How to Get Hot

When most of us hear the words hot group, we think of Casey Kasem and America's Top 40. Not Jean Lipman-Blumen, Ph.D. She thinks of intensely focused work groups whose enthusiasm gives new meaning to the expression I love my job.

Unlike most work teams, hot groups become so emotionally involved with their task that they actually behave like people in love. The excitement of the task and the interaction that comes with it can be an enormous turn-on, says Lipman-Blumen, professor of organizational behavior at Claremont Graduate School. As a result, hot groups often set performance records and even volunteer for extra work.

Sounds like every manager's dream-but there's a catch. Such groups are hard to create, and when they do arise they are often short-lived. Their unorthodox work habits and tendency to isolate themselves from the parent organization can incense management, hastening their demise.

But other times they hit the jackpot. Consider Apple Computers, started by a hot group of free-spirited twenty somethings striving to build a computer for the masses rather than large businesses. Taking on corporate goliath IBM spurred them to create the revolutionary Macintosh.

Alas, there's no simple formula for spawning hot groups. Like hothouse flowers, they're exquisitely sensitive to their environment and wilt for no apparent reason. But you can optimize conditions for their growth:

Offer workers a thrill. Crises and intense competition are the most powerful external motivators of hot groups. Any provocative project, however, can excite passion and intensity.

Feed their soul. Hot groups are inspired by the search for truth and the feeling that they're making a difference. Their task has to have meaning to people, society, and the organization, says Lipman-Blumen. That's why hot groups are particularly common in research institutions.

Provide a connective leader-an individualist with a team-player mentality (and the subject of Lipman-Blumen's book, The Connective Edge). Such leaders are willing to share both the work and the glory.

Banish bureaucracy. Freedom is essential for hot groups. Workers quickly lose enthusiasm when entangled in red tape.