10/19/10

Geoff Bellman

Extraordinary Groups: How Ordinary Teams Achieve Amazing Results

Occasionally we participate in a group that inspires us to describe the experience as "powerful" or simply "wow."  Why are some teams described in such exceptional terms, while most are not?  What do extraordinary groups have in common that separates them from all the rest?  What can be done to create these terrific results more often?

In this session, Geoff Bellman, who co-authored the book Extraordinary Groups with Kathleen Ryan, will demystify the answers to these compelling questions.  Among other things, he will:

• Introduce a new approach for creating extraordinary experiences and results in teams
• Identify the key characteristics that define exceptional teams
• Describe the Group Needs Model for encouraging extraordinary experiences and team success

More about Extraordinary Groups …

Our attraction to groups is instinctual; two hundred thousand years of human history have formed us into the group creatures that we are. We are genetically informed to look to groups to meet many of our needs; we are not informed to look at organizations in that way. The deeper motivations for why we join with others are hardly touched upon in popular leadership and team literature. As a result, the tools and techniques they employ often miss and cannot touch these underlying drives.

Each of us comes to groups carrying a set of unexpressed needs that we hope to meet working with the group. This is true whether we are part of a recreation league sports team, a problem solving group at work, a non-profit board of directors, or a family gathered around the kitchen table. These core needs, these longings, are central to who we are as human beings and profoundly affect what we do.

There are three pairs of needs:

• The Individual:  Acceptance of self while moving toward one's Potential.
• The Group:  A Bond with others that grows while pursuing a common Purpose.
• The World:  Understanding the Reality of the world while collectively making an Impact.

In other words, in an ideal group, you would readily show your full self—both who you are and who you might become. You would be attracted to the group’s reason for being and feel yourself an integral part of the group. And, you would share the group’s sense of the world around it, and what the group will do to change that world.
These core needs comprise what Bellman calls the Group Needs model:

Bellman will propose that human beings function better on a scale they can understand and influence — small groups that bring the right people together in the right ways can meet the challenges before us.

About Geoff Bellman ...

Geoff worked inside major corporations for fourteen years before starting his own consulting firm in 1977. His external consulting has focused on renewing large, mature corporations such as Booz Allen & Hamilton, U.S. Bancorp, Verizon, Intuit, Ernst & Young, Shell, Price Waterhouse Coopers, BP, SABMiller, Boeing, and Accenture.

In addition to Extraordinary Groups, Geoff has authored five other books, including Getting Things Done When You Are Not In Charge (a Fortune Executive Book Club selection).

His consulting and workshops have taken him to five continents. He has served as guest faculty for university graduate programs including Pepperdine University, Fielding, Sonoma State, and Seattle University.