Dear Bob ...I am enjoying your "Six Stupid" articles ("The Six Stupid methodology," Keep the Joint Running, 4/23/2007 and "Six Stupid process controls," Keep the Joint Running, 4/30/2007). I intend to share with my staff over the next few company staff meetings. I think I DO understand the ability of a team to be dumber than its dumbest member. However, I also have observed and participated in team efforts where Dear Bob …I am enjoying your “Six Stupid” articles (“The Six Stupid methodology,” Keep the Joint Running, 4/23/2007 and “Six Stupid process controls,” Keep the Joint Running, 4/30/2007). I intend to share with my staff over the next few company staff meetings. I think I DO understand the ability of a team to be dumber than its dumbest member. However, I also have observed and participated in team efforts where the whole was greater than the sum of the parts…synergy.How does one identify the team “personality” (stupid or brilliant) early and either abandon the first (stupid), or find ways to change it for the better? Is this an identifiable problem that has no known solution, or is there hope I may learn more? I would like to be able to discern “team stupidity” early and hope that I could help change the direction a little.– Prefers to lead a smart teamDear Preferential … Thanks for the question. The answer is really quite clear – first articulated by a researcher named B.S. Tuckman in 1965.It’s like this: The difference between a group – where the aggregate is dumber than its members – and a team, where it is smarter, depends on trust and alignment. It depends, that is, on whether the relationships among the people who have to work together are strong, and on whether they have committed to a shared purpose.Neither by itself is sufficient. When relationships are strong but alignment is weak you have a legislature. Everyone gets along just fine, but they have a hard time reaching agreement except through compromise – the weakest form of design. When alignment is strong but relationships are weak – a very rare situation, by the way, because the only real way to achieve alignment is through a process that almost has to build trust – you end up with an inability on the part of each participant to accept what any other participant says at face value.So … trust and alignment. Especially alignment. Focus on building it and the team will generally figure out the trust part on its own.That will make the team smart. – BobPowered by ScribeFire. Technology Industry