Section III

Many of the technological devices that currently exist in society are designed to improve teamwork. Technologies designed for teams reduce some barriers to effective team performance while simultaneously imposing other barriers (Hollingshead and McGrath, 1995). Aligned technologies for teamwork increase the potential for improving information access and processing, and increase the potential for team members to participate in teamwork without having to be in the same place at the same time. There are many uses of technology and computers for teams such as using computers as tools to provide data to other team members, using technology to provide a structured format for doing work, and using technology to provide the means for continuous communication among team members (Hollingshead and McGrath, 1995).

Synchronized and focused energy is needed to pull processes in alignment. In the same manner that team members must work together to exploit their collective strengths, organizational processes must be aligned for reaching maximum performance. Much energy is wasted without alignment of technological advances with building team capacities (Senge, 1990a). For example, building a state-of-the-art technological infrastructure for teamwork is destined for ruin without building the team's capacities for working with technologies. The needed energy for aligning teams and technology is in the form of two more processes that involve learning and leadership.

Alignment of the school system with teams and technology requires leadership and learning. The process of aligning teams and technology can be thought of as an integration of four distinct processes. Too often, teaming and technology are approached as separate processes without consideration of the required learning that must take place and the leadership necessary to facilitate the learning. The following figure depicts the processes as quadrants with the task being how to integrate and connect them, and not so much about which comes first:

The quadrants in figure 6 can be described as processes for developing high-performance technology teams, but a connecting energy is missing when depicted as quadrants. With the quadrants listed in figure 6 it can easily be seen that there are various possible combinations in considering alignment in the school system. Alignment of teams and technology without leadership and learning results in a fractured process that will not reach levels of high-performance. Without leadership, technology teams will not endure the struggles and barriers that occur in everyday situations. Likewise, technology teaming with adequate leadership must also integrate learning processes to stay abreast of emerging technologies, and most importantly, to effectively deal with change.

The following figure is an axis-based symmetrical formation depicting a fully aligned school system that incorporates all four processes (teaming, technology, learning, and leadership). The necessary processes for high-performance are represented by spheres, and each sphere represents a process that includes all the other processes.

Figure 7: An axis-based symmetrical formation diagramed to depict a fully aligned school system that incorporates the four processes of teaming, technology, learning, and leadership.

As depicted in figure 7, alignment of technology and teaming requires an integration of processes that also includes learning and leadership. If any of the four spheres are removed, a weakness occurs as well as an out-of-align system. If the leadership sphere is removed the energy necessary to align the other processes is removed. An example of an unaligned process is depicted in figure 8 that shows a process heavy on leadership, learning, and teaming, but a weakness in technology.

Figure 8: Diagram of an out-of-alignment process that is heavy on leadership, learning, and teaming, but weak in technology process.

Some situations in schools are fractured in their endeavors and need to place a major focus on alignment. Simultaneous endeavors do not meet their full potential without the fundamentals of team building connected to learning and leadership processes. When a connection between any of the processes is non-existent the alignment can be depicted by the following figure:

Figure 9: Processes of teaming, leadership, teaming, and technology that are not aligned and not connected.

Leadership is the energy force that holds everything in alignment. Many well-intended school improvement endeavors exist in schools, but what is often missing with these endeavors are the connections on how one endeavor relates to other endeavors, and the alignment of the processes for reaching higher levels of performance. Leadership is the key element for alignment of processes such as team building and technology infusion. The educational leader is the one common denominator that pulls and connects the various school factions together. Leadership skills are different than management skills in that management tends to keep the processes where they are under control while leadership pulls the processes together in alignment toward unified efforts for reaching higher levels of performance.