By Desiree L. DePriest, Kaplan University

Teaming continues to be perceived as the spurned elephant in the corporate room of doing business. There is no denial that companies can accomplish more with teams than with individuals but most students and employees hate teams. This was very mysterious to the creator of quantum teaming because a prime directive of the human experience is interaction and relationships. What are we missing?

Quantum teaming is a strategy and methodology that approaches teaming with 21st century, sociotechnical mechanics. It has simple premises that have far-reaching teaming potential depending on the individuals in each team. The first premise is called “entanglement.” Quantum teaming states that all adult learners as identified in andragogy enter teams with previously honed skills. These skills, whether directly related to the desired skill set for the team or not, can benefit the team in some way.  A homemaker who returns to college after years raising children has valuable time management and organization skills, as well as possible budget prowess, to contribute to any project. Quantum teaming emphasizes the transfer of knowledge from one expertise to another expertise as cognitive embryonic stem cells creating similar cells while having the additional potential to also create other cells. This phenomenon is identified as the quanta leveraged and shared through the entanglement in life-long sharing and learning.

Figure 1:  "Entangle"

Quantum teaming depends upon the first step of entanglement as the building blocks for team “superposition.” Superposition occurs when the right circulation among individual team members produces a system or entity for all members. Our best example of superposition is the story of Clark Kent aka Superman.  Alone, Kent was a demur, muted individual news reporter for The Daily Planet newspaper. However, when the call came to help or transfer his knowledge to assisting the greater human system, he became superman. It does not stop there. Others were also experiencing this process in the forms of Superwoman, The Flash and many others. Everyone has the potential to achieve individual superposition through fully sharing or entangling with the team. The collective of individuals experiencing superposition creates the equivalent to what our example calls, “The Justice League.”  All of the many inspiring teaming initiatives in the world are the result of the creative thought of some group of minds who genuinely entangle and achieve superposition. This takes us to possibly the most interesting aspect of quantum teaming – uncertainty.

Figure 2:  "Superposition" (from the Wikimedia Commons)  

Uncertainty is a fascinating aspect of life that is frequently perceived as the enemy-of-the-teaming-state. It may be the base reason why people hate teamwork. In quantum teaming, uncertainty is embraced as a canvas of endless potentials and possibilities.  People enter teams and are reminded that each person brings honed skills to the team based merely on being a self-informed person.  There is no requirement to morph oneself into a role that does not naturally fit individual aspiration. This is completely flipped from traditional teams where people enter uncertainty protective of who they are as they await the two-dimensional role they will be given. There is no need to force mental limitations on members because members naturally entangle. By letting this process take place, members naturally begin to master their thinking as a team, and “negotiate-to-yes!”  

Figure 3:  "Uncertainty"

Quantum teaming is focused on the greater project, the evolving canvas that will manifest as a result of entanglement, superposition and embracing uncertainty. Current research states that the only way to fail at quantum teaming is to silo (antithesis of entanglement) and to have a negative attitude about the experience (negativity can be deceptive but has no superposition). 

Note:  Learn more about quantum teaming by attending Dr. Desiree L. DePriest’s seminar titled, “Quantum Teaming: How to Create a Virtual Internship to Provide Online students with Real-world Experience.”  This will be presented at SIDLIT 2016 on Thursday, August 4th, at the 8:30-9:30 a.m. session, in CC 212 (in the Carlsen Center).

Desiree L. DePriest is the founder of “Quantum Teaming” which seeks to make organizational teaming a natural human experience of interactions and relationships. Dr. DePriest sees every team as a unique experience for human evolution through leveraging the natural and honed skills of each member. Through understanding that humans naturally entangle with other humans, we increase the freedom and dimensionality of the teaming experience. The result is superposition where the collective consciousness's of a few members produce outcomes previously requiring many members. 

Dr. DePriest's expertise is in business intelligence and entrepreneurship including systems analysis and design, decision support systems and artificial intelligence.  In 2014, Desiree created KapTechnology which is an internship offering for students at Kaplan University School of Business and IT. She also created the Graduate Information Technology Association (GITA) and serves as Faculty Advisor.  Desiree loves working extensively with students applying learning to real-world projects. Dr. DePriest is also the Vice-chair of the IRB at Kaplan University. 

Her publications include research in persuasive and predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and pattern recognition. DePriest holds a Ph.D., in Management & Organization with emphasis in Information Technology, along with two masters degrees (Telecom/Networks and IS/IT respectively). She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Howard University. 

Dr. DePriest’s book on quantum teaming is available at Amazon at: http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Teaming-Primer-Century-Self-Information/dp/1523492309.