift happens through aligned commitments, honest speech, and moving through fear together.
Are you a pseudo or an authentic team brought to you by the conscious leadership group? Find them on the web@www.conscious.is. high performing teams can locate themselves. They can tell whether they are functioning as a pseudo or authentic team. A pseudo team might have a name, roles, responsibilities, a budget, deliverables and performance metrics. But they are not functioning as a fully authentic team. Pseudo teams are characterized by mild to intense complaining about each other, customers, suppliers or other teams. Pseudo teams hide behind facades, Personas and pretense. They live from entitlement, have unhealthy and unresolved conflict and defensiveness. Driven by a desire to prove their right, pseudo teams focus on rules and head knowledge alone. They fight to maintain the illusion of control. Pseudo teams can get things done, hit targets and meet objectives. But they do so at a cost to the individuals on the team, the team itself and the organization. Some of the costs of pseudo teaming low engagement, lack of creativity, high turnover, a lot of rework, secret meetings after the meeting, missed deadlines, and low morale. Authentic teams, in contrast, take healthy responsibility, value curiosity and learning experience and express authentic feelings in constructive ways, choose appreciation, have high degrees of engagement, and can move through conflict to creativity. Authentic teams practice compassion and engage the heart as well as the head. To them, being present and curious is more important than being right. Conscious teams know that they will drift from authenticity. They commit to identify when they have drifted into pseudo team. They accept themselves for this drift and recommit to functioning as an authentic team. High performing teams know that there are gateways through which they must move if they are to shift from pseudo to authentic teaming. One gateway is articulating and aligning the group's commitments and recommitting when they drift. Another gateway is speaking truthfully and openly with candor. Nothing breaks a team out of pseudo teaming like someone choosing to speak candidly. It takes courage and practice to become an authentic team. To move from pseudo team to authentic team means moving into and through fears, experiencing vulnerability and often discomfort. Authentic teams are willing to risk embarrassment and even betrayal in order to move into greater authenticity. Finally, authentic teams practice accountability. They do this by taking 100% responsibility and being impeccable around their agreements. So are you a pseudo or an authentic team?
