it is cloudy when I visit my father in San Antonio, I can't orient to the direction the sun is traveling, there are no mountains or hills as reference points to the east or west and I completely lose my sense of direction.   Good thing he does most of the driving!

Teams need a sense of direction, too.... they need to know who is in charge, how decisions are being made... and who is doing what, when.  When these factors aren't clear, human creativity rises to the occasion and fills the void.   This is good news/bad news.  Good news when decisions are communicated and agreed upon.  Bad news when we all start heading out towards our own version of true north.

Tuckman (FIND A REFERENCE) talks about four stages teams invariably go through in achieving high level functioning.  Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing.  Back to our sailing analogy.  Forming might look sailing on calm seas.  Perfect breeze and no one gets seasick.  When a team is forming, they are checking each other and the vision out.  Do I fit here?   Do I want to?  Are the waters friendly?  Will I have enough to eat?  Folks are usually on their best behavior - if not a little superficial.

Again, good news/bad news.   Storming is pretty much inevitable if there is any sort of investment in the team or the vision of the team.  The good news is that a team that makes it through the storming phase can move on to greater achievement.  The bad news is that if the conflicts aren't addressed and resolved and trust isn't built, the team never really becomes a "team" and manage high level decision making and self-directed leadership.  In other words, A team that doesn't develop its own guage for "true north" can hang out in the storming stage and stay there until the sails rip.

I am venturing a guess that our team is heading into a storming phase.  The intensity is yet to be discovered.  Storming is inevitable when people trust each other enough to go beyond the surface - when they begin to share different perspectives, solutions and approaches. This is a storm that comes from folks with the highest intentions, integrity and skills enter into a channel of pressure coming from long hours of work, tight deadlines and all the chaos that change brings along.  We are learning to work with each other and coping with the myraid issues presented at the project sites.  Some of us are having to collaborate more intensely than ever before in our careers. The waters of change are beginning to swirl. 

How will we survive?  Is thriving possible?   I'm confident we WILL thrive by doing just what we are doing: Talking with each other.  Listening to each other.  Engaging in true dialogue.  Giving honest feedback.  Finding areas of agreement and respecting areas of disagreement.  Holding each other in unconditional positive regard, as Carl Rogers put it.   Our true north is the goal of transforming patient centered care.  Our behaviors will guide us on this profound journey.