The complex dynamics of high performance teams

The connectivity of a team is highly correlated with its performance. Conne ctivity is measured by the strength and number of cross-correlations among time series of the coded speech acts of meeting participants. Connectivity is used as a control parameter in a nonlinear dynamical model derived from the observed time series. Different types of attractors occur in phase spac e depending on the team's connectivity and performance level: low performan ce teams show point attractors, medium performance teams show limit cycles, and high performance teams show low-dimensional chaotic attractors. (C) 19 99 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.