Hot Groups

What Is a Hot Group?

A hot group is not some new kind of team. The term represents a distinctive state of mind sometimes reached by groups and teams. Hot groups are task-obsessed and work with passion. Their behavior is intense and sharply focused. Hot groups see real meaning in their work. Team members become completely captivated by their tasks, allowing them to monopolize their hearts and minds. To become a hot group, a group’s members have to share this special state of mind. Most groups are unable to do this.

Hot groups generally start spontaneously, before any official team programs are introduced. Many groups bold enough to establish themselves in an organization are initially tolerated, but they are usually largely ignored. Formal team programs instituted by management are almost the opposite of a hot group. Most of these groups are merely last-year’s human resources pet. In the future, hot groups will become an essential structural aspect of organizations.

What Makes Them Hot?

Hot groups are too busy to worry about the feelings of the members of other groups or the feelings of the parent organization. From the outside, they may appear to be unruly...