Ci sono dei malfunzionamenti a volte nei team, che emergono attraverso comportamenti disagiati. Possiamo identificare tre manifestazioni di un generale malfunzionamento del gruppo di lavoro: groupthink, scapegoating, group anxiety. Se vuoi saperne di più, continua a leggere l'articolo direttamente in inglese!

Groupthink is a psycholocal phenomenon in which the group is so harmonious and cohesive that it becomes harder and harder for each individual to take a position which is not in line with the group's. The group tends to create such a strong vision of its mission among the members that any difference of opinion is nullified. The result is that the group may behave in a very irrational way, making decisions that would be totally in contrast with common-sense.

Scapegoating happens when things go wrong and it is necessary to find a person in the team to blame for the failure. It is a negative behaviour in terms of learning. In fact, if we look for a scapegoat, a person to blame, automatically we are not involved, we will not take any responsibility for our actions or we won't even question ourselves, as we have found someone else to blame for something wrong.

Group anxiety is a distress that many of us might feel when working in groups. The reason for this is often the fact that in a group we are less likely to receive any immediate feedback about what we do or say. This anxiety might emerge in several types of behaviour, such as speaking too much, withdrawing from the group and not speaking at all, trying to get involved in a conversation with one person only, excluding all the others, in order to create an alliance, etc..