Seven Impossible Things:

The Experience and Dynamics of Developing a Transcendent Team

by

Marc Hanlan, Ph.D.

Doctoral Dissertation, Fielding Graduate University, 2017 

Abstract

Teams that exhibit extraordinary performance concurrently in all key metrics of success are rare yet do exist. They have exceeded their business goals, changed lives, expanded creativity, and increased group consciousness.  The author’s experience in developing many of these Transcendent Teams offers a background and baseline to explore literature and research.  What is it about the nature of these teams that they are rare and corresponding literature is scarce?

While substantial research around similar types of teams such as self-managed teams exists, there is a gap in examining these Transcendent Teams.  An opportunity exists to examine the development of a Transcendent Team, from the perspective of team members and support staff, to better understand their nature.

This research outlines an experiential ethnographic study in the startup and development of a potential Transcendent Team.  It itemizes the selection, activities, and potential levels of intervention that such a team may use in its transformation.  The experiences and impacts of key team members can be explored throughout the process, potentially increasing understanding of these extraordinary teams.  By better understanding the experience and dynamics, it may be practical to replicate them and extend their benefits to community, government, business, and other organizations looking for transformational change.

Key Words: high performance teams, extraordinary teams, self-managed teams, transcendent teams, group consciousness, co-created consciousness

Resolving the Wicked Nature of Compensation: A Meta-Ethical Approach

by

Claude Joseph Cloutier, Ph.D.

Doctoral Dissertation, Fielding Graduate University, 2017

Abstract

The civility of an organization and its policies of distributive justice are founded upon its moral and ethical beliefs.  This dissertation examines compensation from a meta-ethical perspective.  The author takes a critical view of traditional capitalism and compensation as it is generally understood, and how these business norms are suppressing moral obligation and reciprocity.  Progressive capitalism’s restorative response to traditional capitalism multiplies managers’ ethical and moral dilemmas as they work to ensure all stakeholders win.  The key idea is that the philosophical search for an ideal form of distributive justice has heretofore been a dance around the non-linear dynamics of ideological polarities.  Ideological polarities create ethical and moral compensation dilemmas around the competition-cooperation dynamic.  These wicked compensation problems require a new way of thinking and resolving compensation issues.  This dissertation puts forth a pragmatic democratic approach to resolving these dilemmas. 

The context of the study is the redevelopment of the compensation system at XtremeEDA Corporation.  The primary research question is, XtremeEDA is a for-profit computer engineering services firm.  The CEO is the interventionist, researcher, and author of this dissertation.  The research project employed a mixed method approach and used critical ethnography and critical discourse analysis as the primary methodologies supplemented by various techniques.  Instrumenting these methodologies with the Quadraxiol Grid meta-ethical framework enabled the strengths of each methodology to be linked together.  This approach was crucial as the nature of the problem required a moral and ethical framework to locate discourse ideologically and resolve polarities dynamically.  The approach yielded interesting and practical results.  Its most provocative finding includes an intriguing assertion that the human brain has geometric properties that show up in the competition-cooperation dynamic.  This dynamic appears to be balanced when it is oscillating around the Golden Ratio.

Key Words: Compensation, organizational democracy, wicked problems, distributive justice, fairness, moral dilemma, ethical dilemma, polarities, Butterfly Effect, Adam Smith, Golden Ratio