Occassional thoughts about orienteering
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| okansas.blogspot.com Occassional thoughts about orienteering |
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Monday, March 07, 2005 Team chemistryBenedict Carey wrote a story about team chemistry in today's NY Times. He was writing about baseball, but the article reminded me of some thoughts I've had about orienteering.Here are a couple of things Carey wrote: "So much of psychology and sociology emphasizes the importance of communicating and creating strong bonds to improve group performance, but in a lot of situations that is just not how it works," said Dr. Calvin Morrill, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, who has studied group behavior in competitive corporate situations and in high schools. "Baseball is an odd mix of an individual and team sport, and an ideal example of where a diffuse team with weak ties to one another may help the overall functionality of the group."... When a common purpose is shared, loosely tied groups can function better than strongly bonded ones when it comes to containing dissent or bickering, research suggests. In studies of neighborhood organizations and corporate teams, social scientists have observed that members with weak ties can withdraw from disagreements without disrupting the group or their own work. On a tightly knit team, by contrast, a falling out between key members can divide a squad, forcing people to take sides, psychologists say. "The idea is that any sort of problem is likely to ripple more strongly and quickly through a close group than one with weak ties," said Dr. Mark Granovetter, a professor of sociology at Stanford. I think there is something to the whole idea of "team chemistry." I think it matters. But, I don't understand it and don't really understand how to think about it in a useful way. I'll have to give it more thought. Ski Orienteering WOC I just discovered that the Ski O' WOC is going on. The U.S. results don't look very good, but there are still a couple of races left. Poking through the results I noticed: I don't even recognize the names of several of the U.S. competitors. Who is Candice Raines? Chelsea Cunningham? Mike George? Aims Coney? I did recognize Sharon Crawford. So far, Sharon looks to be the best of the U.S. women. You've got to be impressed by Sharon. You can follow the Ski O' WOC at www.skiwoc2005.org. Click on the "Live" link for results, live updates, photos, interviews, etc. posted by Michael | 7:50 PM 
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