New Book, Group Dyna-Mix, Debunks the Myth of the Existence of ‘High- Performance’ Teams

Dr Maria Katsarou-Makin, an experienced business coach and psychologist, is on a mission to debunk the widely spread myth of the existence of high-performance teams and explore the importance of effective team dynamics with her new book Group Dyna-Mix. The author offers an extensive deep dive into trust, including an experiment she conducted to measure trust in a leadership team by collecting saliva samples before and after an intervention, which reveals fascinating results described in the book.

In today’s world, where teams are one of the most important assets for the success of any business, and existing methods of executive leadership have experienced in-depth scrutiny beyond their control, understanding how to improve your team’s dynamics is a must. Dr Katsarou-Makin believes trust is one of the most important elements of effective group dynamics.

Dr Maria Katsarou-Makin explains why she decided to write Group Dyna-Mix: “Becoming a High-Performing Team is probably one of the most common requests I have had in the last fifteen years from organizations and teams. It always came across as this “state” they wanted to achieve and once they did, all their problems would be resolved. So, I became interested in the concept and what it meant for them and most importantly, does this notion really exist? I also became interested in how and why we are all different when we become members of a group or team and how we can find the answer to that if we look at our own family.”

Group Dyna-Mix explores key topics such as decision-making, governance, senior recruitment, and trust at the top level.

Professor Richard Boyarzis, PhD, Case Western Reserve University, says about Group Dyna-Mix: “Small groups have been the social fabric of our societies since before we sat around a campfire cooking together. We hunt, eat, laugh and create in small groups or even teams. Maria Katsarou-Makin provides an intellectual tour through many of the primary sources, theories and research about effective teams and even sensitively examines the dark side of teams and frequent pathology. It is guaranteed to spark ideas about how to lead and infect your teams even in virtual settings!”

While existing books on group dynamics tend to be too academic or focused on just one aspect of this broad topic, Katsarou-Makin’s book provides an all-encompassing, rounded overview of team dynamics with practical outcomes for the reader.