Extraordinary Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results
Praise for Extraordinary Groups\ "This book offers a useful model for being a great group leader or member—no small undertaking. Groups are the essential structure for making a difference in the world, and this book adds to our capacity to create something important together. An easy read with a clear structure. I happily recommend it."\ —Peter Block, partner, Designed Learning, and author of Community: The Structure of Belonging\ "This is a must-read for leaders looking to achieve...
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Why are some teams described in such exceptional terms, while most are not? In this important book, Geoffrey Bellman and Kathleen Ryan reveal that people instinctively sense when a group experience is something special, something different from the ordinary, something that surpasses their expectations in a positive, remarkable, and hard-to-describe way. These are extraordinary groups that achieve outstanding results. Members of extraordinary teams—individually or collectively—experience a profound shift in how they see their world. They are transformed.However large or small, visible or intangible, such transformations happen because the group experience satisfies core needs that members intuitively bring to any group they join. Based on an extensive field study and filled with illustrative examples, Extraordinary Groups presents Bellman and Ryan's tested Group Needs Model. Seeing the world of groups through this elegant framework allows readers to nurture extraordinary experiences in their teams. Bellman and Ryan's model reveals six core group needs forming three pairs: One pair relates to the individual, one to the group, and the third to the world in which the group exists. These six elements combine to form the Group Needs Model: Acceptance of self while moving toward one's PotentialA Bond with others that grows while pursuing a common PurposeUnderstanding the Reality of the world while collectively making an ImpactNo matter if the group or team gathers at work, at home, or within the community, when a group experience meets two or more of these needs, it will stand out as something special for all the members of the group. Written for managers and executives, facilitators and trainers, and all others who lead or participate in groups, Extraordinary Groups is an invaluable resource to achieve outstanding team results time and time again.
I: Overview. 1 Why Small Groups Are Especially Important Now. 2 What's Different About Extraordinary Groups. 3 What Ordinary Groups Need. II: Understanding the Group Needs Model. 4 Growing Toward Your Potential. 5 Joining for Purpose. 6 Creating Change Together. 7 The Heart of Transformation. III: Sharing Leadership. 8 Embracing Group Differences. 9 Leading Extraordinary Groups. 10 Living the Promise of Amazing Groups. Appendix A Applications of Practice in Using the Group Needs Model. Appendix B Extraordinary Groups: A Nutshell. Appendix C Practicing What We Preach. Appendix D More Group Resources. Acknowledgments. About the Authors. Index.
