Representational gaps are gaps in perception about team problems. This includes the team's ultimate task and what's important in terms of methods to execute the team goals. Representational gaps can occur on teams that are not only functionally diverse, but are diverse in all sorts of ways. This can gaps may rise from differences in knowledge sets, differences in values sets, and conflicting interpretation of new knowledge. While these gaps exist on diverse teams, we want to discuss how to reconcile incompatible views. Some research focuses on how teams can leverage differentiated knowledge to make differentiated views more compatible and complimentary. An intentional effort is needed on teams to reconcile different perspectives. This is important because functionally diverse teams often lack shared knowledge. Compatibility is established by providing adequate time for team members to build relationships, and get to know each other. The key is for team members to mutually understand the values, beliefs, and attitudes represented in the team. Further, there needs to be a shared understanding of how individuals within teams identify problems. There are four keys here for representing any problem: goal hierarchy, assumptions, elements and operators. This is labeled also GAEO. Goal hierarchy is about how we prioritize goals. Assumptions is about how we assume others behave, or how we assume others are limited in time and resources. Elements are components of the problem that are changeable and operators are ways the components of the problem can change. Companies can set ground rule expectations that establish these shared ways of understanding problems. Particularly, teams can recognize that different behaviors may exist, and these behaviors are unique to particular countries or cultures. This recognition and acceptance of difference helps to establish shared knowledge and creates opportunities for mutual understanding among team members. At the organizational level, managerial staff must send an example for valuing diversity on teams. This might include initiatives such as mentoring relationships, job shadowing, relationship building time, and 360 feedback. It is important when addressing representational gaps to watch out for the potential to blur roles, and to produce creative solutions. As long as there are awareness of these potentials, the team will have a strong foundation from which to become high performing. Similarly, managers need to be strategic in drawing out their team's creativity. Jim Shaw, a self proclaimed left brain guy in a right brain organization, and former Executive Vice President of MTV Networks said in an interview that he initially responded to creative suggestions by discussing possible scenarios where the idea could go wrong. Shaw's interjection of reality only served to create a negative interaction, and to shut down the idea of someone giving it. Instead of diving in with his perspective on the suggestion, Jim Shaw learned to incrementally share contingency planning information. This way creative people can fully explain themselves, and get their ideas on the table. Jim Shaw learned that no two people on his team think alike. And this fact needs to be accounted for, so that the best conditions for high performance teamwork can be created. Think back to the Beth and John example discussed in the last video. There were three other team members I mentioned in the video but didn't discuss. These members were Nigel, George and Frank. These were the three who did not speak English well, but who are attempting to give input about the team problem before Beth and John left. After Beth and John's departure, Nigel called this small, beautiful team of four, so I will also call it the small, beautiful team. This beautiful team set out to reestablish goals, roles, and norms for their team. They managed representational gaps among them. Two were from Japan, one was from Indonesia, and the fourth was from Nigeria. They did this by establishing frequent check-ins for information sharing and goal setting. The norms of active and deliberate listening were critical to their building compatibility across their views and mutual understanding of each other's perspectives. So decisions were much slower and more deliberate than the original configuration. Whereas, in the first group, there were many conversations happening at once, in the small, beautiful team, there was one shared conversation when the new CEO, Nigel, called his team's attention. Roles became more evenly distributed across the team and more clearly defined. While in the short time span, the team could not fully recover from the loss of their team members, the small beautiful team made an impressive showing and received a transformative learning experience from the difficult situation. The lesson here is that representational gaps will inevitably exist. But with thoughtful intention, compatibility across individuals and high function can be achieved when mutual understanding is the goal, even when a team comes together in less than ideal circumstances.
