Marking Time: Predictable Transitions in Task Groups.

A new model of group development suggests that groups attention to time and pacing is an important catalyst of their progress through cre-ative projects. In this laboratory study, groups were videotaped as they produced creative products and then interviewed about replays of se-lected portions of the tapes. Participants efforts to pace themselves were explored in depth, with special focus on a key feature of the model, a major transition in groups approach toward their work at the midpoint of their allotted time. The appropriateness of laboratory sim-ulation for studying midpoint transitions was also assessed. The labo-ratory results mirrored and extended the field-based model; they showed how groups make deliberate attentional shifts at their temporal midpoints, what differences exist between pacing patterns in the first and second halves of groups life spans, and what happens when tran-sitions fail. Implications are drawn for theory, practice, and research. Organizations often rely on small groups when they need an innovation