I'd suggest you involve them in learning more about their personal
approaches to teamwork and how that impacts the overall team performance.
They probably can't do it in the current team format because they have
already established their team norms and are solidifying their perceptions
about each other. Sounds like they have to break the "congratulatory"
clique up, increase candor on the part of all participants, develop the
awareness on the part of the clique members about the importance of total
team member involvement. . . and it also sounds like they have to learn
some appreciation of different perspectives as well as degree of
involvement. The tune-outers also have the same challenges!
Have you considered--or are you familiar with-- the GRID OD approach to
developing the link between individual and team behaviors? In the event
that you may be familiar with the 9,9 Managerial GRID concept (and most
folks only know that part of the technology), the GRID learning laboratory
provides the opportunity for team members to increase their personal
performance as a member of a team. They utilize the basic "learning
organization" approach--team learning, challenging/addressing mental
models, increasing personal mastery, etc. --to learn how to practice sound
team-related behaviors. It's pretty intensive and goes much deeper than
the four hour lecturette or University Associates experiential exercise.
Process I'd engage in is--increase their ability to engage in effective
inquiry and critique, then use a teambuilding approach that has greater
use of candor to build stronger trust.
I've been a GRID user now for about six years and it has made a
significant difference in team preparation. If you'd like to learn more,
please e-mail me back and I can call you. (There are a couple of
organizations up there in the Boston area which engage in GRID OD, by the
way.)
Look forward to hear back from you.
Sandy Wells
--"Sandy Wells" <sjwells@earthlink.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>