From Mars to Earth

A group is  two or more individuals who are connected to one another by social relationships. 
Donelson R. Forsyth, Group Dynamics, Brooks/Cole, 1990

 Hackman (professor of Social and Organizational Psychology in University of Harvard) proposed 5 conditions that increase the chance that groups will be successful. These are:
1) Being a real team: so having shared task, clear boundaries and stability in group membership.
2) Compelling direction: which results from having a clear, challenging and consequential goal.
3) Enabling structure:which results from having tasks which have variety, a group size that is not too large, talented group members who have at least moderate social skills, and strong norms that specify appropriate behavior  
4) supportive context: an educational system that develops member skills and information and materials system that provides the needed informationi. 5) Experong coaching which occurs on the rare occasions when group members feels they need help with task on interpersonal issues. http://hackman.socialpsychology.org
In Mars our group dynamic worked pretty well: we were able to satisfy internal and external clients, develop capabilities to perfom in future and I found meaning and satisfaction in the group.I think we covered at least the first 4 conditions. We didn´t really need the 5th. Working with Mars group has been an honor and so it will be with Earth group. Team based learning has been until now really important for me:the method is useful for businesses, organizations, careers.I moved from team Mars to team Earth. It was surprising decision and little by little I am getting used to the idea: I will work with a new group so I will invest energy to give them the best that I can. Beside, they are also really capable people and I want to take this changing as an opportunity to get to know other ways how people work. Learning how to learn, work, interact and cooperate in a team is essential for success in this century. Team Earth thank you for having me!