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# Managing Groups and Teams/Communication ## Introduction Communication is something we humans do extraordinarily well. Some cynics say that the primary purpose of language is to allow us to tell lies! Hopefully, this is a misconception - for good communication requires that the \'mental model\' being transmitted by the originator and the experience of the person interpreting the received information be sufficiently similar. For example, a brain surgeon explaining a procedure to a patient would use more simple, precise, unequivocal \'mental models\' than if she was presenting a paper to a seminar of specialist colleagues who each enjoyed comprehensive and independent checking, cross-checking capabilities. It is important, when communicating, to apply an adequately \'balanced\' checking \'protocol.\' Failure to do so is at our peril! ## Miscommunication On January 3 2006 at approximately 11:50 pm, major news networks reported that 12 of 13 miners trapped in the Sago Mine were alive. Families of the victims celebrated for three hours before mine company officials informed them that the report was wrong and 12 of the 13 miners were dead. The families would later report that a mine foreman, who had overheard the rescue team, had contacted the families with some initial but unverified information and the media picked the story up from the families. Reporters then \'verified\' that information with other families and other news sources without realizing those \'cross-check\' sources originated from the very same, single unverified source. They failed to \'dig down to the roots\' of their story and relied instead on visible superficiality. Beyond compounding the mental anguish of the families, many professional news media outlets appeared unprofessional and the mine company experienced a far worse public relations problem than if they had communicated clearly and quickly using more formal protocols. Unfortunately formal protocols involve verification, and this slower process can seem rather like censorship or deliberate information management to news gatherers. While most business communication issues don't result in such dramatic public displays, \'quick and dirty\' communications often prevent teams from functioning properly and cost companies uncountable billions of dollars. But so too does the over-cautious, \'need to know\' secrecy beloved of military style organizations, who thereby miss many opportunities. The trick is to strike a balance, and that balance will change, depending on the sensitivity, importance and urgency of the message. Unbalanced messages are likely to cause "communication breakdown" which can engender conflict. Over cautious protocol can prevent important information from reaching decision makers accurately and in time, while listening to messages with no verification protocol - rumors - can easily reduce the morale of team members. By understanding the causes of communication breakdown and effective techniques for group communication, team members can create a more productive working environment for themselves, and increase their effectiveness when dealing with outsiders such as customers or the wider public (or vice versa - as occurred at the Sago Mine \'information leak\'). Effective communication techniques maximize team productivity and creativity while minimizing the chance of miscommunication. Just to make things even more complicated, deliberately \'unbalancing\' messages to provoke miscommunication can be quite creative! Unbalanced - unverified messages are the essence of formal \'brain-storming\' events, and also occurs routinely in gentle banter and ironic satire among colleagues. However, it can not be over-emphasized that these \'wrong protocol\' techniques should only be used exceptionally as they require very careful management in a business environment! ## Communication Breakdown Communication breakdown can be the source or the result of conflict, but it is also important to recognize that a lack of conflict can also be a sign of communication breakdown. Inadequate training, apathy, misunderstandings, channel noise, differing backgrounds, or lack of respect can all be causes of communication breakdown. The results of communication issues include withholding information, loss of trust, reduced cooperation, reduced productivity, reduced creativity, reduced risk taking, personal attacks, sabotage, complaints, clique formation and team breakup or individual resignation. The North American Blackout of 2003 is an interesting example. One power plant failed to accurately communicate the status of their section of the power grid, causing more than one hundred power plants to go off line, forty million people to lose power, and an estimated six billion dollars in losses to businesses.It is caused by problems which occur daily which allows people to stop their communication. A survey of 560 MBA students with work experience from across the USA helps to illustrate some of the problems that communication breakdown can cause. The table labeled \"Hard Costs\" shows the number of respondents that can recollect certain hard costs that were incurred due to communication breakdown. The table labeled \"Soft Costs\" shows the soft costs incurred (Gilsdorf 191-192). The soft costs may result in losses as high as or higher than hard costs, but they are difficult to quantify. As you can see, the effects of communication breakdown are far from trivial. The Society for Advancement of Consulting (SAC) has recently released an article stating that poor communication is more of a threat to the failure of a business than competition or the economy (\"Communication Errors Undermining Business.\"). \# of respondents Hard cost ------------------- ---------------------------- 11 \< \$100 34 \$100 - \$499 24 \$500 - \$999 82 \$1,000 - \$9,999 25 \$10,000 - \$19,999 35 \$20,000 - \$49,999 11 \$50,000 - \$99,999 21 \$100,000 - \$499,999 3 \$500,000 - \$999,99 11 \$1,000,000 - \$10,000,000 : Hard costs \# of respondents Soft cost ------------------- ---------------------------------------------- 124 Lost time 111 Lost employee(s) 101 Lowered productivity, efficiency, or quality 82 Bad image, word of mouth, publicity 80 Ill will 79 Grave erosion of individuals\' effectiveness 72 Damaged working environment of relationship 57 Lowered morale 56 Stupid risk or liability 51 Lowered team spirit 46 Lowered trust 46 Lost revenue 34 Waste of money 25 Lost customer(s) 18 Lost opportunity : Soft costs There are many books written with psychological and linguistic perspectives on communication breakdown. "That's Not What I Meant!" by Deborah Tannen explains how ambiguities in our speech can cause people to misinterpret what we intend to say. She also talks about how the majority of what we say isn't in the actual words, but in the way they are said. This involves pacing, volume, expression of emotion (pitch, tone). There is a higher incidence of misinterpretation when communicating between cultures, due to differences in the norms of "meta messages" between cultures. Communication breakdown can also be manifested as politeness taken too far. Tannen talks about the "Two-edged Sword of Politeness" where, in the interest of maintaining relations with others, important things are not said. The motive here is to get along, but people often end up getting along worse when this is done. When communicating, we don't always say what we mean due to what we think others might think of us. This is known as indirectness and is a type of self-defense mechanism. Communicating with others is far more complicated than simply turning an idea into words, saying it, and having it turned back into the same idea. All these complications are places where communication breakdown can occur, frustrating those involved. Richard J. Mayer has a slightly different perspective on breakdown. He came up with the hypothesis that "Virtually all communication problems and conflicts between people, no matter how serious they appear, are due to an accumulation of un-confronted and unresolved minor issues, each of little or no apparent importance." (Mayer 3). He studied hundreds of instances where communication breakdown had occurred to come up with this idea. Many of these minor issues are caused by the communication concepts mentioned earlier by Tannen. The new part of this perspective is that major problems are caused by an accumulation of minor issues. He suggests confronting these little issues every time they are encountered. He also proposes the idea that we are more skilled at being competitive than we are at being collaborative, which makes it difficult to work in effective teams. A certain amount of communication conflict within a team is good. Both too little, as well as too much conflict is a type of communication breakdown. Too little communication conflict most likely means either that nobody cares very much or they are all brainwashed to think alike (\'group-think\'). Both of these factors mean the team is not being effective (Lemmex 2004). In an article about communication breakdown, Larry Lauer says that communication breakdown is inevitable due to the complex nature of human experience and thus interpretation, so the communications need to be reiterated back and forth until both the transmitter and all those receiving messages have a common and verifiable understanding. He suggests some ways to spot communication breakdown, and suggests we should look for \'activity plateaus\' after a goal is met. These plateaus often cause members to be more focused on their personal matters, and communication begins to slow down. Another sign is productivity falling off. A plateau might be due simply to members of a group who feel that their input isn't much valued, and start to withdraw from the group activity. Executive isolation is another sign of communication breakdown. This is the process of a manager suffering from \'head in the office syndrome\'. Effective communication is difficult. During times of stress, it is tempting to avoid conflict by spending less and less time with others, and not engaging in verifiable communication with them about the critical issues. Finally, either too few or too many comments, queries or complaints is likely be a sign of communication breakdown (Lauer 1994). It is all a matter of balance between \'foot in mouth\' and \'paralysis by analysis\'! Communication breakdown is all around us, and is responsible for more problems than anyone takes the time to realize. Through the use of examples, survey results, and various perspectives on the inner workings and diagnosis of communication breakdown, we try to develop a better idea as to why we should want to avoid communication breakdown. The following sections will help you communicate effectively with others so that, together, you can plan and implement effective communication techniques and checking protocols within your group or team. Effective communication within a team doesn't happen by accident; instead, it requires planning and organization, and an effective team leader or facilitator. Planning for good communication in a meeting setting takes even more preparation. This section will discuss how leaders and facilitators can plan ahead for good communication. ## Planning for Communication In modern organizations, teams may be entirely virtual and never interact in person. This presents a unique set of communication challenges which are outside the scope of this paper, although certain techniques presented will work well for virtual teams. Larson and LaFasto (1989, 55-57) consider an effective communication system to be one of the four necessary features of team structure. The communication system must focus on accessible information, utilize information from credible sources, provide opportunities for informal communication and have a way to document decisions in planning for communication. Leaders must take care to structure the team and interactions in such a way that these four elements are a part of the system. For existing teams, the team will probably already have procedures in place, whether or not conscious effort went into developing them. As groups work together, certain norms of behavior develop. Team leaders should be aware of this process and work to develop an effective set of norms from the beginning. Opportunity for informal communication needs to be deliberately coordinated, not left to chance. To enhance the likelihood of informal communication, a team leader will want to allow time at the beginning of the process for group members to get to know one another and interact informally. An offsite retreat or team activity will build personal relationships among members and facilitate communication down the road. The facilitator should continue to build in regular opportunities for informal discussion in ways that work with the team culture. Another important technique in preparing for communication is to train group members in advance on communication techniques. A leader should train team members about group techniques for meeting facilitation and conflict resolution as well as individual skills such as listening, communicating criticism and mediation. This process facilitation can have positive effects on team accomplishment. (Wheelan 2005) Finally, good communication requires feedback among group members. The facilitator must build in ways for team members to provide one another evaluative information about their behavior. (Wheelan 2005) Once general systems are in place for good communication, the team leader can focus on specific situations such as a team meeting. For teams working face to face, meetings are one of the most common ways groups communicate, so planning for effective communication at meetings is critical. Part of planning a meeting means having the logistics in place for success. The timing and location must be right and the technologies must be in place for effective communication. Logistics such as the time of day members are likely to be available to meet and at their best, a location that will minimize interruptions and technologies such as PowerPoint that provide visual aids are all important foundations for a successful meeting. (Whetton and Cameron, 1995) Even more importantly, the leader must be clear on the purpose of the meeting and make sure the right participants are involved. Then, he or she must plan the structure. (Whetton and Cameron, 1995) To be most effective, a facilitator must explicitly determine the most appropriate meeting structure and procedures. Some of the basic procedural options include: "1) an agenda-guided discussion, 2) a problem- or item-list procedure, and 3) simplified parliamentary procedure." (Stech/Ratliffe, 243) Extensive detail on each of these options can be found in the book, "Effective Group Communication" referenced at the end of the paper. For most meetings, a detailed agenda, distributed in advance, is an effective way to help participants prepare for the meeting. The agenda gives group members time to consider issues to be discussed so the group does not, "waste time discussing ill-conceived suggestions." (Whetton and Cameron, 460) The group also needs to have a clear decision making format in place. Communication structure options include: ordinary group discussion (the most common default), brainstorming and nominal group technique. The appropriate choice depends on the group task. (Whetton and Cameron, 1995) Effective implementation of these various communication strategies will be discussed in the next section. Beyond determining the structural format, a leader also needs to prepare by making sure the participants fully understand the purpose of the meeting and their role in the process. In many cases, particularly when there is a controversial item on the agenda, pre-meetings with specific participants are important. "...it is advisable to discuss the matter before the meeting with key opinion leaders. This polling of sentiment is useful for gauging how much time should be set aside for discussing an issue and how it should be presented to the group. In addition, if the chairperson can obtain the support of key group members before the meeting, it is less likely that a controversial issue will dominate the group discussion..." (Whetton and Cameron, 461) Facilitators and leaders must plan for good communication. In general, investment in structure (including informal communication) and member training can set the stage to allow team members to communicate well. For a team meeting, more planning should be done including deciding on the meeting purpose, participants, structure, logistics and decision making process. Agendas and pre-meetings with individuals can help members prepare and ensure the group meeting moves smoothly. ## Communication Tools While planning for effective communication is key in order to achieve specific objectives, it is equally important to utilize tried and tested \'tools\' that can facilitate \'live\' real time communication between a transmitter and an audience. First, some communication is what Eric Birne called \'parent to child\'- the issuing of clear and unequivocal orders to make sure that tasks are completed quickly in what the authority figure thinks is the best way possible. Other times, we act more like adults, and hold discussions that require awareness, active listening, using names and making "I" statements. Appropriate body language, mirroring and eye contact can all help individuals to understand each other better. The first step in facilitating clear team communication is to be aware of who is in the group. Bringing the group together in a social setting allows team members to learn each other's personalities, work situation, and personal background. This understanding prevents issues and differences from arising that could inhibit communication between team members. The next technique that can improve communication is the use of active listening skills. Active listening occurs when people really hear what the other person is saying and both paraphrase what was said and identify any nonverbal cues that a person may also be trying to express through body language. Sometimes this means more than just identifying the concrete comments or suggestions that a person is making, but also addressing any underlying emotional issues that are also affecting what a person is trying to say (Thompson and Gooler, 1996). A simple way to help a person understand that you are actively listening is to use their name a few times during the course of a conversation. This helps a person to realize that you are focusing your attention on what they are saying, and really hearing their full meaning (Connolly and Syer, 1996). When you are the person who feels misunderstood or not heard, make sure to express your feelings through the use of "I" statements. Using "I" statements allows people to express themselves without putting others on the defensive. For example, instead of saying, "You are completely ignoring me," phrasing that feeling as "I feel like I am not being heard by the group" allows others to realize how you are feeling without starting a conflict (Connolly and Syer, 1996). If a group is having trouble creating and communicating divergent ideas, one way to facilitate this process is through the Nominal Group Technique. This technique preempts conflict by allowing individuals to generate ideas individually and have everyone share their thoughts with the group. "The advantage of the nominal group technique is that it maximizes information gain, ensures a democratic representation of all members' ideas...and avoids production blocking" (Thompson, 162). Ultimately, some conflict will arise. But through the use of the nominal group technique and the use of "I" statements, conflict may be productive in the generation of new ideas and not lead to permanent rifts between team members. Though these tools for facilitating verbal communication are essential, the importance of understanding nonverbal cues cannot be underestimated. "The use of space, eye contact, body orientation, head movements and other behaviors are often used to transmit messages without the use of words" (Thompson and Gooler, 407). Regardless of what team members actually say, it is important to be aware of the nonverbal messages communicated through body language. Though a person may verbally agree, it may be clear that they are uncomfortable or dissatisfied with an idea or solution, and that needs to be addressed for good communication to be permanently achieved. In addition to being cognizant of others' nonverbal cues, it is also important for team members to be aware of how their own nonverbal behavior is perceived. Team members should be very aware of eye contact. Maintaining eye contact with individuals who are communicating their ideas indicates interest (Connolly and Syer, 1996). Staring out the window or around the room is often perceived as boredom or disrespect. Another simple nonverbal technique to facilitate good communication is the act of mirroring. Mirroring involves mimicking others gestures and ideas. This is especially helpful for making outsiders feel comfortable sharing ideas. While mirroring may seem over the top, in fact, it "is a highly effective way of stating the obvious and raising awareness to allow change." (Connolly and Syer, 210). While these tools can help to address the nonverbal aspects of communication, in the end team members must be aware of how they are expressing themselves both through what they say and what they don't say. While these general techniques are effective for most teams, individual team differences often arise with special needs. Though there are too many to enumerate in this paper, we would like to address two of the most common and difficult groupings that people encounter -- diverse groups and groups with personality clashes. "There is a delicate balance in teams between appreciating individual differences and requiring unity" (Larson and LaFasto, 79). Finding the balance between creating cohesiveness and respecting differences is difficult, but can ultimately strengthen teams if it is leveraged properly through good communication. In today's diverse, international work environment, people of differing work and cultural backgrounds are often working together on teams. Finding a way to communicate despite differences is not only necessary, but also needed in order to find the best solutions. "The belief is that diverse teams have a broader range of knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences that can enhance the group's ability to critically analyze problems and generate more creative solutions and ideas" (Thompson and Gooler, 397). Common problems that occur in diverse groups include stereotyping, language barriers, and misunderstandings. For example, in the United States a thumbs up means okay, in Japan the same gesture means money, and in Iran it is an obscene gesture. (Henderson, 1994). Also, people from different cultures do not have the same shared history and stories that they can relate to when explaining issues. "When group members do not share common social signals, the development of group cohesiveness may be hindered and the team may have greater difficulty establishing a positive social climate" (Thompson and Gooler, 409). For this reason, it is particularly important that diverse teams have shared social team activities outside of the workplace so that they can not only get to know each other, but also have these shared stories to refer to when trying to communicate particular points. During team meetings, team members must take the time to pause and make sure that everyone is grasping the issues and solutions being discussed (Henderson, 1994). If the team rushes ahead without everyone on board, conflict will probably ensue at a later time. A degree of formality is also helpful in diverse team meetings. Using proper titles (and always pronouncing names correctly, of course) and avoiding slang may help people understand each other and not be inadvertently offended. In diverse teams, keeping an open mind and really hearing what other team members are trying to say must be made a priority in every meeting (Henderson, 1994). In general, in diverse groups it is better to use the Nominal Group Technique than devil's advocate, which can cause the group to turn on one member, or simply create unproductive conflict that does not lead to the best solution. However, despite the extra effort that must be put into communication in diverse groups, the benefits often make the work worth it when highly effective, innovative solutions to problems are generated. Another factor that plays a role in team communication is the differing personalities between team members. In fact, Weblin goes so far as to say that "personality may be described as the sum pattern of a person's way of communicating -- the total impression he makes on others" (quoted in Huseman, 1977: p. 417). Because of their varying personalities, members of teams receive, process, and act on information and situations differently. Differences can be helpful by bringing fresh perspectives and skill sets to the team, but can also create conflict if communication styles differ or are misunderstood. If team members understand their own personality tendencies as well as those of their teammates, the communication between members and therefore effectiveness of the team will improve drastically. It will also allow the team to emphasize and appreciate each member's strengths. As Ruderman hypothesizes, "the level of team personality diversity will be positively and significantly related to team productivity, especially on problem solving teams" (1996, p. 79). ## Personality Types One of the most prevalently used personality assessment tools is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). This technique can prove to be a powerful tool in learning about your own personality as well as those of your teammates. Unfortunately, it is not especially \'scientific\' and some less secure personalities may place too much faith in their \'type\' so that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The assessment relies on a long and recursive series of questions, none of which have an \'obviously correct\' answer, but all are rather ambiguous in nature. This MBTI tool is just one of many which seeks to analyze and measure a person's predisposed preferences about the world and other people. MBTI identifies people as points along four axes. These four dimensions thus produce 16 broad possible personality types and a range of \'shades\' within each category. The first dimension refers to how a person prefers to be energized. An extrovert (E) mainly gains energy from interaction with others while an introvert generally (I) prefers being alone. The second dimension deals with how a person prefers to take in information from the external world. A sensing (S) person likes distinct facts and details while an intuitive (N) person prefers to see the big picture. The third dimension relates to how people usually make decisions. A thinking (T) person generally utilizes \'cold\' logical thinking for their decisions while a feeling (F) person tends to make judgments based on personal and subjective values. The final dimension deals with an individual's preference for their relationship with the external world. A perceptive (P) person with the perceives situations in an emotional, flexible and spontaneous way. A more judgmental (J) person prefers to live in planned and organized situations that is susceptible to analysis and synthesis (Bradley 1997: p. 341; Dent 2004: p. 67) Understanding differing personality types in general can help the group communication and functional process. "The ideal team should be highly diversified in the talents and knowledge each member contributes, while maintaining open, non-threatening communication" (Bradley 1997: p. 338). Extroverts tend to open the lines of between group members, while introverts provide internal reflection of group discussions. Both are important functions of group communication. The sensing-intuition dimension can produce the greatest divisions in teams but both are absolutely necessary" (Lyman 1995: p. 58). Sensing types take in and bring up pertinent, concrete, and precise facts, and recognize the practical realities of the situation. On the other hand, intuitive types take in data as a whole, focusing on associations and relationships and seeing new possibilities and ideas. Thinking types present a logical analysis of the decision-making situation and therefore communicate in this way, while feeling individuals offer insights into how feelings of other group members might affect the situation. Feelers may view thinkers as insensitive while thinkers might view feelers as touchy feely if each does not appreciate the others perspective. The planned and orderly approach of the judging type will typically help keep the team on schedule, while perceivers help ## Conclusion Utilizing a variety of these tools and techniques to facilitate effective communication is crucial in order to maximize team effectiveness. When communication structures and protocols ares not in place, the communication breakdown is more probable than not. Fairly simple misunderstandings, if not detected, can impair, sometimes even devastate the productivity of a team. On the other hand, some misunderstandings can actually lead to creative leaps of the imagination, especially if the checks and balances we call \'protocol\' are working properly. Careful planning for meetings with simple tools like the minutes of previous transactions and and not too flexible agendas can help in advance. During the encounter, attention to verbal and non-verbal communication, and understanding different participants' backgrounds and communication styles can all help teams capture the productivity improvements associated with effective team operation. Ultimately, the increased productivity that results from developing a range of \'communications protocols\' for different situations, circumstances and audiences is likely to be well worth the effort. The essence is in finding the right balance between spontaneity and carefully edited messages likely to be appropriate in each foreseeable situation. ## References \"2003 North American Blackout.\" Wikipedia. 25 May 2006. 30 May 2006 \<<http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2003_North_America_blackout>\>. Bradley, J. and Hebert, F. "The Effect of Personality Type on Team Performance." Journal of Management Development, Vol. 16 no 5, 1997. "Communication Errors Undermining Business.\" Society for Advancement of Consulting (2005). Print Delivery. LexisNexis. UC Davis, Davis. 30 May 2006. Keyword: poor communication errors. Connolly, Christopher, and John Syer. How Teamwork Works. London: McGraw-Hill Company, 1996. Dent, F., Curd, J, Carr, M., and Blass, E. "Managing by Dimensions." EBF. Autumn, 2004. Eaton, Sabrina, and Tom Diemer. \"FirstEnergy defends its actions in blackout .\" The Plain Dealer 05 Sept. 2003. 30 May 2006 \<<http://www.cleveland.com/blackout/index.ssf?/blackout/more/1062759325296770.html>\>. Ernest, Stech, and Sharon A. Ratliffe. Effective Group Communication How to Get Action by Working in Groups. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company, 1985. Funk, John, and Peter Krouse. \"Transcripts Show Chaos Just Before Blackout.\" The Plain Dealer 04 Sept. 2003. 30 May 2006 \<<http://www.cleveland.com/blackout/index.ssf?/blackout/more/106268022521680.html>\>. Gilsdorf, Jeanette W. \"Organizational Rules on Communicating: How Employees are - and are Not - Learning the Ropes.\" The Journal of Business Communication os 35 (1998): 173-201. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. UC Davis, Davis. 22 May 2006. Henderson, George. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Issues and Strategies. Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books, 1994. Huseman, R., Logue, C. and Freshley, D. 1977. Readings in Interpersonal and Organizational Communication. Boston, Holbrook Press, Inc. Lark, J. P., Robert B. Nelson, and Laura Chappelle. \"Report on August 14th Blackout.\" State of Michigan. Nov. 2003. 30 May 2006 \<<http://www.michigan.gov/documents/mpsc_blackout_77423_7.pdf>\>. Larson, Carl E., and Frank M. LaFasto. TeamWork What Must Go Right/What Can Go Wrong. Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1989. Lauer, Larry D. \"How to Improve Internal Communication: Guidelines for the Nonprofit Manager.\" Nonprofit World os 12.3 (1994): 34-38. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. UC Davis, Davis. 22 May 2006. Keyword: communication breakdown. Lemmex, Steve. \"Communication Breakdown and Conflict with Teams.\" Global Knowledge Network os (2004). Business Source Premier. EBSCO. UC Davis, Davis. 22 May 2006. Keyword: communication breakdown. Lyman, D. and Richter, K. "QFD and Personality Type: The Key to Team Energy and Effectiveness." Industrial Engineering. February, 1995. Mayer, Richard J. \"Communications and Conflict in Organizations.\" Human Resource Management (1974). Business Source Premier. EBSCO. UC Davis, Davis. 22 May 2006. Keyword: communication problems. Ruderman, M, Hughes-James, M, and Jackson, S. 1996. Selected Research on Work Team Diversity. American Psychological Association and Center for Creative Leadership. \"Sago Mine Disaster.\" Wikipedia. 4 June 2006. 4 June 2006 Shave, David W. Communication Breakdown. St. Louis: Warren H. Green, Inc., 1975 Quinn, John P. \"How to Avoid Communication Breakdowns.\" Logistics Management Apr. 2006: 37+. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. UC Davis, Davis. 22 May 2006. Keyword: Communication Breakdown. Susan, Wheelan A. \"Facilitating Group Communication.\" The Handbook of Group Research and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc, 2005 Tannen, Deborah. That\'s Not What I Meant! New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1986. Thompson, Donna E., and Laura E. Gooler. \"Capitalizing on the Benefits of Diversity Through Workteams.\" Managing Diversity. Ed. Ellen E. Kossek and Sharon A. Lobel. Cambridge: Blackwell Inc., 1996. 392-437. Thompson, Leigh. Making the Team. Chapter 8: Creativity. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Whetton, D., and C Cameron, \"Principles for Managing Meetings.\" Developing Management Skills. Glenview: Scott, Foresman, 1995. 454-476.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Conflict ## Conflict Defined Conflict can exist between factions or groups within a team, with a leader or manager, and with other teams or departments within the company. It has been defined in numerously different ways and has come to hold several connotations. The following is an example of a relatively broad dictionary entry, where *conflict* is defined in the following way(s): Conflict 1. To come into collision or disagreement; be contradictory, at variance, or in opposition; clash: The account of one eyewitness conflicted with that of the other. My class conflicts with my going to the concert. 2. To fight or contend; do battle. 3. A fight, battle, or struggle, esp. a prolonged struggle; strife. 4. Controversy; quarrel: conflicts between parties. 5. Discord of action, feeling, or effect; antagonism or opposition, as of interests or principles: a conflict of ideas. 6. A striking together; collision. 7. Incompatibility or interference, as of one idea, desire, event, or activity with another: a conflict in the schedule. 8. Psychiatry. a mental struggle arising from opposing demands or impulses. ### _Conflict in Groups and Teams_ Conflict inevitably arises in one form or another in varying degrees due to the mere group and/or team dynamics of having people with differing backgrounds, ideas, and potential agendas coming together in an effort to accomplish a common goal. Conflict is generally considered to be negative and something to be avoided. Numerous frameworks such as LaFasto and Larson\'s CONNECT model have been developed to help rid groups of negative conflict. However, conflict isn't always negative and there are circumstances in which positive conflict is necessary in order to prevent compliance tendencies and the potentially disastrous effects of groupthink. In the following sections, the positive and negative realms of conflict will be outlined and further detailed in an effort to narrow the scope of conflict while helping to navigate some of the more negative connotations that easily come to mind when thinking about conflict. Use all positive words and actions and you will get the same back, respect others and they will respect you. ## Types of Conflict that a Team Can Face *Positive conflictvsNegative conflict* ### Positive conflict ![](Challenger_explosion.jpg "Challenger_explosion.jpg"){width="400"} Positive conflict is the notion that a healthy discourse may exist in the disagreement among group members regarding personality traits, styles, or characteristics or the content of their ideas, decisions or task processes which involves a pathway towards resolution. Any tolerable amount of conflict is vital to group success in order to avoid groupthink and to generate more innovative ideas among potentially and vastly differing members of the group. In addition, positive conflict generates buy-in and offers elements of ownership and a sense of cooperation and enhanced membership to all of the group members. Positive conflict reduces the effects of conformity pressures and groupthink. Groupthink occurs when conformity and compliance pressures are exaggerated, and it generally occurs in the absence of task conflict. One of the most devastating examples of groupthink occurred on the morning of January 28th, 1986 in which the Challenger space shuttle exploded over the Atlantic Ocean after the failure of an O-ring. This failure resulted from the O-ring being unable to withstand extreme temperatures in which the O-ring had never been truly tested. Numerous NASA staff members were aware of the possible failure of the O-ring in extreme temperatures, and they were also aware of the ramifications should the O-ring break. However, the decision making process regarding whether or not the shuttle was safe to launch was riddled with flaws that ultimately created a breeding ground for groupthink. To illustrate, the Challenger launch had been postponed several times before this scheduled date, and there was direct pressure from NASA to approve the launch. There was also media pressure as they were scheduled to film the launch, since it would be the first time a teacher was sent into space. NASA officials feared public ridicule if the launch was delayed again, and as early as six days prior to the launch, NASA put the pressure on. They told the inspectors to stop thinking like inspectors and start thinking like managers, and they rationalized that there was no conclusive evidence to suggest that the O-ring would not work. As a result, the inspectors bowed to conformity pressures and gave the approval to launch. The resulting launch and subsequent death of all 7 crew members aboard the Challenger shook the nation and was not the front page news that NASA had hoped for. Other disasters that occurred due to conformity pressures include the Bay of Pigs, the Tenerife plane crash disaster, the holocaust, and many others. To test how strong the effects of conformity pressures are on less cohesive groups and among individuals that were only recently introduced, Solomon Asch conducted his famous conformity experiment in which a group of random participants were shown a picture of the following lines, and they were asked which line in the second group of lines is approximately the same height as the first line shown. !Example of the cards shown to the participants of the study{width="300"} Individuals that were a part of the experiment (confederates to the experiment) selected an obviously inappropriate line such as line "B" as their answer. The results were astounding in which the remaining individual in the group (not a confederate to the experiment) also selected line "B" as their answer due to perceived pressures to conform. Conformity occurs as a result of individuals' desire to be liked and their need to be right. Therefore, they tend to fall victim to false consensus biases and generally bring their behavior in line with the group's expectations and beliefs. So how are you to know if your group is falling prey to conformity pressures and groupthink? Here are some common symptoms: :\Illusions of invulnerability :\Rationalization & justification :\Illusion of group morality :\Stereotyping the out-group as weaker, evil, or stupid :\Direct or indirect peer or supervisory pressures :\Self-censorship by team members :\Illusions of unanimity First, realizing that you and your group are affected by or susceptible to conformity pressures and groupthink is very important. Next, in order to create a norm of conflict, it is essential that a feeling of psychology safety is present. This can be instated by encouraging objections, criticisms, and altering perspectives. Also, as a leader, one should avoid making clear statements about your preferences, create subgroups, have outside experts come in to observe the decision making process, and re-examine the next best alternatives once a decision has been reached. Finally, limiting the size of the group and assigning roles that make conflict commonplace (such as a "Devil's Advocate") will help to discourage and minimize compliance pressures. After the Challenger explosion, NASA took similar steps to avoid future disasters in which they instituted a verbal and video recorded affirmation from several NASA officials that certify flight readiness. Furthermore, NASA\'s managers instituted a veto policy in which anyone at any level is given the authority to stop the flight process. In addition to avoiding groupthink and conformity pressures, positive conflict is more likely to generate a sense of membership, involvement, and enthusiasm from all group members and is also more likely to lead to the infusion of more creative and innovative ideas. This results from each team member having the opportunity to voice his or her own perspective on the issues being decided by the group. When individuals feel more involved in the decision making process, they are more likely to state a high satisfaction level with their team and are additionally more likely to want to continue working as a member of that team. Creating a heterogeneous team is another way to encourage diverse perspectives, opinions, and ideas. Heterogeneous groups also have a broader knowledge base resulting from a variety of experiences, backgrounds, skills, and achievements. Comparable to other investment strategies that are somewhat more risky (in terms of the increased likelihood for ensuing conflict levels), diverse teams stand a greater chance for potential return and favorable results as well. ### Negative conflict* !Interactions{width="250"} In diverse and heterogeneous teams, negative conflict has a tendency to emerge in varying degrees due to the mere dynamics of having diverse individuals with differing backgrounds, ideas, and potential agendas coming together. Negative conflict can arise in several different arenas including the following: :\Conflict can arise between factions or groups within a team. ::\Subgroups, or factions, can develop within a team. Each group has their own opinions and will stick together and oppose other factions within the team. Organizations can be greatly divided by such factions :\Conflict can develop between team members and the leader of the team. ::\Team members can disagree with the team leader. This can lead to refusal to follow the direction of the team leader. There may be conflict with management because management has not given clear goals to the team or may not be supporting the team. The organization could have a culture that does not allow teams to work effectively. :\Conflict can form between the different teams or departments in the organization. Unlike positive conflict, negative conflict is better if avoided and must be swiftly addressed and resolved when it does present itself. Due to the dangerous nature and destructive effects negative conflict has on productivity and moral, it may potentially lead to Human Resource Management issues or even a lawsuit. In order to set the stage so that interpersonal conflict is avoided or at least minimized, firms can prevent the establishment of in-groups and out-groups, foster open communication and trust, understand the various personality styles that comprise a group, and coach effective communication skills and perspective taking skills to team members. An example of a firm, where the formation of in-groups and out-groups fostered so much negative conflict, was the Lehman Brothers firm, this in-group and out-group culture lead to the selling of the firm. Within this firm, a strong separation between Traders and Bankers literally divided the corporation and led to its ultimate demise. Differences between the functions were exaggerated and there was a perception that each of the divisions was pursuing its own unique and more valuable objectives. There was not a unified vision within the company and personality conflict was commonplace. The Traders believed that the Bankers were lazy \"Ivy League\" graduates who were awarded greater benefits simply to uphold the status-quo. The Bankers perceived the Brokers as less intelligent, blue collar workers who deserved less compensation and rewards. Creating in-groups and out-groups in a company leads to an unhealthy competition between the groups. Each faction ends up battling for a greater share of the company's limited resources and an "us" vs. "them" rational emerges, while energy is wasted on trying to prove which group is better rather than to maintain common goals. As demonstrated by the infamous Robbers Cave Experiment conducted by Muzafer Sherif, working toward a common goal and maintaining common purpose is essential for group unity and contributes to the reduction of personal conflict. In this experiment, 22 boy scouts were assigned to two separate camps and neither group was aware of the other\'s existence. Each boy formed a strong identification with his own group, and the scouts were even allowed to select a group name. The first contact between the two groups was to play a competitive sport and friction emerged between the groups almost immediately. During the resolution phase of the experiment, a task was developed in which the two groups were forced to cooperate and work together toward achieving a common purpose that neither group could achieve alone. A broken-down truck that needed to be towed back to the camp was staged, and the two groups had to combine their man-power to tow the truck. By the end of the experiment, the in-groups and out-groups had merged, and the entire group even insisted upon riding back home on the same bus together. In addition to forming a super-ornate goal for group members to achieve, pointing out what group members have in common and defusing stereotypes is a way to prevent the formation of an out-group. Fostering support, trust, and open communication is also essential if relationship conflicts are to be reduced and quickly resolved. Open communication can be established by the following: :\Establish ground rules. ::\Take turns when talking and do not interrupt. Ensure that each team member has equal time when stating their perspective. Listen for something new and say bring something new to the discussion. Avoid restating the facts and "talking in circles." Avoid power plays and eliminate status or titles from the discussion :\Listen compassionately ::\Avoid thinking of a counterargument while the other person is speaking. Listen to the other person's perspective rather than listening to your own thoughts. Don't make an effort to remember points. :\Point out the advantages of resolving the conflict. :\*Maintain a neutral vantage point and be willing to be persuaded. :\*Avoid all-or-none statements such as "always" and "never" and point out exceptions when these statements are used. ::\(IE: What does it look like when Marketing does consult sales before acting?) :\Create a goal of discovery rather than of winning or persuading. :\*Be alert to common goals and where goals overlap as each party is communicating their perspective. :\*Use clarifying statements to ensure the other party feels understood and listened to such as, "What I heard you say is that you feel unappreciated and that you lack vital feedback to help you perform, is this correct?" :\*Help team members to separate the problem from the person. :\*Use techniques such as role-playing, putting oneself in the competitor's shoes, or conducting war games. Such techniques create fresh perspectives and engage team members. :\*Team members should recognize each other for having expressed his view and feelings. ::\Thanking one another recognizes the personal risk the individual took in breaking from group think and should be viewed as an expression of trust and commitment toward the team. :\\'\'\'Help each team member to understand one anothers\' perspective, and help them to re-frame the situation. ::\The exact same situation can often be viewed differently by several individuals. To illustrate, what did you see first in the picture below, the young woman or the old woman? !Which do you see?{width="200"} Once a team has received coaching on how to communicate effectively, address conflict situations immediately as they arise. Letting tense situations fester will only allow time for animosity to polarize and grow. Helping team members to reframe the problem and see it from the other individual's perspective can also be accomplished directly, via cross-training and job shadowing which allows each team member to draw from a frame of reference by walking in the other team member\'s shoes. Utilizing the Big 5 personality test descriptions will also add an element of understanding to the group dynamic. To illustrate, if Jimmy is highly extroverted, neurotic, and conscientious, it may help Tim, who is not quite as extroverted as than Jim and who is more agreeable, to understand where Jimmy's seemingly endless ability to voice his irritation with others is stemming from, and he may not take it as personally. In addition, Jimmy may better understand and get less irritated with Tim's perceived inability to take initiative and make decisions efficiently. Finally, understanding common stereotypes and mental shortcuts that are used when passing judgment on others will make team members more aware of how these shortcuts are leading to bias conclusions. The common cognitive biases and a brief description are as follows: :\Self Fulfilling Prophecy: the tendency to engage in behaviors that elicit results which will (consciously or subconsciously) confirm our beliefs. :\Halo Effect: the tendency for a person\'s positive or negative traits to \"spill over\" from one area of their personality to another in others\' perceptions of them :\Primacy Effect: the tendency to weigh initial events more than subsequent events. :\Recency Effect: the tendency to weigh recent events more than earlier events :\Availability Heuristic: a biased prediction, due to the tendency to focus on the most salient and emotionally-charged outcome. :\Selective Perception: selectively attend to data that supports your conclusion while omitting valid evidence that does not. :\Actor-Observer Bias: the tendency for explanations for other individual\'s behaviors to overemphasize the influence of their personality and underemphasize the influence of their situation. This is coupled with the opposite tendency for the self in that one\'s explanations for their own behaviors overemphasize their situation and underemphasize the influence of their personality. :\Hindsight Bias: sometimes called the \"I-knew-it-all-along\" effect, the inclination to see past events as being predictable. :\Illusory Correlation: beliefs that inaccurately suppose a relationship between a certain type of action and an effect :\Egocentric Bias: occurs when people claim more responsibility for themselves for the results of a joint action than an outside observer would. :\False Consensus Bias: the tendency for people to overestimate the degree to which others agree with them. :\Fundamental Attribution Bias: the tendency for people to over-emphasize personality-based explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior :\Just World Phenomenon: the tendency for people to believe that the world is \"just\" and therefore people \"get what they deserve.\" :\Self Serving Bias: the tendency to claim more responsibility for successes than failures. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests :\Illusion of Transparency: people overestimate others\' ability to know them, and they also overestimate their ability to know others. :\Ingroup Bias: the tendency for people to give preferential treatment to others they perceive to be members of their own groups. "...If you form a picture in your mind of what you would like to be and hold it there long enough, you will soon become exactly as you have been thinking."* --William James, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University. ## Why is Conflict Resolution Important in a Team Setting? Whether we embrace it or avoid it, conflict is an inherent part of the human condition. Unlike certain tasks or responsibilities, conflict is not isolated to one or another aspect of life. With conflict looming all about us, why should we even bother trying to resolve it? Or, if conflict is inherent to being human, is it then presumptuous to even attempt its resolution? We propose that, in the vast majority of instances of team conflict, avoidance is a worse solution than engagement with the conflicting situation. Moreover, avoided conflict will lead to less optimal solutions and may even prevent the team from finishing a project. Thus, from a manager's perspective, it is a simple equation of a cost/benefits analysis in that the cost to the organization is greater when teams avoid conflict than when they engage it. In this chapter we will discuss the symptoms of conflict and recommend solutions for their resolution. Conflict absorbs team resources that could be better utilized working towards the team's goals. As discussed, managers should manage conflict in a way that leads the team towards completion of team goals. ## What are the Symptoms of Team Conflict? Almost everyone has endured the experience of being part of a team that was plagued with conflict. Whether in a large group that erupts in anger and can't finish a meeting, or a small group of two or three individuals that resort to backbiting and gossiping to vent frustration over a conflict, everyone has been a part of a team where conflict has gotten out of control. With this in mind, there are several symptoms of conflict that can be identified in groups which can help groups to recognize and manage conflict before it tears them apart. By identifying the following symptoms related to communication, trust, and opposing agendas, the team leader can identify conflict before it erupts. As you read through these symptoms, think of the teams that you are a part of and look for symptoms that exist in your team. One common symptom of conflict is a lack of communication or a lack of respectful communication. This is most often seen when teams fail to have meaningful meetings. Most often, non-communicating meetings are characterized by team members sitting and listening to what the boss has to say. Often chatter or silence prevails in teams. A lack of communication can also be noted when team members don't get along, and so refuse to talk to each other. These feuds create barriers within teams and prevent communication in the team. A lack of communication or disrespectful communication leads to a lack of trust, which is another symptom of team conflict. Teams that fail to produce desired results often lack the trust in one another as team members necessary to succeed. Without trust in a team, verbal or non-verbal conflict becomes the norm of the team. Team members spend more energy protecting their own positions and jobs then they do producing what is required for the team's success. When trust erodes in a team, the habit of blaming others becomes the norm as individuals try to protect themselves. Team members become enemies that compete against each other rather than allies that build and help one another to achieve a common goal. Teams that lack trust often gossip about other members or have frequent side conversations after meetings to discuss opposing opinions. Such activity sucks strength out of the team and its purpose. Another symptom of team conflict can be seen when team members have opposing agendas. This is not to be confused with members who have different opinions. Having different opinions in a group can be very healthy if managed correctly because it can create better ideas and ways of getting the job done. However, when team members have opposing agendas, more is at stake than differing opinions; it is two individuals fiercely committed to the exact opposite approach. Opposing agendas can create confusion in team members and can cause them to lose sight of their role in the team and the team's final goal. Teams must work toward a common goal in order to be successful. Extreme effort must be made to reconcile differences, or such a team can look forward to failure. ## What are Appropriate Solutions to Conflict? As mentioned above, conflict is a natural and necessary element of a healthy team experience. If a team never experiences conflict, it is less likely to be as productive as a team that does experience conflict. This is especially true if the task that a team is attempting to complete is complex in nature or highly detailed. Without having members question specific actions, decisions, or the specifics of the proposed solution, it may appear to the team that there is only one way in which to solve the problem or complete the task. One way in which a team can avoid being unproductive is by selecting members with different backgrounds. This can be difficult because people often assume that individuals who think similarly and get along with one another will be more productive when working together. But this is not necessarily true. In many cases having groups of people who think alike and are not willing to voice their disagreement can be detrimental, or even dangerous. Popular examples of this group think phenomenon are noted in the Kennedy Administration's disaster with regards to the Bay of Pigs, or those involved with the Challenger shuttle launch. Differences among team members should however, be task orientated and not personal or relationship oriented. Relationship conflicts are rarely productive. If potential members of a team have a history of conflict due to relationships and not in relation to tasks, one or both should probably not be chosen as a team member. Additionally, peacekeepers should also be avoided, unless the team environment fosters a very safe atmosphere where the peacekeeper will feel comfortable enough to speak out in the team setting. In this case, a difference in opinion could be beneficial, but it might not be presented due to the member's disproportionate desire to avoid conflict. Avoiding the potential for group think, relationship conflicts, and peacekeepers in choosing team members will help to promote healthy conflict. But commitment is equally important. If team members are individually or collectively indifferent toward the overall goal, they probably will not perform well. A lack of commitment can also lead to a lack of conflict. If the team is committed to the overall goal and members are well chosen, there can be a healthy dose of conflict in the process to complete the task. When conflict does occur, it is important to address it immediately. Although developing a solution to the conflict may take time, acknowledging it will help to ensure that it can become productive to the team. "Whatever the problem, effective teams identify, raise, and resolve it. If it's keeping them from reaching their goal, effective teams try to do something about it. They don't ignore it and hope it goes away." By not addressing conflict, the leader risks sending the message that conflict is unmanageable and cause vested members to become complacent or feel their input is not valued. In the worst scenario, a conflict that is not resolved could go from being task orientated to personal. ## How Can a Team Prevent Negative Conflict? Conflict may be inevitable on a team and may even have a positive effect, "the absence of conflict is not harmony, it's apathy." However, most of us have had experience with the crippling side of conflict. In this section we offer insight into how other teams have successfully managed conflict and make recommendations for mechanisms to put into place in order to prevent harmful conflict. How do successful teams manage conflict? Three business professors, who studied teams which had learned how to successfully "fight" in a team without allowing the conflict to become destructive, found some common themes as to how such teams function. First, successful teams worked with more, rather than less information and debated on the basis of facts. Second, teams developed multiple alternatives to enrich the level of debate. Third, productive teams shared commonly agreed upon goals and objectives. Fourth, teams injected humor into the decision-making process. Fifth, teams maintained a balanced power structure. And sixth, teams resolved issues without forcing consensus. In another study, which surveyed 15,000 team members and their assessments of their team mates, two professors found that the most important behaviors in team relationships are openness and supportiveness, "Regardless of whether it was a working relationship with a peer, a superior, or a direct report, the result was the same. The two factors identified as most important were openness and supportiveness." Moreover, the authors identify specifically what is meant by these two adjectives within a team context: openness "refers to the ability to surface and deal with issues objectively," while supportiveness "refers to bringing out the best thinking and attitude in the other person." From the above insights into successful teams, we start to see that such teams put a high value on fact-based decisions and are able to set up mechanisms that bring out the best in each team member and facilitate information sharing. Drawing from these insights, then, what specific measures, should a new leader or newly formed team put into place to ensure the team can withstand conflict and even gain the benefits of creativity that comes out of conflict? ## How Do Teams Prevent Damaging Conflict? In order to prevent damaging conflict, the team leader must lay a conflict-friendly foundation for the team. The following approach will help the team leader to set the stage for conflict that is creative and productive: 1. Set a clear goal for the team. 2. Make expectations for team members explicit. 3. Assemble a heterogeneous team, including diverse ages, genders, functional backgrounds, and industry experience. 4. Meet together as a team regularly and often. Team members that don't know one another well doesn't know positions on the issues, impairing their ability to argue effectively. Frequent interaction builds the mutual confidence and familiarity team members require expressing dissent. 5. Assign roles such as devil's advocate and sky-gazing visionary and change these roles up from meeting to meeting. This is important to ensure all sides of an issue have been considered. 6. Use techniques such as role-playing, putting oneself in the competitor's shoes, or conducting war games. Such techniques create fresh perspectives and engage team members. 7. Actively manage conflict. Don't let the team acquiesce too soon or too easily. Identify and treat apathy early, and don't confuse a lack of conflict with agreement. ## Resolving Conflict Interpersonal conflict should be managed and resolved before it degenerates into verbal assault and irreparable damage to a team. Dealing with interpersonal conflict can be a difficult and uncomfortable process. Usually, as team members, we use carefully worded statements to avoid frictions when confronting conflict. The first step to resolving interpersonal conflict is in acknowledging the existence of the interpersonal conflict. Recognizing the conflict allows team members to build common ground by putting the conflict within the context of the larger goal of the team and the organization. Moreover, the larger goal can help by giving team members a motive for resolving the conflict. The Rosetta Stone for dealing with conflict is communication. As team members we all understand the inevitability of interpersonal conflicts. Moreover, as we have established above, open and supportive communication is vital to a high performing team. One way to achieve this is by separating the problem from the person. Problems can be debated without damaging working relationships. When interpersonal conflict occurs, all sides of the issue should be recognized without finger-pointing or blaming. Above all, when team member gets yelled at or blamed for something, it has the effect of silencing the whole team. It gives the signal to everyone that dissent is not allowed, and, as we know, dissent is one of the most fertile resources for new ideas. When faced with conflict, it is natural for team members to become defensive. However defensiveness usually makes it more difficult to resolve a conflict. A conflict-friendly team environment must encourage effective listening. Effective listening includes listening to one another attentively, without interruption (this includes not having side conversations, doodling, or vacant stares). The fundamentals to resolving team conflict include the following elements: 1. Prior to stating one's view, a speaker should seek to understand what others have said. This can be done in a few clarifying sentences, 2. Seek to make explicit what the opposing sides have in common. This helps to reinforce what is shared between the disputants, 3. Whether or not an agreement is reached, team members should thank the other for having expressed his view and feelings. Thanking the other recognizes the personal risk the individual took in breaking from group think and should be viewed as an expression of trust and commitment toward the team. ### How Can Teams Resolve Conflict Between Factions? In resolving conflict between factions, the team leader should start by bringing the groups together and acknowledging there is a conflict. The team leader should make sure all group members are clear about the group goal. Not only should each group member understand what the goal is, they each need to be willing to work toward achieving it. Set ground rules for the group if this has not been done. An important rule to include is to eliminate outside politicking. When disagreements or issues arise, they should be discussed within the group. Factions should not have separate discussions about the problem. If ground rules have already been established, discuss whether all agree with them and are willing to follow them. Discuss the methods and processes that will be used to reach the team goal. Again, it is important to get all team members working together towards the common goal. The team leader should stay alert to one faction forcing a particular solution. If such an instance arises, those forcing a solution should be asked to articulate the reason behind their thinking. Once the thinking has been articulated, there can be open discussion as to the merits and drawbacks to the proposed solution. ### What Should a Team Leader Do To Resolve Conflict and Promote Team Performance? Team leaders have the responsibility of resolving conflict within their teams. There are things that team leaders can do to make a team where conflict resolution occurs naturally. One thing that team leaders can do in their groups to resolve conflict is to set up team rules from the outset. As discussed earlier, such team rules can guide team members to resolve conflict between themselves, rather than going to the leader to resolve all conflict. Team leaders should foster an environment in their teams that is safe and positive. Such an environment will help foster communication and will help team members to resolve conflicts. Team leaders can also provide retreats and other activities away from the office that will help to build team unity and trust. These factors will also strengthen a team and help to avoid negative conflict before it begins. Team leaders can also strictly monitor performance issues in their group. Performance issues that go unresolved create relationship conflict and a lack of motivation and morale. Performance issues in individual team members must be addressed immediately in order to avoid issues in the group. This doesn't mean that team leaders always need to eliminate poor performing team members immediately. Sometimes it is the responsibility of the team leader to provide extra training to team members when they're struggling, to help them meet expectations. When attitudes need to be changed, awareness can be brought to how a team member's attitude negatively affects the team and invitations can be given for attitudes to improve. In this process it is vital for the team leader to remember that accountability must be held with team members. Without accountability in a team, focus on the goal will not occur and teams won't produce desired outcomes. Accountability promotes achievement and helps team members to reach their potential. A lack of accountability can produce great task conflict and relationship conflict. Full accountability can help produce a feeling of fulfillment and achievement and teams will achieve their optimal performance. ### How Can a Team Member Resolve a Conflict with the Team Leader? If a team member has a conflict with the team leader, the first step is to identify the type of conflict. If the conflict relates to the goal of the team, then it would appear that the goal is not clear. The conflict can also relate to the processes being used by the team. In either situation, the team member can bring up the issue in a group meeting. Ask that the goal be clarified so that all team members understand what it is. If processes were never discussed and decided on by the team, now would be an appropriate time to do so. If the team leader does not want to discuss these issues in a team meeting, the team member should approach the leader separately to discuss. The team member should explain the issue and why the current situation is not working. Again, ask that the team be allowed to discuss these issues. If the conflict is interpersonal between the team leader and a team member, the issue should be discussed privately between the two. The team member should go to the leader and explain that there appears to be conflict and that he or she would like to resolve it. LaFasto and Larson outline an approach that can be used to resolve conflict called the Connect Model. The steps involved in the model are as follows: 1. Commit to the relationship. 2. Optimize safety. 3. Narrow to one issue. 4. Neutralize defensiveness. 5. Explain and echo. 6. Change one behavior each. 7. Track it! These steps provide a great review of what has been discussed throughout this chapter and will help to resolve the issue between a team leader and team member. In summary, team conflict is an important and integral part of any team that exists. As we have outlined it in this chapter, conflict, if approached effectively and managed appropriately, can exponentially work in the favor of any team. Appropriate management of the relative type of team conflict at hand is critical for teams to be successful. This chapter has discussed several of the aspects of team conflict and how they can be best managed and potentially resolved. These concepts will help teams improve their functionality and dynamic effectiveness in an effort to reach their ultimate goals in reaching to be a high performing team. ## References - Greenhalgh, Leonard. \"Managing Conflict.\" Sloan Management Review (Summer 2006): 45-51. - Lafasto, Frank, and Carl Larson. \"When teams Work Best\". Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, 2001. - Siegel, Matt. \"The Perils of Culture Conflict.\" Fortune. November 1998: 257-262. - Simons, Tony L., and Randall S. Peterson. \"Task Conflict and Relationship Conflict in Top Management Teams: The Pivotal Role of Intragroup Trust\". Journal of Applied Psychology. 85.1 (2000): 102-111. - Taylor, Susan M. \"Manage Conflict Through Negotiation and Mediation.\" The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, 2003. . - Weingart, Laurie, and Karen A. Jehn. \"Manage Intra-Team Conflict Through Collaboration.\" The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior, 2003. .
# Managing Groups and Teams/Feedback in Teams # Introduction Feedback is an evaluative response about an action or process given to the original source. There are many situations in which feedback is appropriate and necessary. Working in teams provides a variety of opportunities to give feedback to any number of recipients. It also provides an opportunity to receive feedback from others. Before giving feedback there are a variety of factors that must be considered, including: • The goal of giving feedback • When to give feedback • The recipient(s) of feedback • Techniques & tools to ensure effective feedback • Response to feedback In the case of groups, roles and hierarchies may make peer to peer feedback more difficult. In this case, it is even more important to make sure feedback is given in the most effective manner. ## Common Goals of Giving Feedback The first step in giving feedback is to determine the goal or the reason for the feedback. This will vary depending upon the situation. Defining the goal will help shape the process. Feedback is an educational opportunity for both the sender and the receiver. Feedback can be used to praise or show appreciation. For example, it is a chance to tell the recipient that an idea he had was exceptional, that he did well in a meeting, or that his hard work has been noticed. But feedback is not always positive. It can be a tool to educate the receiver about his negative behavior or performance, such as habitual lateness or that he has gone over budget on a project. Negative feedback is also called corrective feedback. Improving communication is another common goal of feedback which can lead to several great benefits such as building, maintaining and testing relationships, gathering information, and keeping one's perceptions in check. One of the most common goals of feedback is to influence others' behavior. However, feedback is not a good tool for getting a person to change. Edith Whitfield Seashore noted that "even though \[interpersonal behavior\] may influence future behavior, \[it\] doesn't necessarily control anything. We often receive the same feedback over and over, without anything changing significantly. And we often give feedback without anyone else changing" \[1\]. Feedback should be used to influence others to want to start, stop, or modify a behavior. Precisely given feedback can help a person to see the effects of a behavior and empower the receiver to want to change the behavior for the better. ## When to give feedback Determining when to give feedback can be difficult, but it is usually best to give feedback in a timely manner. This is especially true of behavior or performance feedback. If a person or team completed a project as asked it is important to let them know that their effort is noticed in order to encourage the behavior to continue. On the flip side, if a person or team is exhibiting poor behavior or performance it is important to inform them of the disapproval and encourage them to improve the behavior. This is especially important in teams as the behavior and performance of one can snowball into a larger problem if it is not addressed early on. ## Recipients of feedback Feedback is appropriate for many different audiences such as team leader to group, team member to peer, and group to team leader. The feedback approach will differ depending upon the audience. Working in teams provides additional opportunities to talk with the team about its behavior, performance or goals. However, not all team feedback should be given in the audience of the team. On occasion it may be appropriate to pull a team member aside to give one on one feedback, especially if the feedback is related to that person's negative behavior or performance. However, feedback as is relates to the group's performance, accomplishment of goals, or cohesion should be brought up to the entire group. This ensures that all team members receive the same message, and the group can work toward solutions to the problem if necessary. Providing performance feedback is effective in improving team performance. But is the most effective way to administer feedback on an individual level, group level, or both? DeShon, Kozlowski,Schmidt, Milner & Wiechmann studied this issue in 2003 \[3\]. The groups that were given feedback aimed at the individual showed an increased individual performance within the team. Likewise, the groups which were given feedback targeted at the team showed more successful team performance. A third type of group was given both individual and team feedback. The study predicted that this third group would benefit from the multilevel multiple-goal feedback and would outperform the other two types of groups. Surprisingly, this was not the case. Results found that both groups that received a single focused type of feedback outperformed this third group type on both individual and team performance measures. However, the study found that if the goal is to improve team performance, team feedback produces the best results. ## Positive and Negative Feedback for Teams Every team has members which possess unique abilities, talents and skills. If a team is fully functional, meaning that they have several team members who are able to take what they know and make their knowledge mesh together to accomplish a task or goal, they have a greater probability of success. According to Webster's Dictionary, positive feedback is defined as, "feedback that tends to magnify a process or increase its output."\[4\] Positive feedback creates positive results, however there is a need at times to balance out positive and negative feedback. Poor feedback can cause mutiny, feelings of low self-worth, anger or even hatred towards the task or that person. ---The absence of feedback can cause problems among a team because of the perceived lack of recognition of hard work or special talents by the one who is supposed to give the feedback. ---Negative feedback at least has a direction if said in the right tone and the right way. ---Positive feedback has power to exponentially build a team, make it work with fluidity and create a synergy that other methods cannot duplicate. However, solely giving positive feedback can be detrimental. In a journal article titled The Negatives of Only Focusing on Positive Feedback, it states that, "We agree that it is important for managers to appreciate their strengths and understand how to leverage those strengths. If they don't, they could waste time and effort attempting to get better at leadership skills they have already mastered. They could fail to leverage core skills that would help them be more successful. But CCL's data suggest that if managers pay attention only to their strengths, their leadership development efforts may not address what their organizations need most. This in turn could be harmful not only to individual managers but to entire organizations."\[5\] Negative feedback, or coaching, as many companies like to call it, is a necessary evil. Constructive criticism is the only way to build character, otherwise the team members might not think that they are doing anything wrong and can only do everything right. As a leader, this comes into play and is desired. However, it is vital that that one remain objective when giving negative feedback. Aim feedback at the behavior, not the person. It is important to look past the differences of the recipient in order to have an honest and sincere interaction. Do not judge the person receiving the feedback. Each person is experiencing each situation differently, and it is impossible for the giver to understand each person's situation. Present the feedback honestly, sticking to the facts, rather than judging the person upon your perception. It is important to consider the matrix of the team when giving feedback. It is also important not to point out specific members of the group when giving negative feedback. That is more appropriate for an individual conversation. Focus on the behavior of the group and the changes that need to be made within the group. Finally, when giving negative feedback, one must have good intentions on helping the person to improve. Feedback given with mal intent will not have a positive outcome. If one is unable to give feedback in a sincere manner it may be beneficial to have another respected member of the team give the feedback. ## Feedback Techniques Each team member should have a working knowledge of feedback techniques that can be implemented with the group in order to reach the team goals and to be productive. The following are a sample of techniques that can be used to enhance the feedback experience. Serve the feedback like a meal ^Serve\ the\ feedback\ like\ a\ meal^ How the message is delivered can often determine if the message is received properly and if it will be acted upon. Kind words shouted at someone do not have the same positive impact as when they are spoken gently. Ed Sykes of The Sykes Group \[6\] has suggested that feedback should be served to the team or individual like a great meal. He offers five techniques for making the feedback meal more appetizing: a\. Mentally prepare to give feedback just as you would prepare ahead of time to serve a banquet. Review questions such as "Is the feedback important? What do I hope to accomplish through this feedback? Who are the persons I will be giving the feedback to? How have they taken feedback in the past? Etc. b\. Serve each course at the appropriate time- waiting too long to serve the criticism or serving it too early can result in a lack of hunger for the team or individual receiving the meal. c\. Start with quality ingredients like fairness, candor, and consistency. Set positive expectations and be direct in the communication. d\. Ask for a meal review. Get feedback on the feedback session. e\. Use appropriate table manners. Be gracious, respectful, and kind. Always end on a positive note. Stay Positive According to the UK management training firm Templeton Finn \[7\], there is a three step technique to giving feedback that significantly improves performance and motivation: 1\. Start the process with a few genuine, specific compliments. a\. Be sure to use very specific and direct terms and remember that whatever you comment on you will get more of. 2\. Give the person or group one or two things they could do differently next time to make it even better. a\. Be sure to give them the correct way to do it. If you only tell them what they did wrong, then there is still a chance that they will do it wrong again, just in a different way. 3\. Make an overall positive comment about the person's abilities or progress. In general, stay positive and use positive terms. There are an infinite number of wrong ways to do something so it's much better to know how to do something the right way than to know how not to do it. People generally feel more confident about their abilities to improve upon mistakes through positive feedback. On the other hand people generally feel nervous and insecure when they receive feedback in a negative manner, which often leads to more mistakes. Non-recommended feedback techniques Recommended feedback techniques ------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- creating a closed, disrespectful environment creating an open, respectful environment not eliciting thoughts and feelings prior to feedback eliciting thoughts and feelings prior to feedback being judgmental being nonjudgmental focusing on personality focusing on behaviors basing feedback on hearsay basing feedback on observed facts basing feedback on generalizations basing feedback on specifics giving too much/little feedback giving the right amount of feedback not suggesting ideas for improvements suggesting ideas for improvements basing feedback on unknown,non-negotiated goals basing feedback on well known negotiated goals CONNECT Model The Connect Model \[8\] is a communication process used between two members of a group that promotes a collaborative team environment by allowing discussion of conflicts in a psychologically safe environment. Through this process each member should gain a deeper understanding of the other through giving and receiving feedback. The method uses the following steps: C -- Commit to the relationship. Tell why you think this is worth doing and that you think the relationship is important enough to work on. O -- Optimize safety. Let the other person know that you will do your best not to put him on the defensive. N -- Narrow the discussion to one issue. N -- Neutralize defensiveness. Ask the person to let you know if you make them defensive. E -- Explain and echo each perspective. Tell what you notice and the effects that you perceive. Have the person echo what you have said and then have him tell you his perspective. C -- Change one behavior each. T -- Track it. Pick a date to check back in with each other to see how things are going. Red Paper / Green Paper This activity will shed light upon your group's strengths and weaknesses. Give each group member three red slips of papers and three green slips of paper. Have them write three things that the group is good at on the green papers and three things that the group could improve upon on the red papers. These are written anonymously. When finished, each member puts his papers in two piles sorted by color. Shuffle the deck and read the negative results first. Then read the positive results. Only after all papers are read should the discussion start. It is interesting to note the common themes that team members mention. Survey Often this technique works well when a team leader finds it beneficial to solicit feedback from the group in an effort to improve performance. The team leader can create a survey form with specific pertinent questions. The group will feel safer if the survey is anonymous. The team leader should also fill out the survey and compare his results to the group to see how "in tune" he is with his real performance. It is common for one to think that he performs better than he actually does. Feedback is a good reality check. ## Tools for Team members In the book When Teams Work Best, it states, "Good feedback is associated with a heightened sense of personal accountability, a wide range of worker satisfaction factors, and enhanced performance, especially in groups whose goals demand extensive interpersonal relationships. Because feedback is the lifeblood of growth in a team relationship, we need a set of tools that will move us closer at the end of an attempted relationship adjustment, not farther apart."\[9\] The following is a sample of tools that can help improve the feedback process. FeedForward One new trend in the positive feedback realm is that of feedforward. "Asking for feedforward means asking for two suggestions for the future that might help the team achieve a positive change in their selected behavior. If participants have worked together in the past, they are not allowed to give any feedback about the past. They are only allowed to give ideas for the future...feedforward helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past."\[10\] This novel idea of looking towards the future to generate ideas is another way that teams, or leaders of teams, can provide positive actions to build a positive end result. There is truth in the statement that feedback tends to cause us to look at a potentially failed past as a dissection of what was done right and what was done wrong. However, the optimistic point of view treats feedforward as the way to grow by looking forward and making right decisions for the future. Checklist for Positive Interactions In an article by Lindsey Swinton, she states seven steps for positive feedback. They are: 1\. No Time Like Now: Give positive feedback as close to the event as possible so the feedback doesn't go stale. 2\. In Public and Private: Praise in public, criticize in private. 3\. Practice Makes Perfect: Make it a habit to praise regularly 4\. Does the Reward Fit? : The amount of effort put in merits a reward of the same level. 5\. No Favorites: Don't over praise one person. Keep a mental tally of whom you praised most recently 6\. Be Clear and Mean It: Tell the team exactly why you are praising them. Be specific. 7\. Catch People Doing Things Right: The more you catch people doing things right, the more right things they will do! \[11\] After reviewing these steps for positive feedback, it is clear that it takes planning and effort to make each bit of positive feedback worthwhile and meaningful for the team. Planning and execution of such feedback is worth the time preparing and thinking of who deserves it and why they are deserving of it. The Johari Window Model The goal of feedback within teams is to influence the team and member behavior. Members of teams will need to have knowledge of models for feedback to implement in group settings to reach the goals set and to be productive. The Johari Window model \[12\] can be used to begin to understand group dynamics and interpersonal behavior that can lead to feedback opportunities for managers and groups. (insert image) Known to Self Not Known to Self --------------------- --------------- ------------------- Known to Others Open Blind Not Known to Others Hidden Unknown Group members share "open" information. One group member may have "hidden" information. The group may deal with areas of "unknown" information. Additionally, members may create "blind" information areas when there is information or feelings observed but not shared. Lack of information or pent up feelings can cripple a group's success. Feedback can help to reduce the areas of hidden, blind, and unknown information as well as to better discuss and utilize open information. A group may choose to participate in a Johari activity and actually place adjectives in each box of the model. This placement can then be used for members to inform interpersonal relationships and communication. The Losada Line The Losada Meta Learning Model \[13\] is one way to divide groups into high, medium and low performers by actually quantifying tiered variables of team dynamics: ● inquiry-advocacy (how much people ask vs. talk), ● positivity-negativity (how much people are positive vs. negative), ● other-self (how much people are focused on others vs. on themselves), ● connectivity(a control parameter) ● viscosity (how the environment resists change), and ● negativity bias (our speed of response to negative events to avoid harm). While individual groups or group members may not be able to produce the mathematically generated computer model to determine whether they are high or low performing, these variables can be discussed and influenced through feedback. Additionally, categories of teams could also be related to a positive/negative feedback ratio: • High -- 5.6 P/N • Medium -- 1.9 P/N • Low -- 0.36 P/N T-Group A T-group is a model that provides participants with an opportunity to "study their own behavior when they interact within a small group."\[14\]. Because of the self-disclosure and openness involved, this type of exercise may not be appropriate for regular working groups within an organization. Best results occur in an environment such as a training group or a seminar in which the participants are strangers that will not work together in the future. The group's work is focused on feelings, process, and feedback. Some of the objectives that a participant can expect to come away with are an increased understanding of underlying social processes within a group, increased awareness of the effect one's behavior has on others in the group, increased ability to give and receive feedback, and increased ability to manage conflict. ## Response to Feedback Generally, one feels comfortable giving positive feedback because the danger of conflict is minimal. On the other hand, the reception of negative feedback can be much more difficult to predict. A person may receive feedback as a sign of constructive criticism. Others may receive the same feedback as a personal attack. Often time people are reluctant to give feedback because "complex interactions, especially that are unproductive, occur when we interact with people who we perceive as being very different from us." \[15\] Use common sense to increase the chance of success when giving feedback. Be slow to speak until you are sure that there is a problem that needs to be addressed. It is better to err on the side of caution because words cannot be taken back once they are spoken. What should you do if the receiver doesn't respond in the desired manner to your feedback? First of all, do not give up. Change often takes time. You must also remember that you cannot control other people, but only yourself. After each feedback encounter, take a few minutes to evaluate your performance. What went well? What can you improve? Make a mental note on what you want to try different next time, because there will always be a next time. A big part of giving successful feedback involves practice. ## Examples of successful real world applications of technique Cleveland Clinic Research Experiment Doctors Mariana G Hewson PHD and Margaret Little MD at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio \[16\] conducted a research experiment to verify the effectiveness of recommended techniques for feedback in Medical Education. The study aimed to substantiate several recommended feedback techniques (listed in table 1). The researchers used both qualitative and quantitative approaches to measure results. They investigated "clinician teachers\' personal experiences with receiving feedback in a course for improving the teaching of medical interviewing (the annual training course of the American Academy of Physician and Patient)." The group of 83 course participants was comprised of 39 men and 44 women from roughly 60 different medical institutions located in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. At the end of the week-long course, each participant "was asked to provide a short narrative of two selected course-related feedback incidents, one of which they judged as personally helpful, and the other as personally unhelpful." The doctors found that the feedback techniques used in helpful incidents often included a focus on skills along with personal styles. The specific skills included: being able to lead a group discussion, giving feedback, setting up a role play, and handling challenging incidents. The effective personal styles consisted of traits like being quiet, being verbally assertive, being non-threatening, being flexible, and being facilitative. According to Doctors Hewson and Little, the manner in which the feedback was presented to the participants \"strongly affected their perceptions of its helpfulness.\" Techniques like \"giving feedback lovingly, supportively, and caringly\" as well as \"being gentle and not hitting someone over the head with his or her mistakes\" along with \"being concerned to understand the other person\'s position\" were all deemed helpful. The researchers also noted that the \"participants appreciated accurate and clear feedback about particular behaviors.\" The study also mentioned that \"feedback that included specific suggestions for improvement was seen as very important.\" Ultimately through their research Doctors Hewson and Little were able to conclude that "Feedback techniques experienced by respondents substantiate the literature-based recommendations, and corrective feedback is regarded as helpful when delivered appropriately." Bellon, Bellon & Blake Study Research has shown that when classroom teachers effectively use feedback techniques with children, they often have a strong positive effect on the students. Researchers have found that "Academic feedback is more strongly and consistently related to achievement than any other teaching behavior" and that "this relationship is consistent regardless of grade, socioeconomic status, race, or school setting." In a study by Bellon, Bellon, and Blake \[17\], when "feedback and corrective procedures are used, most students can attain the same level of achievement as the top 20% of students." Feedback has proven to be effective when there is recognition of a common goal, evidence given of current position, and some understanding is reached between the teacher and student of how to close the gap of the desired goal and current position. ## Conclusion Feedback is a valuable tool that can be used to improve team performance. It is educational for both the sender and receiver. Feedback informs, seeks to change behavior, and improves communication. It can be of a positive or negative nature. Feedback works best when given in a timely manner. Several techniques and tools were given to help in giving successful feedback. Common sense also prevails. It is difficult to predict the response one will receive. Do not be discouraged if the response to your feedback is not what you were aiming for. Remember that you cannot control others. Evaluate your performance after each feedback session and remember that practice plays a big part in improvement. ## References \[1\] E. W. (1996). Feedback: An Educational Opportunity. Reading Book for Human Relations Training. Columbia, MD: Bingham House Books. \[2\] Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol 89(6), Dec, 2004. pp. 1035-1056 \[3\] <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/positive%20feedback> \[4\]Jean Briattain Leslie, & Sylvester Taylor. (2005). In focus/feedback and development: The negatives of focusing only on the positive. Leadership in Action, 24(6), 19+. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 862836731). \[5\] <http://www.thesykesgrp.com/FeedbackAppetizingArt01.htm> \[6\] Templeton Finn Ltd, The Barn, Burrows Hall Farm, Over Burrows, Brailsford, Derbyshire, East Midlands, DE6 3BU, <http://www.templetonfinn.co.uk/resources/article11.php> \[7\] LaFasto & Larson When Teams Work Best , pp 50-61, c2001 \[8\] LaFasto & Larson, When Teams Work Best, p. 46, c2001 \[9\] Marshall Goldsmith. (2003). Try feedforward instead of feedback. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 26(3), 38-40. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 454274271). \[10\] <http://www.mftrou.com/positive-feedback.html>, Lindsey Swinton, accessed via web 11/21/2010 \[11\] Luft, J.; Ingham, H. (1955). \"The Johari window, a graphic model of interpersonal awareness\". Proceedings of the western training laboratory in group development (Los Angeles: UCLA). \[12\] Losada, M. (1999). The complex dynamics of high performance teams. Mathematical and Computer Modeling, 30(9-10), 179-192. Additional resources: <http://losada.socialpsychology.org/> \[13\] www.orgdct.com/more_on_t-group.htm \[14\] (Seashore, E.W. (1996). Feedback: An educational Opportunity. Reading Book for Human Relations Training. Columbia, MD. Bingham House Books) \[15\] J Gen Intern Med. 1998 February; 13(2): 111--116. doi: 10.1046/j.1525-1497.1998.00027.x. Copyright 1998 by the Society of General Internal Medicine, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1496906/> \[16\] <http://www.academicleadership.org/leader_action_tips/Providing_Students_with_Effective_Feedback.shtml>, Providing Students with Effective Feedback, By Academic Leadership the Online Journal, Volume 4 - Issue 4, Feb 12, 2007, Bellon, Jerry, Bellon, Elner, and Blank, Mary Ann. Teaching from a Research Knowledge Base: A Development and Renewal Process. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992. (pp. 277-278)
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation ## What Is Motivation? In the most general of terms, motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual\'s action or that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviors. ### Motivational Theory Motivation comes in many forms and what motivates one individual is not necessarily the same for their team members. Therefore, it is important to understand how motivation differs among individuals and how these differences affect the overall drive and determination of a team toward a goal. To better understand the complexities of motivation researchers over the years have developed a number of theories to try to explain why people behave in the ways that they do and to try to predict what people actually will do, based on these theories. These theories, called motivational theories are often split into two categories --content theories and process theories. Content theories are centered on finding what makes people tick or appeals to them. These theories suggest that people have certain needs and/or desires which have been internalized as they mature to adulthood. These theories look at what it is about certain people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment will make them do or not do certain things. Two popular content theories are Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Hertzberg\'s Two Factor Theory. Process theories focus on how and by what goals people are motivated. Process theories of motivation look at what people are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity. There are of a number of this type of approach to motivation theory one of which is Adam's Equity Theory. Industrial psychologists have used these ideas on motivational theory to develop management theories based on what we have learned motivates individuals. Nearly all motivational theory, regardless of the approach outlines significant differences in how individuals are motivated on their own and how they are motivated when being part of a team. Team motivation tends to be much more difficult. There are more possibilities to motivate a team, yet at the same time there are more motivational factors to fulfill for a team in order to gain motivation. ### Team Motivation Motivational factors differ since the goals of the individual and the team are often not on the same level. The individual will always fight to fulfill their higher level needs. These needs are often not consistent with the needs of the team and of the individual. The motivation of the individual is essential for successful motivation of the team. Team members must be able to fulfill their higher level needs to be motivated and team members must be committed to the team. Along with good leadership that enables team members to fulfill their goals all of these qualities will motivate a team. These motivation factors that drive a team can be divided into four categories-- task, structure, goals, and members. By realizing other factors besides intrinsic rewards that will motivate individuals, the team will also be motivated. The sharing of knowledge, support, solidarity and communication are all highly effective in motivating a team. All in all, a team that exists within a collaborative, structured and communicative environment will be highly motivated. Overall, there are consequences when teams lack motivation. By examining the consequences in the areas of task, structure, goals, and members, we are able to recognize how motivation is lost and proactively address any issues in the future. ## Lack of Motivation in Teams Teams that lack motivation will rarely reach their full potential or perform to the best of their ability. In most cases, it is not the entire team that lacks motivation, but individuals on the team that lack motivation. ## Motivation and Team Dynamics Almost all teams have members who are changing or transitioning in and out of the team; and requirements and tasks within the team are constantly modified and becoming more focused on the goal. In fact, teams that never change can become stagnant; this leads to decreased motivation within the team. Therefore, monitoring the motivating factors within the team is vital to team success and increased motivation for the future. The keys to successfully managing these motivating factors in an environment of constant team dynamics require understanding the team members, understanding the team goals, and providing consistent leadership throughout the project or life of the team. ### Understand Team Members When the team is first formed, the team leader needs to pay careful attention to the type of person that is selected in the team. Selecting two individuals, who may be similar in many aspects yet are motivated by two contradictory methods, may make it impossible to motivate one while not offending the other. Then trying to determine the individual that is less likely to be either unmotivated or un-offended by the motivation techniques employed may cause additional problems, such as perceived favoritism or dislike towards certain team members. Even if the initial team members are perfectly chosen, taking all motivation requirements into account, new members will probably be added later to either provide additional support or to take the place of a departing team member. Understanding the current team members\' motivation requirements and those of potential team members may be even more important at this time because the current team is already progressing and the motivation techniques required to motivate new team members may be detrimental to the current team members' efforts and goals. Understanding the team members\' motivation needs both at inception of the team and also throughout the ever-changing environment of the team will result in proper motivation techniques and greater success for the team. ### Understand Team Goals Team goals can be short-term task-specific goals, long-term organizational goals or any combination thereof. In addition, these goals may be constantly updated or changed, especially short-term task-specific goals, as the business environment changes or as tasks and goals are accomplished. Different types of goals may require different types of motivation. For example, a team might be motivated to work hard on a project for an extra couple of weeks if they are rewarded with a three or four-day weekend once it is completed; or maybe if the company has no work-related accidents for the year everyone receives an extra percentage bonus during the holiday season. An understanding of the team goals, in all varieties, is neither more nor less important as understanding the team members who are trying to accomplish these goals. These two factors are interdependent in determining the motivation tactics that should be employed to maximize success within the team. ### Provide Consistent Leadership Because there is so much change with team members and associated team goals, providing consistent leadership is essential to motivating team members. If possible, keeping the same individual in charge will keep the team members focused on their goal rather than on determining what a new leader expects of them. Team members may be motivated to make their new boss happy rather than being motivated to achieve the team goals. Additionally, with constantly changing leadership, many team members may assume the team they belong to is undesirable to leaders. Team members may think leaders are \"jumping ship\" because they know they will not succeed; and in turn, managing a poorly achieving team puts a black mark on own leadership abilities. No matter how hard individual team leaders try to stay with a team, change is inevitable for team leaders as well. To mitigate the problems mentioned above, two strategies can be employed: 1. Maintain consistent expectations from the former to the new team leader 2. Utilize the current motivational techniques that work. Both of these strategies require as much communication as possible between the former and the new leader. In addition, communication to the team members throughout the transition process provides motivation to the team because they will understand what is expected of them, and they will feel like they are part of the process. This communication between the leaders and to the team members is the responsibility of the team leaders, but team members should try to make sure they are available and receptive to this communication. An appreciation for the subtleties that exist in human behavior and team dynamics will better enable the understanding of team motivation. Understanding team members, understanding team goals, and providing consistent leadership should help provide the motivation required to achieve success. ## Motivating Team Members Many top managers assume that the key to motivation is the proper use of the available motivational \"tools.\" This is making an enormous assumption that some magical tool actually exists that will motivate an individual. This is one of the common myths regarding motivation. According to Authenticity Consulting LLC advisor Carter McNamara, tools are not what motivate individuals. Motivation is a process, not the end result of a task. Specifically regarding the question posed to our team, motivation is not catered to an individual because of their experience or position. It is catered to an individual because they ARE an individual. This goes for the long-tenured employee as well as the newest member of the team. ### Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths that can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. \"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,\" is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors. ### Steps to Employee Motivation Finally, McNamara recommends some steps that managers can take to better support their employees in motivating themselves. First, managers need to write down what they think motivates each of their employees and ask the employee to do the same. They then compare results with the employee and discuss the differences and misconceptions. Next, the results are used to establish a reward system based on self-stated motivational factors. Finally, managers need to reward and acknowledge positive behaviors. Employees need to know when an organizational goal has been met as a result of their actions. They need to clearly understand their specific action or actions that led to the goal being met. Once this is done it is a time to celebrate. Celebration among the team of a job well done is the first step in accomplishing the next organizational goal. ## Sources - Managementhelp.org
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation#What Is Motivation? ## What Is Motivation? In the most general of terms, motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual\'s action or that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviors. ### Motivational Theory Motivation comes in many forms and what motivates one individual is not necessarily the same for their team members. Therefore, it is important to understand how motivation differs among individuals and how these differences affect the overall drive and determination of a team toward a goal. To better understand the complexities of motivation researchers over the years have developed a number of theories to try to explain why people behave in the ways that they do and to try to predict what people actually will do, based on these theories. These theories, called motivational theories are often split into two categories --content theories and process theories. Content theories are centered on finding what makes people tick or appeals to them. These theories suggest that people have certain needs and/or desires which have been internalized as they mature to adulthood. These theories look at what it is about certain people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment will make them do or not do certain things. Two popular content theories are Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Hertzberg\'s Two Factor Theory. Process theories focus on how and by what goals people are motivated. Process theories of motivation look at what people are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity. There are of a number of this type of approach to motivation theory one of which is Adam's Equity Theory. Industrial psychologists have used these ideas on motivational theory to develop management theories based on what we have learned motivates individuals. Nearly all motivational theory, regardless of the approach outlines significant differences in how individuals are motivated on their own and how they are motivated when being part of a team. Team motivation tends to be much more difficult. There are more possibilities to motivate a team, yet at the same time there are more motivational factors to fulfill for a team in order to gain motivation. ### Team Motivation Motivational factors differ since the goals of the individual and the team are often not on the same level. The individual will always fight to fulfill their higher level needs. These needs are often not consistent with the needs of the team and of the individual. The motivation of the individual is essential for successful motivation of the team. Team members must be able to fulfill their higher level needs to be motivated and team members must be committed to the team. Along with good leadership that enables team members to fulfill their goals all of these qualities will motivate a team. These motivation factors that drive a team can be divided into four categories-- task, structure, goals, and members. By realizing other factors besides intrinsic rewards that will motivate individuals, the team will also be motivated. The sharing of knowledge, support, solidarity and communication are all highly effective in motivating a team. All in all, a team that exists within a collaborative, structured and communicative environment will be highly motivated. Overall, there are consequences when teams lack motivation. By examining the consequences in the areas of task, structure, goals, and members, we are able to recognize how motivation is lost and proactively address any issues in the future. ## Lack of Motivation in Teams Teams that lack motivation will rarely reach their full potential or perform to the best of their ability. In most cases, it is not the entire team that lacks motivation, but individuals on the team that lack motivation. ## Motivation and Team Dynamics Almost all teams have members who are changing or transitioning in and out of the team; and requirements and tasks within the team are constantly modified and becoming more focused on the goal. In fact, teams that never change can become stagnant; this leads to decreased motivation within the team. Therefore, monitoring the motivating factors within the team is vital to team success and increased motivation for the future. The keys to successfully managing these motivating factors in an environment of constant team dynamics require understanding the team members, understanding the team goals, and providing consistent leadership throughout the project or life of the team. ### Understand Team Members When the team is first formed, the team leader needs to pay careful attention to the type of person that is selected in the team. Selecting two individuals, who may be similar in many aspects yet are motivated by two contradictory methods, may make it impossible to motivate one while not offending the other. Then trying to determine the individual that is less likely to be either unmotivated or un-offended by the motivation techniques employed may cause additional problems, such as perceived favoritism or dislike towards certain team members. Even if the initial team members are perfectly chosen, taking all motivation requirements into account, new members will probably be added later to either provide additional support or to take the place of a departing team member. Understanding the current team members\' motivation requirements and those of potential team members may be even more important at this time because the current team is already progressing and the motivation techniques required to motivate new team members may be detrimental to the current team members' efforts and goals. Understanding the team members\' motivation needs both at inception of the team and also throughout the ever-changing environment of the team will result in proper motivation techniques and greater success for the team. ### Understand Team Goals Team goals can be short-term task-specific goals, long-term organizational goals or any combination thereof. In addition, these goals may be constantly updated or changed, especially short-term task-specific goals, as the business environment changes or as tasks and goals are accomplished. Different types of goals may require different types of motivation. For example, a team might be motivated to work hard on a project for an extra couple of weeks if they are rewarded with a three or four-day weekend once it is completed; or maybe if the company has no work-related accidents for the year everyone receives an extra percentage bonus during the holiday season. An understanding of the team goals, in all varieties, is neither more nor less important as understanding the team members who are trying to accomplish these goals. These two factors are interdependent in determining the motivation tactics that should be employed to maximize success within the team. ### Provide Consistent Leadership Because there is so much change with team members and associated team goals, providing consistent leadership is essential to motivating team members. If possible, keeping the same individual in charge will keep the team members focused on their goal rather than on determining what a new leader expects of them. Team members may be motivated to make their new boss happy rather than being motivated to achieve the team goals. Additionally, with constantly changing leadership, many team members may assume the team they belong to is undesirable to leaders. Team members may think leaders are \"jumping ship\" because they know they will not succeed; and in turn, managing a poorly achieving team puts a black mark on own leadership abilities. No matter how hard individual team leaders try to stay with a team, change is inevitable for team leaders as well. To mitigate the problems mentioned above, two strategies can be employed: 1. Maintain consistent expectations from the former to the new team leader 2. Utilize the current motivational techniques that work. Both of these strategies require as much communication as possible between the former and the new leader. In addition, communication to the team members throughout the transition process provides motivation to the team because they will understand what is expected of them, and they will feel like they are part of the process. This communication between the leaders and to the team members is the responsibility of the team leaders, but team members should try to make sure they are available and receptive to this communication. An appreciation for the subtleties that exist in human behavior and team dynamics will better enable the understanding of team motivation. Understanding team members, understanding team goals, and providing consistent leadership should help provide the motivation required to achieve success. ## Motivating Team Members Many top managers assume that the key to motivation is the proper use of the available motivational \"tools.\" This is making an enormous assumption that some magical tool actually exists that will motivate an individual. This is one of the common myths regarding motivation. According to Authenticity Consulting LLC advisor Carter McNamara, tools are not what motivate individuals. Motivation is a process, not the end result of a task. Specifically regarding the question posed to our team, motivation is not catered to an individual because of their experience or position. It is catered to an individual because they ARE an individual. This goes for the long-tenured employee as well as the newest member of the team. ### Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths that can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. \"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,\" is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors. ### Steps to Employee Motivation Finally, McNamara recommends some steps that managers can take to better support their employees in motivating themselves. First, managers need to write down what they think motivates each of their employees and ask the employee to do the same. They then compare results with the employee and discuss the differences and misconceptions. Next, the results are used to establish a reward system based on self-stated motivational factors. Finally, managers need to reward and acknowledge positive behaviors. Employees need to know when an organizational goal has been met as a result of their actions. They need to clearly understand their specific action or actions that led to the goal being met. Once this is done it is a time to celebrate. Celebration among the team of a job well done is the first step in accomplishing the next organizational goal. ## Sources - Managementhelp.org
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation#Lack of Motivation in Teams ## What Is Motivation? In the most general of terms, motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual\'s action or that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviors. ### Motivational Theory Motivation comes in many forms and what motivates one individual is not necessarily the same for their team members. Therefore, it is important to understand how motivation differs among individuals and how these differences affect the overall drive and determination of a team toward a goal. To better understand the complexities of motivation researchers over the years have developed a number of theories to try to explain why people behave in the ways that they do and to try to predict what people actually will do, based on these theories. These theories, called motivational theories are often split into two categories --content theories and process theories. Content theories are centered on finding what makes people tick or appeals to them. These theories suggest that people have certain needs and/or desires which have been internalized as they mature to adulthood. These theories look at what it is about certain people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment will make them do or not do certain things. Two popular content theories are Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Hertzberg\'s Two Factor Theory. Process theories focus on how and by what goals people are motivated. Process theories of motivation look at what people are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity. There are of a number of this type of approach to motivation theory one of which is Adam's Equity Theory. Industrial psychologists have used these ideas on motivational theory to develop management theories based on what we have learned motivates individuals. Nearly all motivational theory, regardless of the approach outlines significant differences in how individuals are motivated on their own and how they are motivated when being part of a team. Team motivation tends to be much more difficult. There are more possibilities to motivate a team, yet at the same time there are more motivational factors to fulfill for a team in order to gain motivation. ### Team Motivation Motivational factors differ since the goals of the individual and the team are often not on the same level. The individual will always fight to fulfill their higher level needs. These needs are often not consistent with the needs of the team and of the individual. The motivation of the individual is essential for successful motivation of the team. Team members must be able to fulfill their higher level needs to be motivated and team members must be committed to the team. Along with good leadership that enables team members to fulfill their goals all of these qualities will motivate a team. These motivation factors that drive a team can be divided into four categories-- task, structure, goals, and members. By realizing other factors besides intrinsic rewards that will motivate individuals, the team will also be motivated. The sharing of knowledge, support, solidarity and communication are all highly effective in motivating a team. All in all, a team that exists within a collaborative, structured and communicative environment will be highly motivated. Overall, there are consequences when teams lack motivation. By examining the consequences in the areas of task, structure, goals, and members, we are able to recognize how motivation is lost and proactively address any issues in the future. ## Lack of Motivation in Teams Teams that lack motivation will rarely reach their full potential or perform to the best of their ability. In most cases, it is not the entire team that lacks motivation, but individuals on the team that lack motivation. ## Motivation and Team Dynamics Almost all teams have members who are changing or transitioning in and out of the team; and requirements and tasks within the team are constantly modified and becoming more focused on the goal. In fact, teams that never change can become stagnant; this leads to decreased motivation within the team. Therefore, monitoring the motivating factors within the team is vital to team success and increased motivation for the future. The keys to successfully managing these motivating factors in an environment of constant team dynamics require understanding the team members, understanding the team goals, and providing consistent leadership throughout the project or life of the team. ### Understand Team Members When the team is first formed, the team leader needs to pay careful attention to the type of person that is selected in the team. Selecting two individuals, who may be similar in many aspects yet are motivated by two contradictory methods, may make it impossible to motivate one while not offending the other. Then trying to determine the individual that is less likely to be either unmotivated or un-offended by the motivation techniques employed may cause additional problems, such as perceived favoritism or dislike towards certain team members. Even if the initial team members are perfectly chosen, taking all motivation requirements into account, new members will probably be added later to either provide additional support or to take the place of a departing team member. Understanding the current team members\' motivation requirements and those of potential team members may be even more important at this time because the current team is already progressing and the motivation techniques required to motivate new team members may be detrimental to the current team members' efforts and goals. Understanding the team members\' motivation needs both at inception of the team and also throughout the ever-changing environment of the team will result in proper motivation techniques and greater success for the team. ### Understand Team Goals Team goals can be short-term task-specific goals, long-term organizational goals or any combination thereof. In addition, these goals may be constantly updated or changed, especially short-term task-specific goals, as the business environment changes or as tasks and goals are accomplished. Different types of goals may require different types of motivation. For example, a team might be motivated to work hard on a project for an extra couple of weeks if they are rewarded with a three or four-day weekend once it is completed; or maybe if the company has no work-related accidents for the year everyone receives an extra percentage bonus during the holiday season. An understanding of the team goals, in all varieties, is neither more nor less important as understanding the team members who are trying to accomplish these goals. These two factors are interdependent in determining the motivation tactics that should be employed to maximize success within the team. ### Provide Consistent Leadership Because there is so much change with team members and associated team goals, providing consistent leadership is essential to motivating team members. If possible, keeping the same individual in charge will keep the team members focused on their goal rather than on determining what a new leader expects of them. Team members may be motivated to make their new boss happy rather than being motivated to achieve the team goals. Additionally, with constantly changing leadership, many team members may assume the team they belong to is undesirable to leaders. Team members may think leaders are \"jumping ship\" because they know they will not succeed; and in turn, managing a poorly achieving team puts a black mark on own leadership abilities. No matter how hard individual team leaders try to stay with a team, change is inevitable for team leaders as well. To mitigate the problems mentioned above, two strategies can be employed: 1. Maintain consistent expectations from the former to the new team leader 2. Utilize the current motivational techniques that work. Both of these strategies require as much communication as possible between the former and the new leader. In addition, communication to the team members throughout the transition process provides motivation to the team because they will understand what is expected of them, and they will feel like they are part of the process. This communication between the leaders and to the team members is the responsibility of the team leaders, but team members should try to make sure they are available and receptive to this communication. An appreciation for the subtleties that exist in human behavior and team dynamics will better enable the understanding of team motivation. Understanding team members, understanding team goals, and providing consistent leadership should help provide the motivation required to achieve success. ## Motivating Team Members Many top managers assume that the key to motivation is the proper use of the available motivational \"tools.\" This is making an enormous assumption that some magical tool actually exists that will motivate an individual. This is one of the common myths regarding motivation. According to Authenticity Consulting LLC advisor Carter McNamara, tools are not what motivate individuals. Motivation is a process, not the end result of a task. Specifically regarding the question posed to our team, motivation is not catered to an individual because of their experience or position. It is catered to an individual because they ARE an individual. This goes for the long-tenured employee as well as the newest member of the team. ### Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths that can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. \"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,\" is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors. ### Steps to Employee Motivation Finally, McNamara recommends some steps that managers can take to better support their employees in motivating themselves. First, managers need to write down what they think motivates each of their employees and ask the employee to do the same. They then compare results with the employee and discuss the differences and misconceptions. Next, the results are used to establish a reward system based on self-stated motivational factors. Finally, managers need to reward and acknowledge positive behaviors. Employees need to know when an organizational goal has been met as a result of their actions. They need to clearly understand their specific action or actions that led to the goal being met. Once this is done it is a time to celebrate. Celebration among the team of a job well done is the first step in accomplishing the next organizational goal. ## Sources - Managementhelp.org
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation#Motivation and Team Dynamics ## What Is Motivation? In the most general of terms, motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual\'s action or that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviors. ### Motivational Theory Motivation comes in many forms and what motivates one individual is not necessarily the same for their team members. Therefore, it is important to understand how motivation differs among individuals and how these differences affect the overall drive and determination of a team toward a goal. To better understand the complexities of motivation researchers over the years have developed a number of theories to try to explain why people behave in the ways that they do and to try to predict what people actually will do, based on these theories. These theories, called motivational theories are often split into two categories --content theories and process theories. Content theories are centered on finding what makes people tick or appeals to them. These theories suggest that people have certain needs and/or desires which have been internalized as they mature to adulthood. These theories look at what it is about certain people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment will make them do or not do certain things. Two popular content theories are Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Hertzberg\'s Two Factor Theory. Process theories focus on how and by what goals people are motivated. Process theories of motivation look at what people are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity. There are of a number of this type of approach to motivation theory one of which is Adam's Equity Theory. Industrial psychologists have used these ideas on motivational theory to develop management theories based on what we have learned motivates individuals. Nearly all motivational theory, regardless of the approach outlines significant differences in how individuals are motivated on their own and how they are motivated when being part of a team. Team motivation tends to be much more difficult. There are more possibilities to motivate a team, yet at the same time there are more motivational factors to fulfill for a team in order to gain motivation. ### Team Motivation Motivational factors differ since the goals of the individual and the team are often not on the same level. The individual will always fight to fulfill their higher level needs. These needs are often not consistent with the needs of the team and of the individual. The motivation of the individual is essential for successful motivation of the team. Team members must be able to fulfill their higher level needs to be motivated and team members must be committed to the team. Along with good leadership that enables team members to fulfill their goals all of these qualities will motivate a team. These motivation factors that drive a team can be divided into four categories-- task, structure, goals, and members. By realizing other factors besides intrinsic rewards that will motivate individuals, the team will also be motivated. The sharing of knowledge, support, solidarity and communication are all highly effective in motivating a team. All in all, a team that exists within a collaborative, structured and communicative environment will be highly motivated. Overall, there are consequences when teams lack motivation. By examining the consequences in the areas of task, structure, goals, and members, we are able to recognize how motivation is lost and proactively address any issues in the future. ## Lack of Motivation in Teams Teams that lack motivation will rarely reach their full potential or perform to the best of their ability. In most cases, it is not the entire team that lacks motivation, but individuals on the team that lack motivation. ## Motivation and Team Dynamics Almost all teams have members who are changing or transitioning in and out of the team; and requirements and tasks within the team are constantly modified and becoming more focused on the goal. In fact, teams that never change can become stagnant; this leads to decreased motivation within the team. Therefore, monitoring the motivating factors within the team is vital to team success and increased motivation for the future. The keys to successfully managing these motivating factors in an environment of constant team dynamics require understanding the team members, understanding the team goals, and providing consistent leadership throughout the project or life of the team. ### Understand Team Members When the team is first formed, the team leader needs to pay careful attention to the type of person that is selected in the team. Selecting two individuals, who may be similar in many aspects yet are motivated by two contradictory methods, may make it impossible to motivate one while not offending the other. Then trying to determine the individual that is less likely to be either unmotivated or un-offended by the motivation techniques employed may cause additional problems, such as perceived favoritism or dislike towards certain team members. Even if the initial team members are perfectly chosen, taking all motivation requirements into account, new members will probably be added later to either provide additional support or to take the place of a departing team member. Understanding the current team members\' motivation requirements and those of potential team members may be even more important at this time because the current team is already progressing and the motivation techniques required to motivate new team members may be detrimental to the current team members' efforts and goals. Understanding the team members\' motivation needs both at inception of the team and also throughout the ever-changing environment of the team will result in proper motivation techniques and greater success for the team. ### Understand Team Goals Team goals can be short-term task-specific goals, long-term organizational goals or any combination thereof. In addition, these goals may be constantly updated or changed, especially short-term task-specific goals, as the business environment changes or as tasks and goals are accomplished. Different types of goals may require different types of motivation. For example, a team might be motivated to work hard on a project for an extra couple of weeks if they are rewarded with a three or four-day weekend once it is completed; or maybe if the company has no work-related accidents for the year everyone receives an extra percentage bonus during the holiday season. An understanding of the team goals, in all varieties, is neither more nor less important as understanding the team members who are trying to accomplish these goals. These two factors are interdependent in determining the motivation tactics that should be employed to maximize success within the team. ### Provide Consistent Leadership Because there is so much change with team members and associated team goals, providing consistent leadership is essential to motivating team members. If possible, keeping the same individual in charge will keep the team members focused on their goal rather than on determining what a new leader expects of them. Team members may be motivated to make their new boss happy rather than being motivated to achieve the team goals. Additionally, with constantly changing leadership, many team members may assume the team they belong to is undesirable to leaders. Team members may think leaders are \"jumping ship\" because they know they will not succeed; and in turn, managing a poorly achieving team puts a black mark on own leadership abilities. No matter how hard individual team leaders try to stay with a team, change is inevitable for team leaders as well. To mitigate the problems mentioned above, two strategies can be employed: 1. Maintain consistent expectations from the former to the new team leader 2. Utilize the current motivational techniques that work. Both of these strategies require as much communication as possible between the former and the new leader. In addition, communication to the team members throughout the transition process provides motivation to the team because they will understand what is expected of them, and they will feel like they are part of the process. This communication between the leaders and to the team members is the responsibility of the team leaders, but team members should try to make sure they are available and receptive to this communication. An appreciation for the subtleties that exist in human behavior and team dynamics will better enable the understanding of team motivation. Understanding team members, understanding team goals, and providing consistent leadership should help provide the motivation required to achieve success. ## Motivating Team Members Many top managers assume that the key to motivation is the proper use of the available motivational \"tools.\" This is making an enormous assumption that some magical tool actually exists that will motivate an individual. This is one of the common myths regarding motivation. According to Authenticity Consulting LLC advisor Carter McNamara, tools are not what motivate individuals. Motivation is a process, not the end result of a task. Specifically regarding the question posed to our team, motivation is not catered to an individual because of their experience or position. It is catered to an individual because they ARE an individual. This goes for the long-tenured employee as well as the newest member of the team. ### Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths that can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. \"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,\" is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors. ### Steps to Employee Motivation Finally, McNamara recommends some steps that managers can take to better support their employees in motivating themselves. First, managers need to write down what they think motivates each of their employees and ask the employee to do the same. They then compare results with the employee and discuss the differences and misconceptions. Next, the results are used to establish a reward system based on self-stated motivational factors. Finally, managers need to reward and acknowledge positive behaviors. Employees need to know when an organizational goal has been met as a result of their actions. They need to clearly understand their specific action or actions that led to the goal being met. Once this is done it is a time to celebrate. Celebration among the team of a job well done is the first step in accomplishing the next organizational goal. ## Sources - Managementhelp.org
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation#Motivating Team Members ## What Is Motivation? In the most general of terms, motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an individual to action toward a desired goal. Motivation can also be the reason for an individual\'s action or that which gives purpose and direction to behavior. In other words, motivation is an incentive that generates goal-directed behaviors. ### Motivational Theory Motivation comes in many forms and what motivates one individual is not necessarily the same for their team members. Therefore, it is important to understand how motivation differs among individuals and how these differences affect the overall drive and determination of a team toward a goal. To better understand the complexities of motivation researchers over the years have developed a number of theories to try to explain why people behave in the ways that they do and to try to predict what people actually will do, based on these theories. These theories, called motivational theories are often split into two categories --content theories and process theories. Content theories are centered on finding what makes people tick or appeals to them. These theories suggest that people have certain needs and/or desires which have been internalized as they mature to adulthood. These theories look at what it is about certain people that make them want the things that they do and what things in their environment will make them do or not do certain things. Two popular content theories are Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs Theory and Hertzberg\'s Two Factor Theory. Process theories focus on how and by what goals people are motivated. Process theories of motivation look at what people are thinking about when they decide whether or not to put effort into a particular activity. There are of a number of this type of approach to motivation theory one of which is Adam's Equity Theory. Industrial psychologists have used these ideas on motivational theory to develop management theories based on what we have learned motivates individuals. Nearly all motivational theory, regardless of the approach outlines significant differences in how individuals are motivated on their own and how they are motivated when being part of a team. Team motivation tends to be much more difficult. There are more possibilities to motivate a team, yet at the same time there are more motivational factors to fulfill for a team in order to gain motivation. ### Team Motivation Motivational factors differ since the goals of the individual and the team are often not on the same level. The individual will always fight to fulfill their higher level needs. These needs are often not consistent with the needs of the team and of the individual. The motivation of the individual is essential for successful motivation of the team. Team members must be able to fulfill their higher level needs to be motivated and team members must be committed to the team. Along with good leadership that enables team members to fulfill their goals all of these qualities will motivate a team. These motivation factors that drive a team can be divided into four categories-- task, structure, goals, and members. By realizing other factors besides intrinsic rewards that will motivate individuals, the team will also be motivated. The sharing of knowledge, support, solidarity and communication are all highly effective in motivating a team. All in all, a team that exists within a collaborative, structured and communicative environment will be highly motivated. Overall, there are consequences when teams lack motivation. By examining the consequences in the areas of task, structure, goals, and members, we are able to recognize how motivation is lost and proactively address any issues in the future. ## Lack of Motivation in Teams Teams that lack motivation will rarely reach their full potential or perform to the best of their ability. In most cases, it is not the entire team that lacks motivation, but individuals on the team that lack motivation. ## Motivation and Team Dynamics Almost all teams have members who are changing or transitioning in and out of the team; and requirements and tasks within the team are constantly modified and becoming more focused on the goal. In fact, teams that never change can become stagnant; this leads to decreased motivation within the team. Therefore, monitoring the motivating factors within the team is vital to team success and increased motivation for the future. The keys to successfully managing these motivating factors in an environment of constant team dynamics require understanding the team members, understanding the team goals, and providing consistent leadership throughout the project or life of the team. ### Understand Team Members When the team is first formed, the team leader needs to pay careful attention to the type of person that is selected in the team. Selecting two individuals, who may be similar in many aspects yet are motivated by two contradictory methods, may make it impossible to motivate one while not offending the other. Then trying to determine the individual that is less likely to be either unmotivated or un-offended by the motivation techniques employed may cause additional problems, such as perceived favoritism or dislike towards certain team members. Even if the initial team members are perfectly chosen, taking all motivation requirements into account, new members will probably be added later to either provide additional support or to take the place of a departing team member. Understanding the current team members\' motivation requirements and those of potential team members may be even more important at this time because the current team is already progressing and the motivation techniques required to motivate new team members may be detrimental to the current team members' efforts and goals. Understanding the team members\' motivation needs both at inception of the team and also throughout the ever-changing environment of the team will result in proper motivation techniques and greater success for the team. ### Understand Team Goals Team goals can be short-term task-specific goals, long-term organizational goals or any combination thereof. In addition, these goals may be constantly updated or changed, especially short-term task-specific goals, as the business environment changes or as tasks and goals are accomplished. Different types of goals may require different types of motivation. For example, a team might be motivated to work hard on a project for an extra couple of weeks if they are rewarded with a three or four-day weekend once it is completed; or maybe if the company has no work-related accidents for the year everyone receives an extra percentage bonus during the holiday season. An understanding of the team goals, in all varieties, is neither more nor less important as understanding the team members who are trying to accomplish these goals. These two factors are interdependent in determining the motivation tactics that should be employed to maximize success within the team. ### Provide Consistent Leadership Because there is so much change with team members and associated team goals, providing consistent leadership is essential to motivating team members. If possible, keeping the same individual in charge will keep the team members focused on their goal rather than on determining what a new leader expects of them. Team members may be motivated to make their new boss happy rather than being motivated to achieve the team goals. Additionally, with constantly changing leadership, many team members may assume the team they belong to is undesirable to leaders. Team members may think leaders are \"jumping ship\" because they know they will not succeed; and in turn, managing a poorly achieving team puts a black mark on own leadership abilities. No matter how hard individual team leaders try to stay with a team, change is inevitable for team leaders as well. To mitigate the problems mentioned above, two strategies can be employed: 1. Maintain consistent expectations from the former to the new team leader 2. Utilize the current motivational techniques that work. Both of these strategies require as much communication as possible between the former and the new leader. In addition, communication to the team members throughout the transition process provides motivation to the team because they will understand what is expected of them, and they will feel like they are part of the process. This communication between the leaders and to the team members is the responsibility of the team leaders, but team members should try to make sure they are available and receptive to this communication. An appreciation for the subtleties that exist in human behavior and team dynamics will better enable the understanding of team motivation. Understanding team members, understanding team goals, and providing consistent leadership should help provide the motivation required to achieve success. ## Motivating Team Members Many top managers assume that the key to motivation is the proper use of the available motivational \"tools.\" This is making an enormous assumption that some magical tool actually exists that will motivate an individual. This is one of the common myths regarding motivation. According to Authenticity Consulting LLC advisor Carter McNamara, tools are not what motivate individuals. Motivation is a process, not the end result of a task. Specifically regarding the question posed to our team, motivation is not catered to an individual because of their experience or position. It is catered to an individual because they ARE an individual. This goes for the long-tenured employee as well as the newest member of the team. ### Motivational Myths McNamara discusses three motivational myths that can help us better understand the process of motivation. The first myth is that one person can motivate another. This is simply not true. An employee has to motivate themselves. As a manager you have to establish an environment that will cultivate and bring forth the personal motivational factors of each individual. This can be accomplished through establishing team goals based on the goals of the individuals. If an individual is motivated towards a goal and the goal has no relation to the team goal, they will not continue to motivate themselves because their results will have no real team value. This is why it is important that managers fully and frequently discuss the organizational goals with their employees. The second myth is that money and fear are good motivators. According to McNamara, money can only help people from being less motivated. It does not typically increase motivation in an individual. Fear, like money, is only useful in the short term. The same repeated criticism or threat from a manager can negatively impact the motivation of the employee. \"I know what motivates me, so I know what motivates my employees,\" is the third myth. Everyone is different. Motivational factors can vary to every extreme. However, what can be uniform for everyone is the goal they are trying to reach. Managers need to identify and understand what motivates each employee to reach the common organizational goal. This can be done by asking, observing and listening to your employees. They will give tremendous insight into their motivational factors through their daily, menial conversations. Often what motivates an individual is what they show the most enthusiasm for. This needs to be followed up with sincere one-on-one meetings to discuss accomplishments and to modify goals based on evolving motivational factors. ### Steps to Employee Motivation Finally, McNamara recommends some steps that managers can take to better support their employees in motivating themselves. First, managers need to write down what they think motivates each of their employees and ask the employee to do the same. They then compare results with the employee and discuss the differences and misconceptions. Next, the results are used to establish a reward system based on self-stated motivational factors. Finally, managers need to reward and acknowledge positive behaviors. Employees need to know when an organizational goal has been met as a result of their actions. They need to clearly understand their specific action or actions that led to the goal being met. Once this is done it is a time to celebrate. Celebration among the team of a job well done is the first step in accomplishing the next organizational goal. ## Sources - Managementhelp.org
# Managing Groups and Teams/Motivation In Teams ## Motivation in a Group and Team Environment Motivation can be the determining factor for the level of success a team achieves. In most cases, a successful team/group will have been motivated from start to finish. There are some basic "laws of motivation" that need to be understood to maximize and keep a team motivated to achieve. ### Laws of Motivation 1. _An individual has to be motivated in order to motivate others_: A person cannot expect to motivate others if he/she is not individually motivated. To successfully evaluate what is needed to motivate others, it is pertinent to consider the type of person that might motivate you. Is this the type of person that might arrive before anyone else, who is enthusiastic, positive, always has some sort of good news to pass on, is loyal to the group, and leads by example? As a member of a group, each person cannot expect to move the other members of the group to be motivated if he/she not motivated him/herself. If in a group dynamic, there is not a single individual that has motivation to perform or to complete the purpose of the group, that group is destined to fail. Richard Denney states in his book, Motivate to Win, that "if you want to motivate another person, you have to be motivated yourself." 2. _Motivation requires a goal_: Without a specific goal in mind, it is impossible for a group or team to be motivated. Although they might feel motivated, without a specific reason for working or something they are working towards, their motivation serves little purpose. Richard Denney points out that although this may seem like common sense, it is common sense that is not commonly recognized. He also points out that motivation is about striving towards the future and without a goal, there is no purpose. As an example, consider a team sport where there is no competition or league that they can be a part of. What motivation does the team have to practice and work as a team. The goal that most team sports have is to be the best compared to their competition. If there is no one to compete against, there is no reason to compete. The motivation to perform is lost. The goal to be the best compared to your competition is a vital component of the group or teams motivation. 3. _Motivation, Once Established, Never Lasts_: Motivation should be an ongoing process. It cannot be a once a year booster. Groups must come together on a frequent basis to discuss their strengths and weaknesses and draw up plans of action and self-improvement for the future. Conducting a 360-degree appraisal as a group can be one way to ensure that each member is staying focused and makes necessary adjustments to their behavior. This gives each group or team member an opportunity to assess the performance and contribution of the other group or team members. Group members may need to be trained on this process for it to be worthwhile, effective and motivational, but this investment can lead to more motivated groups. Just because a group or team is motivated today does not mean that they will be motivated tomorrow. It is important that groups and teams understand the power of motivation, understand themselves as individuals, how they feel and why they react the way they do. Group or team members must understand what makes them happy or unhappy and what inspires them to do just a little bit more. It is also important to understand what demotivates individuals and as frequently as possible try to take steps to prevent it from happening. 4. _Motivation Requires Recognition_: People will strive harder for recognition than for almost any other single thing in life. Consider a parents whose child brings home a picture that they have painted at school. If that parent admires the picture, shows it to other members of the family and pins it up on the wall, they have now motivated that child and may begin to see more pictures. A genuine compliment is a form of recognition and it takes a thoughtful person to give another a compliment. Small-minded people are unable to recognize the achievements of others. 5. _Participation Motivates_: It is vital to get people involved and to seek their opinions. When working in groups or teams it is important that an environment is established that gives each group member an opportunity to express and share their ideas. People who are listened to and are given an opportunity to actively participate, are more effective and are more motivated. Julian Richer, founder of hi-fi retailer, Richer Sounds, says that when he started his company 100 percent of the ideas came from him. Now, 90 percent of how the company is run, including its systems and procedures, comes from his people. All members of his staff are required to give 20 ideas per year for improvement. For each idea they are rewarded a minimum amount, that increases based on the value of the idea. Every idea presented is given a response within three days indicating why the idea could not be implemented or whether further action would be taken. The consequence of this was a steady stream of innovation, but even more important is that Richer Sounds has an incredibly high staff retention rate. There is usually a list of people waiting for a vacancy. 6. _Seeing Progression Motivates_: When individuals progress as a group, moving forward and achieving, they will always be more motivated. When they are going backwards and not making progress, people are naturally less motivated. All members of the group must learn from the past, but realize that they cannot change it. Instead, they must turn it to their advantage and learn from it. Learning to focus on the slightest progress, whatever it may be, allows a team to stay motivated. This law must be used, worked on, managed and planned in order to maintain a high level of motivation. 7. _Challenge Only Motivates if there is a Potential to Win_: If targets for results are set too high, they may actually have a de-motivating effect. If the consensus of the group or team is that the targets are out of reach or impossible to achieve, de-motivation will be the result. Competitions and challenges can certainly be motivating and can inspire people to greater activity. People will rise to the occasion. Challenge groups or teams to get something worthwhile done and nine times out of ten they will do it. Sometimes, the work itself is a motivator, such as responsibility, challenge or a feeling of doing something worthwhile. One can make a person's work more challenging by giving them the biggest job they can handle and with this responsibility must come some credit of achievement when the job is done. 8. _Everybody Has a Motivational Fuse_: Everyone can be motivated. Everyone has a fuse, it is just a matter of knowing how to ignite it. At some point it may not be cost-effective to continue trying to motivate a group or team to into greater activity or performance. It is a person's attitude to a job that makes the difference. A person can quite emphatically state and believe that theirs is the worst job humanity has ever created. Yet another person taking on that same job with a different attitude will say and believe it is a great job and will consider himself or herself fortunate to have it. 9. _Group Belonging Motivates_: People want to have a sense of belonging. The smaller the group or team, the greater the loyalty, motivation and effort. Extra-curricular activities can be used to draw people together. 10. _Inspired Leaders are Motivational_: This is not necessarily a manager. Leaders are those that inspire others to action. Leaders are willing to take risks, are continually looking for new challenges and opportunities. People are much more likely to be motivated when there is inspired leadership. Leaders will defend others in their group and take full responsibility for criticism. ### Selected Applications of the Laws of Motivation : _Motivation requires a goal_: One of the first steps to motivating a group is identifying the goals and purpose of the team and making them clear from the beginning. This first step has proven true for many group leaders and members. Managers and non-organizer team members can see success when it is used and dysfunction and failure when not used. For example: A branch manager of an office was charged with finding ways to cut costs and run a leaner office. As an office, his team has already gone through cost cutting procedures and the results were not seen positively by the team. The goal was to break the larger group into cross functional teams of three to five members and give them time to brain storm within their functional areas. Each group would have certain rules and direction. The team leader brought the entire group together and explained what they would be doing. He explained the plan and outlined the team\'s goals. They discussed the reasoning behind the goals; they reviewed the most recent performance report and discussed the health of the branch. Afterwards and over the next three days the smaller breakout sessions were completed. The overall project had great success. They came away with many wonderful ideas for cutting costs which were implemented in their office as well as many of other offices throughout the company. Knowing the goals, understanding, and supporting them were huge contributing factors to the success of these particular teams. In contrast, members of a team where no goal is clearly identifiable typically are not successful. As time passes with no overall group goal nor an understanding for the goal; each group member begins to realize and push towards individual goals. The lack of motivation towards a common goal may break the team apart and provide minimal success.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : _Motivation, Once Established, Never Lasts_: The next step to motivating a group to an acceptable level of success is determining what the group as a whole and individually needs, in order to be driven during the entire process. Beyond providing a common goal and direction; how does a group organizer determine what will motivate her/his group to succeed? The simple fact is that in many groups; each team member may require different levels or types of motivation to push them to succeed. There are two types of motivation that exist: extrinsic motivation and intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is motivation that is inspired by outside forces, while intrinsic motivation is motivation that is inspired from within a person. Both types of motivation are essential to success. Below you will find different types of extrinsic and intrinsic motivational factors: : Extrinsic Motivation. : -Bonus : -Peer recognition : -Good grades : -Rewards ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : : Intrinsic Motivation. : -Happiness : -Personal goals, values, and morals : -Willingness and eagerness to learn : -Physiological, social, and self-esteem needs\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The best idea would be to determine prior to group organization the types and levels of motivation each group member will require. Assigning group members to teams with similar types and levels of motivation may be beneficial in the teams overall success. This is of course based on the types of rewards or motivators the organizer is willing to provide. If it is just going to be one reward, the same reward for the entire group, it will be extremely important to have team members who would be happy with that reward/motivator. Determining each group members' types and levels of motivation requires the organizer to know each member. Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators can be used to motivate the group. One common device used to help understand a person and there by determine their motivators is personality testing. Many managers find it difficult to find the time to spend with each group member individually to discover their motivators. It would certainly be ideal if they could find the time as it helps put them on a more personable level; however even when they have the time they may find it uncomfortable to ask questions of a personal nature. For this reason personality tests can be very useful. Developing understanding of personality typology, personality traits, thinking styles and learning styles is a useful way to improve your knowledge of motivation and behavior of self and others, in the workplace and beyond. The more you understand about personality, the better able you are to judge what motivates people - and yourself. Some examples of easily accessible online Personality tests are: ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : : Four Temperaments/Four Humours/" : Jung\'s Psychological Types" : Briggs® personality types theory (MBTI® model)" : personality types theory (Temperament Sorter model)" : Eysenck\'s personality types theory" : Benziger\'s Brain Type theory" : Moulton Marston\'s DISC personality theory (Inscape, Thomas Int., etc)" : Team Roles and personality types theory" : \'Big Five\' Factors personality model" : \[http://www.businessballs.com/personalitystylesmodels.htm#firo-b_personality_assessment_model/"-FIRO-B® Personality Assessment model"\] : Birkman Method®" : personality theories and psychometrics tests models ## Motivation in Challenging Group and Team Environments ### Potential causes for a poorly motivated groups and team : The lack of motivation or poor motivation; most often will cripple a group's ability to succeed and or hinder its progress. For the most part it is widely known that when a group is not motivated to perform, it will not succeed to a level of satisfaction that was previously desired. So the question remains; why are some groups not given the motivation to succeed? Two possible scenarios potentially explain this phenomenon: : 1\. The group leader provides the wrong type of motivation. : 2\. The group is unwilling to be motivated. : Some type of motivation is always provided for a group to succeed. The problem is that in several instances the methods for motivation are not correct and thus do not produce the sought after results. The first scenario states that there are occasions when the wrong motivator is provided. As described in the section "How to Motivate a Group;" the group leader must determine how the group needs to be motivated in order to be successful. Presuming that the group leader has successfully followed the prescribed advice and now knows what his group needs to be positively motivated; if the group fails based on motivation, what has happened? Either the group leader disregarded his findings or he has misunderstood them.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : There may be situations when a group requires motivation that is unrealistic or not within the power of the group leader. There may also be situations when a group leader is simply unwilling to motivate the group. When she/he is unwilling and able; this will be a situation where the group leader may not be motivated properly and may need to be replaced. On the other hand when a group requests a bonus which the leader is unable to provide; even though she/he is willing, this is a situation where the team may need to be dissolved or changed.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The second possible scenario states that the group itself is unwilling to be motivated. Typically this will mean that either their desires are elsewhere or they no longer have faith in what they are doing. Take the example of a business owner who earns a healthy income. She is part of a group that provides a service at a premium. Over time she realizes that she does not believe in the product any more. She feels that it does not provide the value she has been promising. Will she continue to be an effective leader and support the rest of her team members in this business? The answer is that it depends on what motivates her. If she is motivated by money alone then, yes, she will continue to be an effective team member. However, if she is not motivated by money than she will begin to lose interest and become very ineffective as a manager for the team. If one important motivation to her is providing a quality product to the consumer, then if the product were to change to be a better quality one, then she would be properly motivated again and would again be effective as a manager.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Both scenarios boil down to a leader knowing what truly motivates his or her group and finding a way to provide that motivation.\ ### Motivating a team within a negative environment : Before you are able to motivate a team who has a negative view of a project, you must first understand what caused the negative view to be held. It is best to directly talk with each team member to determine the root cause. Once it is known where the negative view comes from, actions can be taken. To begin with, the root cause should be examined. To determine the cause, it is important to analyze the responses to questions such as: ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : : 1\. Is it an appropriate factor to have at the work environment (e.g. tight timelines)? : 2\. Is it due to a disruptive team member? : 3\. Is it due to stress surrounding the project (e.g. new procedures, difficult paperwork, etc.)? ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Once the main factor has been examined and assessed, it is important to determine if there are additional underlying factors that can be adversely impacting team members (e.g. no vacation in six months, new child, divorce, etc.).\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : With the main factor (and underlying factors) in hand, the negative views can be addressed head on. It is important to help shift the team's perspective to a positive mindset. If the team is struggling against tight timelines, incentives can be put into place for when the team hits the timeline. Something as simple as a promising a launch party can successfully change the team's dynamics. This example is a large form of recognition, but smaller forms can also be helpful in changing the team's dynamics.\ ### Motivating teams in a Cross-Functional environment : Before learning how to motivate teams, it is best to understand what can de-motivate them. A Bnet.com^1^ article provides the top ten de-motivators for team members as, "Relations with project manager, co-worker relations, remuneration, leadership, security, working conditions, the organization's policy, team subordinate relations, personal time, title/status".\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Cross-functional teams can be especially difficult to motivate as each individual comes from a different group. Each group can have different goals and incentives to motivate employees. When the individuals of a cross-functional team have different goals and incentives, the results can become more individualized. In addition to different groups, cross-functional team members come from different backgrounds and ways of thinking. These differences can pull a team apart, thus de-motivating them to work together. This does not necessarily need to happen. If differences are managed well, they can be leveraged to make the team stronger and ultimately more motivated to perform well as a group. Furthermore, each cross-functional team will go through the four stages of a team: forming, storming, norming, and performing. It may be difficult to motivate a team during the norming and storming phases. As such, it is important to take the phase the team is at into consideration.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Motivating a cross-functional team, however, is possible. Rowe^2^ explored the motivational issues on cross-functional teams specifically focusing on the free-rider problem. Through different experiments, Rowe found that the severity of the free-rider problem in groups was severely underestimated. So not only was there an issue within the team, but it was much larger than perceived by the team. The free-rider problem can be reduced by building trust and collectivism within the team. Rowe also found that, "when properly aligned, accounting and team structures operate interactively as a powerful group framing device that helps to resolve the free-rider problem." By focusing more on aligning the incentives and goals of a group, a diversified team can be motivated to perform successfully.\ ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : One way to align the incentives and goals within a cross-functional group is to create a project scope document. This is an exercise that not only allows the team to work together to define a project, but also gets buy-in from the team on the goals of the project. The team discusses the different aspects of the project and identifies assumptions made, items that are in/out of the scope of the project, and also identifies risks and constraints on the project. At the end of the meeting, a project scope document is formed. All team members are responsible for reviewing the document and will approve the document if everything documented fits their understanding.\ ### Conclusion : In this chapter, we have discussed what motivation is, what groups can do to motivate others, and some of the challenges that groups face when trying to address motivation. Motivation can take several forms. There are also many ways to approach motivation. It is important to evaluate the situation that you are in and then take the approach that will motivate the group to achieve the desired outcome. Without proper motivation, groups may not achieve their full potential or accomplish the goals that they set. Groups must work together to set goals and work to accomplish them. Proper motivation can ensure that groups will work together and everyone will do their part to achieve the goals of the group.\ ### Bibliography :::#http://www.bnet.com/2410-13059_23-68765.html :::#The Effect of Accounting Report Structure and Team Structure on Performance in Cross-Functional Teams, Casey Rowe, The Accounting Review, Vol. 79, No. 4, 2004, pp.1153-1180 :::#http://www.eioba.com/a41068/extrinsic_and_intrinsic_motivations :::#http://www.businessballs.com/personalitystylesmodels.htm :::#Denny, Richard. 2005. Motivate to Win (3rd Edition). Kogan Page, Limited. :::#Ephross, Paul H. and Vassil, Thomas V. 2005. Groups that work: Structure and Process. Columbia University Press :::#Forsyth, Patrick. 2006. How to Motivate People (2nd Edition). Kogan Page, Limited.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Team Inclusion ## Introduction of Best Members for Team Inclusion How can teams include the \"best\" members and what does \"best\" mean in selecting members? What key attributes, skills, competencies, etc, should be looked for in selecting team members, which ones can be sacrificed? When selecting team members, it is important to select the "best" team members. "Best" in this circumstance could be defined as the right team members with the necessary skills and abilities to function together as a team. However selecting the best team members can be very difficult. Thus it is important to have a process in place to assist in team selection. The proper selection will lead to better inclusion. If you are not included in a team that you consider will get a benefit with your inclusion, here is presented some steps that can help you to approach the situation. ## What Is the Process of Member Selection? What process should be followed in order to select team members, or should a formal process exist? The Process should exist, but be somewhat flexible. Flexibility is important to allow for small change within each organization. The three step process as defined below can be used as a foundation for a process. ### Identify goal or team purpose Goal : Defining a clear goal is important so the group understands what it is trying to achieve. Without a clear goal or purpose, the team may not be able to identify when the task has been completed or finished. With a clear goal, the team can unify and focus on the objectives rather than determine what the objectives should be. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Timeline : It is important to establish a timeline for group selection as well as project finish date (the project finish date may be defined as ongoing or indefinite). While selecting the \"best\" members of a group, one must not loose track of the date by which the group must be formed. ### Identify Group Needs Experience : Identifying experience is important for group confidence. Experience in particular areas can help the group identify with individuals and allow individuals to shine in their appropriate areas. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Attributes : Identify attributes that are important to your project as this can either help or hurt the group cohesion. Identifying whether potential members are aggressive, passive, compassionate, dedicated, or motivated can directly influence the speed and accuracy of the completion of team objectives. It is important to have a well rounded team so they can effectively challenge and complement one another. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Specialty interest : Identify passions or non-passions. Identifying individual passions or non-passions can help identify an individual\'s motivation. If a team member does not care about the outcome of the project, their motivation and contribution may be limited. On the other hand, someone with extreme passion may be overbearing and inhibit team success. Finding individuals with the appropriate interest levels must be balanced. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Skills : The necessary skill level is important so highly skilled individuals aren't bored with the project at hand. However it is important to have appropriately skilled individuals to be able to accomplish the task at hand. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Personalities : Are ideas going to be challenged? This question is important. If you have a group of individuals that behave in the same manner, will the ideas presented in the group environment be challenged sufficiently to be identified as the best possible solution or end product? Allowing individuals to be challenged, or defend particular point of views can allow healthy collaboration. However with personalities that are overbearing and domineering it can lead to a very "unsafe" group environment. This can lead to other problems like group polarization. ### Identify Possible Team Members The third step in the process is to identify individuals who may fit within the team. Identify the "best" team members according to the group needs and the defined goal, so the group has appropriate motivation and does not stagnate. These three steps are starting points to form the "best" team. Following these three processes can allow a group to be interdependent on each other to complete group tasks. Not only can interdependence help the group work together, it fosters a sense of inclusion, because every group member feels that she is needed. As well, a simple process identifying the "best" individuals can help a group overcome stereotyping, social loafing, group process loss. ## Team Relationships To what extent should interpersonal relationships dictate who is included? It is very important to understand interpersonal relationships to create the best team. The different relationships in a team can destine it for failure or success, so it is very important to consider each person who is part of a team. Also, depending on the task or goal of a team, there may be better types of relationships for that team. A team\'s sense of inclusion and interpersonal relationships can be improved with training and experience. In order to answer the posed question, it is important to understand what is involved in interpersonal relationships. These relationships are as diverse as there are different types of personalities. Every person has a personality that has been shaped by years of experiences. Some are very aggressive and others very relaxed. There are outspoken people and quiet people, analytical and qualitative, and many others. All of these things are important in understanding how team members will handle different situations and problems that they will face in a team. A good team facilitator will quickly pick up on the different team member's skills and personalities and then use this information to make the team effective. The qualities of relationships that are the best for teams to be effective include being productive, having mutual understanding, and being willing to be self corrective. These things need to be evaluated in who is picked for a team. Productivity : A team needs to be productive, and therefore the relationships within a team need to be productive as well. When all team members are included and involved in the team process, the team becomes very productive. We have all probably been assigned to teams that were too large and where it did not feel like your individual effort mattered. When teams get too large, there is no longer a mutual need for the input of every member. Despite having information or skills that the team needs, individuals may no longer put as much effort into a project when there are too many members, what we call social loafing. Also in large groups, members tend to have a perception of "someone else will go it", so there is no need to be assertive. There usually are a number of members that will no longer participate and feel like their time is being wasted. Having too large of a team is a common way to lose the inclusion of all members. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Mutual understanding : Maybe you have been part of a team where certain members took over and made it harder for others to be involved. Some members are reluctant to express conflicting ideas depending upon who is involved or in charge of the meeting. Overly aggressive members can really stifle a team's creativeness and productivity. The mutual understanding and focus on a group task gets demoted by the over aggressiveness or ego of someone who dominates a team. When everyone in a team feels free to contribute, the mutual strength of the team increases. So it is important to pick team members with relationships that will create a collaborative environment. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Self corrective : When selecting members of a team it is good too look at each individual's skills in communicating with others and their ability to work with others. Depending upon the type of problem to be solved by a group or team, there may be a need for homogeneity, or a need for great diversity. In teams where everyone has very similar backgrounds, values, and personalities, there is very low risk of conflicts. These teams also tend to be more likely to make mistakes and to not explore all of the possibilities in solving problems. They can have a hard time finding their mistakes and correcting them. Teams that have a large difference in personality and background tend to have much more conflict and less cooperation. Despite these challenges, these teams can be very effective in solving challenging issues, even relationship issues. One key to making diverse teams be productive is to create a collaborate environment and keep the team focused on the goal or task of the group. Diverse teams that understand the value of conflict resolution and the value of their diversity, can be self correcting and ease the burden of a team leader or facilitator. Good team skill training and time together with a team can really help diverse teams. The interpersonal relationships in a team are keys to being successful. So to what extent should they dictate who is included? To a large extent! A good manager will try to understand the different personalities in his organization and be able to include those in teams that can be the most productive in resolving an issue or reaching the team goal. ## Being Part of a Team If you are not included in a team that you think could benefit from you being included, how do you approach the team leader and/or existing team members to be included, or should you at all? If you are not included in a team that you consider you should be, the best thing to do is to present your concerns to your team leader, your supervisor or manager. From my own experience, you can proceed according with the following steps that have helped me through my last 10 years of work experience: 1. Request a meeting 2. Present your concern 3. Present your point of view 4. Discuss the answers to questions 5. Conclude the meeting 6. Follow up As part of a team, we need to have an open and honest communication not only with our managers and supervisors, but also with our team leader and co-workers. Communication is the key to success. Communication is more than talking to others or writing e-mails or letters, it also includes the art of "listening". Also I will explain in detail each of what I call "my golden key to success" in this type of situation: 1. Request a meeting: Is a good idea to request a meeting, especially with superiors, because usually they are busy and you will want to capture all of his/her attention. When you request a meeting, you can be sure that the other person will pay attention to your concern. Usually this type of meeting doesn't last very long. Remember that our bosses are busy. A half hour to an hour will be enough. 2. Present your concern: Don't be afraid, present your concern. Be open and honest. Ask why you were not considered. The majority of the times you will be surprised that a) there was not a reason behind their decision not to include you on the team, they just didn't think about you or b) you can realize the reason behind the decision. At this point, you will have the opportunity to clarify the perception or you can ask how you can perform better or in a different way in order to be considered in future projects. 3. Present your point of view and the reason(s) why you consider yourself to be a great asset to the team: If the reason is they didn't think about you, sell yourself and present your ideas. Showing them that you have the experience and knowledge, as well as the skills and background that can benefit the team selected. If you are still not considered, at least they will have an idea of who you are and it will be a possibility in the future that they will select you. Remember: be clear, concise and simple. 4. Discuss the answers to questions: Be prepared to defend your ideas, also to answer questions. Usually the other person just wants to better understand your point of view. Other times they just want to know if you really have the knowledge and the experience that you said you have. Don\'t be afraid to sell yourself and tell them about your experience and knowledge. An excellent way to do this is telling stories. 5. Conclude the meeting: Always conclude the meeting on a positive note. Most of the times a diplomatic conversation is more valuable and can open other opportunities. 6. If necessary, always follow up the conversation: If after the meeting you get a possibility to be included in the team, always follow up the conversation to show that you are interested. As a lesson: Always confront the conflict, never avoid it. Be a peacemaker and not a peacekeeper. An article called " Avoiding Conflict at any cost" recommends that we should confront the situations and not be afraid to express our feelings. If you truly believe that you should be included in a team, express your concerns. ## Managing Inclusion How do teams effectively deal with changes in team member inclusion? Changes to the makeup of an existing team can be very disruptive especially if that team is an effectively functioning group. By changing the group membership of an effective team you can cause them to redirect their focus from the tasks and processes at hand, to having to focus on relationships, which can quickly turn that team into an ineffective unit. When changing the membership of a team, there are certain measures which both the existing team and the new members should consider in order to make for a smooth and successful transition. ### Suggestions for Existing Team Members Socialize : Anytime someone joins a new group they are coming in as an outsider. Entering into an existing team situation may stifle that person\'s ability to be effective and to focus on the task at hand. It is the responsibility of the existing team members to socialize with the new member, help them feel that they belong, let them know that they have a valid voice and that they can and should contribute just as much as any other member of the team. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Educate : It will also be necessary for the existing team members to educate the new member on the history of the team. This includes helping them to learn about and understand the goals of the team, and to learn about the progress which has been made. This will include learning about the obstacles that have been overcome and the obstacles which now lay before them. This is also a good opportunity to let the new member know what everyone\'s role is on the team and what the new member\'s role should be. ### Suggestions for New Team Members Integrate : Whenever a team is created there will be several key roles which must be filled. These roles can include; Controller, Adviser, Creator, Organizer, Producer and several others. When someone joins an existing team they should determine which roles are already filled, which are vacant, and how their skills can best fit into one of these vacancies. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Self-Education : A new member must be proactive in their education. They will need to be proactive in learning what has been addressed and what has yet to be addressed. They can't be shy about asking questions. In addition, the new member must realize that they are an asset and important part of the team. They possess a different perspective which is unique from the rest of the team because of their skills and experience which may benefit the entire team. If they don't speak up, they may be holding up the progress of the team. ## How To Lead for Team Inclusion From leader's perspective, what are the ways to insure full participation/inclusion/contribution of team members? How does the leader or other team members insure the involvment of a passive and uninterested team member? Every team consists of different individuals with different personalities, background and values. Some team members are more active than others, some contribute more than others, some are more motivated than others. To ensure a viable and effective team, a team leader must make sure that every team member participates, contributes and feels as part of the team. Put yourself in his/her shoes : In order to influence the behavior of a team member, a team leader must first understand that team member. In order to do so, one should understand the background and values of each team member. Acknowledging the fact that each team member is different will show respect and consideration. In addition, understanding the values will help to identify what kind of things a certain person would cherish or neglect. Values come in handy when a leader needs to use motivation. Overall, the objective of the leader in this step is to get to know his/her team members, in other words, a leader needs to to think as a team member does. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Motivation : Motivation is perhaps the most important factor to ensure effective inclusion of team member. The foundation of recognition and motivation is that people need and want acceptance, approval and appreciation. Almost all positive motivation is based on these needs. People want to know that what they do makes a difference. Just recognizing the staff is the most important step one can take. In addition to financial rewards, there are number of other ways that can be effectively utilized. One of them is to reward the team members for their contributions to the team. A gift certificate or a free dinner might go a long way. The recognition given for work that is well done and public praise will also strengthen the sense of importance and belonging to the team. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Build Confidence : Part of the reason that a team member will not fully contribute could be the lack of confidence in self and his/her abilities to perform the job. A leader\'s duty is to notice and take steps to improve the behavior of the team member. Even though building self-confidence is a personal matter and a leader may have little influence over it, a leader should be able to identify the strengths of team players and build on those. One way to do it is to delegate responsibilities with freedom to think and act. It is also important to remain fair and impartial as slight advantage given to one member over the other may hinder the progress and undermine the efforts of some team members. Accentuating the positives is another tool a leader should continually keep in his or her arsenal. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Ensure collaborative climate : Lastly, the team\'s ability to effectively collaborate, share data and insight in open and positive climate will affect the degree of participation of its members. Non-judgmental attitude void of team politics is an essential ingredient to building such climate in teams. In addition, a team leader should should be able to establish open and direct relationship with a passive or uninterested team member and encourage other team members to do the same.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Groupthink Question: What is groupthink and how can a team prevent it? Groupthink is a behavioral pattern exhibited by team members in an attempt to reduce conflict and reach consensus without critically analyzing an issue. In order for a team to achieve a high performing status, it is imperative that team members are fully aware of and make efforts to avoid falling victim to groupthink. ## Definition Groupthink occurs when group members give priority to sustaining concordance and internal harmony above critical examination of the issues under consideration.[^1] Groupthink refers to a deterioration of mental efficiency, reality testing, and moral judgment that results from in-group pressures.[^2] Irving Janis referred to groupthink as a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' striving for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative course of action.[^3] ## History ![](GroupThink_Model.jpg "GroupThink_Model.jpg"){width="500"} Groupthink has been used over the years to help understand group dynamics and why certain groups are successful and others lead to disaster. A considerable amount of social science literature shows that in circumstances of extreme crisis, group contagion occasionally gives rise to collective panic, violent acts of scapegoating, and other forms of what could be called group madness.[^4] Many researchers feel that groupthink arises out of highly cohesive groups (groups where there is a lot of mutual liking and respect) that are put in extreme circumstances, though there has been some debate about this conclusion (see Criticisms of groupthink). In the 1950's and 1960's, other social psychologists such as Leon Festinger, Harold Kelley, and Stanley Schachter found that group cohesiveness increases when there is more member participation and group membership remains stable. Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist, found that when group cohesiveness is high, all members express solidarity, mutual liking, and positive feelings about attending meeting and carrying out the routine tasks of the group.[^5] Thus, highly cohesive groups are often high performing under normal circumstances. Wilfred Bion, an eminent group therapist, investigated to what extent cohesion could also contribute to negative group outcomes. Bion described how the efficiency of working groups can be negatively affected by preconscious misconceptions of group members. His stated that by sharing basic assumptions that preserve the group, group members tend to lose regard for the work at hand and focus more on maintaining positive group relations.[^6] The higher the group cohesiveness, the more power the group has over norms, acceptance of goals, reduction in member anxiety, and a heightened level of group member's self-esteem.[^7] In 1972, Irving L. Janis coined the term "groupthink" after the Newspeak vocabulary used in George Orwell's book 1984. Janis was an American research psychologist who studied at Yale University and was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Janis' background in social sciences paved the way for his Groupthink theory. Groupthink has been linked to many famous disasters where group decision making lead to the end result. Janis used historical events such as the Bay of Pigs, Pearl Harbor, and the escalation of the Vietnam War to explain the characteristics of Groupthink in policy making. An interesting aspect of Groupthink is that the theory is used to help explain group dynamics after the event has taken place. To this date, Groupthink has not been proven in a research study. ## Antecedent Conditions According to Janis, there are three main antecedent conditions that encourage groupthink tendencies to occur. When these three conditions are present, the group is more suspect to groupthink. The first condition is that decision makers constitute a cohesive group. For example, if the decision makers in the group have been working together for a long period of time and have had past successes, they will usually operate as a cohesive group. The second condition is there are structural faults in the organization. Structural faults include: Insulation of the group, lack of traditional impartial leadership, lack of norms requiring methodical procedures, and homogeneity of members' social background and ideology.[^8] The third condition is that the group is in a provocative situational context. When a group experiences high stress from external threats the context is created. The threats are usually compounded with the fact that there is little hope of a better solution than what the leader of the group is offering.[^9] Another factor that induces the provocative situational context is low self-esteem within the group. The low self-esteem is usually induced by recent failures, excessive difficulties on decision-making that lowers each member's sense of self-efficacy, and moral dilemmas.[^10] ## Symptoms Irving L. Janis has identified eight main Symptoms_of_Groupthink: invulnerability, rationale, morality, stereotypes, pressure, self-censorship, unanimity, and mind guards. The eight symptoms can be divided into three specific types.[^11]: - Overestimation of the Group - Illusion of invulnerability: This symptom can alleviate fears of failure and prevent unnerving fears of failure during a crisis. - Belief in inherent morality of the group: The shared belief that "we are a good and wise group" inclines them to use group concurrence as a major criterion to judge the morality as well as the efficacy of any policy under discussion. The members believe since the group's objectives are good any means we decide to use must be good as well.[^12] - Closed-Mindedness - Collective Rationalization: The group will construct rationalizations in order to discount warnings and other forms of negative feedback that, taken seriously, might lead group members to reconsider their assumptions each time they recommit themselves to past decisions.[^13] - Stereotypes of Out-Groups: This symptom is when the group uses undifferentiated negative stereotypes of opponents. This symptom enables the group to minimize decision conflicts between ethical values and expediency. Shared negative stereotypes of out-groups support the so-called "evil nature" of the enemy.[^14] - Pressures Toward Uniformity - Self-Censorship: Victims of Groupthink avoid deviating from what appears to be group consensus. The group members will keep silent about their misgivings and even minimize to themselves the importance of their doubts.[^15] - Illusion of Unanimity: An illusion of unanimity is shared within the group concerning all judgments expressed by members who speak in favor of the majority view. This symptom is supported by the false assumption that any individual who remains silent during any part of the discussion is in full accord with what the others are saying.[^16] - Direct pressure on dissenters: Members of the group will apply direct pressure on any individual who momentarily expresses doubts about any of the group's shared illusions or who questions the validity of the arguments supporting a policy alternative favored by the majority.[^17] - Self-appointed mind guards: This symptom protects the members from adverse information that might break the complacency they share about the effectiveness and morality of past decisions.[^18] ## Effects of Groupthink Irving L. Janis calls the effects of groupthink "products". The products are the consequences to poor decision making practices that lead to inadequate solutions to the problems under discussion.[^19] There are six products identified by Janis that are evident in groupthink situations. The first product is when the group limits its discussions to a few alternative courses of action (often only two) without an initial survey of all the alternatives that might be worthy of considerations.[^20] The group ignores all possible solutions to an issue usually overlooking better solutions. A second product of groupthink is when the group fails to reexamine the course of action initially preferred by the majority after they learn of risks and drawbacks they had not considered originally.[^21] This product is especially alarming because the group is not methodically thinking through the consequences of their decisions. In government and policy making situations, this product can have disastrous repercussions. The third product is when the members of a group spend little or no time discussing whether there are not obvious gains they may have overlooked or ways of reducing the seemingly prohibitive costs that made rejected alternatives appear undesirable to them.[^22] The fourth product is when the members of a group make little or no attempt to obtain information from experts within their own organizations who might be able to supply more precise estimates of potential losses and gains.[^23] The members are afraid to find any information that might sway the group from their decided course of action. The fifth product is when the members of a group show positive interest in facts and opinions that support their preferred policy. In turn, they tend to ignore facts and opinions that do not support their preferred policy.[^24] Any information that supports the decision is embraced and any information that disputes the decision is swept under the table. The groupthink tendency prevails because the group does not want their decision to be threatened in any way. The sixth and final product identified by Janis is when the members of a group spend little time deliberating about how the chosen policy might be hindered by bureaucratic inertia, sabotaged by political opponents, or temporarily derailed by common accidents. They fail to work out contingency plans to cope with foreseeable setbacks that could endanger the overall success of their chosen course.[^25] ## Ways to prevent groupthink There are many different opinions on how to prevent groupthink. However they all have the same underling theme: Create an open environment for ideas and participation. There are five simple steps which can be taken to create this environment:[^26][^27] 1. Leaders should allow each member to challenge ideas and present objections. 2. Members should talk about and solicit ideas with people outside the group. 3. Outside experts should be invited to attend meetings. 4. Avoid expressing opinions about the preferred outcome. 5. Assign Devil\'s_Advocate at all meetings to challenge any and all ideas. ## Historical Examples ### Bay of Pigs Invasion The idea for the Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion was first suggested by John F. Kennedy's main political opponent, Richard M. Nixon. As Vice President during the Eisenhower administration, Nixon had proposed that the United States government secretly send a trained group of Cuban exiles to Cuba to fight against Castro. In March 1960, acting on Nixon's suggestion, President Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the Central Intelligence Agency to organize Cuban exiles in the United States into a unified political movement against the Castro regime and to give military training to those who were willing to return to their homeland to engage in guerrilla warfare. The CIA put a large number of its agents to work on this clandestine operation, and they soon evolved an elaborate plan for a military invasion. Apparently without informing President Eisenhower, the CIA began to assume in late 1960 that they could land a brigade of Cuban exiles not as a band of guerrilla infiltrators but as an armed force to carry out a full-scale invasion. Two days after the inauguration in January 1961, President John F. Kennedy and several leading members of his new administration were given a detailed briefing about the proposed invasion by Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, and General Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During the next eighty days, a core group of presidential advisers repeatedly discussed this inherited plan informally and in the meeting of an advisory committee that included three Joint Chiefs of Staff. In early April 1961, at one of the meetings with the President, all the key advisers gave their approval to the CIA's invasion plan. Their deliberations led to a few modifications of details, such as the choice of the invasion site. On April 17, 1961, the brigade of about fourteen hundred Cuban exiles, aided by the United States Navy, Air Force, and the CIA, invaded the swampy coast of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs. Nothing went as planned. On the first day, none of the four ships containing reserve ammunition and supplies arrived; the first two were sunk by planes in Castro's air force, and the other two promptly fled. By the second day, the brigade was completely surrounded by twenty thousand troops of Castro's well-equipped army. By the third day, about twelve hundred members of the brigade, comprising almost all who had not been killed, were captured and ignominiously led off to prison camps.[^28] Symptoms: - Overestimation of the Group - The CIA felt that the Cuban exiles would carry out the invasion without any ground support from the United States. - They also felt that Casto's army was so weak that the Cuban exiles could hold his army at the beachhead. - This plays into the first example that the Cuban exiles would carry out the invasion no matter what. - Closed-Midedness - They assumed that if the brigade did not succeed they could just retreat to the Escambray Mountains and reinforce guerrilla units that were there. - They also assumed that the invasion would spark uprisings behind the lines, and that those uprisings would support the exiles and prompt the top poling of the Castro regime. - Pressures Toward Uniformity - The invasion was actually an idea from the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had not been implemented. Once John F. Kennedy became President he took over the invasion and was given a brief overview of what they had planned. Also, the briefing was given by two members of the original group that had devised the plan. The new Presidency most likely felt as though they needed to implement the plan from the prior Presidency, and as a result went forward with the invasion without thinking through the entire situation. Some of the effects of groupthink that were apparent in the Bay of Pigs example were: - The group did not reexamine the course of action initially preferred by the majority. As mentioned above, this was a result of President John F. Kennedy taking over once he had became President and not reevaluating the situation and decisions that had been made. - The group also limited discussion to a few alternative courses of action. To this degree Janis Jarvis mentions that several members of the existing group debriefed the President on the plan of action. ### Titanic The RMS Titanic was an Olympic-class passenger liner owned by the White Star Line and was built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, in what is now Northern Ireland. At the time of her construction, she was the largest passenger steamship in the world. Shortly before midnight on 14 April 1912, four days into the ship\'s maiden voyage, Titanic struck an iceberg and sank two hours and forty minutes later, early on 15 April 1912. The sinking resulted in the deaths of 1,517 of the 2,223 people on board, making it one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history. The high casualty rate was due in part to the fact that, although complying with the regulations of the time, the ship did not carry enough lifeboats for everyone aboard. The ship had a total lifeboat capacity of 1,178 people, although her maximum capacity was 3,547. The Titanic was designed by some of the most experienced engineers, and used some of the most advanced technologies available at the time. It was popularly believed to have been unsinkable.[^29] It was a great shock to many that, despite the extensive safety features, the Titanic sank. The frenzy on the part of the media about Titanic\'s famous victims, the legends about the sinking, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck have contributed to the continuing interest in, and notoriety of, the Titanic.[^30]![](RMS_Titanic_3.jpg "RMS_Titanic_3.jpg"){width="250"} Symptoms - Overestimation of the Group - The Titanic was viewed as being the safest ship ever built and therefore was viewed as being "unsinkable". As a result the ship was only equipped with 20 lifeboats, which was only enough to carry half of the ships total passengers. - The rudder construction was also determined to be much smaller than needed in comparison to the size of the ship. - Closed-Mindedness - The SS California, another ship in the area, had warned the Titanic by radio of the ice packs, for which it had stopped for the night. The Titanic ignored the warnings. - Pressures Toward Uniformity - Everyone bought into the idea that the Titanic was "unsinkable". Some of the effects that were apparent in the sinking of the Titanic include: - Members showed positive interest in facts and opinions that supported their preferred policy, such as the fact that the Titanic was the largest passenger ship of its time and the opinion that the Titanic was unsinkable. While at the same time ignoring facts such as the fact that the rudder construction was too small and the opinion from the SS California which had stopped for the night because of the ice packs. ## Recent Examples ### 9-11-2001 ![](National_Park_Service_9-11_Statue_of_Liberty_and_WTC_fire.jpg "National_Park_Service_9-11_Statue_of_Liberty_and_WTC_fire.jpg") The unfortunate truth is that, especially in the case of analyzing and recognizing Groupthink, hindsight is 20/20. Several events (real and imagined, catastrophic and global) in the last ten years possess Groupthink symptoms. Though it is impossible to pinpoint Groupthink as the catalyst for these events, it is interesting to consider how it may have contributed to their development. Take, for example: attacks in 2001. "Warnings about Al Qaeda may have gone unheeded as the incoming administration may have unwisely ranked the Al Qaeda threat somewhere lower than other objectives like national missile defense, China and the ousting of Saddam Hussein," suggests a writer who wrote about the attacks. Paul Wolfowitz is also quoted as saying, \"You give bin Laden too much credit. He could not do all these things,\"[^31] before the attacks occurred. These quotes suggest the presence of an illusion to invulnerability; rationalizing warnings to change the group's assumptions; and stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, biased, spiteful, disfigured, impotent, or stupid. Whether the other characteristics of Groupthink were present is a question left to those who were present in the national security meetings. ### Y2K Another example can be found in the Y2K scare prevalent in 1999. In this instance the group is different than others discussed: instead of from a centralized unit of individuals, Y2K was perpetuated by programmers across the globe. Sam Meddis had this to say about Y2K February of 1999. \"My point is that Y2K has already consumed more effort, money and angst than is merited. At this point the problem has less to do with computer code than with psychology. If we march on like lemmings convinced that major disaster is inevitable, then our hysterical actions might make it so. We\'ll have our doomsayers, not our machines, to thank for that.\"[^32] Five years after the year 2000 arrived, Larry Seltzer, of eWeek, had this to say, \"What we all should have argued for at the time was perspective: A focus on worst-case planning is usually unwarranted.\"[^33] A USA Today columnist who resisted Y2K paranoia received this letter from a programmer:![](Y2K_Logo.gif‎ "Y2K_Logo.gif‎") - \"First, the bad news: this problem is real, very big, and isn\'t going to be fixed in time...There is no likelihood whatsoever that the banking system is going to make it, nor the power grid as a whole. Therefore, we are in for a major disaster. The good news? You (and all the other pollyannas who have your head stuck in the sand) will stop consuming valuable resources, like air. Too bad that you may convince others not to protect themselves as well, but I guess that\'s another example of Darwinism in action. By the way, I am a computer programmer with almost 30 years experience in the field, and I have nothing to sell regarding Y2K. I wonder if you can twist that into some reason that my opinions should be disregarded?\"[^34] This letter gives interesting insight into this particular programmer's thought process and potentially other programmers as well. The quote reveals unquestioning belief in the morality of the group, stereotyping those who are opposed to the group, illusions of unanimity among group members, and pressure on the columnist to conform to the group's thinking. This programmer is, in affect, playing the role of a mind guard---shielding the group from dissenting information. ## Criticisms of groupthink Despite the widespread acceptance of the groupthink theory, it is not without criticism. In his essay "So Right It\'s Wrong: Groupthink and the Ubiquitous Nature of Polarized Group Decision Making"[^35] Robert Baron explores skepticism around the groupthink model by scholars involved in further analysis and testing of the theory. Baron suggests that the strength and acceptance of the model is based on popular culture's predisposition toward a familiar social scenario and symptoms rather than on scientific findings. Scientific study of the groupthink theory is rare as he states, "The majority of reports take the form of group decision case studies or historical sampling studies." His research sites papers from academics familiar with the groupthink theory, such as a 1980 Longley and Pruit paper proposing that "the dangers posed by selective historical analysis, the possibility that the groupthink symptoms in Janis's historical examples (particularly self censorship of dissent) might be more a result of group stage (early formation) than a function of Janis's antecedent conditions (crisis, cohesion, directive leadership, etc.) and the argument that suppression of dissent might be functional in certain group settings."[^36] He also sites studies which provide significant supporting evidence contrary to the model. Data taken from studies such as R.J. Brown's study on "Minimal group situations and intergroup discrimination" (1980)[^37] include scientific testing of the model with conclusions that dispute some of Janis's claims. "It clearly is not the case, as Janis had surmised, that cohesion leads to poor decision making. Indeed, all the evidence suggests that it is unrelated to decision quality or may even be associated with better decision processes." In addition Teltlock ( 1991) found that "neither degree of crisis nor cohesion was reliably related to decision quality of major national policy decisions."[^38] Baron goes on to further investigate the groupthink theory and historical scientific testing. He dissects Janis's conditions for groupthink and proposes a revised model. His "ubiquity model" identified three antecedent conditions for groupthink phenomena to occur, and separates these from less well researched "amplifying conditions." ` Antecedent Conditions:` 1. Social Identification: Allegiance and social identity with the group forms because of common goals, history, or shared fate. Information has more influence when it originates from this in-group source as it receives more attention and elaboration. 2. Salient Norms: Norms emerge within the group serving to bias discussion towards commonly held information, a symptom similar to Stasser's "hidden profile paradigm."[^39] 3. Situational Low Self Efficacy. When presented with especially challenging problems, group members will refrain from proposing non-conforming ideas unless they are very confident in its success, and this confidence is reduced when the problem is more challenging resulting in suppression of counter arguments, and elevation of in-group ideas. Brown concludes that these three phenomenon are far more common than Janis proposes and are "necessary and sufficient" for groupthink to occur. He identifies other aspects of Janis's model merely as "amplifying conditions" which may decrease decision quality but are not necessary for groupthink symptoms to present themselves. Amplifying Conditions 1. Threat or Crisis -- The time consuming democratic process becomes dangerous when rapid and deceive action is critical. 2. Intense Cohesion -- Crisis stimulates dependency needs 3. Member Insecurity -- Heightens desire for social identification making members more susceptible to group norms. 4. Directive Leadership -- Strong leadership more clearly identifies and establishes group norms, strengthening groupthink reactions. This model accounts for persistence of groupthink phenomenon in even the most minor of group settings, rather than the intense and historically significant cases that Janis's model focuses on. Barons "ubiquity model," proposes that the majority of Janis's conditions are "not necessary to trigger such phenomena as polarized judgment, out-group stereotyping, self censorship, and the illusion of consensus." He shows that amplifying conditions need further laboratory study to show any meaningful relationship to groupthink phenomena. The conclusion that groupthink symptoms are far more widespread than Janis's claims and that many of the symptoms are not an invariant feature of group decision making but rather amplifying conditions that require more study provides a less well known, but more well supported theory. ## Conclusion An interesting point to consider is that when groups fail, we call the culprit Groupthink; when groups succeed, we call the culprit Synergy. Could an observer diagnose a group's behavior as Groupthink versus synergy before the outcome is realized? Or are groups consigned to wait for the end before recognizing what behavior was involved? The danger of reflecting back is that people may focus only on supporting evidence---blaming Groupthink or synergy, as the case may be. The luging accident in the 2010 Winter Olympics carries the thrill of Groupthink analysis, whereas the commercial success of Disney's Animation Studios during the 1990's is heralded as pure synergy. The answer to this question may some day be decided, but the difficulty in ensuring synergistic results is sure to continue. Synergy and Groupthink appear to be two faces on one coin, where a combination of external forces contributes in deciding which side lands face-up. As Groupthink is a relatively new study (since the 1970's) perhaps continued research will weigh the chances so that when the coin is tossed, we can safely call out, "Synergy." ## References [^1]: 1.Kroon, Marceline B.R. Effects of accountability on groupthink and intergroup relations: Laboratory and field studies. Amsterdam: Thesis Publishers, 1992. [^2]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^3]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^4]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^5]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^6]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^7]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^8]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^9]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^10]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^11]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^12]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 443. [^13]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 442-443. [^14]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 444. [^15]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 445. [^16]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 445-446. [^17]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 444-445. [^18]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 446. [^19]: Janis, Irving L. Groups: Pressures, decisions, and conflicts. "Groupthink." Psychology Today Magazine, November 1971. Page 447. [^20]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^21]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^22]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^23]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^24]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^25]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^26]: Janis, Irving L. Victims of Groupthink. Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972, page 148-149 [^27]: <http://www.hodu.com/groupthink.shtml> [^28]: Janis, Irving L. Groupthink. Boston: Houghton Mufflin Company, 1982. [^29]: Richard Howells The Myth of the Titanic [^30]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic> [^31]: Zeller, Tom. "The World; So Many Voices, So Many Versions" New York Times. Published: April 11, 2004;http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/weekinreview/the-world-so-many-voices-so-many-versions.html?scp=2&sq=administration%20knew%20about%209/11&st=cse; Accessed March 1, 2010. [^32]: Meddis, Sam Vincent. \"Don\'t Hold Breath for Y2K Disaster.\" USA TODAY. Feb. 15, 1999.http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/ccc0215.htm. Accessed February 21, 2010. [^33]: Seltzer, Larry. \"Some Perspective 5 Years After Y2K.\" http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Some- Perspective-5-Years-After-Y2K. 2005-01-03. Accessed February 21, 2010. [^34]: Meddis. [^35]: Baron, R. S. (2005). So Right It\'s Wrong: Groupthink and the Ubiquitous Nature of Polarized Group Decision Making. In Zanna, Mark P (Ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 37. (219-253). San Diego. Elsevier Academic Press. [^36]: Longley, J., & Pruitt, D. G. (1980). Groupthink: A critique of Janis\'s theory. In L. Wheeler (Ed.), Review of Personality and Social Psychology (pp. 507-513). Newbury CA: Sage. [^37]: Brown, R. J., Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1980) Minimal group situations and intergroup discrimination: Comments on the paper by Aschenbrenner and Shaeffer. European Journal of Social Psychology. 10, 399-414. [^38]: Tetlock, P. E., (1979). Identifying victims of groupthink from public statements of decision makers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1314-1324. [^39]: Stasser, G., & Stewart, D.D. (1992). Discovery of hidden profiles by decision-making groups: solving a problem vs. making a judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 63:426--34
# Managing Groups and Teams/Stereotyping ## Stereotypes Stereotypes are general assumptions individuals hold against other individuals of a different socioeconomic or characteristic group. Those who appear different than us are most generally stereotyped under another more or less fortunate grouped based primarily on image; most generally wrongfully categorized. For instance different cultures base a lot of creditability of another country based upon what they may see in the media; this is never quite as it seems. Where did stereotyping come from? ## History of Stereotypes Prior to a discussion and analysis of stereotypes, it is important to recognize if stereotypes exist in society. Many experts argue that stereotypes are developed at an early age influenced by family friends and social surroundings. For example, if an individual grows up with minimal exposure to a certain minority race, then the media plays a more crucial role in shaping that individual's perception of that minority race. Stereotypes tend to exist when there is a limited or no mixing of different cultures within ones socioeconomic surrounding; also referred to as the unknown culture. Some experts believe that stereotypes are "are actually a neverending chain of thoughts."[^1] It is an inherent cultural ignorance that disposes individuals to misconceived perceptions. Those misconceived perceptions can have a negative and positive impact on one's life. Negative impacts exist where "If one group may assume the other group is deceitful and aggressive, they themselves will respond in a deceitful and aggressive manner, leading the opponent to respond in the like, thus confirming the initial group\'s perception creating a self-fulfilling prophecy."[^2] Negative stereotyping can lead to those being discriminated against to feel less accepted, thereby creating an innate disruptive behavior and creating feeling of lower self-worth. Such low emotion creates in an individual "feeling of inferiority and lower self-worth."[^3] Positive impacts occur where there is an increase in moral and performance because the individual feels they are part of an accepted group. Stereotypes have traditionally been defined as "something conforming to a fixed or general pattern, a standardized mental picture that is held in common by members of a group representing an oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude, or critical judgment."[^4] Stereotypes were first branded by Firmin Didot as a term for printing, creating a duplicate impression, original typographical impression. However, they were later associated with pictures in people's heads of one's perception of what is right and what is wrong. Stereotypes tend to be exaggerated beliefs about specific social groups or types of individuals. We develop our stereotypes from a sense of learned perception from family, friends, religion, and the media. These stereotypes we possess are "standardized, simplified conception of groups based from prior assumptions."[^5] Stereotypes have been classified into two groups: inter-group and out-group. Inter-group stereotypes are those "where personal identity and self-esteem are derived from groups to which they belong or can identify. They are more normal and superior."[^6] On the other hand, out-groups have been defined as "less attractive, outcasts or all other groups generally seen as inferior to inter-groups.[^7] Stereotypes have continued to endure during the passage of time. Stereotypes will constantly persist until people are better educated about the differences between groups and cultures. Some experts feel that stereotypes are influenced by the government and will continue to exist as we continue to "divide and conquer".[^8] With the high influence that the media puts on socioeconomic cultures, stereotyping will continue to exist so far as those in less diverse geographical areas rely on what outside influences they receive regarding various cultures. The fear of the unknown is what drives the existence of stereotypes. Stereotypes continue to be generated from individuals who fear others that are of a different race or culture, the unknown. The fear of the unknown, also referred to as the "Non-uniformity, tends to create misunderstanding."[^9] In addition, "the competitive aspect of human nature supports the innate need to prove oneself more worthy than another. The differences between people make it easier to compare to one another."[^10] Until society can learn to be more tolerant of those that are different, stereotyping will continue to exist. ## Problems Caused By Stereotypes A number of problems tend to develop from the assimilation of stereotypes in society. Stereotypes cause various problems that impede the proper functioning of teams. One such problem is group divisions. Demographic characteristics such as age, ethnicity and gender are "easily observable and team members use them to attribute specific patterns of thought, attitudes and behaviors to themselves and others. Some suggest that most people are attracted to, and prefer to be with, others who are demographically similar to themselves."[^11] Group divisions tend to cause "harmful divisions within organizations because of the lack of coordination and support."[^12] An additional problem caused by stereotypes is missed opportunities. A perceiver of a situation assumes that the target possesses the same characteristics of other members of the target's category stereotype and incorporates those attributes into his or her impression of the target. By attributing attributes, the "perceiver places the target into a category, thereby possibly missing out on the target's real strengths."[^13] Often, successful managers are viewed as more similar to men than to women on attributes considered critical to effective work performance such as leadership ability, self-confidence, objectivity, forcefulness, and ambition. Essentially, "women are not believed to possess the qualities essential for success in management positions, possibly causing companies to miss out on promoting women to important management positions."[^14] The last problem caused by stereotypes is a negative impact on employees and the employee\'s performance. When managers who are prejudiced against certain groups allow those prejudices to influence how they treat employees, "the prejudice becomes institutionalized and affected individuals become systematically disadvantaged."[^15] Research has shown that stereotypes can have a negative impact on employee feelings and behavior, inhibiting the employee from performing to the best of his or her abilities. Stereotypes also "make employees work harder, but not better. In sum, when stereotypes are present, performance declines."[^16] The stereotype threat describes the experience of a person who is aware of a stereotype about his or her identity group suggesting shortfalls in performance on the given task. This awareness can "have a disruptive effect on performance."[^17] Making salient negative stereotypes about both black and white athletes has the potential "to cause poorer athletic performance relative to when they perform an athletic task in a positive or neutral evaluative context."[^18] ## How to Identify Stereotypes in Team Members Stereotypes can affect all individuals in a team. Two common stereotype issues that individuals may succumb to are stereotype threat and social identity theory. Stereotype threat has been defined as "A fear individuals experience when they are at risk of confirming a negative stereotype that is held about their group.\" Steele and Aronson in this definition are referring to any group that an individual may identify with i.e.: gender, religion, ethnicity, etc."[^19] There are a number of factors that cause stereotypes to affect individuals in a team. The person must view themselves, or be viewed by others as a high performer. The individual feels as though others in the team have high expectations for their performance. In addition, the individual must have a strong identity with the stereotyped group. This person must also "be in a situation where others might question their abilities."[^20] The last factor is that "those individuals who are most easily affected are those who expect discrimination or who believe that a stereotype is legitimate."[^21] Stereotype threat can affect individuals, but it is difficult to identify. There are several effects caused by stereotype threat. One effect can be the self-fulfilling prophecy. The self-fulfilling prophecy exists where "Individuals identifying with a stereotyped group are so concerned that their actions will have negative implications concerning everyone in the group. This stress can inevitably affect their performance which brings on the results they most hoped to avoid."[^22] In fact, studies have shown that stereotyping in teams "can limit working memory and self monitoring capabilities."[^23] Another common problem with stereotypes in groups is social identity theory. The social identity theory has been defined as "Individuals gain their identity from the groups to which they perceive membership."[^24] Factors that are attributed to the social identity theory include "Individuals define themselves by the social groups to which they belong then they work to elevate themselves further by drawing comparisons between their group and those not in the group. This is called in-group vs. out-group."[^25] The effect that the social identity theory has on teams is that "By classifying people as in group/out group this leads to discrimination of members of the out group."[^26] Teams will suffer if individual team members do not treat each other with respect and accept each person's differences. ## Managing Stereotypes There are various ways to ineffectively manage stereotypes. One ineffective way of managing stereotypes is through stereotype inhibition. While individuals who were motivated have been "shown to make fewer stereotype connections in situations in which they would otherwise activate stereotypes,"[^27] it can actually "lead to increased stereotyping, as a rebound effect leads to more increasing after stereotypes were suppressed."[^28] An additional ineffective way of managing stereotypes is through increasing familiarity. The Intergroup Contact Theory proposed by Gordon W. Allport in 1954 stated that interpersonal contact could reduce stereotypes. However, contact alone is not sufficient because "individuals not conforming to stereotypes will be rejected from the category and placed in a sub category."[^29] Anxiety and threat levels can increase prejudice, while additional goals, such as equality among the different groups, common goals, and a lack of competition, can "lead to intergroup friendship and structured optimal contact, thereby leading to the best results."[^30] Effective methods to manage stereotypes include mental imagery, where recipients using counterstereotypic mental imagery were able to reduce implicit stereotypes. By stopping implicit stereotypes from happening, the judgment or stereotypical behavior is avoided. Preventing the implicit stereotypes from occurring "halts the suppressing of stereotypes which can lead to the rebound effect."[^31] Perspective taking is an effectively proven method to manage stereotypes. The process of taking another's perspective to focus on situation constraints and influences are helpful in explaining their behavior without resorting to stereotypes. This helps other groups to "become part of your own in-group and leads to more positive associations with the group."[^32] An additional method of effective management of stereotypes is superordinate goal. When two groups have stereotypes towards each other, the introduction of a superordinate goal that depends on both groups for success has been shown to lead to cooperation, reduced friction, and changed attitudes toward the out-group. Friendships "were also formed with members of out-groups."[^33] The last effective method is to eliminate stereotype threats. Studies have shown that introducing negative stereotypes can lead to poor performance. Social identities become active when stereotypes are available and apparent. By eliminating stereotypes and introducing positive associations, overall team performance can be improved. ## Conclusion Stereotypes have been a part of our culture since the beginning of time. They will continue to exist indefinitely. The true test would be how do we continue to create a better worldly understanding of the differences between each other? By recognizing the personal stereotypes we hold against each other and how we ourselves are being stereotyped, we can begin to understand one another and better communicate our beliefs and positions more clearly. ## References [^1]: Wikipedia, "Stereotype" Theories (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stereotype) Retrieved 2010-02-07, pp 3. [^2]: Burgess, Heidi, Beyond Intracability.Org, "Stereotypes/Characterization Frames" October 2003 [^3]: Elliott, Jane, "Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise", (http://www.janeelliott.com/workshop.htm) Retrieved 2010-02-14. [^4]: Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. "stereotype" (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stereotype) Retrieved 2010-2-14 [^5]: Wikipedia, "Stereotype" Etymology (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stereotype) Retrieved 2010-02-07, pp 1. [^6]: Wikipedia, "Stereotype" Dynamics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stereotype) Retrieved 2010-02-07, pp 1. [^7]: Wikipedia, "Stereotype" Dynamics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stereotype) Retrieved 2010-02-07, pp 1. [^8]: Enrolled Mohawk Native, Yahoo Answers. "Why do stereotypes continue to exist?", (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090308155312AAn3QPK) Retrieved 2010-02-14. [^9]: Shields, C.J., Harris, K., (2007). "Technology Education: Three Reasons Stereotypes Persist". Purdue University. Volume 44. Number 2. [^10]: Collins, Tammy. "Why racists still exist" Helium Society & Lifestyle: Ethnicity and Gender. (http://www.helium.com/items/160035-why-racists-still-exist) Retrieved 2010-02-14. [^11]: Darnold, Todd C., Kim A. McCarthy and Anne S. York. "Teaming in Biotechnology Commercialisation: The Diversity-Performance Connection and How University Programmes Can Make a Difference." Journal of Commercial Biotechnology Vol. 15, Issue 1 ( Jan 2009): 3-11. (Darnold 5). [^12]: Diekmann, Kristina. "The Power of Inter-Group Relations" Lecture. Professor and David Eccles Faculty Fellow, Dept. of Management, University of Utah. [^13]: Kulik, Carol T., Elissa L. Perry, and Loriann Roberson. "The Multiple-Category Problem: Category Activation and Inhibition in the Hiring Process." Academy of Management Review Vol. 32, Issue 2 (Apr. 2007): 529-548. (Kulik 529). [^14]: Block, Caryn J., Madeline E. Heilman, Richard F. Martell and Michael C. Simon. "Has Anything Changed? Current Characterizations of Men, Women, and Managers" Journal of Applied Psychology Vol. 74, Issue 6 (Dec. 1989): 935-943. (Block 935). [^15]: Kulik, Carol T., and Loriann Roberson. "Stereotype Threat at Work." Academy of Management Perspectives Vol. 21, Issue 2 (May 2007): 24-40. (Kulik and Roberson 26). [^16]: Kulik, Carol T., and Loriann Roberson. "Stereotype Threat at Work." Academy of Management Perspectives Vol. 21, Issue 2 (May 2007): 24-40. (Kulik and Roberson 26). [^17]: Kulik, Carol T., and Loriann Roberson. "Stereotype Threat at Work." Academy of Management Perspectives Vol. 21, Issue 2 (May 2007): 24-40. (Kulik and Roberson 26). [^18]: Darley, J.M., C. Lynch, M. Sjomeling, and J. Stone. "Stereotype Threat Effects on Black and White Athletic Performance" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77 (1999): 1213-1227. (Darley 1224). [^19]: \"Stereotype Threat.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 10 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\>. [^20]: \"A psychological effect of stereotypes.(3 COUNTERING STEREOTYPES BY CHANGING THE RULES).\" Regional Review. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 2005. HighBeam Research. 10 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\> [^21]: \"Stereotype Threat.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 10 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\>. [^22]: \"A psychological effect of stereotypes.(3 COUNTERING STEREOTYPES BY CHANGING THE RULES).\" Regional Review. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. 2005. HighBeam Research. 10 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\> [^23]: \"Stereotype Threat.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 10 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\> [^24]: \"Social Identification.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 15 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\>. [^25]: \"Social Identification.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 15 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\>. [^26]: \"Social Identification.\" International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Thomson Gale. 2008. HighBeam Research. 15 Feb. 2010 \<<http://www.highbeam.com>\>. [^27]: Frograss, Joseph P., Simon M. Laham and Kipling D. Williams. Social Motivation: Conscious and Unconscious Processes. Cambridge University Press, 2005. [^28]: WBodenhausen, Galen V., C. Neil Macrae and Alan B. Milne. \" Saying \"No\" to Unwanted Thoughts: Self-Focus and the Regulation of Mental Life.\" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1998 Vol 74: 578-589. [^29]: Hamburger, Yair. "The Contact Hypothesis Reconsidered: Effects of the Atypical Outgroup Member on the Outgroup Stereotype." Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 1994 Vol. 15. [^30]: Pettigrew, Thomas F. and Linda R. Tropp A META-ANALYTIC TEST AND REFORMULATION OF INTERGROUP CONTACT THEORY February 2010 <http://www.iq.harvard.edu/files/iqss/old/PPBW/tropp.pdf>. [^31]: Blair, Irene V.; Jennifer E. Ma, and Alison P Lenton. "Imagining stereotypes away: The moderation of implicit stereotypes through mental imagery." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2001 Vol 81(5): 828-841. [^32]: Galinsky, Adam D, and Gordon B. Moskowitz. "Perspective-taking: Decreasing stereotype expression, stereotype accessibility, and in-group favoritism." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 2000 Vol 78(4), 708-724. [^33]: Muzafer Sherif, "Superordinate goals in the reduction of intergroup conflict.\" American Journal of Sociology, 1958: 63, 349-356.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Team Personalities ## Achieving High Performance Through Diverse Personalities ### Introduction and Scope Diversity in personality is like adding color to an otherwise black-and-white television screen. High-definition, surround-sound, plasma TV is much more enjoyable than grandpa's fuzzy, black-and-white mono speaker TV. The scope of this chapter is to address the question of diversity in personality and demonstrate that it is not only possible but also recommended to achieve high performance through diversity in personality. We discuss the ways to identify personality, contributor personalities, and inhibitor personalities. We offer considerations and limitations to personality profiling. We also provide links to professional resources and consultant firms specializing in personality diversity. Finally in this chapter we provide references and credible sources for this material. Welcome to our wiki book chapter, enjoy. ![](oldtv.jpg "oldtv.jpg") ### Why Personality Diversity Is Important There can be great energy harnessed from team members' different personality traits if managed properly. Leaders must possess the skills to build their teams around the right personalities and to manage those personalities. We all see the world from our own unique perspective, our own paradigm. When we're part of a team, we bring that paradigm to the team environment. Good and bad personality traits within a team can offset one another and build on each other and lead to synergies. Rather than ask each team member to conform to a group norm, leaders must recognize and utilize personality differences to ensure high performance. Although some argue that personality classification is simply an attempt to \"quantify the unquantifiable,\" studying and recognizing different personality types can help you work more effectively with your peers. Temet Nosce Learning more about your own personality traits can help you understand your own strengths and weaknesses, which can help in selecting team members that will complement you. Learning about others\' personalities can help you develop the ability to view situations from their perspectives and improve your own psychological peripheral vision (Butler, 2000), which can be a crucial management skill to help make the team successful. There are several characteristics of successful teams. One such characteristic is diversity in team members. Diversity in culture, background, age, and ethnicity are important for high performing teams, but so too is personality diversity. All teams are made up of a diverse range of personalities, but it is the high performing teams that leverage their personality differences and mitigate and manage inhibitor personalities, to achieve their common goal. Think about high performing sports teams and there is likely to be a cast of characters with unique personalities. Members of the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s were full of eccentric personalities. Dennis Rodman was the outspoken flamboyant player, Scottie Pippen was the often aloof team member and Michael Jordan was the fierce competitor. Each player was a critical piece to the Bulls\' championship team puzzle. Each had his personality strengths and weaknesses. Their coach and leader, Phil Jackson, harnessed their strengths and managed their weaknesses toward a common goal. The Bulls won six championships and Phil Jackson became known more as a Zen master than an NBA coach. He later went on to win three more championships with the Lakers, successfully managing two diverse superstars in Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. Jackson is widely recognized for his leadership ability and, specifically, his ability to motivate athletes with strong personalities to work as a team. ### Achieving High Performance: The Real Reason Emotional intelligence is the ability to use emotions effectively and many believe EI is the primary that determines high performance. The first academic definition of emotional intelligence was published in 1990 by Peter Salovey and Jack Mayer, of Yale University and University of New Hampshire, respectively (Freedman and Everett). Meanwhile and since the publication - researchers and academics, practitioners and consultants, and companies are investigating new ways to use their understanding of emotional intelligence to elevate professional and personal success. Why? Daniel Goleman, author of the best-selling book Working with Emotional Intelligence, estimates that IQ accounts for only 4% to 25% on how well people perform at work and that the other 75% to 96% left unexplained can be, largely, attributed to emotional intelligence. Goleman states that emotional competence is the more accurate predictor of the most successful people -- not IQ. For example, PepsiCo, conducted a pilot project where executives selected for high emotional intelligence competencies outperformed their colleagues, delivering a 10% in productivity, 87% decrease in executive turnover (\$4m), \$3.75 million added economic value, and over 1000% return on investment (Freedman & Everett). Not surprisingly, Johnson and Johnson came to the same striking conclusion: "Emotional competence differentiates successful leaders." So what competencies or factors go into the making of the successful leader or individual? Goleman, created the following framework to define emotional competence: Personal Competence Social Competence --------------------- ------------------- Self-Awareness Empathy Self-Regulation Social Skills Motivation : The Emotional Competence Framework People with high performance have a strong combination of personal and social competences -- in essence, high emotional intelligence. So, teams that are high performing will have leaders and members who are a blend of Goleman's emotional competencies. ## How to Identify Different Personalities There are many ways to identify different personalities: look, listen, smell, touch, taste, and perceive. Obviously, some of these methods might not be the most appropriate or useful, especially in the workplace. Many different personalities tests are available to test and identify different personalities. Among these personality tests are the Big 5, Myers-Briggs, and the Color Code system. We choose to focus on the Big 5 since it is highly regarded in business and academic communities. <http://www.centacs.com/quickstart.htm#Background> ![](smallBig5.jpg "smallBig5.jpg")The Big 5 focuses on five personality factors which help individuals understand themselves and their teammates. The following is a very brief summary: Need for Stability Factor : Refers to the degree to which a person responds to stress. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Extraversion Factor : Refers to the degree to which a person can tolerate sensory stimulation from people and situations. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Originality Factor : Refers to the degree to which we are open to new experiences/new ways of doing things. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Accommodation Factor : Refers to the degree to which we defer to others. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Consolidation Factor : Refers to the degree to which we push toward goals at work. ### Take the Big Five Test Here are a couple websites that offer the Big 5 personality test free of charge. <http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/> ## Contributor Personalities While there are many personalities that inhibit a team\'s performance, there are others that help the team accomplish goals, tasks, and objectives. Some personalities contribute to a team culture that facilitates high performance and accomplishment. Other personalities simply keep things in check and under control. Having this type of diversity in a team\'s makeup of personalities can play a vital role in the team\'s success. ### Types of Constructive Personalities There are many personality types that are very constructive and which help in becoming a high-performing team. A few of them are listed here: Silent Contributor : A person with this personality type is someone who gets the job done without saying much. They silently complete the tasks that are assigned to them, and very rarely create conflict. One must take care to balance this type of team member with someone who is not afraid to speak up, however, so that necessary communications happen for the team to progress. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Devil\'s Advocate : This type of person is someone who likes to challenge ideas and processes. They act as an internal \"check\" on what you are doing and the processes you use. Although this person can generate conflict, oftentimes it is healthy conflict that brings ideas to light or helps to challenge biases. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Facilitator : People who like to keep structure to meetings, organize documentation, and make sure things run smoothly are often referred to as \"facilitators.\" These people facilitate the operation of a team by making sure everything goes according to plan, on schedule, and in order. People with this type of personality help to reduce the probability that chaos will ensue from random team members trying to accomplish their distinct agendas simultaneously. This is a \"control\" member of the team. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Leader : Some people are really good a leading a team to success. This type of person is not afraid to take charge, delegate assignments, enforce accountability, encourage others, and facilitate success. Some are natural born leaders, others simply learn by doing. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Follower : A dutiful worker. Some people are really good at following directions and assignments, and they work very hard to get their work done on time. This type of person more suited to this type of role because they know how to work hard and are okay with following instructions. Having the bulk of the work taken care of by the \"followers\" allows the other roles within the team to take care of their functions. ### Some Can, Some Can\'t, Some Won\'t The truth is that some people are good at team collaboration, some aren\'t, and others are unwilling. Some people just seem to have the \"gift\" of working with and leading a team and ensuring its success. These are hard-working people with a mind for collaboration and putting the success of the team above their own ego. This type of person will help others achieve their goals by working with them to resolve frustrations, remove impediments, and create an atmosphere of mutual satisfaction. This type of team player encourages the rest of the team to work collaboratively towards the team goals. Others may not have collaborative personality traits within them. Although their intentions might be good, they may not see eye-to-eye with team members on processes, methods or goals. Oftentimes this type of person will be confrontational and impatient. Even though they would like the team to succeed, sometimes their own work ethic or personality gets in the way. This type of person can learn to work better within a team if they recognize their impact on others and are willing to make changes to their style. Some people simply won\'t work with a team. This type of person thinks they can get the job done faster, easier or better than the team could, and therefore simply will not cooperate. This type of person must get past their own ego if they are to work successfully in a team, and this type of change must start from within. ## Inhibitor Personalities No matter where a person works, difficult personalities present problems and challenges in the workplace. These inhibitor personalities cause a great deal of stress and are sometimes complex to address. The temptation is to avoid people with personalities that inhibit logical workflow as it takes time, skill and effort to deal with them. Personality conflicts are felt by all managers at all levels, but most avoid dealing directly with them. A study of 250 senior professionals conducted in the United Kingdom in 2005 noted that half of those surveyed encountered difficult people on a daily basis (Berry 2005). Despite this finding, the study noted that only 15% of managers actually confronted the inhibiting behavior. 55% tried to help by discussing the problems and 30% just ignored or put up with the difficult personality. These findings are largely due to the lack of knowledge about how to deal with inhibitor personalities and the inability to confront the stresses involved. ### Types of Difficult Personalities To better understand the types of personalities that can be disruptive in the work environment, it is necessary to explain the types of personalities that inhibit teams in the workplace so that an approach can be applied to deal with each type. There are four basic categories of personalities that can be found in the workplace: aggressive, deceptive, passive and destructive. Aggressive : People showing these personalities demonstrate hostile and forceful behavior toward others. People exhibiting aggressive behavior charge forward in an attacking and forceful way to display the frustration or anger they feel but cannot resolve. These people need to be heard and have a need to vent while at the same time needing people to listen to them. Aggressive personalities include perfectionists, dictators, hostile-aggressives, attackers, egotists, bullies and criticizers who always say no to any request. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Deceptive : People who engage in deceptive behavior aren't comfortable with direct confrontation and prefer to attack from a distance from behind some kind of protection. People with this type of personality are still vocal and tend to either complain quite a bit without direct attacks or compensate for their frustration and dissatisfaction by being everything from sneaky to over-agreeable. These types of personalities include snipers who attack from a distance and always seem to have hidden agendas; overtly nice people who agree with everything until they are overwhelmed; "brownnosers" who have an unnatural attachment to those in charge as a way to get ahead; those who seem unresponsive to anything; and those who spread rumors to increase their own self esteem. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Passive : People who are meek in the workplace present problems as well. Passive personalities are negative, but portray themselves as victims, always ready to dismiss any solution presented to them. Passive personality types include martyrs, passive-aggressives, moody people, crybabies, self-castigators, worriers, resisters, silent types and those who say "it's not my job". ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Destructive : People who exhibit destructive behaviors can be explosive and unpredictable. Failure to understand this personality type can lead to extreme problems in the workplace that can create an unsafe work environment. This type of inhibitor personality includes people who are sociopathic and those who are substance abusers. #### Aggressive Personalities The aggressive personality type is forceful in what they want and demand that their issues be dealt with right away. These aggressive inhibitors include: Perfectionists : Every detail must be perfect or the perfectionist becomes negative. They are never satisfied with their own work and are own worst critic. They have unrealistic standards and even work that is praised by other workers as the highest quality work is not acceptable to the perfectionist. They cannot accept any kind of criticism and will focus on anything not perfect, even if that part is a tiny part of the overall work done. A perfectionist manager tends to be a micromanager. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Dictators : A person with this personality will make a great deal of demands on everyone and will try to tell them how to do their jobs. They will walk all over the more passive personality types because they will let the dictator roll over them. Dictators are often angry and hostile and have a strong need to control. For the dictator, it is "my way or the highway". ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Hostile-aggressives : People exhibiting this personality are pushy and demanding, constantly argumentative and can be hostile and abusive. They have a need to stir things up and thrive on the chaos they cause. (Aldrich 2002). These employees don't care whether the reaction they get is positive or negative as they gain positive self-recognition regardless of the outcome. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Attackers : These people demonstrate emotion-based hostility and aggressive that they are unable to control. These attacks are not personal to the person being attacked, the attacker is just looking for someone to vent the frustration and anger for which he or she can't find an outlet. Attackers are genuinely upset and need someone to listen to their pain. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Egotists : These are attackers who have a superior attitude and think they know it all. They charge forward with their disapproval of anything that they as experts feel is not going the way it should. Egotists are arrogant and will disagree with most everything that is said because they like to be right. They always find problems, not opportunities. They often criticize others to make themselves feel better. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Bullies : The bully uses threats and intimidation to undermine others. Bullies attempt to undo another person as part of their plan to retain popularity and power. Bullies have an inflated view of themselves and is threatened by someone who is likeable, well qualified or attractive. (Guy 2001). They will humiliate, destroy, discredit or intimidate another person to make themselves look better. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Criticizers : A criticizer will strike down anything this is new, creative or different. His or her mission is to disagree with anything that is said (Topchik 2006). She will jump on any mistake and disagree with it with negative feedback. A manager who is a criticizer exhibits it by always saying no to all requests. #### Deceptive Personalities The person with a deceptive personality type will not directly confront as in the case of the aggressive type. This personality will instead work behind the scenes or from a distance to disrupt the workplace or gain favor. These deceptive inhibitors include: Snipers : They use pointed jabs, humor and verbal sparing to put others down, usually from a distance and behind the scenes. These people take potshots at others, use sarcasm as a weapon, lurk on conference calls to silently gather information, talk behind other people's backs and go to great lengths to make their behind the scenes efforts untraceable back to them. These people will not discuss their opinions in a public forum. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Over-agreeables : These are "yes" people who have a powerful desire to be liked and appreciated. They never say no to anything and are far too uncomfortable to voice an opposing opinion. They are often overwhelmed with too many projects since they never say no to anything and are always positive in approach. These people can be problematic in the workplace when they agree with one person's approach and then also agree with an opposing position from someone else. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Brownnosers : Also known as bootlickers, people with this personality type believe that the shortest way to the top is on the coattails of the boss. They will exhibit a complete devotion and dedication to those in charge and will not ever tell the truth about their tactics or any of the boss' activities. They live in a constant self-reinforcing denial state that is perpetuated by the sense of importance bosses get from them. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Unresponsives : These people are very hard to understand and to draw out because they don't provide enough to work with. They tend to be uncommitted to anything with work as the lowest priority in their lives. They waste time, spent a lot of time on personal matters and try to get by doing as little as possible. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Rumormongers : This is one of the more difficult deceptive personalities in that much of their negativity is spread through ideas and statements that are not true, but are hard to trace back to the source. This person feels a great sense of importance when the rumors this person circulates force strong reactions from others. Rumormongers tend to be very specific about what rumors they spread (examples include spreading rumors around senior managers, job cuts, salaries, competition and dating in the workplace), which maximizes the impact and increases their sense of self worth. #### Passive Personalities These are people with meek personalities and are often self-deprecating to a fault. They tend to be moody and sensitive people who worry greatly, resist change, complain and need constant encouragement. This personality type includes the following: Martyrs : This person is the one who comes in early, stays late, seems to not have a life outside of work and will do anything asked of them. While doing this, they will also complain about workload, other employees, clients, managers and everything else in between. The martyr always feels like her efforts go unappreciated. They usually act defeated and powerless. The martyr's trademark statement is "I have given up everything for this company and nobody cares" (Topchik 2006). ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Passive-aggressives : People with this personality style lack assertiveness and feel out of control. To remedy this, they find satisfaction in controlling another person's life (Guy 2001). They are very jealous and resentful and have so little belief in themselves that they can't compete with another person without bringing them down. Anyone that this person feels threatened by is subject to their anger, sabotage, deliberate procrastination and other tricks. They often have good excuses for this type of behavior that clouds manager attempts to correct the issue. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Crybabies : People who behave like children when they don't get their way. They withdraw, cry or go on a tirade. They then act as if they are powerless in the same way martyrs do and usually believe everything that happens to them is bad (Manning 2004). ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Self-castigators : This personality shows itself in the form of constant self putdowns. This person finds fault with everything he does, from work performance to salary to appearance to economic status to everything that defines a person's self concept. Even if the person is performing well on the job, he will not see it that way himself. This person always takes the blame when something goes wrong, further enhancing negative feelings about personal self worth. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Worriers : These people walk on eggshells and are very sensitive to any negative comment. They usually complain about being too stressed and are expecting the ceiling to fall down on them at any moment. She is unhappy with the way things are and is constantly pessimistic both at work and outside of it. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Resisters : Any kind of change upsets the resistor no matter how small. This person is only comfortable with the status quo and will resist any attempts to introduce new ideas and reorganizations. If the change is threatening enough, the resisters will try to sabotage it or spread negative rumors about the change. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Silent types : These people keep to themselves and don't express any feelings or thoughts on any subject. They work completely alone and even when placed on a team, will contribute nothing to the team in the form of active participation. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` "It's not my job"-ers : These are very negative people who will reject any task that is outside of their perceived job responsibilities no matter how small the task may be. They usually do this as retribution for a slight that someone in the organization has put upon them. #### Destructive Personalities These include people who have significant problems outside of work that impact themselves and others at work. They include: Sociopaths : These are people who lead double lives. Their work lives and personal lives couldn't be more different. These are the people who portray themselves as supportive and charming, but in reality are cold and ruthless. They act on their impulses without regard for the consequences on others. Managers who do not detect that words do not match actions invite severely destructive consequences (Guy 2001) ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Substance Abusers : People with alcohol or drug abuse problems who try to mask their abuse at work. They will sometimes work at a very high level and then drop off dramatically. Absenteeism followed by plausible excuses are part of a repeating pattern that is destructive to the person and to co-workers. ### Addressing Inhibitor Personalities In dealing with all inhibitor personalities, the core emotional competency to be developed, first, is self-awareness: recognizing one's emotions and their effects. This should be common sense; after all, you must be self-aware of the problem before the problem can be addressed. For instance, if people are lacking -- social competence - in listening openly and sending convincing messages then they would be inept at leading and facilitating others towards a common goal. If they lack self-confidence - personal competence - then it would be difficult to establish respect with others. When dealing with the various personality inhibitors, the first step in addressing the issue it to identify the root cause of the problem itself. Adapted from Goleman's framework, we created the "Emotional Competency Framework" table for leaders on how to address personalities that prohibit teams from reaching their full potential -- the inhibitor personalities. In our table below, we made recommendations on how to address the four inhibitor personality types: aggressive, deceptive, passive, and destructive. For example, to address the aggressive personality type we would encourage the aggressor to develop empathy and social skills; developing an understanding of others and sensing other's feelings and perspectives would help them empathize and become less aggressive; developing collaboration and cooperation skills would help them work amiably with others towards a shared, clear and elevating without using aggressive, emotionally charged, tactics. #### Emotional Competency Framework `<big>`{=html}Inhibitor`</big>`{=html} `<big>`{=html}Emotional competencies to be developed`</big>`{=html} ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Aggressive Self-Awareness Perfectionists \\|Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being too aggressive Dictators Self-Regulation Hostile-aggressives Develop self-control by keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check Attackers Develop innovation and encourage the individual to being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches and new information Egotists Empathy Bullies \\|Develop understanding others, sensing other's feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns Criticizers Social Skills Develop collaboration and cooperation, working with others toward shared, clear and elevating goals Develop influence, wielding effective tactics for persuasion Develop conflict management, negotiating and resolving disagreements Deceptive Self-Awareness Snipers Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being deceptive Over-Agreeables Self-Regulation Brownnosers Develop trustworthiness, maintaining standards of honesty and integrity Unresponsives Social Skills Rumormongers Develop building bonds, nurturing instrumental relationships Develop collaboration and cooperation, working with others toward shared, clear and elevating goals Passive Self-Awareness Martyrs Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being passive Passive-aggressives Develop self-confidence, a strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities Crybabies Self Regulation Self-castigators Develop conscientiousness, taking responsibility for personal performance Worriers Motivation Resisters Develop achievement drive, striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence Silent Types Develop optimism, persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks "It's Not My Job"-ers Social Skills Develop influence, wielding effective tactics for persuasion Develop team capabilities, creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals Destructive Self-Awareness Sociopaths Develop emotional awareness, recognize that their emotions and their negative effects of being destructive Substance abusers Develop self-confidence, a strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities Self Regulation Develop self-control, keeping disruptive impulses in check Develop conscientiousness, taking responsibility for personal actions Motivation Develop optimism, persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks Goleman's "The Emotional Competence Framework" was adapted to this framework ## Personality Profiling Considerations Personality profiling can be a very useful tool in understanding your teammate's communication styles, motivations and reward preferences. It can help you understand better how to relate to people and work with them. However, psychologists stress that personality type doesn\'t explain everything about us and that people with the same personality type often behave differently. 1 Experts also agree that people cannot simply trade one personality type for another --- that personality types are like left- or right-handedness --- most people are born preferring one hand. Similarly, every person is born with a personality type, which means that people react differently to different stimuli. For example, an introverted person may find relaxation through focusing on memories, thoughts or feelings, while an extroverted personality concentrates on the outer world. No personality type is inherently better than another, although certain personality types work better together and some are more suited to certain roles on the team. Profiling and Stereotyping Although personality profiling is popular, it can prove to be a stumbling block if not used carefully because personality profiling makes use of stereotypes, which is often used improperly and limits one's ability to see things clearly. Walter Lippmann<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann>, an influential American writer, journalist and political commentator, once said "For the most part we do not first see, and then define; we define first, and then we see." Lippman's candid statement reminds us about how easy it is to assign someone to a certain personality type (defining them) without having all the facts. Stereotypes and personality profiling can make us mentally lazy. As Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._I._Hayakawa>, an academic and former United States Senator from California, explained that the danger of stereotypes "lies not in their existence, but in the fact that they become for all people some of the time, and for some people all the time, substitutes for observation." Drawbacks and Cautions Personality profiling can be a very useful tool in helping people better understand themselves and the members of their teams. However, it can be detrimental if not used with caution. Following are three areas that could sustain damage: 1.) Oneself; 2.) Other team members; 3.) The organization as a whole. Oneself When people determine that they are a certain personality type (i.e. "I'm a Blue") it gives them a useful set of tools to better understand themselves. However, it may be limiting as well. They might begin to think that they are not capable or suited to certain tasks because their personality profile says they are not. They may use the personality profile as a crutch which keeps them from growing in new areas or interacting in meaningful ways with others. Others In addition, when people immediately use personality profiling to judge the members of their team, they often make false assumptions that they understand their team members, when if fact they do not. While it is true that profiling helps individuals make quick judgments that can be useful in certain circumstances (i.e. the short-lived team with a short-term goal), people often do not go beyond those initial judgments to understand the motivations, work styles and personality temperaments of the co-workers. Organization Personality profiling is often used in the workplace as a method for screening and making decisions on whom to hire. Some HR professionals embrace the technique, while others do not. Although personality testing may be useful, companies need to be aware of the risks involved in using them to predict future employee behavior on the job. They may be exposing themselves to lawsuits or other legal problems if used improperly. ## Deep- and surface-level diversity By focusing on personality diversity, as opposed to demographic diversity, businesses may begin to study what David A. Harrison terms \"deep-level diversity\" (Harrison et al, 1998). Deep-level diversity consists of the attitudes, beliefs, values and commitment to the organization that different individuals in a group might have. This is in contrast to the traditional method of expressing diversity through heterogeneity in categories such as race, gender, or age, or what can called \"surface-level diversity.\" For example, the current thinking in deep-level diversity would account for the phenomenon that a male, Indian, engineer from the Punjab might be arguing alongside a younger female marketer from the midwest US to support a similar project approach. While the two are certainly demographically different, they may hold very similar values about work, economy, and share similar commitments to the organization. By exploring current information on deep-level diversity, not just surface-level diversity, organizations may leverage important performance benefits and avoid costly pitfalls. It remains unclear if deep-level diversity characteristics can be discerned from personality profiling assessments. It is unlikely to match up exactly with the current discussion of personality types. What studies do show, however, is that the effects of surface-level differences diminish over time as the group works together and the importance of the effects from deep-level diversity in the group increases markedly. According to the study, \"Beyond Relational Demography: Time and the Effects of Surface- and Deep-level Diversity on Work Group Cohesion,\" the more work group members \"continue to interact with one another, dissimilarity in the typically studied surface level dimensions such as sex and age become less important than deep level attitudinal dissimilarity in, for instance, job satisfaction\" (Harrison et al, 1998) The authors state that the reason for this is that time is required for high-quality informational interactions among group members, in which they learn about each other\'s deep-level characteristics, and subsequently develop more meaningful, richly-functional, relationships. Further, Harrison also conducted a study that found \"increasing levels of collaboration . . . can reduce the impact race, gender, or age differences on team performance\" and that \"as team members continue to work together over time, personality and value differences surface more clearly\" (2002). ### Recommendations Harrison\'s research suggests that groups seek deep-level diversity in knowledge, skills, and abilities but minimize diversity in job-related beliefs, attitudes, and values. This can lead to what he calls \"especially effective teams\" (2002). However, he cautions that in order to be successful, it is important that such groups are rewarded for collaboration and \"that member\'s individual outcomes depend more on team performance than their own\" (2002). According to FastCompany, this type of deep-level diversity also corresponds to a higher ROI, service diversification, and sales growth, as well as more internal communication and an increase in assets (Davies 2004). However, two elements of previous surface-level diversity problems seem to carry over even into contexts of deep-level diversity: first, increased diversity on both levels is still associated with an increase in turnover and integration and coordination problems; second, it still appears that in the supervisor/subordinate relationship, subordinates with the same gender as their superiors receive higher performance evaluations (Davies 2004). ## Conclusion Insights into how personality diversity affects the work group have increased as the study of personality types, profiles, emotional IQ, and deep-level attitudes has grown. Instead of thinking of diversity as simply demographic differences, group managers will need to research, experiment, and analyze the ways in which all of these aspects not only affect the group, but how they can be integrated into a cohesive approach that corresponds to group cohesiveness and successful performance. ## Professional Resources The following list includes links to a few consulting firms specializing in personalities: <http://www.piworldwide.com> <http://www.personality-insights.com/> <http://www.personalitypathways.com/tpn.html> <http://www.hrobjective.com/> <http://www.lrandc.com/> <http://www.caliperonline.com/solutions/hiring.shtml> ## References Brinkman, Rick, Kirschner, Rick. Dealing with People You Can\'t Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, McGraw-Hill, 2002, 1994. Butler, Timothy, Waldroop, James. The 12 Bad Habits That Hold Good People Back, Currency/Doubleday, 2000. Davies, David-Michel, In the Heterogeneous Zone, Fastcompany blog, December 2004. Dillard-Bullock, Avis R. Identifying and influencing difficult people, The Beam -- Bolling AFB -- dcmilitary.com, 2006. Freedman, Joshua and Todd Everett. "EQ at the Heart of Performance." <http://www.eqperformance.com>. Guy, Sandy. Learn From This \... Living & Working with Difficult Personalities, Australian Good Taste Magazine, February 2001. Goleman, Daniel. Working with Emotional Intelligence, Bantam Books, 1998. Harrison, et al. Beyond Relational Demography: Time and the Effects of Surface- and Deep-level Diversity on Work Group Cohesion. Academy of Management Journal, 1998. Harrison, David A. Time, Teams, and Task Performance: Changing Effects of Surface- and Deep-Level Diversity on Group Functioning. LaFasto, Frank, Larson, Carl. When Teams Work Best: 6,000 team members tell what it takes to succeed, Sage Publications, 2001 Langdon, Jerry. A Variety of Personalities in the Workplace, USA Today, Gannett News Service, 2006. Manning, Marilyn. Managing Difficult Situations, <http://www.mmanning.com/documents/2004-02-Diff%20Situations.pdf>, 2004. Manning, Marilyn. Closing the Communication Gap: Managing Conflicts in High Tech Environments, <http://www.hodu.com/high-tech.shtml>, 2004. Steele-Pucci, Cynthia. How to deal with difficult personalities, <http://www.career-intelligence.com/management/NightmareEmployees.asp>, 2006. Scott, Gini Graham. A Survival Guide for Working With Humans: Dealing With Whiners, Back-Stabbers, Know-It-Alls, and Other Difficult People, Amacom Books Topchik, Gary S. 11 Workplace Personalities and How to Handle Them, Managing Workplace Negativity, <http://love.ivillage.com/fnf/fnfwork/0,,92rh,00.html>, 2006.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Working in International Teams , racial, and socioeconomic variety in situations, institutions, and groups.\'\'^1^ \\[<File:Women.jpg%7Cthumb%7Cright%7CAppreciation> of and Respect for Differ Cultural diversity can be found everywhere we look, however this article focuses specifically on the impact of cultural diversity in the business world. The business world is a treacherous interpersonal landscape to navigate when dealing with people of a similar culture to ourselves, but this pales in comparison to the complexity of dealing with other cultures. Why is cultural diversity such a challenge? The problem we face when dealing with people of different cultures is that the false consensus effect confuses us. The false consensus effect is the tendency to believe that others see the world more like us than they actually do.^2^ People of different cultures see the world even more differently from us than we are used to, yet the false consensus effects leads us to behave as though people of other cultures see things just like we do. This creates confusion, misinterpretations, poor decisions, ineffectiveness, and is bad for business. The solution is cultural intelligence, which is described later.^3^ Cultural diversity is becoming more and more important. • White males occupy 5% fewer management jobs in 2006 than in 1998, and every other racial/gender group occupy more management jobs.^4^ • The U.S. population of foreign born residents is 12.4%, an amount of international diversity that the U.S. has not seen since 1920.^5^ • 90% of leading executives from 68 countries named cross cultural leadership as the top management challenge of the next century.^6,7^ • The proportion of revenue coming from overseas markets is expected to jump by an average of 30 to 50 percent over the next 3 to 5 years.^7^ Today's corporations recognize the importance of cultural diversity. Many companies value diversity so strongly that they devote large sections of their websites towards diversity. Companies share their personnel statistics to illustrate their relatively progressive minority staffing for jobs in lower management, upper management, and their board of directors. Such companies want to show that they are meritocracies where minorities will be treated equally, which leads to greater diversity. Notably culturally diverse companies include Aetna, AT@T, Booz Allen Hamilton, General Mills, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lucent Technologies, Nissan, Price Waterhouse Coppers, Toyota, and Waster Management. These companies have received many awards that recognize their pursuit of a more diverse workplace.^8^ ## Advantages of Diversified Teams What are the advantages of diversified teams? Many organizations fall into the trap of creating a team, based on a need -- need of completing a project, hitting a deadline or filling a role. They seldom base the project on the need for different perspectives or ensuring that the group brainstorm is effective. Thus, there are many advantages to creating diversified teams that focus on a common goal and work towards a universal solution. More and more companies and associations are realizing the importance of diversity in teams in this modern society. There are many advantages to different cultural backgrounds, diverse experiences within team members and the benefits of individual brainstorming. By creating diverse teams, with people of different backgrounds and cultures, the group can help prevent groupthink. Diversity provides a greater variety of perspectives and ideas, which can lead to more creative solutions. "Workplace diversity now focuses on inclusion and the impact on the bottom line. Leveraging workplace diversity is increasingly seen as a vital strategic resource for competitive advantage."^15^ \'\'\'Defining diversity is problematic diversity refers to the ways that people in organizations differ. "That sounds simple, but defining it more specifically is a challenge because people in organizations differ in a great many ways - race, gender, ethnic group, age, personality, cognitive style, tenure, organizational function, and more. There is also the fact that diversity not only involves how people think of others and how this affects their interaction but how they conceive of themselves." ^13^ In When Teams Work Best, Cooke and Szumal "discovered that across a variety of problem-solving groups, constructive individual styles -- as opposed to aggressive and passive styles -- are associated with higher quality solutions." ^12^ By creating a diverse team, an organization is empowering individuals to perform at a higher-level and to increase productivity. ![Working and Getting along even though we are different There are still many people who view working in teams as an ineffective practice. There is the old adage that two heads are better than one, but many do not see the relevance in meeting in teams to work on projects. It may appear, especially to those that have had bad team experiences in the past, the more people on a team, the more confusion and wasted time in finding the end result. But this is not the case -- it only means that the team needs to be restructured. "Seeing differences among people as the same, makes diversity a benign, almost meaningless, concept." ^13^ It is essential for organizations to design effective teams, including the team players that will manage and utilize this arena for success. The "team process" has to be constantly managed and diversified if necessary. Teams provide a setting where politics can be worked out and diverse individuals can come together to share their cultures and backgrounds. It is important to rely on other team members to delegate the workload and to learn from individual experiences. This is the key element to any organization and needs to be the focus for any decision-making strategy. In addition, it is important to understand that some teams do not work well together. "Clearly, the attitudes, styles and interaction patterns of team members have a direct impact on performance outcomes." ^12^ Management must understand that it is not the formation of a team that is faulty, but the design of the team. ## Disadvantages of Diversified/International Teams SCOPE: The scope of the Disadvantages of Diversified Teams portion focuses on challenges within the international team related to language, culture, stereotypes, preconceptions, and differing value systems. These challenges make it difficult for a team to develop team cohesiveness and foster collaboration, which then leads to mistrust, miscommunication and misunderstanding. Included are ways to overcome these difficulties when working in an international team. Some of the disadvantages of international teams are: Language- One of the first disadvantages of working in an international team can be the impact of language. Even though we use might use the same words does not mean that we use the same language. This is especially evident when we compare American English and British English. Two people might be using the same words, but understand one another on a completely different level. Multi-International teams have individuals who will not be able to converse in their native tongue. Undoubtedly, this will lead to some form of misunderstanding when working together for at least one member of the group. "When people speak with their team in a language other than their native one, it often affects their ability to interact with the group. It potentially affects spontaneity, clarity of expression (vocabulary and pronunciation), and willingness to express ideas. This is more challenging if your culture is indirect or your personal style is more introverted." ^16^ Specific areas of miscommunication can be found in the form of vocabulary, language style, non verbal communication, and the unwillingness to express ideas. • Vocabulary- The vocabulary that we and others use can sometimes be confusing to others who do not speak the same native language, let alone to those who do. Many miscommunications can arise if we are not aware of the speech and vocabulary we use and how it is interpreted by the receiving party. • Language Style- Varying nationalities communicate differently. When working in teams some individuals may be very direct and blunt, while others may be indirect and vague in their communication. Each person may interpret these language styles differently. It is important to recognize the differing language styles and the common misunderstandings that can come from it. Accents, pronunciation, slang and the use of idioms can also cause fundamental misunderstandings. • Non Verbal Communication- A majority of communication is done through non verbal communication. Non verbal communication has an enormous impact on intercultural communication because of the way in which it can be misinterpreted from one culture to the next. Non verbal communication can give off mixed signals if you are not aware of the communication style of the person with whom you are working. • Unwillingness to express ideas- The inferiority complex where team members feel they cannot express themselves in the language that is being used, so they do not express their ideas. Culture- Culture is everything we see around us. It is how we act, what we think, and what we believe. It is the words we use, the food we eat, and the clothes we wear. However, beyond these things mentioned underlies invisible values and beliefs that make up behaviors that are unique to each society. We may be able to see the obvious outward signs that make up ones culture, but oftentimes we fail to understand the invisible culture. "The only way to deal successfully with people from a different country is to be aware of what's going on beneath the surface and use that knowledge to shape your own behavior and expectations. If you don't understand that what's below the surface is far more powerful and potentially dangerous than what you can see, you run the risk of hitting the invisible part of the iceberg." ^17^ Because there are so many cultures and each one has its unique set of beliefs, below are listed a couple of cultural pitfalls to take into consideration. • Attitudes toward time-The difficulty in dealing with international teams is that each culture has a different attitude toward time. This can cause problems when prioritizing tasks and completing tasks within certain deadlines. • Different Value Systems- "Peoples' values are expressed through what they say and what they do. Therefore people working together from different cultural backgrounds may find that they approach and execute tasks differently because of differences in their cultural values. Understanding differences in value systems helps us to understand how and why individuals may behave differently to ourselves. This can help us work more effectively together and make the most of the benefits that those differences offer." ^18^ Preconceptions & Stereotypes- Stereotypes are the tendency we have to simplify the world by putting people into a category, and then fitting the individual into the stereotype of that category. If you interact with a team member from a particular country, you may have the tendency to put another a future team member in the same category as the first team member with whom you interacted. ## Ways to overcome difficulties when working in an international team Language- Open and effective communication is paramount in any team, international or not. Therefore, any miscommunications that can be mitigated beforehand will only accentuate the success of the team. "Establish conversational rules from the beginning. Acknowledge differences in accents and encourage team members to be mindful of them. Remind team members to refrain from using words with multiple meanings, idioms, or slang." ^19^ Non verbal communication- • "Even if you don't speak the language, it's a good idea to allow versed in a culture's nonverbal expressions, such as touching or bowing, personal gestures, and the display of emotions." ^20^ • Keep in mind that "There exists no body movement, no facial expression, no gesture which could arouse the same reaction all over the world. A smile expresses friendliness in one society, in another embarrassment, in yet another it can include an enemy's warning that attack is imminent if tension is not released." ^21^ • "Limit hand gestures and maintain a moderate body posture." ^22^ • "Silence can mean agreement, disagreement, or contemplation. Be careful not to make assumptions and express the overt message whenever possible." ^23^ • "Do not interpret the absence of disagreement as agreement" ^24^ • "Nonverbal communication is powerful. Learn about the ways in which members express negative concepts. Silence is often one way to do this, but it also may show respect and allow contemplation of another person's comment." ^25^ !The importance of finding a way to work with people from different cultures Culture- In order to overcome some of the difficulties of working in international teams, the book Managing Across Cultures suggests that we have a global mindset. A global mindset is "the ability to recognize and adapt to cultural signals so that you intuitively see global opportunities and are effective in dealing with people from different backgrounds around the world." ^26^ The book also suggests three ways to mitigate any cultural problems before they become a problem. They are: • "Increase each individual team member's knowledge of his or her own cultural values. This can be accomplished through suggested readings and online resources." ^27^ • "Increase the team's collective knowledge of the range of cultural differences in the group. It is important for people to review details of the cultures present in their team and think about where they might face challenges." ^28^ • "Encourage people to assess their own personal cultural styles and how those styles may affect the group" ^29^ Other suggestions are: • Do not assume things about a particular group or individual. • Take time to get to know others. • Learn about others' cultures and customs in order to build and sustain relationships within your international team. • Be sure to treat everyone in the group equally, regardless of their nationality. • Learn about each other's strengths and weaknesses. • Do not put your own culture and way of doing things above others. • "Try to see tasks from the other person's point of view before you judge their contribution or performance." ^30^ Stereotypes & Preconceptions- Do not give into preconceptions and stereotypes. Know that they exist and realize there are ways to prevent them. Encourage face-to-face interactions so team members can diminish any stereotypes that may exist. "Trust often develops when members establish credibility by demonstrating their abilities and competence. Give team members the opportunity early on to engage in tasks that demonstrate their skills or introduce team members to each other by highlighting their past experiences and current expertise with the matters at hand." ## Cultural Intelligence (CQ) "Cultural Intelligence is the outsider's ability to interpret someone's unfamiliar and ambiguous gestures the way that person's compatriots would " First there was IQ, then came EQ, and now there is CQ We are culturally groomed to think and behave in a certain ways from the time we were babies.Every country and company has different cultural programming that result in varied sets of strengths and weaknesses.^10^ Every company and department has culture, some more distinct than others. Every country or region exhibits some cultural differences that distinguish them from one another and are fully understood only by the people from within. There are people that have the ability to seemingly fit-in and mingle within virtually any environment or group and there are others that find the cultural boundaries impossible to cross. What if these differences and boundaries are present and around daily in the team someone is a part of for eight to ten hours a day? How do people with huge mentality and understanding gaps fit in and become an effective team? International and highly diversified teams are becoming more and more common as the world becomes more flat, but people still carry their learned behaviors and mentality. These differences may present a communication wall and prevent team from functioning. The bad news is that very few people are gifted with high cultural intelligence, but the good news is that people can change that. Cultural Intelligence is related to Emotional Intelligence (EI) and one thing that they share in common is the "propensity to suspend judgment and think before acting". Take as an example international team that consists of people from US and India. It is very difficult to determine what features are natural and could be attributed to the individual and what are related to the place of birth. If people on the team have low CQ they much more likely to label the team-members from the other country, become less interested in the individuals and thus hinder the team's cohesiveness. Increasing team members CQ could help in overcoming some of the disadvantages of working on international/distributed teams by removing cultural boundaries and increasing personal trust and connection. Most managers fit within one of six established profiles. ^9^ • The provincial: Effective when working with people of similar background, but lacks the ability to work with people from other cultures • The analyst: Tries to methodically analyzes other cultures and tries to apply learned strategies • The natural: Relies entirely on his own natural intuition and avoids learning more or improving based on established techniques • The ambassador: Likes differences and welcomes them, does not know much about the culture, but he is confident he can handle it. • The mimic: Has a high degree of confidence in his actions. Easily communicates and fits in. • The chameleon: Possesses high degree of CQ and could be even mistaken for native in certain situations. CQ is a relatively new notion and term but some countries are already establishing structures to advance this skill in the general population. Singapore has created a center devoted to CQ at a major university, which offers training, consulting, and other resources for this subject.http://www.cci.ntu.edu.sg/ Companies also benefit from increased CQ. Besides increased revenues, companies that worked to enhance their leaders\' CQs expanded internationally faster and became more successful at attracting and retaining top talent. There are many different tests that could help people get a better understanding of their personal strengths and weaknesses and frameworks that could help build up CI. It takes commitment, learning and patience acquiring the necessary skills and thus increasing the Cultural Intelligence level, however this skill could prove to be invaluable in a world that is growing closer together each day. A good start to improving CI level is testing it: <http://www.cq-portal.com/> ## Conclusion Improving CQ, verbal and non-verbal communication will improve teams and managers. Once people understand and improve their CQ, they will be better equipped to work within and lead diverse workgroups. Managers of tomorrow will need to unite team members from various backgrounds and cultures; more importantly, the different cultures and norms of the team members will need to be deciphered and used for the greater good of the team. Similar to the collaborative multinational peace efforts carried out by the United Nations, or the global manufacture and sales practices of Honda, companies can achieve more if team members and management understand and build off of each other's strengths, culture, and norms. Diverse teams will only succeed if dissimilar team members work together and CQ is the solution. ## References 1\. <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cultural+diversity> 2\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_consensus_effect> 3\. David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success, AMACOM, 2010, page 13. 4\. Ruth Ellen Wasem, \"Immigration Reform: Brief Synthesis of Issue,\" CRS Report For Congress (August 23, 2007). Available at <http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/91856.pdf>. 5\. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's raw data. 6\. Economist Intelligence Unit, "CEO Briefing: Corporate Priorities for 2006 and Beyond" in The Economist: Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) at <http://graphics.eiu.com/files/ad_pdfs/ceo_Briefing_UKTI_wp.pdf> or <http://www.eiu.com/CorporatePriorities2006> 7\. David Livermore, Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success, AMACOM, 2010, page 15. 8\. <http://www.ethnicmajority.com/corporate_diversity.htm> 9\. Cultural Intelligence by P. Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowski 10\. Cultural Intelligence A guide to working with people from other countries from Brooks Peterson <http://books.google.com/books?id=-84MKmO-xi0C&pg=PA88&lpg=PA88&dq=Cultural+intelligence+test&source=bl&ots=z2T9omxLQ1&sig=_QIe9O7vQI50eUQ8_ZCNjSCKGlY&hl=en&ei=PLKBS9cahuCxA7e8nY0E&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Cultural%20intelligence%20test&f=false> 11\. Cox, Taylor, Creating the Multicultural Organization: A Strategy for Capturing the Power of Diversity, Cornell University Library Holdings, <https://catalog.library.cornell.edu/cgibin/Pwebrecon.cgi?DB=local&Search_Arg=When+generations+collide+%3A+traditionalists%2C+baby+boomers%2C+generation+xers%2C+millennials+%3A+who+they+ar&Search_Code=TALL&CNT=50&HIST=1>, Jossey-Bass, 2001. 12\. LaFasto, Frank, Larson, Carl, When Teams Work Best, Sage Publications, 2001 13\. <http://www.diversityworking.com/employerZone/diversityManagement/?id=5> 14\. <http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/research/subjectguides/workplacediversity.html> 15\. <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_6_50/ai_n14702678/> 16\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (pp.156-157) 17\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.36) 18\. <http://www.cochrane.org/docs/crossculturalteamwork.doc> page 6 19\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.252) 20\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.147) 21\. Erlenkamp, Marco (2005). Managing International Teams and Workforce Diversity. (p.15) 22\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.157) 23\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.157) 24\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.157) 25\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.157) 26\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.37) 27\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.252) 28\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.252) 29\. Solomon, Charlene M., Schell, Michael S.(2009). Managing across cultures (1st Edition). (p.252) 30\. http//:www.cochrane.org/docs/crossculturalteamwork.doc page 10
# Managing Groups and Teams/Social Loafing # Definition of Social Loafing ![](1904_tug_of_war.jpg "1904_tug_of_war.jpg"){width="300"} Social loafing describes the phenomenon that occurs when individuals exert less effort when working as a group than when working independently. Research indicates that there is some degree of social loafing within every group, whether high-functioning or dysfunctional. In 1913, a French agricultural engineer, Max Ringlemann, identified this social phenomenon. He recognized a collective group performance required less effort by individuals compared to the sum of their individual efforts (Kravitz & Martin, 1986). The effect he noted has been termed the Ringlemann Effect. In this experiment, participants pulled on a rope attached to a strain gauge. Ringlemann noted that two individuals pulling the rope only exerted 93% of their individual efforts. A group of three individuals exerted 85% and groups of eight exerted 49% of their combined individual effort. As more individuals pulled on the rope, each individual exerted themselves less. From these observations, Ringlemann determined that individuals perform below their potential when working in a group (LaFasto & Larson, 2001, p. 77). Since Ringlemann's observation, social loafing has been identified in numerous studies. Social loafing has several causes and effects that will be discussed in this document, as well as methods for dealing with social loafing to promote more effective group work. \'Ringleman\'s brainchild of social loafing has now been used within a diverse variety of studies, ranging from its impact on sports teams to the affects on groups within huge conglomerates.' (Dr Karen Virendra Patel, 2002; pg 124)\'\'\'\'\' ## Causes of Social Loafing Many theories explain why social loafing occurs., below are several explanations of social loafing causes: Equitable contribution: Team members believe that others are not putting forth as much effort as themselves. Since they feel that the others in the group are slacking, they lessen their efforts too. This causes a downward cycle that ends at the point where only the minimum amount of work is performed. Submaximal goal setting: Team members may perceive that with a well-defined goal and with several people working towards it, they can work less for it. The task then becomes optimizing rather than maximizing. Lessened contingency between input and outcome: Team members may feel they can hide in the crowd and avoid the consequences of not contributing. Or, a team member may feel lost in the crowd and unable to gain recognition for their contributions (Latane, 1998). This description is characteristic of people driven by their uniqueness and individuality. In a group, they lose this individuality and the recognition that comes with their contributions. Therefore, these group members lose motivation to offer their full ability since it will not be acknowledged (Charbonnier et al., 1998). Additionally, large group sizes can cause individuals to feel lost in the crowd. With so many individuals contributing, some may feel that their efforts are not needed or will not be recognized (Kerr, 1989). Lack of evaluation: Loafing begins or is strengthened in the absence of an individual evaluation structure imposed by the environment (Price & Harrison, 2006). This occurs because working in the group environment results in less self-awareness (Mullen, 1983). For example, a member of a sales team will loaf when sales of the group are measured rather than individual sales efforts. Unequal distribution of compensation: In the workplace, compensation comes in monetary forms and promotions and in academics it is in the form of grades or positive feedback. If an individual believes compensation has not been allotted equally amongst group members, he will withdraw his individual efforts (Piezon & Donaldson, 2005). Non-cohesive group: A group functions effectively when members have bonded and created high-quality relationships. If the group is not cohesive, members are more prone to social loafing since they are not concerned about letting down their teammates (Piezon & Donaldson, 2005). ## Effects of Social Loafing Social loafing engenders negative consequences that affect both the group as a whole as well as the individual. ### Effects on Groups As explained in the Ringlemann Effect, output decreases with increased group membership, due to social loafing. This effect is demonstrated in another study by Latane, et al. In this experiment subjects were asked to yell or clap as loudly as possible. As in Ringlemann's study, the overall loudness increased while individual output decreased. People averaged 3.7 dynes/sq cm individually, 2.6 in pairs, 1.8 in a group of four, and 1.5 in a group of six. In this study there was no block effect (indicating tiredness or lack of practice). Due to social loafing, average output for each individual decreases due to the perception that others in the group are not putting forth as much effort as the individual. In considering this first experiment, some individuals suggested that results might be invalid due to acoustics (i.e. voices canceling each other out or voices not synchronized). To disprove this theory, another experiment was performed. For this study, participants were placed in individual rooms and wore headphones. In repeated trials, these participants were told they were either shouting alone or as part of a group. The results demonstrated the same trend as in the first experiment\--individual performance decreased as a group size increased (Latane, 1979). In reality, there are not many groups with the objective of yelling loud, however the example above illustrates a principle that is common in business, family, education, and in social gatherings that harms the overall integrity and performance of a team by reducing the level of output, one individual at a time. The negative social cues involved with social loafing produce decreased group performance (Schnake, 1991, p. 51). Reasonable consequences of social loafing also include dissatisfaction with group members who fail to contribute equally and the creation of in groups and out groups. Additionally, groups will lack the talents that could be offered by those who choose to not contribute. All of these factors result in less productivity. ### Effects on Individuals The preceding section identifies the effect of social loafing on a group which is arguably the most prominent consequence of the group behavior. However, social loafing also has an impact on the individuals that comprise the group. There are various side effects that individuals may experience. One potential side effect is the lack of satisfaction that a member of the group might experience, thereby becoming disappointed or depressed at the end of project. When a member of a group becomes a social loafer, the member reduces any opportunity he might have had to grow in his ability and knowledge. Today, many college level classes focus on group projects. The ability for an individual to participate in social loafing increases at the group increases in number. However, if these groups remain small the individual will not have the opportunity to become invisible to the group and their lack of input will be readily evident. The lack of identifiably in a group is a psychological production that has been documented in several studies. (Carron, Burke & Prapavessis, 2004) Social loafing can also negatively impact individuals in the group who perform the bulk of the work. For example, in schoolwork teams are often comprised of children of varying capacities. Without individual accountability, often only one or a few group members will do most of the work to make up for what the other students lack. Cheri Yecke, Minnesota's commissioner of education, explains that in these instances group work can be detrimental to the student(s) who feel resentment and frustration from carrying the weight of the work. Yecke recounted an experience of one child who felt she had to "slow down the pace of her learning and that she could not challenge the group, or she would be punished" with a lower grade than desired. Especially in situations where members of the group of differing abilities, social loafing negatively affects group members who carry the weight of the group. ## Variation in Social Loafing ### Culture Social loafing is more likely to occur in societies where the focus is on the individual rather than the group. This phenomenon was observed in a study comparing American managers (individualistic values) to Chinese managers (collectivistic values). Researchers found that social loafing occurred with the American managers while there was no such occurrence with the Chinese managers. The researchers explained this through a comparison between collectivistic and individualistic orientations. A collectivistic orientation places group goals and collective action ahead of self-interests. This reinforces the participants\' desires to pursue group goals in order to benefit the group. People from this orientation view their individual actions as an important contribution to the group\'s well-being. They also gain satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment from group outcomes. Further, collectivists anticipate that other group members will contribute to the groups\' performance and so they choose to do the same in return. They view their contributions to group accomplishments as important and role-defined (Earley, 1989). In contrast, an individualist\'s motive is focused on self-interest. Actions by these individuals emphasize personal gain and rewards based on their particular accomplishments. An individualist anticipates rewards contingent on individual performance. Contribution toward achieving collective goals is inconsistent with the self-interest motive unless differential awards are made by the group. Individuals whose contributions to group output go unnoticed have little incentive to contribute, since they can \"loaf\" without fear of consequences. As a result, an individualist can maximize personal gain without putting forth as much effort as had he/she done the work individually. The self-interest motive stresses individual outcomes and gain over the collective good (Earley, 1989). ### Gender ![](Hutterer-Frauen_bei_der_Arbeit.jpg "Hutterer-Frauen_bei_der_Arbeit.jpg"){width="200"} Research indicates that women are more inclined to sustain group cohesion where men are more interested in task achievement. As a result, women, who deem collective tasks more significant than individual tasks, are less likely to engage in social loafing than men. This phenomenon is demonstrated in a study conducted by Naoki Kugihara. To determine the social loafing effect on men versus women, he had 18 Japanese men and 18 Japanese women pull on a rope, similar to the Ringlemann experiment. On the questionnaire, several participants indicated their perception that they pulled with their full strength. However, Kugihara observed the men did decrease their effort once involved in collective rope pulling. Conversely, the women did not show a change in effort once involved collectively. In the paper reporting the results of this study, Kugihara explains some reasoning behind this different reaction between men and women. In observing Japanese junior high students, Tachibana and Koyasu found that boys engaged more earnestly in the task when they were told that achievement was being measured. When they were told they could relax and enjoy the task, the boys did not put forth as much effort. However, with the girls they did not notice any change in effort between the achievement and relaxation tasks. These results indicate that men are more likely to engage in social loafing in a group setting because they will not be driven by achievement motivation since their efforts will not be as visible. However, women tend to not be affected by achievement motivation and therefore are less likely to engage in social loafing (1999). ## Confronting the Social Loafer ![](Two_koreans_in_discussion.jpg){width="200"} No one ever likes to be confronted or told what to do. So in a group setting, what is the best way to make the most out of each individual's contributions? Especially in groups where there is no designated leader, it is difficult for one group member to confront another. However, Dan Rothwell offers advice for handling these situations. Private confrontation: The team leader or a selected team member should confront the social loafer individually. This individual should solicit the reasons for the lackluster effort. Additionally, the loafer should be encouraged to participate and understand the importance of his contributions. Group confrontation: The entire group can address the problem to the dissenting team member and specifically address the problem(s) they have observed. They should attempt to resolve the problem and refrain from deleterious attacks on the slacking individual. Superior assistance: After trying to address the problem with the individual both privately and as a group, group members should seek the advice of a superior, whether it be a teacher, boss or other authority figure. Where possible, group members should provide documented evidence of the loafing engaged by the individual (De Vita, 2001). The person in authority can directly address the problem with the lackluster team member. Exclusion: The loafer should only be booted out of the group as a last resort. However, this option may not be feasible in some instances. Circumvention: If all the above steps have been attempted without result, then the group can reorganize tasks and responsibilities. This should be done in a manner that will result in a desirable outcome whether or not the loafer contributes. (Rothwell, 2004) ## Preventing Social Loafing ![](Traitdunion_02-2002_Ostia-Talk_LR.jpg "Traitdunion_02-2002_Ostia-Talk_LR.jpg"){width="300"} In order to prevent or limit the effects of social loafing, there are a number of guidelines a team leader might initiate to manage team members' efforts toward team goals. Though some do depend upon the nature of the team and the type of team, most of these guidelines can be adapted to provide a positive benefit to all teams. Develop rules of conduct: Setting rules at the beginning will help all team members achieve the team objectives and performance goals. Establishing ground rules can help to prevent social loafing and free-riding behaviors by providing assurances that free-riding attempts will be dealt with (Cox, 2007). Create appropriate group sizes: Do not create or allow a team to undertake a two-man job. For example, municipal maintenance crews often have crew members standing around watching one or two individuals work. Does that job really require that many crew members? Establish individual accountability: This is critical for initial assignments that set the stage for the rest of the task (Team Based). Tasks that require pre-work and input from all group members produce a set of dynamics that largely prevent social loafing from happening in the first place. If this expectation is set early, individuals will avoid the consequences of being held accountable for poor work. Encourage group loyalty: Not all cultures experience social loafing. In China, social striving, the opposite of social loafing, occurs. In these cases, individual performance is enhanced by being in a group (Davies, 2006). The individuals care more about the success of the group than their own success. They have a clear view of the group's objective and what leads to its fulfillment. This sense of group loyalty is created by individual awareness of the team's position in reaching the goal. If production plant employees know the goal, know how far they need to go, and where the competition is, they are more inclined to work towards the goal than if they did not have that knowledge. Implement peer evaluation: In academic cultures, college instructors use peer evaluations to instill accountability for individual contributions in group products. These evaluations are given early in the term and are more effective in deterring social loafing than peer evaluations given later in the term (Brooks & Ammons, 2003). Write a team contract: Confusion and miscommunication can cause social loafing. Although it may seem formal, writing a team contract is a good first step in setting group rules and preventing social loafing. This contract should include several important pieces of information such as group expectations, individual responsibilities, forms of group communication, and methods of discipline. If each group member has a measurable responsibility that they alone are accountable for, he is not able to rely on the group for his portion of responsibility. Choose complementary team members: When possible, carefully choose individuals to join a team. Make sure they have strengths and personalities that will complement other group members rather than deter from reaching the group goal. Minimize group size: Whenever possible, minimize the number of people within a group. The fewer people available to diffuse responsibility to, the less likely social loafing will occur. Establish ground rules: Discuss what the team's goals and objectives are and then develop a process to meet them. Agree to perform by team roles discussed in the initial meeting of a project. Also discuss consequences of not following rules and the process to call an individual on their negative behavior. Specifically define the task: Clarify the importance of the task to the team and assign members to do particular assignments. Establish expectations through specific measurable and observable outcomes, such as due dates. At the end of each meeting, refresh everyone's memories as to who is required to do what by when and offer clarification on required duties. Create personal relationships: Provide opportunities for members to socialize and establish trusting relationships. Dedicated relationships cause people to fulfill their duties more efficiently. Highlight achievement: Invite members of management to attend team sessions. Allow team accomplishments to shine through to superiors. Close meetings by summarizing their group's successes. Pat them on the back and remind them of their upcoming duties. Establish task importance: Allow team members the opportunity to demonstrate their willingness to do their work in a timely fashion. Evaluate progress: Meet individually with team members to assess their successes and areas of improvement. Discuss ways in which the team leader may provide additional support so the task may be completed. When possible, develop an evaluation based on an individual contribution. This can be accomplished through individual group members' evaluations of others on team. Manage discussions: Ensure that all team members have the opportunity to speak. Make every individual feel they have a valuable role on the team and their input is important to group success. Engage individuals: When intrinsic involvement in the task is high, workers may feel that their efforts are very important for the success of the group and thus may be unlikely to engage in social loafing even if the task visibility is low. ## References Brooks, C. & Ammons, J. (2003). Free Riding in Group Projects and the Effects of Timing, Frequency and Specificity of Criteria in Peer Assessment. Journal of Education for Business, May-June Carron, A., Burke, S. & Prapavessis, H. (2004). Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, Vol. 16, 41-58 Charbonnier, E., Huguet, P., Brauer, M., Monteil, J. (1998). Social loafing and self-beliefs: People\'s collective effort depends on the extent to which they distinguish themselves as better than others. Social Behavior and Personality. Cox, Pamela L. and Brobrowski, Paula E. The team charter assignment: Improving the effectiveness of classroom teams. Cazenovia College, State University of New York, Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management. 2000, Vol.1(1), Page 92. 9 July 2007. \<<http://www.ibam.com/pubs/jbam/articles/vol1/article_6.htm>\>. Davies, Jamie and Holah, Mark. Social Loafing. Learn Psychology.net. 2006, Slapes Design & Hosting. 8 July 2007. \< <http://www.learnpsychology.net/g/448>\>. De Vita, Glauco (2001, Winter). The use of group work in large and diverse business management classes: Some critical issues. The International Journal of Management Education, 1(3), 26-34. Earley, P.C (1989). Social Loafing and Collectivism: A Comparison of the United States and the People\'s Republic of China. Administrative Science Quarterly in Business, Vol. 34, 565-581. Faris, A. & Brown, J. (2003). Addressing Group Dynamics in a Brief Motivational Intervention for College Student Drinkers. Journal of Drug Education, Vol. 33 (3), 289-306 Hardy, C.J. & Crace, R.K. (1991). The Effects of Task Structure and Teammate Competence on Social Loafing. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Vol. 13, 372-381 Kerr, N.L. (1989). Illusions of efficacy: The effects of group size on perceived efficacy in social dilemmas. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 25, 287-313. Kravitz, D.A., & Martin, B. (1986). Ringelmann rediscovered: The original article. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , 50(5), 936-941. Kugihara, Noaki (1999). Gender and Social Loafing in Japan. Journal of Social Psychology. pp 516-526. LaFasto, F. & Larson C. (2001). When teams work best. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many Hands Make Light The Work: The Causes and Consequences of Social Loafing. Journal of Personal Sociology and Psychology, Vol. (37), 822-832. Mullen, B. (1983). Operationalizing the effect of the group on the individual: A self-attention perspective. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 19, 295-322. Piezon, S.L. & Donaldson, R.L. (2005). Online groups and social loafing: Understanding student-group interactions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8(4). Retrieved online July 7, 2007 at <http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/winter84/piezon84.htm> Plaks, J.E. & Higgins, E.T. (2000). Pragmatic Use of Stereotyping in Teamwork: Social Loafing and compensation as a function of Inferred Partner-Situation Fit. Journal of Persocal Sociology and Psychology, Vol. 79 (6), 962-974 Price, K.H. & Harrison, D.A. (2006). Withholding inputs in team context: Member composition, interaction process, evaluation structure, and social loafing. Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91(6). Rothwell, Dan (2004). In Mixed Company. California: Thomson Wadsworth. Schnake, M.E.(1991, March). Equity in Effort: The \'sucker effect\' in co-acting groups. Journal of Management, 17(1), 41-56. Team Based Learning: Alternative to Lecturing in Large Class Settings. Faculty of Applied Science, University of British Columbia. \<ipeer.apsc.ubc.ca/wiki/images/e/e8/Group_Activities_condensed_v5.doc\>. Yecke, C.P. (2004, January 18). Cooperative learning can backfire. The Star Tribune
# Managing Groups and Teams/Process Losses ## Subject How do our unconscious biases affect the way we manage and interact with teams? Years of experience and research has taught us that the biases held by managers, as well as team members, have a tremendous effect on team and individual performance in the workplace. As managers, these biases dictate the way we recruit our workforce, assign job duties, evaluate staff performance, and determine promotions. Most managers assume that they are fair individuals and claim to be non-biased in their decision making processes when in fact this may not be the case. The problem is that we do not take the time to reflect on the process by which we make certain decisions and the unconscious biases that affect those decisions. Consequently, these decisions may prove to be detrimental to the success of a business. Recognizing our potential to succumb to unconscious biases in the workplace can help to prevent us from making bad decisions. ## Examples Examples and anecdotes are essential in understanding the negative effects that these biases have in the workplace. As we discuss theories and ideas surrounding the subject matter, we will integrate our personal and professional experiences into this project to better illustrate our points. The following are examples of risky decisions that may be infected by biased decision making. ## Halo Effect #### Description This type of bias exists when a person allows one characteristic of another person to affect the evaluation of other characteristics. When one attribute is more relevant or apparent, one tends to extend the understanding or interpretation of that trait to all other attributes. One simple example of this bias is if one assumes that because John is a good singer, he must, therefore, also be a good dancer, a good cook and a good husband. #### This bias seen in a team environment Peter is a manager over a team of 8 employees. He treats his employees fairly and trusts their ability to get the job accomplished. Susan, a team member who is an excellent cook, has been one of Peter's favorite employees. Peter has recently put Susan in charge of organizing the company's recipe book, a large project that requires not only cooking skills, but also organization, design and printing skills. Also, because of the way Peter views Susan's cooking skills, he asked her if she could lead the team in a cost saving project that requires expertise in finance and accounting. Susan has no expertise in that area and managing these two projects will be a daunting task. #### Effects in the workplace As seen in the example above, the halo effect can be very detrimental not only to team members individually, but also to the team collectively. A team leader can very easily assume that a team member is capable of other tasks simply because of one specific characteristic that was observed previously. This bias directly affects a team leader's decision making process. Here are some very common consequences of this bias: - Over or under trusting an employee or a team member - Offering unfair advantage or disadvantage to a team member - Assigning too much or too little to a specific team member - Misjudgment of character #### How to remedy this bias The first step to avoid or remedy the halo effect bias is to gather information. This can be done through simple performance reviews, surveys and observations. This step is crucial in eliminating this bias because it allows the observer to view the person from different angles, understanding their stories from their perspective. This step also allows for a diminished level of interpersonal conflict. When information is readily available, people tend to gravitate to the central issues rather than personal biases.[^1] The second step is to interpret the information gathered. As data is gathered, the team leader can understand the specific strengths and weaknesses more objectively. Misunderstandings and misconceptions can be eliminated in this step of the process. The final step is to draw conclusions. As the observer analyzes the information gathered, he/she can more accurately understand other team members' qualities and avoid extending those qualities to other attributes. The conclusions that are drawn in this step form a more correct image of the person being observed in the team leader's mind. ## Stereotyping #### Description Stereotyping is probably the most commonly known type of bias and undoubtedly one of the most commonly present in the workplace, social environments and the media. This bias can be described as the tendency people have to simplify their perception of the world around them by allocating people in separate groups or clusters. By putting people into those groups, one allows him/herself to believe that all the members of that group act, behave and think the same way. This bias completely disregards people's individual characteristics, skills and personalities. Although this bias is normally negative, attracting unrealistic assumptions and conclusions, sometimes this bias can actually present positive aspects. The most common types of stereotyping are related to race, gender, education, nationality and political backgrounds. One common example of stereotyping can be often seen in television shows and movies. One classic example of stereotyping in the media can be seen in the show "The Simpsons", represented by several different characters. Apu, for example, is an Indian sales clerk that is show as a "stereotypical" person born in India. Several different traits seen in the Indian culture are represented by Apu, as if he had all those characteristics seen in several different people from that country.:Image: Cultural bias is the most common type of stereotyping, whether associated with nationality, origin, language or race. Stereotypes based on cultural characteristics can be very dangerous in the workplace, not only because of ethical issues, but also because several laws protect employees against this type of bias. Very often this type of bias can lead to more severe prejudices such as racism. The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the main US Agency responsible for "enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person\'s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information." [^2] #### This bias seen in a team environment Kelly Chao has been hired as the new business consultant at a medium sized accounting firm, Smith and Partners. Kelly's parents are from China, but she was born in California. She has a degree in Marketing from the University of Washington with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. Kelly's main role at Smith and Partners is to help the company find new opportunities for expansion into new markets. Kelly's experience and background has been very much focused on customer relations and sales. She has strong analytical skills and interpersonal skills, but a very limited knowledge of math and statistics. Her new boss, Steven Thorpe, has been very excited to have Kelly in the team and immediately assigned her very challenging tasks, all of which required high level mathematical knowledge and statistics background. Because of Kelly's Chinese background, Steven automatically assumed that she was an innate mathematician, and assigned her tasks that were completely outside of her skill set. #### Effects in the workplace Stereotyping can not only destroy confidence in teams, but can also be very dangerous. As explained above, certain groups of people are protected by law. Any actions based on stereotypes, if judged as unfair, can go from unethical to illegal very quickly. Many human resources offices constantly train their employees to help avoid such pitfalls. This bias can, if seen in teams, can hinder the synergy in teams and create animosity, disdain and lack of trust. As seen in "When Teams Work Best", many employees feel slighted or that they are treated unfairly by their leaders. Sometimes this perception is seen because of biases such as stereotypes. #### How to remedy this bias As we mentioned previously in this chapter, although stereotyping can sometimes be positive in rare team situations, we recommend avoiding this type of bias as often as possible. Because of the nature of this bias and the potential legal consequences associated with it, we recommend taking certain steps to repair this problem. Data collection should always be a priority in cases of stereotyping. In this step of the process, one must gather information from different sources to better understand the group that he/she is stereotyping. The more information that is available, the better one comes to understand the actual traits of individuals in the team being stereotyped. When information is gathered, the team leader should compare the team member's traits with actual stereotype traits. This process allows one to eliminate misconceptions and misunderstandings about the team member. Another important step is to change the group environment. Group exercises are very helpful to bring down stereotype barriers that may be damaging the team. These group exercises must be carefully planned to avoid individuals to feel prejudiced against. ## Recency Bias Managers carry the challenging responsibility of evaluating employees' performance on an ongoing basis. They are expected to do so objectively -- without bias -- and with the best interest of their organization in mind. Embedded within this responsibility is the ability to maintain employee morale and to ensure that employees remain dedicated to the organization's mission. In doing so, managers strive to throw aside their biases and may full-heartedly believe that they are ethically efficient when, in fact, this may not be the case^4^. A common problem that people encounter when processing information is that they tend to recall recent events more clearly than those which took place earlier and, therefore, weigh that information more heavily^3^. This recency effect is a natural psychological condition that has the ability to skew reality. As a result, an employee receiving an annual performance evaluation may face unmerited positive or negative consequences, such as a promotion or termination of employment. The following example is one in which a dedicated employee was passed up for promotion due to the fact that she was taking a lot of time off of work during the end of the annual performance period: Rachel was a dedicated employee at her institution for the past four years. She consistently met or exceeded target performance milestones and was up for a promotion within the next year. Unfortunately, her father had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and, as the only daughter, she began taking more time off of work to help with her father's medical care. In doing so, Rachel worked from home and on the weekends as much as possible to make sure that her work projects received attention. Rachel's father passed away within a matter of months and, through her own grief, she managed the funeral arrangements and briskly returned back to full-time work. Her manager, Scott, who had originally recommended Rachel for the promotion, called her in for an annual review. Rachel was astonished to find that, due to the fact that Rachel had taken more time off than usual and temporarily had to move some job responsibilities to other employees, she was not going to be promoted and was also not going to receive an annual increase. Instead, she was put on a six-month probationary review to determine her future with the company. In the situation described above, although Rachel continued to meet her performance goals, what stood out in Scott's mind was the fact that she was taking work off and calling in more frequently over a short period of time. He was a victim of his unconscious recency bias and failed to consider the fact that her overall performance merited both an increase and a promotion. When a manager's responsibility to provide accurate feedback to employees is poorly executed, they run the risk of losing talented employees, reducing employee morale, and providing a negative perception of the organization in the eyes of their employees. In order to combat this issue, human resource representatives recommend the following: 1\. "Provide evaluations more frequently throughout the year. It is best to do so at least quarterly to alleviate the effects of recency bias." 2\. Keep a log which lists the attributes of each employee. Each time that you evaluate noticeable positive or negative performance actions, update the file with notes to be used at the year-end evaluation. 3\. Gather information from various sources (internal and external customers) who have worked with the individual throughout the year. These suggestions are not aimed at correcting the existence of recency bias. However, they can be helpful in combating its effects on a manger's decision-making process. ## Curse of Knowledge Do you assume that others are incompetent simply on the basis that you perceive a task to be simple when others find it to be difficult? Do you find yourself completing tasks on your own rather than delegating due to the fact that you assume others are less capable? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may be suffering from the curse of knowledge. Managers are expected to be the expert in the workplace and, in most circumstances, are more educated than their subordinates. It is the manager's responsibility to ensure that his/her employees are capable of performing assigned tasks based on their skill/education level. For instance, if you hired someone for a job that requires an Associates degree with two years of experience, it is unrealistic to expect them to complete the same level of work as an employee with a Masters degree and ten years of experience. This type of situation gives managers the potential to influence growth in their employees while providing them with the tools necessary to develop professionally. Lesser education does not translate to incompetence. Rather, it is the lack of experience that creates opportunity. The following example is one in which a talented employee left the organization after only a few months due to the fact that she received too little training and guidance from her manager: After a rigorous 8-month search, Janice finally hired Alice as a financial accountant for 7 of the 24 divisions within the organization. Alice was a recent accounting undergraduate who had graduated at the top of her class. She did not have much work experience and was elated when she was hired into a prestigious position so soon after graduation. On her first day, Alice received brief instructions regarding her many job duties. She received a warm welcome from her other team members and anticipated that the training would be ongoing. However, when she began asking for more guidance from Janice, she was met with a frustrated response: \"You have an accounting degree - you should be able to figure it out on your own.\" Alice spent the next few weeks working 10- to 12-hour days educating herself on the organizational processes and trying to build rapport with her division managers. Unfortunately, she couldn\'t keep up with her assignments and the division managers shared their frustration with Janice. Janice decided to demote Alice\'s responsibilities with the disappointment that Alice wasn\'t as intelligent as she appeared to be. Alice submitted her resignation notice the following morning. In the example above, Janice was a manager with a Masters in Accountancy and 15 years of high level accounting experience. She felt that the job tasks for which she hired Alice were \"simple\" in terms of difficulty, thus, they should be simple for anyone to grasp. Janice had spent the past 8 months performing these tasks along with her own and did not want to waste any more of her time. Unfortunately, Alice\'s resignation forced her to start over once again with the hiring process. It takes a great deal of resources to recruit and train a new employee into an organization. Losing skilled employees with great potential can be detrimental to the organization. As a manager, Janice is responsible for ensuring that her employees have the tools necessary to carry out their job duties effectively. These tools are not just tangible items such as a computer and a desk. Rather, the most important tools can be those which are intangible, such as knowledge. An education provides the backbone for the skills we need in the workplace. However, on-the-job training is essential for understanding the organization\'s structure and building skills to fit within that structure. This is not to say that managers should continuously spend the bulk of their time training employees. Nonetheless, they should not neglect the idea simply because they suffer from a knowledge bias. In order to combat the negative effect of the curse of knowledge, we offer the following suggestions: 1\. Meet regularly with employees to assess their needs and discuss professional development goals. 2\. Research developmental opportunities and allow for time to attend trainings. 3\. Create a sign-up sheet and encourage employees to share their expertise with their teammates during monthly meetings. Concurrently, ask employees to list areas in which you could provide training to them as a group. 4\. Ask your employees to complete an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses as a manager. Some employees are more likely to be truthful if this is done in an anonymous fashion. They may otherwise never feel comfortable addressing issues for fear of reprimand or termination. These suggestions are aimed at encouraging interaction among managers and their teams. If managers fail to execute their responsibility to their teams, they can reduce team morale, restrict opportunities for growth, and impact team (and manager) productivity. ## Anchoring and adjustment Anchoring and adjustment heuristic is such a powerful phenomenon which unknowingly affects people in organizations. This could happen to people of all walks of life. It can happen to anyone unknowingly even for one who thinks he/she is a rational thinker. The anchoring and adjustment heuristic was first theorized by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman. In one of their first studies, the two showed that when asked to guess the percentage of African nations which are members of the United Nations, people who were first asked \"Was it more or less than 45%?\" guessed lower values than those who had been asked if it was more or less than 65%.(1). It has shown in researches that a question asked initially can have an effect to the answer of a related or unrelated second question. Anchoring and adjustments is a process where the mind takes short cut to arrive to a conclusion based on the recent experience of thought process. The mind anchors to some initial information and unknowingly uses that information to influence the decision of the next issue. Carl is a project manager in the IT department, who is responsible for several software development projects. For every project he works, he is expected to give time estimates for the entire duration of the project to the upper management. Many times, he does not have sufficient information at that point of time to estimate the duration. There are no technical resources assigned, architecture not defined and he is not sure about the availability of systems due to conflicting projects. Yet, when he learns about the expected completion date of the stake holders of the project, he not only decides on the duration of the project, but also is able to provide the work breakdown of the entire project. While the expectation of the stake holders has nothing to do with the man hours it will take to complete a job, the anchoring effect fixes his decision to the expected date and adjusts the estimated date from there. The human mind works more easily with relative thinking than with absolute thinking. Many people get tripped up by trying to adopt a short cut rather than thoroughly analyzing a situation. People tend to rely on false intuition or gut feeling based on a previous experience which could open up opportunity for this bias to show up. The primacy effect is related to Anchoring. Primacy effect is the tendency to bases judgments on subsequent things bases upon the very first thing. The first situation gets sometimes gets anchored to the judgments on the subsequent things. During an interview process, the HR manager who interviews a candidate grades him one way if that candidate is the only person being interviewed. The grading gets different if the candidate is not the only one on the interview date and is being interviewed after a few people who have been interviewed already. This could happen when the HR manager anchors to the performance of the first candidate and evaluates the subsequent candidates by comparing them with the first one. Anchoring and adjustment heuristic is not always a bad thing and need not be perceived as a defect. It is a technique humans used to make decisions in uncertain situations. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that are used to simplify otherwise difficult problems or tasks (Epley, 2004). It can be a good tool to estimate certain requirements or come to conclusions based on the only given initial information. ## False consensus It is a phenomenon which occurs due to the overconfidence on one's beliefs and thoughts. People make decisions and judgments under the assumption that the ideas they have are obviously the popular ones among the majority. There are instances where this effect leads to poor communication and poor judgments in office environment. There is a tendency that people present build ideas under some underlying assumption that believe that their assumptions will be acceptable to anyone and is not required for any discussion for approval. One could end up making wrong decisions by falling into the trap of this bias. Researchers say that the reason for the effect is a possible cause of another effect called Availability Heuristic. Since people have tendency to have a circle of friends having a similar thinking process as themselves, they tend to believe that the rest of the world must be also like this. There are instances in companies where projects have failed due to the fact that the underlying assumptions were wrong and were never brought up for discussion or approval by an individual with this bias. Errol is a software developer who writes programs in C language for his health care company. There is a regulation in the company that during the initial phase of software application development, the developers are required to write up a document on possible exposure of personal health information date without the patients consent. In spite of the clear direction, Errol decided that some of the data coming from the secure servers are still not private data. He ignored subsequent reminders and assumed that what the decision he made with his analysis is correct and there is no reason others need to dispute his decision. This action of not bringing up the security violation in a timely manner caused the project to be suspended from implementation. This had a serious impact on Errol's focal review for that year. ## False uniqueness False Uniqueness is the exact opposite effect of False Consensus. While False Consensus bias make one to falsely think that their idea is the most rational one and must be accepted by most of them, False Uniqueness bias makes one to believe themselves that they think and make better decisions when compared to other. This is a common effect on humans who tend to be overconfident when making decisions. Barbara is a business analyst in a health care company. She works in the IT department and is part of a group which decides the requirements of new products for customers. During the initial design discussions of the product where each analyst puts talks about possible features to add to the product which will be useful for the customer, Barbara proposed some very different features which she believed that were very creative and the most useful things for the customer. When the majority of the other members did not show interest, Barbara believed that her proposal was still the best which will benefit the customer and others doesn't have seem to see the customers perspective and are rejecting valuable features. She thought by including her ideas in the design and sending it to the developers, he thought that when the product comes out including her feature, it will be appreciated by customers and other will see he value at that point. In contrary to her belief, the product got a negative feedback because the customers did not like just like the rest of the analysts thought about it during the initial design meetings. This false uniqueness bias may cause one to ignore deeper analysis and the over confidence on their judgments can possibly cause to take wrong decisions. ## Self-Fulfilling Prophecy A self-fulfilling prophecy is positive or negative expectation about circumstances, people, or events that may affect a person\'s behavior toward them in a manner that they unknowingly create situations in which those expectations are fulfilled. An example is an employer that expects his employees to be disloyal and lazy. He will be likely to treat them in a way that will extract from the employees the very response he expects. Self-fulfilling prophecy can be someone worrying about a very important day and when that day comes their actions ruin the day because they are expecting the day to be bad. A good example of this is prom. Some girls think that their prom day is going to be a horrible event and they are not going to have fun at and everything is going to be bad. When prom day comes they are in such a bad mood that they are going to have a bad prom that they end up ruining their own prom. A self-fulfilling prophecy can also be a positive bias when it is used in the right scenarios. Professional athletes can often become a self fulfilling prophesy. They are told by their coaches when they are young to dream big, to imagine in their minds the day they start in the professional league. To imagine themselves walking out on to the field and hear the crowds cheering, to picture themselves making big plays and winning a championship. This allows them to place in their mind a goal and a dream, once that is in place the athlete begins to work toward that goal and make decisions in their life, consciously and subconsciously, that will bring them to that goal of being a professional athlete. Self-fulfilling prophecy can lead a person to great success but I can also hinder a person's progression. In order to avoid this there should be precautions taken to help realize that a negative self-fulfilling prophecy is present and something should be done to change it. They can usually be identified by peers through meaningful communication. It is best to talk with people that you work with often or that know you really well that have your best interests in mind. Although self-fulfilling prophecies can be a positive bias to have and can take you to levels that you would not reach without them, it is important to be aware of negative self-fulfilling prophecies and try to avoid them. ## Self Serving Bias A self-serving bias is a bias in which people tend to enhance their self-confidence through a variety of processes to make them feel better about their situation. It may also manifest itself as a tendency for people to evaluate indefinite information in a way that is beneficial to their personal interests. Self-serving bias can also be associated with the better-than-average effect, where the individual believes that he or she typically performs better than the average person in areas important to their self esteem. Self Serving bias can happen in plenty of situations. It can be found when people rate their own driving skill, leadership ability and kissing ability. People tend to think that their personal ability is better than average person. Self-serving bias can often be used to describe a history of causal assumptions, in which praise or fault is given depending on whether success or failure was achieved. For example, a student who gets a great grade on a test might think, \"I got an A because I am smart and I studied hard!\" whereas a student who did bad on an exam might say, \"The teacher gave me a D because she does not like me!\" When someone deliberately tries to blame external causes for their poor performance so that they will subsequently have a means to avoid blaming themselves for failure), it may be labeled self-handicapping. Self serving biases can be good but the can also be harmful to a person. Sometime a self serving bias can help you out perform what you would normally do on a regular day. If you tell yourself that you are very good-looking today you are more apt to be outgoing and are not a shy to talk to people. A major pitfall of a self serving bias is that you can tend to place blame on other people and not take personal responsibility for your own actions. An employee that doesn't work hard at his job might think that he will never be promoted because his boss doesn't like him, where in actuality his boss doesn't have anything against him just wishes he would work harder and earn the promotion. Avoiding self-serving biases can be difficult and hard to recognize and over come. Some self- serving biases can be good but other can be detrimental to growth. The first step to reduce self-serving biases is to become aware. You need to look for areas where self-serving biases can exists and what they could potentially be. Another way of finding out if you have a self-serving bias is to question people around you and hold a discussion about potential self-serving biases that you may have. Talk to people that you trust and that will give you their honest feedback. Self Serving biases are a good way of people to achieve the unachievable but more often than not they can lead people live in a false reality. Self-serving biases should be watched for and limited. ## References ```{=html} <references/> ``` 3\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recency_effect>, March 7, 2010. 4\. <http://users.edinboro.edu/warburton/COMM710/How(un)Ethical.pdf>, , February 14, 2010. 5\. Tversky, A. & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science, 185, 1124-1130. 6\. Nicholas Epley1 and Thomas Gilovich2 - 1University of Chicago and 2Cornell University [^1]: How management teams can have a good fight. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, Jean L, Kahwajy, and LJ. Bourgeois III [^2]: USEEOC <http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/index.cfm>
# Managing Groups and Teams/Leader Credibility ## Questions Posed Once a team is formed, how should the team leader handle questions about his/her ability? For example, in the case where the team has had its first significant meeting and the leader did something to cause others to questions his/her ability to lead the project. Along the same line, are there particular steps a team leader can take to mitigate a blow to the team either from external forces or internal forces (say in the form of personal conflict or someone essential to the project leaving the company)? ## Introduction The question above is presented as to ask how you can mitigate questions to your credibility as a team leader. This lack of credibility could be from something you did wrong in a meeting or a mistake you made on a project. The question also asks how you, as a team leader, can soften the blow to the team from an internal or external force affecting the team. This last question is very broad and because of this, the chapter will focus that question and the others with respect only to establishing, maintaining and restoring credibility as a team leader. You can read all the books and follow all the rules about managing and leading, but inevitably, you will find your credibility in question from one, or a number of team members at some point during your career. It may almost seem easier to deal with if you know you did something wrong or inappropriate. The hard part is when you have somehow lost credibility when you've done, pretty much, everything right. During this chapter, we will look into a number of reasons for finding yourself lacking credibility with your team members. We will also offer general advice on how to keep or restore your credibility. While there are many reasons your team may find your credibility lacking, we will focus on a few very common ones. First, we will look at how your credibility may be threatened simply by a stereotype attached to you. Second, we will look at how your personality traits can affect credibility. Then we will look into how leading your former peers can cause credibility problems and how to alleviate them. Following these sections we will offer advice on how to establish credibility in a newly formed team, and finally, how to establish your credibility in general as well as avoid pitfalls. ## Overcoming Stereotypes Establishing leadership credibility in a group or team setting can be difficult enough without having to battle stereotypes along the way. This section will focus briefly on the different stereotypes that exist within the work organization, specifically, the groups and teams within these organizations. This section will also attempt to advise on how to avoid the pitfalls of stereotypes. First, we will define exactly what a stereotype is and what it is capable of. Stereotypes occur when we assign and generalize certain attributes, characteristics, qualities or shortcomings to a specific group of people. For example: \"The elderly drive poorly,\" \"Women are too emotional,\" \"Teenagers are lazy,\" or \"Men are cold and distant.\" You may think these examples are harmless, but these are only starting points from which stereotypes can become extreme and irrational. Some categories which can be a target of stereotypes are: race, religion, gender, class, age, etc. Stereotyping is a way our brain tries to processes the endless amount of information it is presented with daily. With so much stimulation to account for, stereotyping is a way the brain cuts through it all in order to make it presentable. This is often done subconsciously and is not always linked to negative outcomes. The danger presents itself when we are unaware of this process going on in our brain and we begin to accept stereotypes as fact or reality. Stereotypes are far reaching and virtually everyone is a potential victim. Stereotypes are damaging when we assume something about someone, or judge them prematurely, simply because we assign them to a larger group with a predetermined set of characteristics. Stereotyping is often linked closely with prejudice, which occurs when one makes a conscious decision to dislike, distrust, or work against a specific group because of the negative stereotypes associated with that group. History is laced with stereotyping and prejudices. Modern time takes no exception. A common place stereotyping takes place is within organizations and teams within these organizations. This behavior can destroy any attempts to create a collaborative environment within work teams and can effectively prevent production or progression. So the question presents itself, how do we keep this behavior out of our teams in order to be more successful? As a leader of a group/team who may be battling a stereotype while trying to obtain credibility, you must first make it your priority to rid yourself of any thought or behavior that endorses or exhibits stereotyping. You must be careful not to get defensive expecting that you are being stereotyped. Give your team the benefit of the doubt initially. Team attitude often reflects leadership. If they see you are relaxed and open they may adopt your attitude. This is one way to battle stereotypes within groups. Another way to battle stereotypes is to create an atmosphere conducive to open communication. It is through talking to people and forging relationships with others that stereotypes can be shattered and put to rest. This is easier said than done, but achievable if a team leader is determined to have a successful group. Also, when creating a group, create groups with diversity. This builds off the previous point of communication. We are often afraid of what we don\'t know. A diverse group can create an environment where learning and understanding can be achieved and stereotypes dispelled. It may sound simple, but one final way to counter a stereotype when leading a team is to simply work hard and prove you are a good leader first and foremost. If you leave no doubt in your groups' mind you are there to facilitate their success, you will begin to create an atmosphere where attitudes can change and minds can be enlightened. ## Personality Types When dealing with team environments, the personality of the group and those of individuals are determinants in whether the group will succeed or fail at its goals and endeavors. Within each group, there is the potential for each of the members to have significantly different strengths and weaknesses which are essential for an effective team. Examples of these characteristics are being introverted and extroverted. Introverts are people whose thoughts and interests are directed inward rather than outward toward others. On the other hand extroverts are interested in others or in the environment. Speaking in broad terms, they are a gregarious and unreserved person. With this in mind, to be an effective leader, you need to not only identify these traits in others, but also identify them in yourself in order to establish leadership credibility. Otherwise, ineffective management of your team of different personalities, working motifs, and styles may lead to unnecessary challenges and conflicts that could possibly lead to the demise and failure of the overall project. In understanding introversion and extroversion, Carl Jung (one of the earliest leaders into the understanding and exploration of this type of personality trait), was able to understand and develop the core principles of extroversion and introversion. He was able to view the behavior of humans as either habits or as personality patterns. He then explained the differences accordingly to those unique, distinguishable, and variable social patterns. He directed and focused his research on the intuition, thinking, sensing, and feeling components which were later published as major players in his psychological traits theory. During different events in our daily lives, we tend to utilize both aspects of introversion and extroversion. But, generally speaking, most people rely upon one dominant expression, whether it is introversion or extroversion, during the daily events and dramas that induce stressful situations. The preferences that are expressed by these different types of personalities also affect and impact social understanding and learning of perceptions, judgments, different learning styles, as well as sociological preferences each individual resorts to. When comparing introverts and extroverts, with our perception of what the team and its organization represents, there are still different view points we hold. First, introverts might view and feel the team meeting and discussions as draining, stressful, and (more or less) a waste of time. While extroverts view the team meetings as productive and energizing toward the end goal of the team. It is essential for you, as the team leader, to not only understand the different aspects of each team member, but also of yourself and what impact you have in leading the group. Being able to assess your ability and draw upon the abilities and strengths of others will provide an easy path to a successful team. By understanding and acknowledging different personality types, strengths and weaknesses, learning styles, perceptions, and judgments of each group member, you have already taken steps in the right direction to becoming an effective leader. Doing this should dismiss most, if not all, skepticism of your leadership ability. When you have been able to identify these aspects of your group, you can effectively direct and coordinate the team towards your goal or directive in the most efficient manner possible. As the team leader, understanding group meetings is an integral component of the development, planning of the assigned project, and development of team unity. As previously indicated, extroverts view these meetings as a venue for essential thought provoking discussions and a place to surcease any problems that may arise. So to be an effective leader, you must acknowledge and mitigate these circumstances to the contrary of the introverts. These introverts would rather use the time (that most meetings would use up) to research, prepare, and plan for these meetings on a lesser scale. By understanding this, you can handle any skepticism and quandaries about your leadership ability by providing advanced written information about the team members, agenda(s), reports, or possible discussion questions. This forethought and preplanning allows introverts the necessary time to organize and preplan their feelings and thoughts so their involvement within the group will be more substantial and appreciated by the extroverts who, by their very nature, will applaud and welcome their contributions. In addressing the possible scenario of conflict from within the team itself or from external forces, you need to address and understand the different areas of conflict that may arise. As previously mentioned, the different personalities may be cause for conflict within the team environment. To quell such proprieties and demurrals from the different team members, using the knowledge and understanding of each team member and their strengths and weaknesses is essential as an effective team leader. When such internal conflicts arise, being able to negotiate and mitigate conflicts is essential. In addition, knowledge of the team members\' personality and learning styles is important in order to show foresight and understanding of the conflict that has occurred. So in conclusion, as an effective and forthright leader will need to have perception and knowledge based upon the different personality types of each group member so any possible conflict and prejudice arising can be eliminated. ## Effectively Leading Your Former Peers You have spent the last few years working hard with your team, you've seen great success together and you've been able to establish some very positive professional relationships. You are comfortable with your team and are satisfied with the work you have done together. Now things are about to change, you have been rewarded for your hard work and have been selected to lead the team you were once a part of. After the initial euphoria and excitement of your recent promotion wears off, you may realize the relationships with your team members is not the same. Suddenly they look to you for motivation and guidance. Will they buy into your ideas? Will they respect you? Will they still be your friends? Do you want them to be your friends? How will performance evaluations go? As managers continue to climb the corporate ladder many of them have had to (or will) deal with these types of situations at one time or another. This section is dedicated to helping managers effectively manage their relationships with former peers, while at the same time adapting to their new leadership role. Generally speaking, two behaviors can emerge as managers begin to lead their former peers. One end of the spectrum is trying to remain "one of the guys" (or gals). This type of manager has difficulty making unpopular decisions, performing disciplinary action, performance evaluations, assigning responsibility, and holding people accountable. At the other end of the spectrum, one morphs into an unrecognizable individual that feels he or she must change everything the team has been doing and make it their own. After all, the leader is ultimately responsible for the success and failure of the team. This behavior oftentimes results in rifts between the leaders and the rest of the team. The following are some effective methods in making the transition from team member to leader. First, don't try and change everything at once. You will have plenty of time to implement your ideas and plans for success. Now the important part is getting your team on board with you as their leader. Second, get the message out that you will be even handed in dealing with subordinates. There will certainly be some subordinates you were closer with then others. The ones you were close with may expect some preferential treatment while others may expect to see you come down harder on them. Ensuring your team members you will be even handed will help them develop trust and respect for you as their leader. Next, steer clear of situations where favoritism might be perceived. In addition, repair rifts with former colleagues. There will certainly be some hurt feelings and disappointment among your peers. After all, you beat them out for the job. Some peers may also harbor ill feelings from previous conflicts that you may have been engaged in. Take action to repair these rifts and work towards establishing positive relationships. Finally, clearly define your role and what your expectations are. You are the leader act like it. Let your peers know what you expect of them and hold them accountable for their performance. Stepping into a leadership role involving peers can be a very challenging situation. Difficult situations will certainly arise and tough decisions will have to be made but that's why you're the leader. By clearly establishing goals and expectations of every team member and ensuring the entire team that you will not play favorites and everyone will be treated equally you will be able to establish your credibility as an effective leader an ultimately lead a more successful team. ## Leading a New Team You've spent the money, done your homework, and earned your degree now you have the job. You are now leading your own team. Now, how do you do it? How do you establish your credibility to team members you have never met? What are their expectations of you? How do you instill confidence in your team about your leadership abilities? How do you handle questions and concerns about your leadership abilities? The following section is dedicated to assisting new leaders in managing their teams and promoting success within their new role. As the new leader you need to take charge. You may be replacing a great leader who had great success and admiration from his or her team and the shoes you are expected to fill may be great. Or you may be replacing a leader who was despised by his or her team and the team was a disappointment. Either way, there are several challenges leaders face as they step into new environments as team leaders. They may be dealing with high expectations and questions from their team such as, "That's not how so and so would do it" or "How will this new leader be different from the last". Despite how the team may have performed in the past it's your ship now, the success or failure of the team is your responsibility. Your team needs to know that you are committed to being their leader and leading them to success. Communicate your goals and expectations clearly to every team member. Let them know the importance of their role in the team. Be sure to give your team the time and resources to achieve their goals and give them the training to achieve their goals. Your team needs to trust you and one of the best ways to gain their confidence in your abilities is through your example. You were hired for a reason, obviously your boss has confidence in your abilities. Now is the time to showcase them for the rest of your team. Your attitude and the manner in which you perform your tasks will be infectious. The way you act and interact with your team will ultimately reflect the way you and your team will perform together. Next, be accountable. Problems will arise and mistakes will be made and at times human nature prompts us to deflect blame or try and spin things in a better way, after all no one wants to be blamed for a major screw up. Effective leaders know how to stand up and be held accountable. Finally, never underestimate the power of effective listening Take the time to get to know your people. Effective leaders must be willing to see the team from the team's perspective. As a leader you may have your own vision of what success is, if your team has a different vision than you, the team will never arrive at the same point of success. Talk to each individual team member, find out what is important to them. It is the only way you will know how to effectively motivate them. Individual interviews with each team member can be very effective in helping to establish positive relationships within your team. Furthermore, you can gain valuable insight into the nature of the team and how you can effectively use the team's resources to achieve the team's goals. Be sure to act upon the information you gain from your team through your individual interviews. Involving your team's insights will help create a culture of trust and unity within your team and their insights may oftentimes be more profound than your own. Build up your people, give them responsibility and hold them accountable. Praise and recognize them when they deserve it. When they perform poorly let them know you expect more from them. They will respect you more as a leader and most often will be inclined to perform at a higher level for the success of the team. Certainly leading a new team is a challenging role filled with many obstacles. Creating a positive environment is essential in achieving success as a team. After all, the team\'s performance is indicative of the leadership abilities of its leader. By taking charge, leading by example, listening, and taking action you will be able to instill confidence within your team. You will also establish your credibility and, ultimately, have more success as a team. ## Establishing Credibility and Avoiding Pitfalls Having or establishing credibility from the outset can make leading a team easier and give more leeway in decision making while leading a team (when it is done right). This section is easy when things go right. What about when they don\'t? The first thing you should never do, is try and save face by pushing the blame onto someone else. This rarely works in the long run. You would hope the people in your team are smart and, as a consequence, see through this. Members of the team may play dumb at the moment to avoid conflict, but they will not appreciate you for it. This will always be in their mind when dealing with you. \"Will they try and pin the next thing that goes bad on me?\" Think about those you respect most in your organization. Not who has the most influence or power, but who you respect. This is the type of person who is honest with themselves and their coworkers (this includes subordinates and higher-ups). When was the last time you were upset with someone for fessing up to an issue they caused before someone else mentioned it? Or graciously accepted criticism for a perceived or a real issue they may have caused? You may have been upset with what happened or the consequences, but think about your respect level for the person. This is most likely a person you would go to bat for in a tight situation, because you know they would have done their best and improved where they could. Taking this type of stance yourself, can go a long way in negating any issues that may happen early on in a group that question your ability to lead a project. Most problems boil down to communication. Members of the group may have different interactive styles based on backgrounds or individual disciplines. Failure to accommodate different communication styles can lead to misunderstandings and possibly questioning abilities. One way to help members understand you is to give them an instruction manual. Even a cheap \$25 tape recorder has instructions, why not you? Let your manual say, amongst other things: \"Here\'s what gets me going,\" \"Here\'s what annoys me,\" \"Warning! Here\'s what will get you in trouble.\" These types of suggestions are probably better suited for a manager, but they could also work for subordinates or peers. Other sections of the manual could include: \"Ask me to \'get to the point,\' "If a description is not clear, please ask to be more concrete,\" \"Warn me if I am heading down the wrong path,\" and \"I tend to refer to statistics when I am uncomfortable with a topic.\" This type of instruction manual of yourself can be useful as a daily reminder to yourself on what you need to work on. Others, even timid ones, can call you on one of your issues without fear of offending or overstepping bounds. It will show you are truly looking to do your best and eliminate perceived inabilities caused by communication breakdown. As result, they will know where you are coming from. ## Conclusion During this chapter we have touched on a few items which can affect your credibility as a team leader. The issues we have discussed are common, but there are many more reasons why you may have lost credibility with members of your team. Knowing how to deal with common reasons for losing credibility will help you when other issues arise. Hopefully the latter part of this chapter has given you some insight into how to, in general, establish, maintain, and restore your credibility as a team leader. You will never be able to please everyone, but you can certainly do your best to be an effective leader and use the information in this chapter to help you credibility as a leader and an example to the rest of you team. ## References The Wall Street Journal Online, Joann S. Lublin, January 7, 2003, Job Candidates Get a Manual From Boss: \'How to Handle Me\' <HTTP://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1041881615563021064,00.html> Abrashoff, Michael D. 2002 It\'s Your Ship Career Journal Online, Erin White, November 22, 2005 \'How Some New Managers Supervise Their Former Peers\' <http://www.careerjournal.com/myc/management/20051122-white.html>
# Managing Groups and Teams/Managing Leadership Transitions ## Introduction The transition period of replacing a leader within a company is often not a very costly time for not only the company, but all personnel involved. In the 1992 study \"Turnover and Evole Models for Family Leave,\" researchers J. Douglas Phillips and Barbara Reisman estimate that the cost of replacing a top-level manager is about 150 percent of the manager\'s base salary. These costs can include: accrued annual leave, substantial severance pay, executive recruitment activities, interim management costs and numerous intangible and indirect costs. This chapter examines how to successfully manage the transition from team member to team leader. It is important to have an effective strategy for this transition because it has a direct impact on the future performance of the team and its leader. This transitional phase sets behavioral norms for team members, establishes performance standards, affects members' motivation, and creates the leader's and members' perceptions about their ability to excel as a cohesive unit. Data from Development Dimensions International 1 concerning leadership transitions states that nearly one out of every five \"people managers\" rank transitioning leadership as the most challenging life event one could experience and at the strategic level, these numbers are even higher, often times placing transitions above divorce, managing teenagers, moving and even becoming a parent. The managing leadership transitions chapter is divided into multiple sections and is designed to be either read completely or referred to simply as reference. The first section examines the functional and psychological impacts that this phase can have on team members and transitioning leaders. The second section explores the challenges that a newly promoted team leader faces when establishing influence over the team members who were once teammates. The best methods for establishing influence over a team are also assessed. Section three provides practical advice for newly promoted leaders to accelerate the transition process from team member to full fledged team leader, while setting both the leader and the team up for future performance success. ## Functional and Psychological Impacts of Transitioning from Team Member to Team Leader Being promoted to a team leadership role brings many challenges. One of the more difficult obstacles encountered is when promotion occurs from within the team. The new leader finds him in a position of authority over a group of team members he previously worked alongside. This can result in struggle for both the team and the leader as roles are reassigned and individuals adjust to the new relationship. As companies and schools place more emphasis on teamwork, people find themselves facing this conflict of moving from peer to supervisor more often. What may have once been an easy relationship based on shared experiences is now one of shifted dynamics and unease among the team. Despite the increasing occurrence of this event, the transition rarely goes smoothly and often is unsuccessful. In an attempt to better understand why some individuals succeed in making the change to team leader, many studies have been done to help identify root causes and potential solutions. Among those concepts identified are social biases and role conflict. In this section we hope to further explore these concepts and the role they play in the team member to team leader transition. The newly promoted team leader may find them struggling with role conflict. He/she must learn how to balance the relationships built as a peer and the new responsibility of acting as the boss. Maurice B. Mittelmark's editorial \"Social ties and health promotion: suggestions for population-based research\", comments on studies which examine role conflict and its adverse psychological and functional impacts. As applied to transitions from team member to leader, the article supports the proposition that new leaders will be less successful at managing the team and more psychologically stressed if the leader tries to maintain multiple roles, as teammate and team leader. "The Role Conflict situation is that in which multiple roles... are perceived to demand too much time and attention\..." The article places "emphasis on multiple roles as the stress factor, not on too low capacity to perform as expected (although P \[the team leader\] may nevertheless take blame for not being able to manage somehow)." A real world example of the significant impact of leadership transitions occurs at a US Freightways hub in Holland, where they have been able to study the effect of transitioning terminal managers. The US Freightways hub in Holland has 59 terminals and regularly sees a 20% annual turnover in terminal managers, thus nearly 12 transitions per year. Taking the 12 transitions per year and multiplying that by the average effective time of 4 months per transition, US Freightways calculated that at any time, 4 terminals or nearly 7% of their hub were consistently operating ineffectively. The calculations performed by US Freightways follow: ```{=html} <center> ``` $(59-Terminals * 20\%-Annual Transitions = 11.8-Transitions per Year)$ $\begin{matrix}&(11.8-Transitions per Year * 4-Months per Transition / 12-Months per Year\\ &= 4-Terminals Consistently Operating Ineffectively)\end{matrix}$ ```{=html} </center> ``` When a team leader proves ineffective at managing the team member and team leader role, the psychological stress of trying to juggle multiple roles and consistently meeting deadlines will ultimately cause the leader to fail. The failure is more often a result of this stress than the increased functional workloads associated with performing the tasks of team leader. Role conflict can also occur because of commitment and the brain's strong tendency to want to be consistent with prior actions. For example, employees may lock themselves into certain roles by telling coworkers "they'll always be there to support them." However, when those employees are promoted the roles change. The promoted employees may find themselves stuck in certain roles because they want to remain consistent with what was said beforehand. In the example where a supervisor has to layoff a previous coworker and friend, dissonance is created and will interfere with the supervisory role. One of the first steps a new leader must take in order to increase their chances of success is to establish a policy for assessment and accountability. The role of each team member should be assessed along with a focus on accountability for each role. The leader is accountable for his team\'s results; each team member should know his or her roles and responsibilities. By establishing clear expectations from the team, the leader will be better positioned to lead. Most importantly, with proper planning and training on the part of the new leader, role conflict can be managed more successfully. While there may be resistance from group members for a variety of reasons, whether it is resentment of being passed over for the promotion or doubt of one\'s leadership skills, it is probably in the best interest of the new supervisor to deal with those people on a case-by-case basis. Initially both the new leader and former peer may be hesitant to continue a social relationship outside of work; this does not have to be the case. As long as both parties are able to recognize and acknowledge that work stays at the office. In addition, the transition may be helped if the new leader is able to focus on the opportunity of the new position, not just for him, but the team. This will help in 3 ways: 1. Provide framework to help separate coworkers from the leader 2. Make the promotion and new leadership more of an uplifting goal 3. Encourage new associations to be created for the promoted employee and the new set of peers (other leadership members) ## Challenges and Methods for Establishing Influence over the Team Imagine that you have been part of a team that has been working on a project. Having worked closely with each other for some time, each participant has become familiar with the skills and competencies of the other members and the team dynamics have been such that all consider themselves peers, having equal skills and knowledge to bring to the table. Now suppose that management is unhappy with the disappointing results that have come from this team effort and they have asked you to lead the team to the desired outcomes for which it was first established. Would you expect this new appointment to be met with resistance from your peers? Actually, team members who transition into a managerial or team leader role in the midst of an ongoing project can face a wide array of challenges in asserting their newfound influence. Most likely the new leader is now in charge of his/her peers and it may prove difficult for team members to take direction from someone whom they still consider as an equal. The transition period for a new leader is encumbered with a variety of resistive tendencies that may not only cause delays, but also a significant loss of focus which will lead to even greater problems down the road. Once the group dynamic changes, already existing social biases can be augmented or new social biases can arise that can further complicate the matter. Underlying social biases like false uniqueness, recency biases, and stereotyping can begin to emerge and become a prevalent part of the team atmosphere. According to Gerardo Okhuysen in his article "Managers and Social Processes" these biases have the definitions described in the table below. Social Biases Definition --------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- False Uniqueness The false uniqueness effect refers to the tendency we have to underestimate the number of people who do what we do, and like what we like. Recency Biases As we gather information about others or about situations, we give much more weight to information that is acquired recently, sometimes completely forgetting all the things that happened before. Stereotyping This is a tendency we have to simplify the world by putting people into a category, and then fitting the individual into the stereotype of that category. These definitions take on life when put in the context of practical application. Returning to the scenario at the beginning of this section we can show how these social biases are applied to real situations. Social Biases Situation ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- False Uniqueness As you begin to lead your group of peers false uniqueness may arise when your team members respond to your leadership by thinking that if they were chosen to lead the group they would have handled it differently, when in reality if given the same circumstances they would have acted exactly as you have. \\|Recency Biases While leading the group you may react to any negative feedback you are getting from your team by labeling them as inherently difficult or unyielding in spite of how agreeable they may have been in the past. Your bias is a response to their most recent behavior and you have nullified all prior knowledge. Stereotyping As you take on your new leadership role the team members may now attribute characteristics to you that they feel are possessed by all managers. They may attribute to you characteristics of pride, arrogance, and self interest rather than an interest in the group, whether or not you actually display these characteristics. While the competitive nature of many companies can certainly increase the likely occurrence of the above issues regardless of the influence the leader has; often these disruptions are signs that the newly assigned team leader's authority is not properly recognized. Interestingly, problems stemming from a lack of leadership authority are much more likely to surface when promotion occurs from within a team. An example of this occurred in a small defense company in California. The generation gap between the two main engineering levels was quite vast. As the project moved forward, inconsistencies in the management style of the senior project manager resulted in a prompt changing of the guard. The most qualified individual was of the younger generation and was well liked by his peers for his outgoing and fun personality, but the project manager position was not all fun and games. The six months that followed where riddled with faulty product development, severe lapses in judgment and many test series that were absent from oversight by project management. Being promoted from within caused the new project manager to be put in the difficult position of having to be in charge of the same co-workers he amused just the day before. In order to lead effectively, a manager's authority must be well established. In Robert Cialdini's book, Influence, the Psychology of Persuasion, he determines "authority" to be the most effective method for leaders to influence team performance and describes the various aspects of authority as encompassing perceptual cues, such as titles, positions and appearance, concrete knowledge and expertise. In general, superficial cues such as formal titles or a list of accolades that may lend to the authoritative image of an _unfamiliar_ manager cannot serve an individual promoted from within a team who is already well known to the group. Managers who are promoted from within an existing team face a unique challenge with respect to establishing their influence primarily as a result of the perceptual components of authority. The logistical and social components of leadership transitions also provide a unique challenge to any new leader, whether he/she is from inside the company or an external hire. Just as a strong functioning team can be one of the greatest assets to a manager and the entire company, an ill performing entity can rapidly bring a process to a screeching halt. It is almost certain that the new leader of any team will be different than the previous leader, be it in management style, attitude or vision. These qualities, however good or bad, must be accepted by the entire team in order for them to collectively move forward and maintain a strong status. In retaliation to change, a vault of resistive pressures may be unleashed toward the new leader ranging from severe lack of urgency and distraction to jealousy and animosity towards all management. ![](Crime.svg){width="120"} Project meetings can quickly become less orderly, employees can lose focus and general chaos ensues. Many social biases including false uniqueness and stereotyping can create a wall between the new leader and his/her subordinates. The reoccurring ideas that \"I could have done that better\" or \"he is a typical suit that does not know what is really going on here\" can slowly begin to implode the team environment. Although many of these examples seem extreme, transitions in leadership often do cause logistical delays leading to a temporary rise in social bias among subordinates. In a recent article by Sotiriou and Wittmer, "Influence Methods of Project Managers: Perceptions of Team Members and Project Managers\", the authors present the findings of three separate studies that attempt to measure the importance of various factors relating to managerial influence. "Expertise" was examined as a separate factor in the project management studies but showed almost identical ratings to the "authority" component, suggesting that these components are very closely related. The studies also provided evidence that knowledge, when used as an influential method, is highly correlated to a project manager\'s overall effectiveness. It is evident that newly promoted managers are therefore best served by leveraging their knowledge and expertise, to help establish authority within their new role. Robert Cialdini however, identifies "liking" as an important factor in enabling people to influence others and he endorses a persuasion technique that leverages "liking" or friendship as a way for leaders to influence team members. In a situation where a colleague is promoted to a leadership role, the new manager might hope to rely on friendship ties with former peers to help motivate the team and encourage them to take direction. Managers choosing to use \"liking\" as a strategy for empowerment should be aware that often times team members adopt a familiarity with the new manager that is consistent with his or her collegial or "friendship" role and therefore do not properly respond to the new supervisory role. Once a proper blend of expertise, knowledge and \"non-liking\" has been established, management becomes further complicated by the familiar "us vs. them" mentality that is quite common in organizations. While it is not always appropriate to rely on friendships to motivate and direct team efforts, it is still necessary to eliminate adversarial relationships between team members and team leaders. Cialdini identifies "contact and cooperation" as valuable methods of unifying groups that may originally perceive themselves to be at odds. "Conjoint efforts toward common goals" can help to overshadow contentious relationships and leaders often benefit from incorporating the inherent team challenges into a strategy focused on the major goals of the project. This approach is echoed by Sotiriou and Wittmer's project management studies that identify the "work challenge" as the overall most important factor contributing to the positive influence of project managers. These results further support methods of motivation that emphasize creating a meaningful and challenging work environment to help transitioning managers become effective team leaders. Managing leadership transitions is a very difficult thing to do, but there are excellent strategies that can help ease the burden on everyone involved. A well rounded combination of expertise and knowledge will foster an authoritative position for the new leader. The \"liking\" factor, often present when an in-group employee is promoted, can be very valuable in establishing strong positive influence. However, one must always be aware of the potential social biases and resistive tendencies of once peer, now subordinate employees. Strong leaders should work toward creating a challenging and satisfying work environment that not only focuses the team on common project goals, but also demonstrates that the leader\'s influence can and will lead the team to produce effective and positive outcomes. In the transition period for a new leader, the window of opportunity is short and he/she must be willing to make great strides toward establishing a solid influence over their team. ## Practical Advice for Accelerating a Leadership Transition A change in leadership of a project team requires a period of transition for everyone involved, especially the new leader. One of the best resources for practical and applicable advice about how to manage this period of transition is The First 90 Days: Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels by Michael Watkins. This book offers a structure and framework to help new leaders manage and accelerate the transition process that comes with their new role. The book identifies ten key challenges for any new leader. We have adapted these ten challenges which can be applied when a project team member transitions into a team leadership role; later we will discuss the challenges we feel are most important for this particular situation. The ten challenges are as follows: 1. Promote Yourself: Change your mindset to reflect the realities of your new position. Don't assume that what has been successful for you in the past will work for you today. Your new position may require you to acquire and develop new skills in order to guarantee success for you and your new team. 2. Accelerate Your Learning: When transitioning into a leadership role within the same company or team, the learning curve will be less steep, but an open mind is vital to any new leader's success. As a member of the team, you were probably familiar with the industry, the company, your competitors, and the market, in addition to your own specific functions and responsibilities on the project. However, as the new leader of the team, you may not know the exact details of your teammate\'s responsibilities, so learning about these from your team members will be essential. 3. Match Strategy to Situation: You need to understand the current business situation, and identify its unique challenges and opportunities. As a member of the team, you should have a good idea as to what the consequences and implications of transition will be, as well as a good sense for the team dynamics. A clear grasp of the situation will help you to develop a winning strategy in managing and accelerating the transition. 4. Secure Early Wins: Building credibility will be essential to establishing your new role on the team, and securing early wins is the best way to achieve this. Formal authority over your former peers will only carry you so far before your team members start to think, "I could probably do a better job." Securing early wins will demonstrate to the team that you can plan and achieve tangible goals for the group, and they will probably be more willing to follow your lead. 5. Negotiate Success: Perhaps the most important relationship in your new leadership role will be the one between you and your new boss. It will essential that you plan and execute a series of conversations with your new boss regarding his/her expectations; ask what resources will be available to help you develop your team. 6. Achieve Alignment: Ensure that your goals, your team's goals, and the organization's goals are all in alignment. 7. Build Your Team: Inheriting a team can produce a variety of interpersonal issues. Depending on the nature of your transition, you may or may not be given authority to make personnel decisions immediately or at all. A thorough and careful assessment of the situation will help when making recommendations to your boss, and assist you in your own decisions as how to restructure your team for optimal performance. 8. Create Coalitions: Your success will greatly depend upon your ability to influence people outside your direct line of control. As the new leader of the team, you are the voice of your team to the organization at large. You should not only build and maintain alliances with the people on your own team, but also with the key individuals within the organization who are necessary to the ultimate success of your team. 9. Keep Your Balance: Transitions are extremely difficult to manage; it is easy to lose perspective, become isolated, and make bad decisions. To help maintain a balanced perspective, you need to develop a strong advice and counsel network both within your team and within the organization. 10. Expedite Everyone: You need to not only accelerate your own transition, but the transitions of everyone you work with -- direct reports, bosses, and peers. The most important challenges that pertain to a team member stepping into a management or leadership role relate to those challenges described in numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 from above. What follows is a detailed description and how the challenges apply to each situation. Challenge 1: "Promote Yourself," relates to the psychological transition that a team member must make when promoted to team leader. As discussed in section one, newly promoted leaders must change their perception of themselves and re-frame their roles within the team. While it may seem that the re-framing would be most difficult for the leader's former peers, in reality it is the new leader whose own behavior must change. For example, team leaders will have to forgo the informal chit-chat and chumminess they may have formerly enjoyed with their peers. Also, managers probably won\'t be included in all of the after-hours fraternizing or social activities of the team. Challenge 2: "Matching Strategy to Situation," is arguably the most important challenge for a team member transitioning to a team leader. Without fully understanding at what stage the project team is in, a new leader will be unable to tailor the correct managerial approach to the team's current situation; as a result the team will fail to achieve. Watkins recommends using the STaRS model (Start-up, Turn-around, Realignment, and Sustaining Success), as a framework for helping to diagnose the team's current situation. A transitioning leader must identify the challenges and opportunities facing the team in order to recognize the structural implications underpinning their team's ability to perform. Those who move from team member to team leader likely do so as a result from an organization\'s need for realignment. Often in a realignment situation, the leader's challenge is to revitalize a team project which has deteriorated. In this situation, the leader must challenge engrained norms of behavior, convince team members that change is warranted, as well as restructure and refocus the team. These challenges are offset by potential strengths already inherent in the team; team members' prior success serves as motivation for wanting to achieve future success. Watkins' assertion that transitional leaders must match their strategy to the team's situation is in line with Hersey and Blanchard's Developmental Theory of Leadership. This theory matches leadership style to group maturity. Group maturity is a function of time, and leadership style matches relationship-orientation and task-orientation to the group's stage of development. In the case of transitioning leaders, the group may be mature when the teammate is promoted to team leader, but because the dynamic of the team is now changed, the leader may need to adapt his/her leadership strategy to fit the formative stage of team development. In the formative stage, the new leader should first focus on the team's tasks. After this initial phase, the leader should then heighten his/her relationship-orientation, while maintaining equal focus on task-orientation. Challenge 3: "Secure Early Wins," is essential for establishing credibility as the new leader of the team. These early wins should be "team wins" as opposed to wins for the new leader. This will help build the perception that the new leader is effective not just in managing his or her own work, but more importantly getting the team to work together toward common goals. Watkins asserts that a new leader's "earliest actions will have a disproportionate influence on how they are perceived" New leaders are perceived as more credible when they display a specific managerial style. This style, according to Watkins, consists of six components. A new leader must be (1) "demanding but able to be satisfied" (motivating members to commit to and achieve realistic goals,) (2) "accessible but not too familiar" (establishing approachability without compromising authority,) (3) "decisive but judicious" (communicating the ability to take charge without making hasty big decisions,) (4) "focused but flexible" (establishing authority but consulting team members and encouraging team input,) (5) "active without causing commotion" (building momentum without overwhelming,) and (6) "willing to make tough but humane calls " (ensuring decisions are fair and preserve team members' dignity.) Challenge 4: "Negotiate Success," is another challenge that is essential in almost any situation. Ultimately, your boss is the main person who will be evaluating your team and your individual performance, which are directly tied. So establishing criteria and tangible objectives with your new boss is essential. Also, keep in mind that these goals may have been set for you by your predecessor, but as part of Challenge 3, you must evaluate these objectives and determine if they are still realistic given the transition period required for the change in leadership, this and other factors which your predecessor might not have taken into consideration. Leaders in Transition Additional Time Spent ----------------------- ----------------------- Communicating 64.7% Planning 60.8% Building A Team 60.0% Strategy 58.2% Influencing 57.1% As seen in table to the left from Paese and Wellins - \"Leaders In Transition: Step Up or Step Off\" of Development Dimensions International 2, communication and planning consume vast amounts of time from transitioning leaders. In a study performed by Evolta 3 , 60 --65 % of all transitioners make their transition without special support from transition-based help firms. Often due to the fact that it takes transitioners 6 - 9 months to become fully effective and efficient in their new positions, a startling 35 - 40% of transitioning leaders fail. Although the change in leadership of a project team requires a period of transition for everyone involved, the transitioning leader has many tools available to make the journey as pain free as possible. Following proven strategies for smoother transitions and possibly seeking the advice of leadership transition training by companies like Evolta, transitioning leaders can not only reduce the time involved, but also increase their likelihood of success. ## Conclusion This chapter focuses on how to manage the transition from team member to team leader, when working in a team-based organization. With the reality that \"internally sourced leaders are failing 33% of the time\" and \"very few leaders feel that organizations are doing the right things to prepare their future leaders\" (Paese and Wellins), the pressure on transitioning leaders seems insurmountable. Although the mountain is high, a key aspect of a successful transition is an effective strategy. The importance of a successful transition not only lies with the leader, but also with the future performance of the entire team. The psychological impacts of the transitional period may include role conflicts and the animosity and personal doubt of other \"passed over\" teammates. Stress and impaired functionality are often negative outcomes that commonly arise from role conflict and often the best way to overcome such role conflict is to simply relinquish the prior teammate role and frame the leadership role as a definitive new challenge. Once the new leader has successfully changed his/her perception from team member to leader, the leader must establish influence over the team. Although this may be extremely difficult at times and require the entire team to overcome strong social biases, the results of a meaningful and challenging work environment are well worth the effort. One of the best ways to influence a team is through a combination of leveraging knowledge, expertise and \"liking\" to focus the team around a common set of goals. This combination of techniques not only establishes the leader's credibility within the team, but it also primes the group to visualize accomplishing future goals under such leadership. Finally, even with extensive training and a thorough understanding of the social biases that may be present during your transition, it is the actions of the leader that matter most. We discussed topics like how to \"promote yourself\", \"match strategy to situation\" and \"negotiate success\" as excellent ways to accelerate your transition period. By opening your mind and following some of the aforementioned guidelines for leadership transitions, anyone can successfully transition into a coveted leadership role with confidence and finesse. ## Links <http://www.ddiworld.com/> <http://www.evolta.org/ngcms/v2/htdocs/index.php?cat_id=1000137> <http://www.patrickmckenna.com/PatrickJMcKennaBrainmatterArticlesWhitepapers11.aspx?ID=50&NavID=40110> ## References Briles, J. 2004. Changing from Peer to Boss has its Challenges. The Denver Business Journal Cialdini, R. Influence, the Psychology of Persuasion Dickey, M. 2002. Tips for Making a Leadership Transition Run Smoothly. The Chronicle of Philanthopy J., G. 2004. Training: Helping People and Business Succeed-Sink or Swim. Training Magazine Mittelmark, M. 1999. Social ties and health promotion: Suggestions for population-based research. Oxford University Press Monaco, L. 2004. What changes when you\'re the boss?. Business Training Library Perets, A. 2002. Who\'s the boss? Tips for managing friends and former peers. Tech Republic Sotiriou and Wittmer, Influence Methods of Project Managers: Perceptions of Team Members and Project Managers Watkins, M. The First 90 Days: Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels Wellins, R. Leaders in Transition: Stepping Up, Not Off\" Matt Paese
# Managing Groups and Teams/New Leaders ## What are the basic roles that a new team leader needs to know? Four of the key roles that a new manager must master are that of planning, organizing, directing and controlling. Especially when the new supervisor is being promoted from team member to team leader, the new supervisor will be forced to learn these roles in order to be successful in his new role. ### Planning First, it is essential that the new manager become proficient in planning for his team. Failure to effectively plan can create problems that require a great deal more time and effort to correct than would have been required to develop a good plan. To plan effectively, the new manager must address the following questions: 1. What is the task? 2. Who will perform the task? 3. How should the task be performed? 4. When must the task be completed? In considering the above questions, the new manager must take the time to identify and evaluate all of the possible alternatives before making a decision. Involving team members in this part of the planning process can yield a greater variety of possible solutions and factors that need to be considered. Once the manager has developed the plan by answering the above questions, it is critical that the manager effectively communicate the plan with the team members. No matter how well thought out and perfect the plan, it must be understood by the team. ### Organizing In order to accomplish the goals and objectives set forth in the planning stages, the new manager must learn to effectively establish the structure of the team and the people that are part of the team. In organizing the structure of the GROUP, the manager must determine how to best align the resources at his disposal to reach the team's goals. The manager must make good decisions in creating formal job descriptions and accountabilities for his team members and develop processes that can be improved upon. By giving team members enough structure to help them understand their roles and accountabilities, team members are clear on what is expected of them and understand how to be successful at their jobs. Secondly, the new team leader must organize the people within his team. Some of the important steps in organizing the people on the team include: 1. Understanding the factors that make a team member successful in his job 2. Interviewing to find the right candidate to join the team 3. Establishing and providing effective training for new team members 4. Ongoing training and development of team members By providing sufficient structure to team members, selecting the right members for the team and training team members, the new manager can effectively organize the team and increase the probability of success. ### Directing The most difficult and complicated role that a new supervisor must learn is that of directing. Once the manager has planned for his team, set forth structure within the team, and selected and trained team members, he must then develop the skill necessary to direct his team in the work. The main skills that must be mastered are leading, communicating, and motivating. Although leading is a difficult skill to teach, there are several skills that a manager can develop to become a better leader. Some of the key skills that can be developed are: 1. Empathy and the ability to listen and understand others point of view 2. Understand own strengths and weaknesses and how they affect the team 3. Show team members a willingness to work 4. Show and spread excitement within team 5. Show willingness to take on responsibility Another key skill that a new manager must develop to become proficient at directing his team is communication. Effective communication is centered on the receiver of the communication receiving the same message as was intended by the sender. A new manager must take initiative ensure that the communication within the team is achieving the necessary results. ### Controlling The final role that a new team leader must learn to perform is controlling the team. Once the roles of planning, organizing and directing have been fulfilled, the manager must be able to control the work to be completed by the team. The steps that are involved in establishing control over a team are: 1. Establish a means to measure performance 2. Measure results against established metrics 3. Make corrections to performance to meet established performance goals By following the above steps, the new manager can gain a means of understanding the team's strengths and opportunities for improvement, as well as identify best practices within the team that can be shared with the other team members. Along with following these steps, it may become necessary to discipline employees who are unable or unwilling to change their behavior in order to meet established requirements. By learning the roles of planning, organizing, directing, and controlling, a new manager can acquire the skill necessary to quickly become effective at his new and important role. ## What are some of the key roles a manager needs to take on to be effective? Must have authoritive manners but still remain open and slightly passive to gain ideas, opinions to help in decision making ## What Are the Best Options for Arranging a Team and Assigning Team Role? A primary reason for forming and working in teams is that the combined skills and expertise of the full group can be more effective than the contributions of individual members. The team needs to act in tight coordination with each member performing his or her task correctly and at the right time. When it works, it is easy to forget the team leader's role in making it happen. Team leaders have many challenges to overcome before the team can fulfill its purpose. Before a team can start work toward reaching its objective, the team leader must identify shared goals and outcomes and align a group of individuals them, identify the resources that the team needs and make arrangement to provide these resources, make assignments that help improve the skills of each individual while still benefiting the team, help the team run smoothly, and ensure that the team accomplishes the task at hand. It is like the old adage that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. You have to get the right mix of people. To do this you have to understand what each person brings to the group and match those people to the right roles. Once this is accomplished, the leader's job is to help the assigned individuals function together as a team. It is important not to have too many or too few member. To be effective, there needs to be a balance between the number of member and the number of role and responsibilities assigned by the team leader. Too many members can result in a team that is hard to manage, too few members and there may not be enough resources to complete the task. Before building a team you must define the capabilities your team will need to be effective. The team leader must be clear on the objectives that need to be met. Start by identifying the type of work the needs to be performed. Define the team's objectives. Then look at those goals and desired outcomes and list the skills, certifications, expertise, and talents that will be needed to accomplish those goals. Some of these may be very specific while others are of a more abstract nature. The following five-step analysis, as outlined in the book "Building Effective Teams", Duke Corporate Education, can be very beneficial when trying to identify the resources available and the roles where individuals may be most effective. 1. Define your team's current responsibilities. Make note of what skill sets are utilized to make the team work now. 2. Define the tasks that the team will be responsible for a year from now. Make note of the skill sets that will be needed. 3. Take an inventory of the team members and the skills that they have. Make note of any dormant skills that team members have the potential to enhance and bring to the group. 4. Compare the tasks in step one and step two with the skills that your team has. Are there any gaps? Do you have back-up for each person? Where can cross functional roles help provide redundancy? 5. Consider readjusting the team. Are there areas that need development? How quickly do they need to be developed? What capabilities should you look for in seeking new members? When assigning roles you must also look at how the members work together. Personal challenges can have a definite affect on how the team works and how quickly tasks are completed. Make a list of the norms that you want for your team. If you want everyone to finish work at 4:30 the night before a meeting, don't look to someone who is a last minute type of person. If you want a casual working relationship where ideas are shared easily, don't look to a person who always wants sole credit for work done. Look for and find people who can fit into your list of norms. Members of the team need a clear understanding of what is being asked of them. They need to know that if they are unclear they have someone to go to. They need support and direction at every step. It is the leader's job to find out the goals of each team member. If a team member feels that their personal goals are being met they work harder for the team. There is no "I" in team but there is a "Me." Team members want to continue to grow and will grow with the team if they feel like their goals are being recognized. The following is a checklist, again derived from "Building Effective Teams", to help identify the roles each member may be capable of performing. - Make sure you start with a clear understanding of the work to be done. - Complete a gap analysis as previously described to identify individual talents and how best to employ them. - Learn your team members' aspirations as well as their current skill sets and align their roles to support these objectives whenever possible. - Understand your organizations strategic direction and structure the team so it has the flexibility to make any changes necessary to stay aligned with corporate objectives. - Determine your overarching priorities. Make sure the objectives of the individuals are not allowed to interfere with the objectives of the team. Individual roles may have to be adjusted over time to help keep the team priorities at the forefront. - Scope the work to match the capabilities of the team members you have to draw from as much as possible. This often involves negotiation to shape the roles to the members and the members to the roles. Keep in mind that there are a number of roles that can be formally assigned within teams in the interest of helping workflow proceed as effectively and efficiently as possible. It is the team leader's responsibility to perform an inventory of the resources they have to draw from and align those resources with identified team roles. While there may be some roles that are fundamental to most teams, each objective is different and therefore each team is unique. It is the process of identifying which roles are necessary in a given situation and which individuals are best suited to perform those roles that determines the effectiveness of a team leader. ## What Relationship Aspects Can Be Defined in Advance to Assure Success? When given an opportunity to grow within the company, there are challenges that come with the excitement of moving up the corporate ladder. These challenges are centered in the relationship "baggage" that one can bring with them into their new position. So what aspects of this baggage can be defined early so as to avoid any problems and assure the type of success that brought you into this new position? John C. Maxwell, in his book, The 360 degree Leader, suggests that the aspects fall into two categories. First, there are leadership principles that one must develop while still part of the body of the team before the promotion. These are 1) avoid office politics, 2) let the best idea win and 3) don't pretend your perfect. (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) Second are a group of principles that need to be developed after the upward move is made. These are 1) develop team members as people, 2) place people in their strength zones and 3) model the behavior you desire. (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) Maxwell feels that the development of leadership from inside of a team can be a very difficult challenge. Mostly the relationship baggage the new leader brings is the months or years of established interaction with co-workers. This baggage can be minimized with some concerted effort when interacting as a team member. First, Maxwell defines playing politics as "changing who you appear to be or what you normally do to gain an advantage with whoever currently has power." (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) Many organizations drive people to feel that they must play these politics to get ahead. The suggestion made by Maxwell is that once a person participates in these politics, their reputation among their peers is one of trying to get ahead without merit. As this person moves into leadership roles, based on performance or not, that reputation among his peers will follow him and his leadership will be largely ineffective. Second, in competitive corporate environments many middle managers are fighting to have their ideas heard and recognized. Many will do so at the expense of the larger company or at the expense of others around them. As a team member, before promotion, a reputation of fairness and open mindedness needs to be developed so that once the promotion does come that reputation will be useful. This is done by listening to all ideas, don't take rejection personally, don't let personality overshadow purpose and finally, protect creative people and the ideas they generate. (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) Finally, while working within a team, one should never put on the air of superiority, even in success. The way to combat this is to be real when dealing with oneself. Be quick to admit faults, ask for advice and worry less about what others think. People who are real draw others to them and are easily trusted. Once the transition has been made to the leadership role, the relationship baggage is still there and still needs to be dealt with. The person in this role is no longer seen as a team member but an ex-team member. With that said, there are still the relationships that one has brought with them. These relationships can continue to develop on a personal level. First, each team member must feel that the leader is interested and willing to help them continually develop. The leader must understand that each team member is different and needs to be dealt with differently. Additionally, by establishing organizational goals that help each person develop outside of the work environment they will feel that the leader is helping them move toward personal progression. (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) Second, many leaders fail in finding the "sweet spot" of each team member is essential as a team leader. Many people feel under utilized when they are performing tasks that do not challenge them. By spending the time to understand strengths and then allowing team members to maximize those strengths, new leaders can develop successful teams. Finally, good leaders will always lead by example. Leaders that move up through the corporate ladder by performing at high levels, achieving goals and being real can then expect the same behavior from the teams they now lead. This principle may be the most important. (Maxwell, 2005, Thomas Nelson) ## References - Building Effective teams, Duke Corporate Education, Dearborn Trade Publishing.
# Managing Groups and Teams/What should a New Leader do when entering into an existing team? ## Introduction "The actions you take during your first three months in a new job will largely determine whether you succeed or fail. Transitions are periods of opportunity, a chance to start afresh and to make needed changes in an organization. But they are also periods of acute vulnerability, because you lack established working relationships and a detailed understanding of your new role.",[^1] These words by Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days, are a great summary of new leader transition within an organization or a group. In general, team leader transitions fall into two categories. The first category is better known as "internal leader transition" and occurs when a team member is ascended as team leader from within the very same team. The second category, better known as "external leader transition" occurs when a new leader, from outside the team, is assigned to an existing team. The distinction from internal or external leadership is important because the costs, risks and effects between the internal and the external leader transition differ substantially. The difference is attributed to several factors that Manderscheid [^2] summarizes below: - Outside executives are not as familiar with the organization's structure and the existence of informal networks of information and communication. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Outside hires are not familiar with the corporate culture and therefore have greater difficulty assimilating. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - External candidates are unknown to the organization and therefore do not have the same credibility as someone who is promoted within. The effects produced by a new leader joining an existing team depend on the intervention to prepare and adapt the new leader to the new team and the organization and vice versa. This intervention is known as leader assimilation. According to the consulted literature on leader transitions, although several authors recognize the importance of an intervention in leader assimilation, little research has been conducted to explore its effectiveness. (Manderscheid, 2008) Recent research made by Alexcel and the Institute of Executive Development [^3] contains interesting data from 150 executives and talent professionals across diverse industries and companies. A summary of this study prepared by Cindy Kraft [^4] concludes that: 1\. Global CEO turnover is approximately 15% according to a 2007 study by Booz Allen, a decade--high number. Other studies suggest 40% of new leaders fail within the first 18 months. And Aon Consulting reports a 50% chance an executive will quit or be fired within his first three years. 2\. Ninety two percent (92%) of respondents said it takes 90+ days to reach productivity and 62% said 6+months. And even after making it through the first 90 days and the first 180 days, a significant percentage of external executive hires are gone within two years. 3\. While not as long as with external hires, 72% of respondents said internal executives need more than the "first 90 days" to get up to speed, and 25% said 6+ months were needed. 4\. Thirty percent (30%) of external hires fail to meet expectations in two years and the fail rate of internal senior executive transitions is 20%, representing millions of dollars in losses at the executive level. Among all respondents, 68% indicated fail rates are related to a lack of interpersonal and leadership skills; 45% of respondents indicated it was a lack of personal skills; and 41% of respondents attributed underperformance to goal conflicts between the executive and the organization. ## What circumstances prompt a change in leadership? There can be internal and external circumstances in an organization environment that require a change in leadership. These various factors could be organized in three main groups: 1. Changes in the environment - Usually, changes in the external circumstances of an organization require a change in leadership to help the organization to adapt to the new environment. There could be changes in technology, competitors, suppliers, buyers, substitutes and potential entrants that require some radical changes in leadership to solve the new challenges. 2. Changes in the architecture of the organization - The internal circumstances usually prompted by alliances, joint ventures or merger and acquisitions demand changes in the structure of the organization, as well as changes in leadership to rebuild the organization according to these changes. 3. Changes in the vision of the organization - In general, there could be changes in goals, scope, competitive advantage, logic of an organization that could be prompted by internal or external changes, or simply as a way to change the path of the organization thinking about the future. Leadership transition in any group or organization is going to raise some questions from both internal and external stakeholders of the group. Some of the questions that may arise during these transition periods can be: - Vision: What's the company's strategic story going forward? - Vision: Does the organization need the successor to be a visionary? - Architecture: What are the operating requirements over a three- to five-year time horizon? - Architecture: How is the organization changing? - Environment: How will the top executive roles need to change to fit new business demands? - Environment: Should the person have deep operational credibility and experience? !Chart 3- time to productivity\\|500px[^5] The above chart depicts the amount of time that can be be needed if the new leader is coming from outside of the organization or group. The analysis emphasizes two points; first that the amount of time for an external candidate to adapt to their new environment can be considerable and second; that planned leadership changes can be the most successful in preparing both the new leader and the team by allotting more time and resources to create a successful transition. The most crucial time in the integration process is labeled the transition phase. During this period both the team leader and team members should focus on activities related to structuring the team, planning the team's work, and evaluating the team's performance such that the team will ultimately be able to achieve its goal or objective in order to establish the structures and processes that will enable future effectiveness.[^6] Although there is no comprehensive data comparing planned vs. unexpected leadership changes, the importance of a planned transition phase that helps create a functional team is supported by the fact that external executives can take less time to be productive or to jump from the transition to the action phase leadership functions, if they integrate successfully to the team and the organization, which is the objective of the transition phase. ## What are the advantages of bringing in a new leader New leader assimilation is a difficult task that usually represents a large investment for an organization. The high rate of failure in new leader assimilation requires a process to create a successful transition to reduce the high cost and frustration in this process [^7]. High costs and risks associated to bringing an external new leader have to be inferior to those associated to promoting an internal new leader as it is compared in the chart below: !Chart 4\\|500px\\|center[^8] A list of circumstances in which hiring an external leader could be more beneficial than hiring an internal one can include: - New thoughts/ideas: Usually a new leader can bring new perspectives and ideas to solve innovation and change problems in an organization that the same organization cannot solve using its own resources. As we talked earlier, there could be radical changes in the environment, the architecture and the vision of an organization that could require new leaders to affront these new challenges. - Solve conflicts or evaluate processes: There is a dispute that cannot be solved using internal resources, and it is required to hire somebody else to establish a new order. - Lack of resources: Organization does not have internal resources to provide the desired leadership and need to hire an external one, but this circumstance can be a good opportunity to hire somebody who could inject fresh blood to the organization. - Experience in new markets or cultures: Expansion usually requires experience in new markets and cultures that the organization does not have. Internal experts usually make assumptions from their own market experience that cannot be applied directly in new markets or cultures. - Gain Industry experience: Before a company is launching a new product or entering a new industry, they might look to external hires for industry expertise in order to minimize risks and maximize opportunities. - Rapid growth: Companies can grow rapidly and they simply do not have the internal resources to provide leadership into the expansion and creation of new functional areas or divisions. ## What are the possible difficulties (and possible solutions) faced by the new leader? We most often see organisations looking to outside sources for leadership change. That is to say, for a leadership change that will cause cascading changes that permeate throughout the organisation. While a new leader brings new perspectives, new thought processes, new decision making styles and other numerous advantages, it also brings challenges. In the Harvard Business article, Right from the Start, the article opens with the story of a new leader joining an organisation as an "outsider". Some things he lacked that the insider would know would be the detailed knowledge of the organisation, its structure and systems, its politics and culture. \"His situation was complicated because, coming from the outside, he had to simultaneously manage a personal transition and lead an organisational transformation, in addition to managing their accession to the top job. Together, these elements of transition, transformation and succession constitute a challenging scenario for a new corporate leader." (Ciampa & Watkins, 2005) Challenges resulting from the change in leadership are not just had by the new leader but they are faced by many throughout the organisation. The comfort that is felt by choosing an "insider" isn't just a comfort for those managing the position but it is a comfort for those who are being led by that position. A new leader can face an assortment of challenges from subordinates, especially if they were more in favour of a different candidate to be their new boss. A new leader has the possible situation of managing those who were interested in, and perhaps applied for, the position. You might find your team has no want of a leader and they feel they can manage the tasks at hand without your help. Additionally, a new leader can find themselves in a situation where their team has no desire for change or growth or see no need for enhancement. Perhaps the individual whose position you are taking has been absent (emotionally, mentally, or literally) from the team for such a great deal of time, your new employees aren't sure how a "leader" fits into the group. The following five challenges, along with possible resolutions to such challenges, are discussed by Ciampa and Watkins in the same article, Right from the Start. 1. Acquiring needed knowledge quickly - If you've been in a new leadership position you've probably expressed something similar to "there was so much I didn't know." We know some of what we don't know and yet there are things that we don't know we don't know. Find them out. The learning curve is steep and there is little time available during this early transition period for considerable error. You must move quickly to make the transition for yourself and the organisation. "The new leader may lack critical knowledge in any or all of three domains -- technical, cultural, or political." `<ref>`{=html}. Ciampa, D., & Watkins, M. (2005). Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role. Harvard Business School Press , 336. ```{=html} </ref> ``` 1. Establishing new working relationships - The challenge comes because you are leaving a comfortable, secure environment where you know the people and have established relationships to enter a situation where you know no one and have no connections. It is impossible to function at a high capacity without the essential components of relationships and networking in place. It makes it vital to establish productive, working relationships and build credibility as soon as possible. "Even under the best of circumstances, it takes time to establish productive working relationships. The new leader will have met few of his peers and subordinates, and his knowledge of their expectations, hopes, and concerns will be based largely on the opinions of others. New leaders cannot fully control how they are perceived by the people who in large part will determine their success." `<ref>`{=html}. Ciampa, D., & Watkins, M. (2005). Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role. Harvard Business School Press , 336. ```{=html} </ref> ``` 1. Juggling organisational and personal transitions - It's important not to just be reactionary when entering this new organisation full of unknowns and uncertainty. Establish the prevailing tone and pace you desire to utilise to shape the organisational change that has been the aspiration for your addition to the company. Recognise that the change mandate may have been recently delivered to the employees, possibly in the same breath that they are told 'Oh yeah, we also have a new leader coming on board.' Recognise that you will have a variety of employee perspectives from anxiously awaiting change, to sceptical and unbelieving, and perhaps still others threatened by the arrival of an unknown person to this position of power. It might be difficult to recognise who is reacting in what manner at first but little if anything can be done to avoid this. Understand and anticipate that you might have little control over some aspects of this situation but still try to make the best of it in whatever means possible. 2. Managing expectations - The expectations start as early as the first phone call. The search team and you, as the candidate, both had expectations of this new situation. Both wanted to give and receive something from the formation of this new possible relationship. It is important to manage and set reasonable expectations throughout this time. Additionally, employees' expectations are inevitably affected by rumours and hearsay as well as the official declaration when a new leader is announced. Unfortunately, a new leader has little to no control over this. "All he can do, typically, is to try to comprehend the prevailing expectations and to deflate--carefully--those that are dangerously high while taking advantage of those that are useful." `<ref>`{=html}. Ciampa, D., & Watkins, M. (2005). Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role. Harvard Business School Press , 336. ```{=html} </ref> ``` 1. Maintaining personal equilibrium - "Some version of the first four challenges confronts all new leaders during their transitions. Handling them successfully often depends on maintaining emotional balance and exercising clear-headed judgement." `<ref>`{=html}. Ciampa, D., & Watkins, M. (2005). Right from the Start: Taking Charge in a New Leadership Role. Harvard Business School Press , 336. ```{=html} </ref> ``` You will inevitably feel a mix of emotions when taking a new leadership position: anticipation, excitement, fear, uncertainty. This is natural. The important part is keeping balance of all aspects of your life and recognising you are setting a standard by how you react to these emotions. Is work/life balance important? What is a "normal" work week? Remember that others are watching your reactions and you are in fact modelling the behaviour which can set the tone for your tenure of leadership as well as the tone for your organisation. Overcoming obstacles of possible conflict before they become insurmountable is extremely important in this new undertaking. Asserting oneself and reaffirming that you were the best possible choice for the position while not offending or isolating your new team is a complicated process. It's important to create momentum from the beginning and to harness any excitement and positive components that you've got going for you. One of the key decisions that you need to make, when you are replacing the leader of a team, is whether to promote someone from within the team, or to look for someone from outside of the group. Both of these options have advantages in certain situations, and both present challenges to overcome as well. ## When replacing a leader, what are the advantages of promoting someone from within the group? When you are replacing a leader who has been doing a good job, and the team is on the right track, it is often a good idea to promote a new team leader from within the existing team. One of the major advantages of promoting from within is consistency. Leaders promoted from within the team already know what is going on. They are familiar with the team\'s goals, processes, and culture, and therefore can usually step right in to the leadership role and keep things going with a very short transition period needed. ` Promoting from within also sends signals to the rest of the members of the team. When a teammate is promoted to a leadership position it signals to others that there are opportunities for growth within the organization. It also signals to the team that they are on the right track and they are doing a good job. Both of these signals can help to support the morale of the team members and encourage them to keep moving forward.` ` There are some challenges that may arise from promoting a member of the team to a leadership position. The new leader may struggle to make the transition from a team member and friend to leader and boss. Some members of the team may feel that they are more qualified for leadership position. Others may feel that their existing friendship with the new leader entitle them to special privileges above the rest of the team. “Allying the jealousy and winning the trust of those left behind, while still asserting authority, requires a diplomacy and agility that many [new leaders] lack. But they must master those skills if they hope to get ahead.” `[^9] ## What are the advantages of bringing someone in from outside the group? When the group is struggling to accomplish their goals and drastic change is needed, bringing in a new leader from outside of the organization can help to correct the course. A new leader who is previously not connected to the team can bring fresh ideas and insights to the table. They may also be able to refocus the team on the goals and can help to shift an ineffective culture. ` Again, making the decision to hire a new team leader from outside of the organization sends signals to the members of the team. In this case, the new leader signals that there are needed changes in the teams operations, and that the way things have been done in the past may not be acceptable in the future. The hiring of an outsider puts all team members on notice that their position within the team is not secure, and that other changes may follow if results are not achieved.` ` It is likely that a new leader who was not a member of the group will always be viewed as an outsider. This view creates challenges in getting cooperation from the team members, and in maintaining high morale. It takes time for a team to make an effective transition to a new leader in any event. If the leader is an outsider this transition usually takes longer and requires patience both from the new leader and the organization as a whole.` ` Rarely is the decision of whether to promote from within or hire from outside a clear black and white scenario. In most cases there are some things the team is doing well, and so some continuity is desired. At the same time there are usually some areas in which improvement is needed and change is desired. There are also issues regarding whether or not any of the team members are prepared to take on a leadership role which also must be taken into account when making the decision on where to look for a new team leader. The most important thing when making this choice is to be aware of the consequences (both good and bad) of that choice, and be prepared to help your new leader to be successful in their role.` We have examined the effects of a new team leader joining an existing team and in this section we will focus on how a new team leader can take advantage of the opportunity that initially exists without becoming prone to the vulnerabilities that also exist. ## The transition process plan. Tools and resources. There are a number of traps that can await a new leader throughout the transition, however if the leader can focus on key points during this time they can be much more successful both in the short term and long term. In a letter written to Vikram Pandit during his transition to CEO of Citigroup Michael Watkins and Dan Ciampa noted the six leadership lessons that they have learned through their research of leadership transitions. [^10] A summary of these lessons is below: 1. Identify critical alliances within the group and organization -- This step of the process involves identifying powerful internal and external constituencies and gaining their support. If a new leader can convince these influential individuals that it is in their interest for the leader and their strategy/goals to be successful they can quickly gain their much needed support during the transition. Examples of these influential individuals which the new leader will want to identify include key senior members of the group, leaders of other groups within the organization, executives or board members within the organization and influencers within the partner or customer organizations. 2. Get the right team in place fast -- As a new leader transitions into his role within the group or organization it is inevitable that they will inherit senior members of the team which are holdovers from the previous leader. The key here is to identify those with the skills, knowledge and background to help the new leader and their goals succeed. The most difficult task as a new leader is to remove or disrupt the senior membership of the team or organization but is essential for both the short and long term success of the leader. If they want to create a successful team that will share their vision it is important to get the right team in place fast; even if it requires replacing key people from the previous leader's team. 3. Secure early wins -- As seen in the movie 12 o'clock high it is important for a new leader to demonstrate tangible successes to the team as soon as possible following the transition. The wins do not have to be large relative to the overall goal of the team; in fact it is suggested that they are small but the necessary component is that the results are tangible so that the group can experience success early on under the new leadership. Pick the low hanging fruit first. 4. Lay the groundwork for effective communication -- As a new leader joins a team everyone is closely watching their actions and listening to their words searching for signals and directions as they try to figure out who the leader is and what the new leader is all about. This is why it is crucial to clearly define and communicate your priorities, values and expectations early in the transition. If you want to influence the group and get buy-in as the leader it is key for them to know who you are and what you are all about. One effective method to accomplish this is through a new team leader assimilation meeting. In this meeting the team leader simply presents himself and who he is, both personally and professionally, and asks his team members do to the same. This open and collaborative communication early in the process allows for barriers to be broken down between the new leader and the team's members. 5. Shape your vision -- This is not the mission of the company or the group, rather it is a vivid mental image of what the new leader sees as the future for the group. It should be a picture of what is seen, heard, and felt when the group fulfills its mission and objectives. The key people within the group must be inspired by this vision if it is to be effective. 6. Build and use a balanced advice network -- This could be the most important of all of the key areas to focus on. Too often new leaders come in with an attitude that they are in place because they know everything about the group's objective or process. This is most likely not the case and new leaders can run into troubles when they are in fear of the vulnerability which can be created by showing their lack of specific knowledge related to the group and make a decision simply because "they are the leader". To avoid this trap, new leaders should build a well balanced network of individuals within and outside of the group. This allows for the new leader to accelerate the learning process when it comes to group culture, market trends, products, etc. This can be the most effective tool in the new leader's arsenal. Successful transitions within a group can also be influenced by actions taken by the organization or team prior to the change in leadership. Many companies and groups develop succession plans in advance of the departure of the current leader as a way to lessen the downtime and soften the negative effects which result from leadership transitions. Perhaps the greatest benefit among these plans is the ability to transfer organizational knowledge from the outgoing leader to the incoming leader however to effectively accomplish this it is important to identify potential new leaders in the early stages of the succession plan [^11]. ## Recommended steps for a new team leader Lessons learned from leadership transitions in the political arena can also be applied to new team leaders in the business sector. In an article discussing the quick departure of New York Governor Elliott Spitzer and the accession of then Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, Rick Lash, North American director of the leadership and talent practice at Hay Group identified five critical points to aide in a smooth transition. [^12]. 1. Don't step into the old leaders shoes -- If following a well liked leader it is important not to get into a popularity contest; conversely if you are following a leader that experienced negativity throughout their time in the role you do not want to be overly concerned with making the same mistakes. Simply put you need to be yourself and follow your own vision. In establishing credibility and a loyal following amongst the team it is important that they see you for you and not a mold of the previous leader. 2. Stand up for what you believe in -- One of the first steps is to let those around you within the group to know what you stand for. Often as a new leader you have skills, values and beliefs that others aspire to have and it is essential that you communicate this to those within the group. 3. The great pretender -- All new leaders stepping into a role within the group are going to have some knowledge gap of essential information specific to the group which they will have to learn. There is always going to be the fear of being ill-prepared as the new leader, however those that are successful are the ones that effectively deal with this natural anxiety as they step into their new role. 4. Listen and learn -- A new leader of a group should not be completely consumed with wanting to take action in the beginning of the transition. While it will be important for them to share some small successes with their team early on, it is also important to listen with an open mind. This step can help the new leader in gathering important information that may aide them in making future decisions which may have gone unnoticed or overlooked if they are only concerned with taking action and making changes in the early stages of them assuming their new role. 5. Seek advice -- This can be the most problematic and difficult trap for a new leader to overcome. After taking over a group new leaders tend not to reach out to others for advice, rather they solve problems and uphold their image as the leader at all costs. The reality is that the best leaders are those that are able to recognize their weaknesses and seek out advice to make the most informed decision possible. Both Gilmore and Watkins suggest the same basic tools for a new team leader to have a successful transition including effective communication and building an environment of collaboration around you. In addition Peter Fischer offers a framework for effective leaders to avoid typical pitfalls and mistakes during their transition in his book "The new boss: How to survive the first 100 days." This framework which has been summarized by the Leading Blog website emphasizes the new leaders ability to identify and prioritize what is important and more importantly what is not, their desire to develop key relationships early in the process and most importantly the leaders ability to impart confidence and trust throughout the transition by communicating their vision [^13]. Leaders who make transitions successfully Leaders that are less successful in transitions ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Possess superior knowledge and familiarity with the field and readily distinguish between what is important and what is not Often come from outside the field and take too long to get their bearings Recognize and develop key relationships, deal adroitly with hidden rivals and predecessors, build networks in the organization, and show that they are team-oriented Focus too much on the tasks to be accomplished, neglect the development of working relations built on trust, and tend to prefer to work things out alone Know how to group the many issues and problems into a vision and to motivate the employees Pursue too many approaches at the same time without a persuasive strategy and focus on eliminating weak points Communicate with senior management on strategy and style of leadership Accept unclear expectations from senior management Have knowledge about the process of changing leadership and impart confidence and trust because they can assess developments Are too easily surprised, concentrate only on changes and thereby neglect the employees' need for stability and security ## References [^1]: . Watkins, M. (2003). The First 90 Days. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Publishing. [^2]: . Manderscheid, S. V. (2008). New Leader Assimilation: An Intervention for Leaders in Transition. Advances in Developing Human Resources 2008 10 , 686 - 702. [^3]: . Alexel / Institute of Executive Development. (2008). Executive Transition Market Study. <https://www.execsight.com/Resources/View.php?id=323>. [^4]: . Kraft, C. (2008). Executive Transition Market Study. <http://www.cfo-coach.com/2008/06/executive-transitions-market-study.html> , 1. [^5]: . Alexel / Institute of Executive Development. (2008). Executive Transition Market Study. <https://www.execsight.com/Resources/View.php?id=323>. [^6]: . Frederick P. Morgeson, D. S. (2009). Leadership in Teams: A Functional Approach to Understanding Leadership Structures and Processes. Journal of Management 2010 36 , 5-39.. [^7]: . Alexel / Institute of Executive Development. (2008). Executive Transition Market Study. <https://www.execsight.com/Resources/View.php?id=323>. [^8]: . Alexel / Institute of Executive Development. (2008). Executive Transition Market Study. <https://www.execsight.com/Resources/View.php?id=323>. [^9]: `. David Koeppel, “Executive Life; A Tough Transition: Friend to Supervisor” New York Times March 16, 2003` [^10]: . Michael Watkins, D. C. (2007, December 18). Advice for Vikram Pandit, the New CEO of Citigroup. Retrieved October 2010, from Harvard Business Review: <http://blogs.hbr.org/watkins/2007/12/advice_for_vikram_pandit_the_n_1.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-listserv-_-APR_2008-_-leadership> [^11]: . Hakala, D. (2008, August 21). Promoting from within. Retrieved October 2010, from HR World: <http://www.hrworld.com/features/promoting-within-082108/> [^12]: . Gilmore, A. (2008, April). In With the New: Leader Dos and Don'ts. Retrieved October 2010, from Talent Managment: <http://www.talentmgt.com/newsletters/talent_management_perspectives/2008/April/587/index.php> [^13]: . The Leading Blog. (2008, June 13). Retrieved October 2010, from www.leadershipnow.com: <http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2008/06/how_to_survive_the_first_100_d.html>
# Managing Groups and Teams/A balance between management and leadership In the business world of today, there seems to be a halo afixed to the term Leader, while the term Manager is seen to have something of a stigma. \"Leader\" brings to mind heroic figures rallying people together to give their all for a cause, while \"Manager\" brings to mind less-charismatic individuals trying to make people into more effecient cogs in the corporate machine.\'\' When one considers this definition of Management (from Wikipedia) one can see that Leadership is actually a sub-catergory of Management: \"Management (from Old French ménagement \"the art of conducting, directing\", from Latin manu agere \"to lead by the hand\") characterises the process of leading and directing all or part of an organization, often a business, through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible).\" One can manage their time, their budget, their fuel, and yes, their people, but one can only lead people (or to be more inclusive, we should say one can only lead intelligent living things, since shepards and dog-trainers would object to a homo sapiens-centric definition). Then perhaps the perception of a cog-manipulating manager is rooted in this difference between animate and inanimate objects. It is when we feel used, manipulated, or led against our will by a person in authority over us, we feel as if we are being treated like an inanimate object. We say the person in authority is a lousy manager. But when the person in authority increases our own autonomy, makes us feel at liberty to accept or reject his/her vision, and fills us with a real personal desire to bring this vision to life, we say he/she is a great leader. When applying these concepts for \"manager\" and \"leader\" in the setting of a team, we find interesting results: If there is a team leader that is perceived to be unconcerned with the team members needs, or has a personal agenda more important than the team\'s goals, then the leader is perceived to be more of a \"manager\" and becomes estranged from the team members. Conversely, the team leaders most admired and loyally followed are those who show concern for the team members as individuals with real needs, and are those who put \"The Cause\" of the team above their own persona agenda. Realistically, most organizations do need leaders who sometimes look at their teams with cold, analytical eyes, evaluating inefficiencies and making unpopular choices. But it would be a mistake to think that one has to be an \"estranged, unliked manager\" in order to execute these responsibilities. If a team leader\'s tasks such as efficiency analysis were done hand in hand with sincerely seeking to know team members individual needs, then the team leader would be perceived to have a genuine desire to make the team more successful. Additionally, ineffective leaders may hide an unwillingness to make tough decisions by faking the \"touchy-feely\" attitudes associated with great leaders with high emotional-intelligence. It is my opinion that effective leadership is a uniquely human institution, and there isn\'t a team that couldn\'t profit through better \"leaders\" rather than better \"managers\" --using the titles as metaphors, of course. One can still balance all the practical demands of a \"manager\" with the beneficial traits of an inspiring \"leader.\"
# Managing Groups and Teams/Effective Team Leadership There are many elements that create and are essential to be an effective leader that has the power to motivate a team and drive success. There is often a balancing act that the leader must manage between being a leader and a member while ensuring the goal is clear and obtainable. There are six leadership competencies that are the building blocks to becoming an effective leader; focus on the goal, ensure a collaborative climate, build confidence, demonstrate sufficient technical know-how, set priorities, and manage performance as described When Teams Work Best by LaFasto and Larson. Therefore, the question arises, "Does an effective team leader both merge into the group as a member of the team and also maintain a leadership role? And if so, how?" A leader is the key player in the game that is comprised of challenge and risk. Therefore, an effective team leader must be both a component to the team and also a leader to manage the team's progress. The leader cannot possibly be competent in every area without being engaged in the team. The leader must know each member and the team as a whole in order to bring them all together and create a process that is open, productive, and promotes confidence. An effective leader uses each member's contributions and energy to focus on a common goal. Essentially, a leader's job is to add importance to the team's effort, which cannot be done without being a member. It is very common for a team leader to be in the dark about their team and the everyday operations. This is a consequence of a leader's disengagement and lack of membership with the team. Moreover, the team's contention usually gives birth at this point and lends itself to decreased productivity and satisfaction. An effective leader needs to be able to pinpoint problems and praise excellence within the group, which cannot be done from the sideline. The leader is a part of the overall process; therefore, a relationship naturally exists. However, it is up to the leader whether to nurture that relationship or minimize its importance. The team leader must understand the team's vision and clearly define the goal to guarantee success and member loyalty. One cannot lead a team without knowing the purpose and goal of the team. Furthermore, a team leader must create a collaborative climate to ensure that the best thinking and ideas of the team are represented. Again, a wholesome climate cannot be established without knowing the members and becoming engaged in the team. The foundation of a highly motivated and successful team is the member's understanding and relevance of their goal. An effective leader's trust in the team goal is vital to the member's commitment. The members become isolated and discouraged when the leader's investment is minimal. Team members want the opportunity to prove their value and worth to the goal and the leader. The leader must be involved and a member of the team to effectively influence the member's productivity and function in the grand scheme of things. There has been a gradual progression and contemporary focus on the leader's mutual relationship with the members as opposed to the authority position in the modern day. This leader-member relationship breeds trust, confidence, stimulation, responsiveness, and problem solving which are the keys for success and satisfaction. As demonstrated, an effective leader should be a part and merge with the team and simultaneously lead and encourage it's constituents toward the goal. The leader can bring inspiring growth or demise to a team and company; therefore, it is essential for a leader to be effective and powerful.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Dictatorship vs Leadership The glory of a leader can be plagued and overshadowed by many concerns that can affect the team's success. A leader must wear many hats and be able to lead and encourage a team to perform. It is necessary for a leader to become an engaged member of the team, but be able to lead at the same time. It is inevitable that different personalities, industries, and goals will force any leader to adapt and mold to fit the current environment. What is the best way to successfully encourage and lead a team? This is the million dollar question. Although each situation will present various opportunities and needs that a leader must meet, there will be some leadership styles that will impede the group each time. What is the appropriate balance between being a dictator and being weak or a push over? A leader must be able to relate to the team and earn their respect and loyalty to the goal. This cannot be accomplished by being a dictator and micro managing the team and the members. A leader must manage and master the core competencies as illustrated in When Teams Work Best by LaFasto and Larson to be effective and respected. When a leader is a dictator it violates the concept of the leader being a part of the team. However, when a leader is not active or an integral link in the process then an unqualified leader evolves from the team pool, which creates dysfunction and chaos. At one extreme of the leadership spectrum is dictatorship. When a leader is a dictator they feel better because they have control and power. Leaders that have a high desire for control will have a significant impact on the team. Team members can identify when a dictator emerges and at that point it is very difficult for the leader to break out of this defined mold. As a result, the members shut down because they feel their contribution and ideas are not valued. This hampers the team's identity, confidence, openness, and supportiveness. The ideas and actions now become that of the leader rather than a unique collection of the team. Conversely, the other end of the leadership spectrum involves being a push over or what can be interpreted as being disinterested or possessing little passion. When a designated leader expresses little desire or interest in the team goal then it is quite natural for an informal leader to emerge from the team. Consequently, the road toward the vision and goal becomes blocked with obstacles and the goal is more distant and foggy. Moreover, the members feel abandoned when the leader does not demonstrate a concern or responsibility in the decision. This forces the members to guess the leader's perspective and ultimately they begin to question their ability to lead, which devalues their trust and confidence in their leader. The ideas and actions of the group become less creative and effective because the members don't feel important. Therefore, a leader must discover the appropriate balance and walk the fine line. An effective leader needs to provide direction and share their ideas while building the member's confidence. It is much easier for a leader to argue and fight for their point of view when they haven't transformed into a dictator. A leader should manage their control and exhibit their care and passion by sharing the control with the team. When the control and power is balanced and shared between the leader and the team issues such as what gets discussed and possible solutions and actions now become a collective effort. Resultantly, this type of relationship and arrangement leads to a high level of trust and satisfaction. And it is common knowledge that these are fundamental elements for a productive and happy team and group.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Discipline So, how much should your team be disciplined? As team leader, are you wholly responsible? Clearly, whatever procedures and policies exist for your organization should be followed, but what if a team member is consistently late for meetings? Or if someone is social loafing? Should you be the one, as team leader, to correct the problem? Maybe not. Balancing between disciplining your team and building your team can sometimes be difficult and is often viewed as two opposite behaviors. However, by building a stronger team, you can also develop a team that essentially self-disciplines. By building in mutual accountability into your team, the team will become self-disciplining. Team building, to this end, should focus on gaining common goals, purpose, and process. Following the guidelines for team building can be essential in creating a self-disciplining team. Developing ground rules and assigning the task of ensuring each rule is followed to individual team members can be key. Additionally, spend some team time discussing and planning consequences for discipline. It can also be helpful for the team to create a visible method of logging or recording team measures, which should include: - the agreed standards to which the team is working to - how frequently each of the measures will normally be repeated - who should receive feedback on the results (this would normally be the team, but can include people outside the team if it is appropriate) - who is responsible for initiating the re-measurement process Team fun should be planned around the goals (both short term and long term). For example, team building "ice breakers" are great only if they further the mission and function of the team. Select "ice breakers" based on goals for that particular meeting. Need to increase communication among members? Play a game of "telephone." Need to work on creativity? Play a "think outside the box" game. Additionally, though, don't de-value general bonding and getting to know team members. Supporting the team barbecue or coffee break can go a long way toward improving team morale, as well as creating a team that knows and trusts each other better. In reality, though, teams may not easily become self-disciplining. How do you, as a team leader, then discipline a team in the real world without losing all the fun? If someone on your team is not pulling their weight, it is highly possible they are blissfully unaware of the problem. Find an appropriate way to talk to them about, be it during a team meeting (especially if it's a concern with more than one member) or one-on-one, using a task-oriented approach rather than a personal one. Perhaps there is another issue that needs to be addressed that you are unaware of. One of the worse things you could do as team leader, though, is to ignore the problem -- it will no go away or get better unless you can address it. Remember, too, that you may need to ultimately remove someone from your team, if there is no resolution, no solution, and the team and the team goal are suffering. Finding that balance between fun and discipline is largely dependent on the goal of the team, and the situation and relationships of the team and you. It's largely a personal choice -- but a great team cannot exist without both. Ask for help from the team and share the responsibility of discipline. Keep track of expectations and progress and share the information with the whole team. Build the team to trust each other and perform for each other. Teamwork is difficult, but with a well lead team results can be fantastic, and yes, even fun.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Poor Leadership ## Introduction When studying the topic of leadership as a whole, academic thinkers have generally ignored the concept of poor leadership. This was, in fact, a major obstacle to our research. The death of poor leadership research is in stark contrast to the numerous volumes of books that have been written on how to be an outstanding leader. This presents a bit of a paradox---how can we hope to teach good leadership without explaining the pitfalls of bad leadership? To exclude bad leadership from the \"conversation and curriculum is misguided, tantamount to a medical school that would claim to teach health while ignoring disease\" (Kellerman, 11). Modern leadership literature is biased towards a positive representation of leadership: \"\[the literature\] assumes that people can learn to be leaders and that to be a leader is to be a person of competence and character\" (Kellerman, 4). Further, this bias is a recent one. Before the twentieth century, leadership was viewed more as a question of how to control bad leaders than how to create good leaders. For example, Machiavelli did not consider morality in his treatise on leadership. In fact, he stated that "A prince never lacks legitimate reasons to break his promise" (Machiavelli). He assumed that brutality was simply a part of leadership and the world. The U.S. Constitution and the protections built into it were primarily designed to stop bad leadership and protect people from it (Kellerman, 6). Nowadays, however, we tend to look for the good in our leaders rather than dealing with the reality of bad leadership. Leadership studies, therefore, reflect the positive associations that modern American business and cultural thinkers have attached to the term rather than the more neutral view that might also be applied. Almost all contemporary work focuses on this as well. The implicit assumption in most leadership literature is that we can learn to be leaders if we try hard enough. Well, what happens if your leader has not learned to be a good leader? Our goal in this chapter is to expose readers to the varieties and signs of bad leadership, and in so doing better prepare them for the inevitable time when they have to deal with poor leadership in their own lives. Since there are many, many shades of gray to leadership (both good and bad), we cannot hope to address all possible situations in this paper. What we can do, though, is provide the reader with a sense of what to be aware of and on the lookout for, and how to take preventative measure to curb the spread of bad leadership. Ultimately it is up to each individual how to approach a bad leader or deal with an instance of poor leadership. ## What Is a Leader? For the purposes of our discussion, leaders are people who are making decisions on behalf of a team or group. Followers are everyone else in the affected group that gives at least limited deference to the decision maker. This broad definition can encompass small and well defined groups such as sports teams as well as large groups like major corporations. Regardless of the size of the organization there is almost always a leader somewhere in it. In this context, leadership requires followership. Leaders simply do not happen if others fail to follow them. Further, good leadership can be undone by bad followership and good followership is useless without good leadership. Bad leadership and bad followership often go together although the former is often a catalyst for the latter. To understand the bad leader/follower relationship, first we must define what a bad leader is. According to Kellerman, there are seven different types of poor leadership. ## Types of Poor Leadership Incompetent : "The Leader and at least some followers lack the will or skill (or both) to sustain effective action" (51). : An incompetent leader may, for example, not be comfortable with technology or may not have the foresight to see challenges on the horizon. Whatever the issue, this leader's lack of ability will have a negative affect on the team. Some followers may take advantage of the leader's incompetence while others may not perform optimally simply because the leader is incapable of challenging them to do their best. The end result can be a dysfunctional team where few goals are accomplished. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Rigid : "The leader and at least some followers are stiff and unyielding" (75). : Rigid leaders, unlike incompetent leaders, are capable of doing all that is necessary for the team to succeed. In the case of a rigid leader, the problem lies in the fact that the leader is unwilling to do the things required in order for the team to succeed. "\[T\]he key to the leader's evolving role always lies in understanding what the team needs and does not need from the leader in order to perform" (Katzenbach, 133), so leaders that are not willing to adapt and evolve pose a significant threat to their team's success. An unwillingness to change can be an attractive attribute to some followers and can lead the entire team towards solutions that are unimaginative and even counter productive. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Intemperate : "The leader lacks self-control and is aided and abetted by followers who are unwilling or unable to effectively intervene" (95). : Even the most talented leader can lead a team to foreseeable disaster due to a lack of control. An intemperate leader is like a gifted child who is incapable to controlling his or her basic desires, and thus cannot achieve the higher goals of the team. The leader's position of power may be used as a tool to satisfy the leader's personal desires. The end result can be devastating to the group through the loss of time and effort on things unrelated to the end goal. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Callous : "The leader and at least some followers are uncaring or unkind" (119). : Compassion and empathy towards fellow team members is what leads to trust. Trust is essential if a team is to "be comfortable being open, even exposed, to one another around their failures, weaknesses, even fears" (Lencioni, 14). Teams must be able to make progress; a good leader must "put team performance first" (Katzenbach, 131). A callous leader will destroy any good will that exists amongst team members leading to a fundamental breakdown of trust. The result is often that nobody will be willing to take risks or put forward new ideas for fear that the leader (or the entire team) will react with contempt or scorn. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Corrupt : "The leader and at least some followers lie, cheat or steal" (147). : Leaders lead by example. The result of corruption is going to be more corruption. Different team members will react to this in different ways. Some may feel alienated, others may take advantage of the situation. The worst case scenario is that other team members will want to resort to similar behavior as the leader. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Insular : "The leader and at least some followers minimize or disregard the health and welfare of people outside of the team" (169). : This can result in the team becoming the needless enemy of people who could otherwise make valuable contributions to the work of the team. While the team may have a great working relationship internally, members are always going to feel as though they are "under siege." ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Evil : "The leader and at least some followers commit atrocities" (191). : Regrettably some of the most evil people---such as Hitler---have had some of the best leadership skills. Evil leaders present a whole different problem and motivational scheme, and we do not address evil leaders in this paper. If you are working under an evil leader, we suggest you focus on your own welfare and get out immediately, if possible. ## Why Is There Bad Leadership? Bad leadership can be divided into two main categories; leadership skills and character traits. A leader\'s character traits will often determine his or her skill set. Leadership skills might include things like communication skills, organization, or responsiveness to others. Character traits would include things like intransigence, intelligence, or anything that is integral to the person and cannot be changed through education and reasonable effort. A leader can enroll in a workshop to improve a skill; on the other hand, extensive counseling might be required to change a character trait. This division of skills and traits has many shades of grey, but is useful for analyzing what is going wrong in a team. Good followers are distinguished by traits such as being self-directed, independent, and reliable. In this sense good followers make up integral parts of the teams they are involved in. Bad followers, by contrast, \"are weak and dependent, and they refuse in any significant way to commit or contribute to the group\" (Kellerman, 33). How followers act can be analyzed through Maslow\'s Hierarchy of Needs. In essence, every follower is constantly weighing the benefit of following against the benefit of not following. For every person there is a point when the benefit they derive is outweighed by the harm that is caused to them from their current course. At this point followers are likely to try to change their situation. This reality is encompassed in the behavior of followers. Followers will go along with bad leaders who fulfill their needs. If safety is the primary concern and a greedy tyrant can provide it, then followers are likely to consider that situation an acceptable one. But why would people in less extreme situations fail to act? They might not want to rock the boat. \"Getting along by going along\" (Kellerman, 23) is the primary goal in these cases. Someone with a steady job---under a terrible leader---who needs the job would have an incentive not to risk his career. Going along with bad leadership sometimes simplifies our lives and makes things easier. This may be the case even when we know something is wrong in the abstract (Kellerman, 24). We might look at the political decisions of many people across the world as an example of this type of thinking, such as those who have chosen in the past to follow leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, or Saddam Hussein. Following bad leaders may help to \"quell our uncertainty\" as Kellerman puts it (24). Leadership can help to eliminate the dissonance that we might otherwise encounter, even if leadership is flawed. Bad leaders may provide benefits to the group as well, such as order, work, or identity (Kellerman, 24). These are in addition to the benefits that the individual receives and in some cases might override them. We as groups are dependent on leaders to organize us. It may therefore be inconvenient to throw them out, and risky to everyone involved (Kellerman, 25). The interdependence we see in teams also occurs more generally between leaders and followers. It is bad followers that allow, and even encourage, bad leaders. If we are to stem the tide of poor leadership, we must exert effort at the follower level as well. ## Cost-Benefit and Skill-Trait Analysis At the core, we as followers make decisions based on a simple analysis of the costs and benefits. Everyone will follow to a certain point beyond which they are unlikely to continue to do so. This point is different for everyone. As followers, therefore, we need to keep in mind how well the team is doing and how it affects us. Almost everyone is engaged in a continual cost-benefit analysis of their actions. We suggest bringing this analytical perspective to the forefront when analyzing groups and teams. When analyzing the leader, it is appropriate to ask whether the problem stems from character traits or leadership skills. Followers should question what their commitment to the team is, what rewards it brings, what potential costs exist, and what the likelihood of success is. Finally, a follower needs to have a good sense of his or her relative power within the organization. Followers are capable of making informed decisions about their own future and their current situation, but only if they are armed with all the relative information about the situation. Followers must start by figuring out if the offending action on the part of the leader is caused by a character trait or poor leadership skills. Often the direct cause of the problem may be a poor leadership skill while the underlying cause of this poor skill is a character trait. The answer to this question is likely to determine how the problem can be addressed. A character trait is almost certainly beyond the ability of a follower in a group to address. In this case, followers need to simply continue to a basic cost-benefit analysis of the situation to decide what to do. Some problems may be possible to manage or avoid, but others may be so egregious that the follower is compelled to leave the team or organization. A problem stemming from poor leadership skills may have a more manageable solution, but followers must be realistically aware of what is required to change the skill. As in the case of problems stemming from character traits, there are no clear answers. Followers must simply evaluate the situation to the best of their abilities and continue from there. For example, a follower may be faced with a manager who constantly questions them about their use of time. While this is a direct problem with a specific way of managing people, it is probably caused either by a lack of management training or the manager's insecurity about his or her position and the work of the other members of the organization. The follower in this case should attempt to ascertain where the problem is originating from. After figuring out exactly what the problem is, followers can continue with a cost-benefit analysis. Followers in an organization need to ask themselves what benefits they are getting and what they might lose if they choose to change their behavior. When contemplating change, followers should also be willing to look at the new situation and recognize that there is a point where they will no longer participate. These situations vary among people and contexts, but each follower should make a conscious effort to define his or her own limits. For example, a player on a recreational soccer team will probably stop playing if she breaks her leg, but not if she skins her knee. In the case of a broken leg, it is more important to get to a doctor than to finish out the soccer game. The employee in the previous example might decide that the real issue is that the manager has no leadership skills and is insecure about this. In this case the employee would be forced to evaluate the manager's possible reaction to suggestions that they get more training or change responsibilities. These situations both illustrate the type of analysis that must take place. Followers may decide that the current situation may be unsatisfactory but they are unwilling to walk away. In this case, the goal changes from effecting change on the part of the leader to simply finding a balance where the situation is acceptable in some sense. This boils down to simply asking if the situation is tolerable---at least for the time being---and managing oneself and others to minimize damage or discomfort. Followers should also be looking to do things that will increase their relative benefits or decrease the costs for other actions. This will increase power relative to other people in the organization. This is only a framework for analyzing choices. Each situation will be different, but this type of cost-benefit analysis will give team members a good sense of how things really are. Followers, especially good followers, should be continually evaluating other people's actions and their own place within a situation, group or organization. ## What Should You Do if You Encounter Bad Leadership? Working in a situation dominated by poor leadership can be frustrating and intimidating. If team members are not confident in their leader, what should they do? This is one of the most difficult questions to answer, since there are no easy or clear answers. The best we can hope to do is provide a framework for thinking through these complex issues and devising an approach that is likely to be effective. Hopefully you have already begun to understand what sort of thinking must take place in these complex and delicate situations. Perhaps the most proactive stance to take is to hold our leaders responsible for their actions and/or misconduct. Followers should "seek to effect institutional changes that will make leaders more responsible and accountable" (Kellerman, 242). This could include implementing a system of checks and balance (restrictions on the leader's power), and should probably also include---if the team is a corporate one---strengthening the board of directors. In order to ensure that the board exercises sufficient oversight, boards should "consider reforms such as: establishing a governance committee; ...dividing the responsibilities of the chair of the board from those of the chief executive officer; and opening regular channels of communication to those on the outside" (Kellerman, 242). Followers can also act as watchdogs themselves, reporting fraud or negligence when they see it. It should be noted here that employees should watch out for themselves in the case of fraud---if an employee is involved in fraud, even at a minute level (such as knowing about it and not reporting it), he or she is likely to be brought down with the major players; this is an added incentive to monitor leaders and report illegal activity immediately (Maher, lecture). In addition to taking action, followers can help prevent bad leadership simply by being aware and prepared. Followers should be skeptical of what their leaders say and do. Leaders are real people, and subject to the same human downfalls and errors in judgment we all are. Followers must empower themselves, so that if the time comes they will be able to take a stand and halt or deter bad leadership. According to Kellerman, "people who think of themselves as followers don't usually think of themselves as powerful. But they are or...can be" (239). A good way to achieve empowerment is to band together; as we all know, there is strength in numbers. Followers should seek information from people other than the leader in order to gather "correct and complete information" (Kellerman, 241). If a follower (or group of followers) does decide to take action, collective action is best. Collective action could come in the form of a meeting to discuss strategies or "getting a small group of people together to talk to the boss" (Kellerman, 241). This is far preferable to speaking with the boss alone (at least regarding the poor quality of his or her leadership), and will help to prevent bullying or coercive groupthink. In some organizations, going over the boss's head is seen as politicking and inappropriate---we leave it to followers to decide what is appropriate and manageable in their own group or corporation. If nothing else, having a group of people who are in agreement aids in getting complaints heard and in substantiating claims of bad leadership. It also reduces a single employee's chances of getting hung out to dry, so to speak. As you may have experienced (or may be experiencing now), it can be extremely difficult to resolve these states of affairs (and improve or oust bad leaders) once the team or situation is already underway. If your organization does not have guidelines or conflict management channels in place, it can be near impossible to even approach your leader regarding his or her behavior---let alone change it. With this in mind, we recommend that every organization employ some sort of ombudsman, employee rights activist, or conflict manager for just such occasions. This position---or positions---would be responsible for handling disputes, especially those involving management. They could provide guidelines for approaching a problematic leader, and could even mediate the discussion. This position would ensure that employees would not be punished for bringing these situations or problems to light. There should also be clear lines of communication, so that followers and leaders know who to talk to regarding any concerns they do have. If we are to eradicate bad leadership, followers must be able to feel safe addressing their concerns. If your organization does not yet have an ombudsman or a similar position, we suggest you strive to implement one---before you need one. While there cannot be an exact prescription of what to do in any given scenario, we hope that this chapter provides new and comprehensive ways of analyzing and approaching the problem of ineffective or bad leadership. We cannot tell you exactly what to do, because every leader, every follower and every situation is different. The main thing to remember is that "once they're entrenched, bad leaders seldom change or quit of their own volition. This means it's up to us to insist either on change---or on an early exit" (Kellerman, 243). While it is of course best to prevent bad leadership from occurring in the first place (if possible), there are a number of ways to slow or stop it. If your efforts to improve poor leadership meet with blank stares---or worse yet, retaliation---it may be time to perform another cost-benefit analysis and decide if this organization is really right for you. ## Conclusions Every person who joins a team makes a decision to be a part of that team and has at least some form of commitment to the team's goals. Teams frequently have complex dynamics that team members need to be aware of from the beginning. It is useful for people to ask clarifying questions of themselves, of other team members, and of the leader---at the inception of the team and as the team progresses. Some or all of these may seem like common sense, but they need to be asked nonetheless. - Is there a clear and elevating goal? Can the team leader express it? - To what degree are other team members and I committed to the goals of the team? How has the leader influenced this? - Do I get along with other team members? Are poor relationships a result of poor leadership? - Have team rules been created, and are they being followed? Is the team leader supporting this? - What methods of conflict resolution are in place? Does the leader act as a mediator between team members, does the leader defer to another mediator when there is conflict between a member of the team and the leader? The answers to these questions should provide clues as to where any dysfunction is occurring. Followers can then choose to act as they see fit for the situation at hand. We advise all team members to analyze their teams and their leaders frequently and, if possible, to institute measures early to control and prevent bad leadership. If frameworks and communication channels are in place early on, it will be much easier to address concerns if and when they do occur. We regret that we are not able to offer conclusive advice for specific situations or types of poor leadership, but there is so much room for interpretation that we would not feel comfortable doing so. We hope to have given the reader an idea of what to expect from a poor leader, and ways to approach the situation and the leader to determine the most appropriate course of action. ## References - Katzenbach, Jon R. and Douglas K. Smith. The Wisdom of Teams. McKinsey and Company, Inc., 1993. - Kellerman, Barbara. Bad Leadership. Harvard Business School Publishing, 2004 - Lencioni, Patrick. Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Jossey-Bass, 2005. - Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince. University of Chicago Press, 1998. - Maher, Michael. Lecture, MGT 271, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, Spring 2006.
# Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Manage Global Virtual Teams? ## Introduction The rise of the Internet, the creation of a global fiber-optic network, and the rapid development of long distance communication technologies has made it very easy for people all over the world to work together. It created a global platform that has allowed more people to plug and play, collaborate and compete, share knowledge and share work, than anything we have ever seen in the history of the world (Friedman, 2005). The new communication technology gives teams a great advantage by providing many options that didn't exist before, such as allowing employees to work from their homes locally or by working together in teams across the continents. The nature of work has begun to shift from a production-based to service related business spawning a new generation of knowledge worker no longer bound to a physical work location. Taken together, these factors suggest that firms are faced with increasing challenges to coordinate tasks across time zones, physical boundaries, cultures, and organizational contexts. The increasing globalization of trade and corporate activity increases the pressure to innovate and provide quality services to worldwide markets. Over time, this has led organizations to choose the most qualified people, a "dream-team," regardless of their physical location (Kerber, 2004:4). These remotely connected dream teams are known as global virtual teams (GVTs). Global virtual teams are different from intra-national virtual teams in that they are "not only separated by time and space, but differ in national, cultural, and linguistic attributes (Zakaria, 2004:17)." According to Wheatley and Wilemon (1999), global team members "differ in their functionality, which adds complexity to group dynamics." Global virtual teams can be formed quickly and are agile by their nature. They can help organizations decrease their response time to changes in today's hyper-competitive markets by taking advantage of round the clock work by team members dispersed around the world. A global virtual team possesses some similarities to traditional teams who are co-located. The same fundamental ideas, as stated in Chapter 6.1 of this Wikibook, that are necessary for the success of a traditional team still apply to global virtual team. The approach however, requires modification to focus extra effort to exploit the benefits that global virtual teams bring while minimizing the disadvantages that exist from communication difficulties and a lack of physical contact. This paper investigates the benefits, challenges, and best practices of managing global virtual teams while keeping in mind the fact that global virtual teams are still teams requiring the same ideals to ensure success. ## Building Virtual Teams ![](Virtual_Teams_blocks.jpg "Virtual_Teams_blocks.jpg") Introduction Because of the unique challenges confronting virtual teams, it is especially important at their formation that they build upon a strong foundation. Some of the ideas in this chapter are expanded and explored in the following chapter. Among others, building blocks for successful virtual teams include the following: - Creating a mission, goals, and ground rules - Identifying stakeholders and their expectations - Complementary roles and responsibilities - Building relationships, trust, and rewarding experiences Creating a mission, goals, and ground rules An often overlooked exercise in any team situation is the discussion of processes and rules which should govern team meetings and projects. Virtual teams are no exception. In reality, establishing and adhering to goals and ground rules is more complicated in virtual teams than in those where members have the frequent opportunity to meet face-to-face. The inability to have face time with one another makes it difficult for team members to \"touch base\" and maintain a unified purpose. The need to do this, however, is clear. If the individuals of a team do not have a clear and shared understanding of where they are going, they will never get there. Virtual teams should hold an orientation meeting (face-to-face if possible) where team members acknowledge not only the purpose of the team, but the significance of their team\'s purpose for the organization in which it operates. Understanding their purpose, members of the team should then set goals and assign tasks toward the fulfilling of that purpose. Each team member should come away from the orientation meeting with a clear understanding of the team\'s purpose as well as their individual role. Identifying stakeholders and their expectations The purpose of a virtual team should be very closely tied to the expectations of stakeholders. Therefore, stakeholders or stakeholder representatives should be actively involved in the formation of the virtual team. Clarifying the needs and expectations of stakeholders in the beginning will help the team to avoid unnecessary work, confusion, and conflict. A documentation of stakeholder\'s expectations should be made for reference throughout the project. Future communication between stakeholders and team representatives will further ensure that the team\'s purpose is on track and being fulfilled. Complementary roles and responsibilities It is important that every member of a virtual team has a full understanding of the capabilities and roles of individual team members. Each must know his or her role, the role of others, and to who they may look for resources and support. Without this knowledge, the team will not achieve its performance potential. If the responsibilities of team members are clearly defined and documented, each team member will be accountable to each other and to the group for the fulfilling of their responsibilities. The ground rules established in the formation of the group should address responsibilities and tasks and likewise identify remedies and protocol when individual and group responsibilities are not fulfilled. In order for team members to \"own\" their role and responsibilities, they should document their perceptions of their role within the team. Only when team members have fully bought into the team\'s purpose and their role within it can they be held fully accountable. Naturally, it is important that the roles and responsibilities of team members compliment one another and represent a unique and useful asset to the team. Selecting individuals to take part in a virtual team requires thoughtful consideration. Depending on the size of the team and scope of its purpose, teams may include a core group which is fully accountable for the results, as well as extended or ancillary members who bring unique knowledge to the team. Flexibility and adaptability are necessary in new virtual teams as their purpose and needs evolve. Building relationships, trust, and rewarding experiences The ideal way of building relationships with team members is to spend time together face-to-face. As mentioned earlier, this can be difficult in virtual teams whose members may reside continents away. LaFasto and Larson suggest that it is even more important for virtual teams to connect in person on a regular basis: \"For a group of regional managers spread across the country or around the world, ensuring adequate face time might mean meeting together every quarter to calibrate major activities, explore common challenges, and confirm relationships\" (181). When relationships between team members are built and confirmed on an ongoing basis, a culture of trust will exist even when members are working virtually with one another. The way a group behaves and performs affects individual members. When trust is present and group behavior is positive, so too will be team member\'s evaluation of the experience. An individual\'s positive evaluation of the team leads to greater trust and ongoing participation. The collaborative participation of team\'s members translates into group behavior in a cyclical pattern as shown below. ![](Group_behaviour.svg "Group_behaviour.svg") Opportunities There are many benefits of using global virtual teams due to the increased number of options and resources they provide. Jarvenpaa and Leidner explain that \"Virtual teams promise the flexibility, responsiveness, lower costs, and improved resource utilization necessary to meet ever-changing task requirements in highly turbulent and dynamic global business environments (1999:791).\" Moreover, the use of global virtual teams provides an opportunity to coordinate complex business tasks across a potentially far-flung confederation of organizations. This allows companies to better communicate and coordinate even though vast distances separate the different team members, making it easier to expand internationally and removing other location and distance-based restrictions. Flexibility : The required expertise for a given task or project can be dispersed by multiple locations throughout the world. However, a global virtual team may facilitate the pooling of this talent to provide focused attention to a particular problem without having to physically relocate individuals. "Virtual teams allow organizations to bring together critical contributors who might not otherwise be able to work together due to time, travel, and cost restrictions (Kerber, 2004: 4)." This allows workers to be located anywhere and allows companies the opportunity to work virtually with team members in geographic areas that were previously considered too distant to be considered a viable work location ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Responsiveness : Companies can be more responsive to their customers through diversity. "Virtual teams may allow organizations to unify the varying perspectives of different cultures and business customs to avoid counterproductive ethno-centric biases (Kayworth, 2000:184)." Global virtual teams composed of members with different cultural visions may be less likely to experience "groupthink" and are more likely to develop innovative solutions to problems. In addition, the ability to respond to the specific and varied needs of a global audience can be addressed quickly and effectively with a global virtual team. Members of a global virtual team can immediately respond to specific geographic and cultural requirements previously ignored or missed by collocated teams. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Lower costs : Global virtual teams can help corporations lower their labor and overhead costs. There are pools of inexpensive, highly skilled labor forces in various locations around the world who can't or do not want to be relocated. Access by communication to these labor forces leads many organizations to offshore certain functions traditionally performed in-house or by contractors. This is an appealing option to many organizations looking to reduce overall project and maintenance costs. By outsourcing the development of an application to India, for example, an organization can reduce the cost of a project. This is because India, in addition to many other countries, has a large population of highly educated people who can be accessed with today's advanced communications technology. This allows the company to pay someone in India much less to do the same work compared to someone working locally in the U.S. Global virtual teams also reduce travel, accommodations, and other miscellaneous expenses for team members. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Improved resource utilization : Global virtual teams can improve resource utilization by leveraging time to their advantage. Performing work asynchronously helps global organizations effectively bridge different time zones so that teams can be more productive during a work period. "For example, London team members of a global virtual team of software developers at Tandem Services Corporation initially coded the project and transmitted their code each evening to U.S. team members for testing. U.S. members forwarded the code they tested to Tokyo for debugging. London team members started their next day with the code debugged by their Japanese colleagues, and another cycle was initiated. This is only one example of how GVTs can increase team-member productivity and reduce development time (Saunders, 2004:19)." Pitfalls The pitfalls that virtual teams face in their early stages stem simply from the antitheses of the building blocks described above. As with water, teams tend to follow the \"path of least resistance.\" This is because the pitfalls of virtual team building are due to omissions and inactivity. A common pitfall is setting out without a clear goal or purpose. If team members understand little more than the routine tasks they are to perform day-to-day, a lack of common understanding will lead to misdirected work and wasted time and resources. A related pitfall is misaligning the purpose of the team with the needs and expectations of stakeholders and the organization as a whole. Virtual teams further damage themselves when they neglect to take opportunities for building strong communication and trust in their relationships. Solutions - Hold an orientation meeting where team members participate in team building activities and document the team\'s purpose. Each team member should document his or her understanding of the team\'s purpose and their perceived role. These descriptions should be circulated within the group. - Prepare a questionnaire for each stakeholder to complete and return to the group. The questions should illicit a response which helps the team in the formation of goals and confirmation of the team\'s purpose. - Whenever possible, team members should meet face-to-face to confirm relationships and participate in activities which build trust and encourage communication. ## Culture Introduction : Cultural differences add value and diversity to teams, but can cause problems as well. The two main cultural issues that appear in global virtual teams are: false perception of similarity and differing perceptions of teamwork. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Opportunities : - Diversity: It has been proven through many studies of successful teams that diversity can reduce the occurrence of \"groupthink\" and allow a team to make better and more creative decisions. Team members from different cultures automatically bring diversity to the group. This diversity should not be ignored or minimized; rather it should be embraced and utilized. Effective ideas from one country or market can be adapted successfully for others. Pitfalls : - False perception of similarity: There is often a false assumption among immigrants from English-speaking countries that they will have an easier time assimilating than those coming from non-English speaking countries. In actuality, foreign nationals from English-speaking countries experience higher rates of culture shock than those from non-English-speaking countries. This is due to a perception that the cultures will be similar because there is a shared language. This perception also plagues global virtual teams. "Welch, and Marschan-Piekkari (2001:197) and Usunier (1993) show that because of perceived familiarity and similarity across English-speaking countries, individuals can be lured into a false sense of confidence and fail to perceive that they are not culturally close. This can have a negative impact on business communication processes and personal relationships (Henderson, 2005:75)." ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Differing perceptions of teamwork: The concept of teamwork varies between cultures. "Members from different cultures will, in all probability, describe a team's objectives, membership criteria, and activities in very different terms (Zakaria, 2004:20)." The value of individual work as opposed to teamwork differs greatly between countries. Individuals born and raised in Great Britain, Canada (excluding Quebec), and the United States tend to be more individualistic. Chinese and Indian individuals, on the other hand, are more focused on collective efforts. As Jarvenpaa & Leidner (1999:793) explain, \"Individuals from individualistic cultures tend to be less concerned with self-categorizing, are less influenced by group membership, have greater skills in entering and leaving new groups, and engage in more open and precise communication than individuals from collectivist cultures.\" Additionally, "individuals from individualistic cultures might be more ready to trust others than individuals from collectivist cultures in computer-mediated communication environments (Jarvenpaa, 1999:794)." These differences make it difficult to determine what the cause of a problem may be with team members because it's difficult to distinguish between cultural and personal factors. This makes diagnosing and solving problems more difficult than in traditional teams. Solutions : - A good way to approach cultural differences is to learn as much as possible about the culture. This includes background research or meeting with consultants to learn how best to behave before the initial meeting. Any attention spent in this area will go a long way toward team success. Being prepared and making a good first impression will send positive signals to members of the other culture and will signify intentions of commitment. Knowing that Aussie's can be very direct in their communication will assist an American in not taking it personally when being told to "mind your own business (Sabath, 1999:24)." It is also helpful to know that is it not uncommon for Japanese to "wait 10 to 15 seconds before responding" to a question or comment (Sabath, 1999: 93). This type of cultural information will reduce tension among team members. ## Trust Introduction : Trust in global virtual teams is both important and difficult to build because team members are limited in their physical interaction. In addition to the lack of social context, language barriers and a reliance on stereotypes complicate the building of trust in global virtual team. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Opportunities : In other cultures, relationships and trust are paramount in business. If virtual team members from the United States manage to gain the trust of foreign associates, that trust could very well translate into a lifetime of profitable business interactions. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Pitfalls : - Language: A major challenge for teams composed of speakers of different languages is that the building of trust and relationships is largely language dependent. Based on published research and illustrative empirical data, findings indicate that language diversity has a significant impact on socialization processes and team building, influencing both communication acts and mutual perceptions. Results of investigations into multilingual teams using English to communicate have shown that many obstacles are encountered by native as well as nonnative speakers (Henderson, 2005:79). "Research has shown that language-related issues can impact negatively on interpersonal relations, trust, and the working atmosphere (Henderson, 2005:67)." ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Reliance on stereotypes: One of the difficulties international teams experience is the tendency to resort to national stereotypes that can lead to misinterpretations of the behavior of team members, leading to tensions and mistrust. "These are expressed in the form of judgments of others who may be labeled as being, for example, 'reserved,' 'silent,' or 'direct,' based on the stereotypical linguistic attributes of the language community to which they belong (Henderson, 2005:74)." It is important to address these hurdles to building trust in global virtual teams because "the inability to develop these relationships within a social context may negatively impact such outcomes as creativity, morale, decision-making quality, and process loss (Kayworth, 2000:189)." Solutions : - One way to promote trust is to have smaller groupings and make their tenure together a longer period of time. This permits the team members to know each other better in comparison to a system in which the teams are constantly shifting. If the team members know that they'll be around each other for a long time into the future, they will have an incentive to put more effort into building lasting relationships. The prospect of spending more time together in the future discourages negative behavior, such as not returning an email, because sometime in the future this will have negative consequences. In a rapidly shifting team, however, building relationships is not as important because the team won't be together for much longer. If the team members know they'll be working together for a long time they'll have an incentive to work together and trust each other much more than they otherwise would. Having the same team together for a long time opens the possibility that the team will become outdated and obsolete. Therefore the team must be flexible, innovative, explore new technologies, and be capable of learning so that the team continues to be effective during their long tenure together. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Stereotype Breakdown: Another way to build trust in global virtual teams is to breakdown these stereotypes and allow people to realize that we are all humans with similar problems, despite the vast cultural differences. Majchrzak (2004, 7) tells of a successful example of this form of trust building: The leader of one team, a retired military officer, started his conference calls by asking each person to spend 30 seconds describing "where the member is at." During a conference call in 2002, when snipers were terrorizing the Washington, DC, area, a team member living there said she didn't feel so alone after she heard her fears echoed by another member in the Philippines, where insurgents were shooting people on their way to and from work. By using this simple technique, team leaders can assist their team members in realizing they share many similar experiences as do their co-workers on the other side of the world. This will create closeness and facilitate the building of trust. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Structure: Management must also pay strong attention to facilitate the proper balance between the level of structure and trust developed among team members. A strong structure, which translates into clear and shared goals, norms, task and process descriptions, hierarchy, roles, personal interaction and relationship, reduces the ambiguity that typically exists in global virtual teams (Jarvenpaa, 2004:251). Working on a global virtual team makes it more difficult to specifically identify exactly what you should be working on because of its solitary nature. This increases the need for specifying the process because of the lack of social interaction which would normally allow someone to double check their work and direction with other team members. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Social Interaction: A kick-off meeting is a good way to promote the social interaction and relationship building necessary in teams. The team's tasks involve highly complex messages as well as high levels of reciprocity and interdependency, which require a rich communication media and long team duration (Maznevsky, 2000:488). It is therefore recommended that whenever this context of reciprocity and interdependency is present, kick-off meetings should be held face-to-face and with plenty of opportunities for social interaction and relationship building (Anawati, 2006:50) . If a face-to-face kickoff meeting is not feasible, the team can always replicate one virtually. The initial meeting or communication is a critical time because that's when first impressions are set and when the tone and cadence of the team's work is determined. If the initial meeting is sloppy and unorganized, it is expected that the team's success will be a reflection of this. However, if the initial virtual meeting is well organized, structured, and conveys a clear goal, the probability of team success will be higher. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Specified Normative Behaviors: Structure can be added to teams by formalizing normative behaviors. Because global virtual teams lack the social interaction which would normally determine the normative behaviors in the group, normative behaviors should be specified. The management of the team should also pay additional attention to the clarity and direction of the team. This is a consequence to the lack of communication and interaction that normally exists in collocated teams. A clear and defining goal will help to align the team member's efforts so that everyone is working in the same direction. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Work Postings: Another way to make sure all members of the global virtual team are working in the right direction is to post the work virtually so that all the members can see what everyone else is doing. While they made regular use of conference calls, team members did not report on the status of assignments during them. Instead, most (83%) relied on virtual work spaces. Here they posted their work in progress electronically and examined their colleagues' postings, well in advance of teleconferences. They tended to use the conference calls themselves to discuss disagreements, which they said were more effectively handled in conversation than in writing (Majchrazak, 2004: 5. This method of posting work makes the conference calls and other group communication more effective and less frequent because the team members can see each other\'s work and progress at anytime. Posting the work helped align the team members' goals and helped them work effectively and reduced the amount of voice communication that would otherwise have been necessary. Finally, trust evolves with time. It starts mostly based on one's trustworthiness while there is little knowledge and a weak structure. It then evolves to some combined balance of trust and structure as members acquire more knowledge of each other, the team's goals, norms, etc. Along this continuum, trust faces a transition point where simple trustworthiness gives way to early stages of trust. ## Communication Techniques Introduction New virtual communication techniques are being developed all the time as teams seek for ways to improve information sharing. Virtual Communication is achieved through two main methods: Videoconferencing Systems and Collaborative Software Systems. Videoconferencing Systems Videoconferencing is a type of visual collaboration that allows groups or individuals from two or more locations to interact through interactive audio and visual transmissions. Microphones, speakers, cameras and video display are needed along with a system to transfer the data such as the internet or a Local Area Network (LAN). Opportunities & Pitfalls - This is a powerful tool for communicating as few of the facial cues, body language indications or voice intonations and modulations from normal face to face communication are lost as in other technological communication. Teams from distinct locations can come to know one another and develop relationships much more quickly than could be accomplished through more impersonal methods. - Developing teams becomes easier when the choice of personnel is not restricted by geographic considerations. Videoconferencing and other virtual communication methods allow teams to choose the most appropriate members regardless of where they are located without the cost of travel to bring teams together. However there are some challenges inherent in this technique. - It can be difficult to schedule meetings with people or teams spread across broad geographic areas. For a team in Australia to communicate with a team in Mountain Standard Time Zone in the U.S., they may find that their usual office hours only overlap when one company is preparing to leave and the other is just arriving. What is more, the greater the number of members of a team, the more difficult it will be to find a time to meet that fits into everyone's schedule. - Another problem that arises is a lack of eye contact. The speakers are talking to a camera and/or faces on a screen. In some ways this is worse than a phone conversation as the technique can provide an incorrect impression of the speaker's intentions in regards to eye contact. - Moreover the camera can cause people to behave unnaturally. Stage fright or self-consciousness at appearing before a camera can influence people's mannerisms, body language and ability to communicate effectively. Solutions - Scheduling and planning ahead are essential. It becomes more difficult to schedule videoconferencing meetings the greater the number of people involved. Unless the scheduling is done far in advance, meetings will often interfere with other duties and responsibilities of those involved. - Eye contact is important in regular conversation. Team members using videoconferencing should be alerted to the fact that eye contact is difficult when participating in videoconferencing. Different rules apply to this type of communication in that eye contact is often difficult over networks.\[1\] - It is important that team members behave naturally on camera. Many people will feel uncomfortable when put before video equipment. Increased exposure will often cure them of these difficulties. The first time in front of videoconferencing equipment can be unnerving but with time, people often feel less conscious of their appearance and how they will be perceived. 1Vertegaal, \"Explaining Effects of Eye Gaze on Mediated Group Conversations: Amount or Synchronization?\" ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 2002 Collaborative Software - Collaborative software is used to allow people to work together towards a common goal without having to meet face to face. The most common techniques are text, email, virtual chatting, calendaring, file sharing, faxes, voice mail, data conferencing, etc. Opportunities - Collaborative software is powerful because people can work together regardless of how the schedules may differ. A team with members in different time zones is able to collaborate at different hours regardless of the lack of overlapping time spent in the office so scheduling does not have to be done so far in advance. These techniques are also easy to implement. The equipment can be inexpensive and easy to acquire for all members of the team. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - One powerful aspect of collaborative software is Metcalfe's Law. Wikipedia describes the law as "the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n2)." This means that the greater the number of users, the more valuable a system becomes. This was first used to describe the value of fax machines. One is not that useful, but when everybody has one, they become very effective methods of communication. Collaborative software is often similar. One email account is not that effective, but when each person on the team has an email address, we can communicate with the team very quickly and easily. Pitfalls Communication can be tricky with collaborative software. - Much of the body language and nonverbal communication of regular communication is lost with this technique. Emails that are meant to be funny or sarcastic can be interpreted as just mean or angry. - Although scheduling can be easier, it can also be hard to manage. Team members do not need to be together all at the same time, which is nice but, people often forget deadlines when they are not planning for a meeting or seeing each other face to face. - A lack of cohesion often results from this technique. More than one person working on a document that is shared on a network or over email often results in a disjointed style or conflicting topics. This is often the case when a team is working together on a specific project that will be presented to a certain audience. For example a team may be preparing a report that will be presented to management. If they are not careful the report may hold conflicting ideas or not flow in an intelligible manner. Solutions - Team members should be trained on the possible misinterpretations in this type of communication. It is often beneficial to have more than one person review emails that will be sent to a large audience to understand how they may be received. If people are made aware of these possibilities, they will be less likely to commit these errors or to misinterpret what they receive. - Team members need to be managed effectively. Deadlines should be enforced with regards to email communications. It may be necessary to impose deadlines on how long people should take to respond to an email or make updates to a shared file. - Efforts should be made to analyze the project as a whole. Groups and teams should have designated leaders that ensure unity of purpose and a cohesive finished product. ## Communication Introduction Cultural differences among team members may lead to various instances of miscommunication since different cultures tend to contain certain biases, assumptions, or views of the world. "Regardless of the source, the fact remains that the 'cultural factor' may lead to information distortion and various instances of miscommunication (Kayworth, 2000:191)." "Communication among global virtual teams may be extremely difficult to manage and less effective than more traditional settings (Kayworth, 2000: 184)." "These communication problems may also be magnified by disparity among technology infrastructures, as well as differences in technology proficiency among team members. Finally, when cultural differences are added to this mix of potential issues, the management of global virtual teams may become exceedingly complex (Kayworth, 2000: 184)." Selecting a Communication Medium Global virtual teams are dependent on their ability to communicate with each other rapidly, reliably, and over long distances. If the team can't communicate with each other effectively, they can't work together effectively. This makes the reliability of the technology very important so that the flow of work can continue without interruptions. The media chosen should also be carefully selected so that the end users, or those who are using the information, as compared to those who are giving the information, are able to communicate effectively. Opportunities Establishing a pattern Focusing on and following a strong repeating pattern of communication will set a virtual team up for success. This pattern is determined by the frequency of meetings held through the richest available media, repeating itself as a "heartbeat, rhythmically pumping new life into the group's processes (Maznevski, 2000:486)." The group may try to establish the frequency of these "rich meetings" according to the interdependence required by the tasks and their level of group relationship (Maznevski, 2000:488). However in global virtual teams it's important to remember that logistics commonly limit the frequency of these meetings, especially face-to-face meetings. In this case it's the frequency of the meetings that determines the frequency of the high interdependent and complex decision processes they address, such as generating commitment, building relationships, creating social interaction and comprehensive decision making. (Maznevsky, 2000:483-484). Pitfalls Misrepresentation "As team members communicate, they tend to filter information through their cultural 'lenses', thereby giving rise to a potentially broad range of misinterpretations or distortions (Kayworth, 2000:184)." Communication styles differ wildly among various cultures. Even if someone from another country speaks English, this is not going to be the same English as that spoken elsewhere. This makes non-verbal communication, such as pauses, silence, and expressions which differ between cultures more important in global virtual teams and should be known and understood by other team members. Solutions - Speak slowly and clearly, use a higher tone of voice, avoid slang and colloquialisms, keep words and sentences short and confirm understanding through repetition and by asking questions. - Avoid using slang and jargons, use simple short words and sentences and maintain focus. - Use visual aids and send pre-meeting information to enhance participation in meetings. - Understand and be aware of cultural differences in praise and criticism. - Avoid humor, irony, and metaphors as these usually don't translate well and may be offensive. - Understand that silence, referred to as the most concerning behavior, may not reflect a lack of interest but may simply represent time needed to think or just wait for a formal invitation to participate. - Respect for religious beliefs and allowance for differences in time zones were the most easily changed behaviors. ## \"Netiquette\": Utilizing Virtual Communication Technologies Responsibly and Respectfully Introduction : Virtual communication technologies constitute some of the most essential tools employed by members of virtual teams. Indeed, effective communication in a virtual team setting can impact every functional component of the team and can largely determine the success or failure of the team. Managing virtual teams requires the establishment of communication ground-rules and expectations. As in any organization, an environment that fosters mutual respect, creativity, positive interpersonal relations, and teamwork, depends largely upon both the quality of information shared among team members, and the efficacy of communication between team members. Oftentimes, a failure to communicate respectfully and responsibly can hamper the efficacy and functionality of the virtual team. Setting forth network etiquette (or \'netiquette\') guidelines is an important component to effective virtual team management. By establishing and implementing netiquette standards, the efficacy and stability of the virtual team will be more easily managed and maintained. Virtual teams represent unlimited global business, learning and networking opportunities. The adherence to netiquette standards will help to maintain and ensure decorum, professionalism, courtesy, and ethical behavior. By implementing and applying netiquette standards to the virtual team environment, team members will be better equipped to avoid informational nuances and insinuations that are so easily misinterpreted. The \"communication gap\" that is so prevalent in virtual communication technologies (i.e. absence of body language, voice and tonal qualities, emotion, and personal interplay) may also be lessened. Common barriers to virtual communication may also be identified and overcome through the use of clearly established netiquette standards. Referring to the need for increased knowledge, familiarity, and implementation of \"netiquette, David Krane, Director of Corporate Communications at Google, Inc., once said, \"We live in an era where hundreds and millions of professionals are putting down the pen and increasingly relying on e-mail as a primary form of communication. \[Proper mastery of netiquette will benefit\] both internet newbies and new entrants to the \[virtual\] workplace who may be making a transition from paper to computer or from instant messaging and e-mail between friends to more formal electronic communications.\" Netiquette Standards: - _Respecting the E-mail Addresses of Others:_ Do not give out others\' e-mail addresses without first obtaining permission to do so. E-mail addresses represent a vital component of one\'s virtual personal space. As such, giving out e-mail addresses without permission constitutes a breach of trust and an invasion of personal space and privacy. - _E-mail \"spam\" or \"bulk\" List Collection/Distribution:_ Recent legislation has, in many states, created barriers and penalties to those who engage or utilize bulk- or mass-mail communications. Common courtesy asks that individuals not collect other people\'s email addresses for such purposes. If the virtual team in which you operate utilizes bulk-mail as a business process, netiquette standards require the inclusion of a genuine return e-mail address in which recipients may respond and request to be removed from future mailing lists. - _Proper Personal and Business Identification:_ The organizational structure of virtual teams often requires proper identification in instances of cold-contacts, solicitations, research and development, networking, and day-to-day communications. When establishing a contact for the first time, include the following identifiers: your full name and title, company name, address, genuine e-mail address, and occupation or objective. The utilization of e-mail address providers such as hotmail, gmail, or yahoo, is not recommended and can be perceived as \"cloaked\" or \"anonymous\" e-mail addresses. The utilization of an email address that originates from your company is preferred. - _Information Inquiries:_ One of the great benefits that has arisen from the virtual expansion of today\'s global economy is the increase in available information. The increase in available information has also catalyzed an increase in information transfer velocity. The effective management of virtual teams also relies upon the ability to acquire, process, and use information. Though requesting information from others is beneficial to you and your team, it can also represent a significant imposition and inconvenience to those individuals that you query. In the process of information gathering, include the following elements: an explanation of who you are, and explanation of why you need the information, and an expression of gratitude. - _Expressing Appreciation:_ Each response you receive from team members, outside consultants, or individuals contacted for information, deserves a reply of gratitude. Your \"thank you\" response should contain the following components: reference to the request (e.g. \"thank you for responding to my query regarding fossil fuel), your full name and title, company name, address, and URL. - _A \"two-way\" Street:_ Business is a two-way street: if you give, you will receive (and vice versa). When something of value or substance has been provided you, offer return assistance, or extend an invitation to visit your website. - _Proprietary Rights and Information:_ Respecting proprietary rights and information is not only courteous, it is the law. The expansive selection of information on the web represents countless hours of contributions made by individuals and groups. The work of these individuals and groups is oftentimes downloadable or print-ready. In any case, you must respect the proprietary rights of those who have contributed and/or created the information that has been made available to you. Respecting the authors by using accurate and appropriate citations is essential to the protection and perpetuation of open-access intellectual property. You should also respect copyright. - _Courteous and Professional Virtual Behavior:_ Courteous and professional virtual behavior is rooted in the most basic rules that govern etiquette. When asking for information, use courteous language such as \"please,\" \"I would appreciate\" and \"thank you.\" Failure to apply these basic rules may give rise to dislike, disrespect, and uncooperative relationships. - _Doing Your Part First:_ The anonymity and potential loss of personal responsibility or obligation that can be pervasive in virtual forums placed the burden of responsibility on the requesting or interested party. If you have not done your part, and contributed to the topic at hand, do not believe that you will be the recipient of free professional work. It is necessary that you demonstrate personal contributions, investment, and effort toward your goal. Seek advice, not cheap labor. - _Admit and Own your Personal Level of Internet Savvy:_ Do not be ashamed to admit that you are a newcomer to the virtual arena. In this computer era, there remain a surprising number of people who lack computer skill and knowledge. Many people in the virtual arena are prone to behave and act like mentors. If you are a newcomer, utilize their offerings and remember to apply the rules of netiquette as you glean information and knowledge from them. Own your respective level of expertise - and you will be respected. - _Virtual White Boards, Chat Rooms, and Bulletin Boards:_ Avoid using jargon and include complete words in conjunction with abbreviations. Make sure that what you say is understandable to any viewer or audience. Monitor yourself - answer questions that others have posed only if your response will add value to the general body on knowledge. Do not respond with \"contact me.\" The virtual community represents a fluid body of knowledge and contributions. As such, it is not a place for foul or inappropriate language. Respect breeds respect. Do not use bulletin boards, chat rooms and white boards for blatant advertising purposes. They are intended for networking and idea exchange. If another person makes a contribution that is noteworthy or of value to you, acknowledge the contribution. - _Anonymity on the Web:_ Virtual forums allow postings and contributions to be made anonymously. In many cases, individuals have valid and legitimate reasons to maintain their anonymity. However, one should never abuse the ability to contribute anonymously. Those who remain anonymous in order to treat others with disrespect and cynicism are not acting as socially responsible virtual community members. One should also remember that virtual forums are an excellent way to network with others. If one were to respond or act anonymously, the ability for others to contact or network with that individual is impossible. - _Strategy and Opportunity:_ Much of the virtual community, especially white boards, chat rooms, and bulletin boards, are regulated by organizers who post guidelines and an explanation of purpose. By respecting and following these guidelines, your contributions will be more meaningful. As a meaningful contributor to the virtual community, you will establish worth in the eyes of the organizers. The establishment of business rapport in the virtual arena can result in business opportunities, services, and negotiations. Let your actions and contributions reflect your personal strategy and opportunities may be opened to you. - _Maintaining a Professional Attitude:_ Do not try to \"grab\" or pounce upon a business opportunity. If what is required by team members or clients exceeds your level of expertise or is outside the bounds of your working relationship, refer the enquirer to a peer or other source specializing in that area. Treat your peers with the same respect and consideration that you extend to customers. Behave with integrity and honesty. Do not substitute your best interests for those of the customer. Maintain mutually respectful relations with peers and the entire virtual community. Speak well of others. Do not pretend to be what you are not. Remember that virtual communication and relations are almost instant - never respond or act hastily. Opportunities : Strong business contacts can be established through frequent interaction and steady communication in which netiquette standards are employed. Negotiations and bargaining form an integral part of any business deal. As a manager, you have a responsibility to your virtual group or team to promote netiquette standards. By adhering to netiquette standards, your team will be better positioned and respected in the virtual community. Some things that you can do to ensure the successful implementation of netiquette standards include: - Establishing written guidelines for dealing with illegal, improper, or forged traffic. - Handle requests in a timely fashion - by the next business day. - Respond promptly to people who have concerns about receiving improper or illegal messages. Chain letters should not be allowed. - Explain any system or software rules to your team members and ensure adequate training. - Make sure that popular information has the bandwidth to support it. - Don\'t allow your team members to point to other sites without asking first. - Make sure your posted materials are appropriate for the supporting organization. - Maintain a consistent look to your information. Make sure the look and feel remain the same throughout your applications. - Be sensitive to the longevity of your information. Be sure that all sensitive materials are time-dated. ## Information Sharing Introduction : Teams are formed based on the expectation that the teams will produce a better product than an individual. If a single resource works from home or away from actual office you consider that team as Virtual Team. Whether it is Virtual team or Team in the same room, information sharing plays a vital role for team's increased productivity and success. Information sharing is more problematic when the team is spread out geographically. Virtual teams not only face a challenge with information sharing, but also task sharing. In virtual teams if information is not shared correctly the whole purpose of the virtual team might be in jeopardy. If one or more persons works from different place then sharing of information becomes very complex not only in the distribution of information but also in the information gathering. Virtual team can be a global team; global team is similar to virtual team where part of the team will be outside the country. Because information sharing plays a vital role in team's success, to minimize the impact of loss in information sharing whether it is related to the technical or application perspective of the work, one of the best way is to rotate the individuals who work from a different country or who are part of the global team or virtual team. Opportunities : How transparent you run or manage the team, still most of the times it is hard to see perspective of the target or goal of a team, if part of the team is in a different place, where that's country's culture inhibits the resource to think beyond its culture or its system. Team can have a rotational position, where one team member comes to onsite and learn the process or application and could go back to his country and transfer his/her knowledge he/she gained when he/she was at onsite. Meanwhile team leader could bring another resource in place of first team member who visited onsite to learn more about technical, application, culture or process followed at onsite, and the first resource who went back could train or share the information or experiences to rest of the team, so that team could understand better about the depth of process, application, technical things in the project why things are done in such a way. By doing this the productivity of whole team would increase by proper information sharing. Similar productivity can be achieved if team leader wants to bring different resource from offshore team once or twice at different times for a period of 3-6 months. This system would be very cost effective if the ratio of whole team is 1:5, which means, 5 on-site and 25 offshore resources in a team. Virtual teams can be more diversified geographically; because of this virtual team can bring more variety of information to share among the team to its success. Team with similar background and experience could bring the same information to the team which can be considered as redundant, where you could not see the edge in the team compared to the information sharing with virtual team where chances of team could be from different backgrounds. Pitfalls : Most of the time to share the information within the team, trust is one of the main factors. Unless you know the person with whom you are working it is hard to tell what kind of personality is that resource. Building a trust is easier when resources work together because you could know the person's feeling when you talk with them directly. If the resource is working from a remote location, it is hard to see the reaction of that resource. In my work experience when I worked with remote employees many times, I ponder to myself whether it is accurate to share this information or not, because I do not know the person's personality with whom I am working. Most of the times virtual teams are on different time zones and because of time zones, information might not be received at right time and could see delays. ## Establishing Ground Rules and Norms Introduction : A team to succeed in its goal, it should have ground rules and norms set for the team. Rules are useful in determining what kind of behavior is acceptable in the team, how team members interact, and when to interact in the team, which usually prevents misunderstandings and disagreement. Opportunities : It is good to document the rules on common shared folder, so that every body could have access to the network folder. When new member joins the team, it is easier for the person who is giving the orientation to new team member know what the ground rules and norms of the team. Even when experienced resources aren't around him/her, still s/he could communicate well in the team as well as outside team, if the ground rules and norms are shared with new member. Need to outset regarding the cultural differences if the virtual team is globally placed and address the styles on how to address if one arises. Members in the virtual team should learn to trust one another to create an environment where one should feel comfortable stating opinions and not personally attack each other. Should not penalize for any miscommunication and should try to think with different perspectives. All members' opinions are to be considered equal. Disagreements and differences of opinions should be honored, should be given a fair hearing, and conflicts should be resolved by a defined process. Pitfalls and Solutions : Virtual team should recognize the problem of resources working in time zones and organizing the team meeting and conference calls flexible to all resources in the team. Updating the status reports to team leaders by timely manner, so that team leader could access the load of the work and assign it different resources accordingly. Hard on some resources, if the time set for the conference calls do not suit those individual's time zone. Tough to be open and honest with one another to create psychologically safe environment in virtual team, but by taking some time to socialize before each meeting on general topics outside the events of the team work. Messages could be taken wrongly, because there are no associated non-verbal messages indicating how to interpret them. ## Virtual Team Meetings Introduction :With members of a virtual team spanning different time zones, languages, and cultures, it can be complex and difficult to organize, optimize, and manage an effective team meeting. Managers, who are sensitive to these issues and are diligent in their preparation, can get the most out of any virtual team meeting. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` Opportunities : - Cost: One of the greatest advantages of a virtual meeting over a traditional meeting is the low cost. Airfare for corporate executives to attend a traditional meeting can be exorbitantly priced, especially in the aftermath of 9.11. Participants can join a teleconference practically anywhere telephone service is available, reducing unnecessary travel costs. Many corporations have negotiated long-distance charges to an almost negligible amount, allowing employees to call across the world for not much more than an in-state call. - Time: Virtual meetings can save valuable work time, even for organizations with closely located facilities. Travel between buildings or locations can eat up precious time that could be spent on other tasks. In large manufacturing companies, it can take 30 minutes to an hour to get from one side of the facility to the other. Some managers waste half a day\'s work in just commuting between various meetings. Given the price per hour of top-level executives\' salaries, even a short traditional meeting can be very costly. Pitfalls : - Group Size: As with traditional teams, if a virtual team has too many members, this can break down communication and reduce team effectiveness. - Conference Call Domination: We have all experienced conference calls where various corporate department representatives huddle around a conference room phone to speak with distant affiliates. The larger group, which is usually in the corporate office, tends to dominate the conversation. In addition, larger groups tend to carry on side conversations that are inaudible to the people on the other end of the call and put them at a disadvantage. One of the authors has also experienced conferenced calls that were \"hijacked\" by the ranking executive and used for a personal or political agenda. - Common Language: Even if all members of a virtual team speak English, they may not speak the same English. Others may not be native speakers. English spoken in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, and Malaysia is quite different. Solutions : - Keep group size to no more than 7 members. - Again, keep group size small, including conference call groups. If possible have some team members call in on their desk phones, to minimize side conversations. In the case of a hijacking invitee, have a printed agenda with time allotted to each topic. If the meeting gets off track, express your desire to not let the call go longer than expected and use the agenda as an excuse to change the subject. - Use common terms that all can understand. Avoid slang and metaphor, e.g. US sports analogies. Speak slowly and clearly and ask for confirmation from all members that the discussion was understood. As in any environment, be sure to ask leading questions verifying that members specifically tasked with something have a complete understanding of the assignment. Many telephone conversations or conference calls have a few-second lag time. Be patient and don\'t interrupt. ## Organizational Development Introduction : Traditionally, organizational development occurs in a face-to-face or voice-to-voice mode, utilizing observation, personal interaction, and personal relations to develop or redevelop a coherent and appropriate business model or organizational process. As virtual teams become more common place, the need for organizational development persists. The virtual arena, in many cases, requires a modified managerial approach to organizational development. The management and development of a virtual entity may require that the execution of needs assessments, focus groups, and interviews, be done electronically via a collaborative software system or group support system. These systems allow users to \"hide\" or \"disable\" their personal identities during information gathering sessions and interact with others under the guarantee of anonymity. In some cases, employees and virtual team members may approach the process of organizational development with apprehension. Anonymity, for the purpose of information gathering, may serve to ally such apprehension. Opportunities : - Employee satisfaction can influence the efficacy and longevity of organizational development. There is no consensus in the literature regarding the impact of a virtual team structure on employee satisfaction. However, most studies indicate that participating in a virtual team environment and/or working from home can result in: \- an increase of employee job satisfaction \- reduced likelihood of employee turn-over \- reduction in role stressors \- increased satisfaction with supervisors \- increased commitment to the organization \- decreased satisfaction with peers \- decreased satisfaction regarding opportunities for advancement and promotion These findings emphasize the importance of measuring and responding to employee outcomes as part of managing in a virtual team environment. - Videoconferencing is a useful tool that can be used to facilitate small group interviews and interventions. The use of videoconferencing technologies provides a medium in which all participants can be viewed on each individual screen regardless of geographic location. Some believe that this may be as effective as a face-to-face experience. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Research has shown that the medium used for teaching technical skills has no effect on students' learning outcomes. One can use videotape, CD-ROM, videoconferences, teleconferences, web-based training, or instruction manuals. However, some skills (e.g. communication and some management/leadership skills) are best taught in a face-to-face environment. In these instances, consideration should be given to the use of training centers or external training venues. Pitfalls and Solutions : <FIle:Virtualprobs.jpg> ## Conclusion The increasing use of global virtual teams demands special attention to differences in culture, communication barriers, and inherent trust existing among the team members. While these teams are not fundamentally different from traditional teams, additional focus and effort in some key areas is necessary to ensure team success. These include knowing the cultural differences that exist in the team and taking steps to educate the other team members and understanding how this affects how they should approach different situations. Because global virtual teams don't experience the same physical contact that traditional teams do, extra effort is required from all team members to maintain trust and to promote practices that encourage team members to work well together and give reasons to trust each of the other members. It is also important to keep in mind that there is no set recipe for success in any team, especially global virtual teams. Only by understanding the challenges and differences between global virtual teams and traditional teams, management and team members can better prepare themselves and take advantage of their strengths to promote success. ## Online Resources/References Where In The World Is My Team <http://www.tmaworld.com/global_teams_virtual_teams/> Working Together When Apart <http://online.wsj.com/public/page/2_1304.html> Managing Virtual Teams (video) <http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid572031310> Managing Virtual Teams (pdf) <http://www.groupjazz.com/pdf/vteams-toronto.pdf> 17 Pointers for Managing Virtual Teams <http://www.squarewheels.com/content2/virtual.html> Virtual Teams <http://www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/virtual/virtual.htm> 10 Tips for managing global teams <http://gadishamia.wordpress.com/2007/10/13/leading-a-global-team-the-starter-guide/> Managing Virtual Teams (HR Magazine) <http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_6_47/ai_87461019> Best Practices of Managing Virtual Teams <http://www.expressitpeople.com/20040531/cover.shtml> New Work Rules (Stanford Business) <http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0305/feature_virtual_teams.shtml> Virtual Teams Over the Internet <http://www.managementhelp.org/grp_skll/virtual/virtual.htm> 6 Ways to Work More Effectively on a Virtual Team (Microsoft) <http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/worktogether/virtual.mspx> We researched dozens of tools to find the most useful tools for managing remote workers <https://www.hivedesk.com/blog/managing-remote-workers/>
# Managing Groups and Teams/How Do You Build High-performing Virtual Teams? ## Introduction "Virtual teams are groups of geographically and/or temporally dispersed individuals brought together via information and telecommunication technologies." (Piccoli and Ives, 2003, p365) Virtual teams are increasingly becoming a key feature of projects in modern organizations, while the landscape of communication tools continues to change dramatically. The benefits of virtualization include diversity of perspectives, large member selection pool, extended hours of productivity, and reduced transportation costs. However, many new challenges arise, such as difficulty in performance monitoring, disappearance of social cues, member isolation and anonymity, and technology issues. In addition, virtual teams must deal with cultural, temporal, and geographic barriers. Using a framework based on Larson and LaFasto's Teamwork, conventional team strategies have been adapted for the virtual context to help virtual team leaders and members overcome these challenges. ## A Clear and Elevating Goal Larson and LaFasto (1989) stress the importance of a clear and elevating goal in the performance of an effective team. They define goal clarity as "a specific performance objective, phrased in such concrete language that it is possible to tell, unequivocally, whether or not that performance objective has been attained" (p28) and elevating as "personally or collectively" challenging and that it "makes a difference." (p31) While Larson and LaFasto consider this to possibly be the most important component of an effectively functioning team, it appears to be even more critical for a virtual team. To stress this point, Kirkman and Rosen, et al. (2002) quote a team member from Sabre, Inc. as saying "virtual teams need to understand much more so than co-located teams what goal they are working towards because you are working in such different areas, and in our case, in different countries. It plays a much stronger role if you know what your ultimate target is going to be. Everyone is working towards the same thing." Further work on the performance of virtual teams by Kirkman and Rosen, et al. (2004) demonstrates a positive correlation between empowerment and virtual team performance. They define empowerment as having four dimensions, two of which, potency and impact significantly overlap the concepts of goal clarity and elevation. This research therefore supports and elevates the arguments made by Larson and LaFasto about the importance of a clear and elevating goal for virtual teams. Virtual team managers should make sure to have a clear and elevating goal for the group and should make sure to prominently display the team mission statement on the virtual work space, team web-site, and other electronic communications to the group. ## Results-Driven Structure Team structure is a key factor which differentiates successful teams from unsuccessful ones. Team structure encompasses many aspects such as tools, processes, communications systems, facilities, and organization of the team. However, the best structure depends on the objectives and composition of the team. Virtual teams tend to be very effective in project development tasks. However, the lack of face to face contact can be a challenge in building consensus. For decision-making teams, having the right team composition can help to overcome this. Collectivistic teams have higher levels of collaborative conflict management than individualistic teams, and are motivated more by outcomes which benefit the entire team. (Paul, et al, 2005) Research has also shown that highly diverse or heterogeneous teams outperform homogenous teams in many performance measures, though they take longer to reach consensus. Virtuality can be beneficial for highly diverse teams since it obfuscates potentially divisive demographic differences. (Kirkman et al, 2002) Larson and LaFasto outlined four necessary features of effective team structure, which apply equally to virtual teams, but become more challenging. First, team members must have clear roles and accountabilities. Lack of visibility may cause virtual team members to feel less accountable for results, therefore explicit facilitation of teamwork takes on heightened importance for virtual teams. Temporal coordination mechanisms such as scheduling deadlines and coordinating the pace of effort are recommended to increase vigilance and accountability. (Massey, Montoya-Weiss, and Hung, 2003) Second, teams require effective communications systems. This is especially important for virtual teams because geographic and temporal differences may rule out the most common communication channels. "Many in our study found e-mail a poor way for teams as a whole to collaborate." (Majchzak et al, 2004) Individual email conversations cause others to feel left out, but copying everyone causes email overload. Sharing documents over email often leads to conflicting versions. Many successful teams prefer to use virtual work spaces, online forums, instant messaging, and file repositories. Regardless of the communication system, team norms and rewards structures should support use of the systems. Third, effective teams should monitor individual performance and provide feedback. Assessment and development of virtual team members is very limited in the virtual environment. Performance management is an enormous challenge when employees are out of sight. Managers should monitor group communication to assess subjective factors such as idea generation, leadership, and problem-solving skills. (Kirkman et al, 2002) Utilizing peer and customer feedback helps assess contributions to team effectiveness. Managers should also consider using \"richer\" communication media (such as video conferencing) to more effectively deliver evaluation feedback. Finally, teams must rely on fact-based decision making, for which information and communication tools are vital. Teams can adapt decision-making software to facilitate fact-based problem solving and decision-making. (Kirkman et al, 2002) They might also assign one person to ensure accurate information is clearly communicated (Piccoli and Ives, 2003). Rocketdyne, for example, used collaborative technology to manage knowledge. They allowed all communications to be recorded and all information to be visible to the team, and even prohibited face to face discussions. (Malhotra, Majchzak, Carmen, Lott) ## Members Larson and LaFasto recognize three common features of competent team members: technical skills and abilities, desire to contribute, and capability of collaborating effectively. Virtual teams amplify the importance of using appropriate criteria when selecting people for the team. A critical element in high-performance teams is creating functional diversity among team members, while productively managing resulting task conflict. Work group studies suggest that "such conflict evidently fosters a deeper understanding of task issues and an exchange of information that facilitates problem solving, decision making, and the generation of ideas." (Pelled, et al, 1999, p22) A best-practice study of successful virtual teams concludes that diversity among disciplines, working styles, and problem-solving approaches can be exploited to produce "solutions instead of acrimony." (Majchrzak, et al, 2004, p133) Conflict researchers have found that task conflicts can improve team performance if managed collaboratively. (Weingart and Jehn, 2000) However, regardless of other qualifications, not everyone can handle the social isolation of a virtual team. Maintaining this challenging environment requires selection of team members with interpersonal skills, self-regulatory skills, a high level of knowledge, and comfort with technology. (Gibson and Cohen, 2003) This critical balance between technical and interpersonal skills must include the ability to work with others to identify, address, and resolve issues. Managers should consider using behavioral interviewing techniques and simulations to select team members with unique areas of competence that will contribute to a high-quality solution. Ideally some members should have team process backgrounds. Managers should also provide potential team members with a realistic assessment of virtual team challenges, and the choice to opt out. ## Unified Commitment Larson and LaFasto suggest that lack of unified commitment is often the most important feature of ineffective teams. They identify two key elements: dedication to the endeavor (commitment) and dedication to the team (unity). High-performance teams are distinguished by passionate dedication to goals, identification and emotional bonding among team members, and a balance between unity and respect for individual differences. Virtual teams face the challenge of developing and sustaining unified commitment in the absence of face-to-face contact. In particular, they must identify and deal with the most serious threat, competition between individual and team goals. Kerber and Buono recommend appointing a strong team leader, willing to maintain frequent contact with team members, take full advantage of collaborative technologies, demonstrate a high level of personal commitment, and deal quickly with self-serving and non-contributing team members. Larson and LaFasto suggest that commitment can be enhanced by involving team members in project planning and in defining team identity, goals, and processes. Virtual team leaders should identify commonalities among members early on, while focusing the team on achieving key performance objectives and providing a clear context for recognizing team success. Finally, interdependence of goals, tasks, and outcomes among members of virtual teams can overcome motivational challenges, particularly early on. (Hertel, et al, 2004) Virtual team managers can create the experience of connectedness by delegating goal setting, assigning interdependent tasks, and rewarding both personal contributions and team performance. ## Collaborative Climate "Collaboration flourishes in a climate of trust." (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, p. 87) Trust is based on social characteristics (familiarity, competence), immediate outcomes of interaction processes (reliability, integrity), and institutions (social norms, policies). Studies have shown that while trust has little impact on task performance, it can significantly reduce process losses. (Jarvenpaa, Shaw, Staples, 2004) Trust affects how we interpret member behavior. "Trust is the lens through which these factors are interpreted." (Jarvenpaa, Shaw, and Staples, 2004, p253) Therefore trust plays an important role in virtual teams where ambiguity is high. Unfortunately, building trust is an enormous challenge for virtual teams. \"In virtual organizations, trust requires constant face-to-face interaction---the very activity the virtual form eliminates.\" (Kirkman et al, 2002) Structured opportunities for socialization are less satisfying in virtual environments, and slow development of relational ties. When a team is formed, expectations about workloads, processes, and contributions lead to "psychological contracts" which can damage trust when broken. (Piccoli and Ives, 2003) Reneging and incongruence are heightened for virtual teams due to the limited ability to communicate. Studies show that in high-trust teams, structured behavior control mechanisms (rules, progress reports, explicit assignments) intensify the negative effects of reneging and incongruence because they increase salience of member behavior. (Piccoli and Ives, 2003) However, in low-trust teams strong structures actually mitigate the negative effects of trust by minimizing the role trust plays in interpreting member behavior. Trust is not always dependent on social bonds. Instead, it can be founded on performance consistency. Task-based trust (vs. interpersonal trust) may be more achievable for virtual teams, and can be built by developing norms around communication patterns, ensuring reliable and rapid responses, and making team interaction timely and consistent. (Kirkman et al, 2002) ## Standards of Excellence and External Support Virtual teams are held to the same standards of excellence as conventional teams, but there are subtle differences. Virtual team members often function as the point of contact for their immediate physical group. They often have more autonomy than conventional team members as their teams may meet according to varying time zones which may not be understood by their local management. The presence of a true "invisible team" (Larson and LaFasto, 1989, p109) is also a unique component of a virtual team. The "invisible team" is the management team to which each of the members report. The invisible team sets the standards for each member. Misunderstandings may arise if the "invisible team" does not align itself to the same set of expectations. A virtual team leader must understand the level and kind of support from each contributor. Larson and LaFasto observe that "loss of morale...decreased belief and commitment to the team's goal" (p110) result when support is not visible to the team. The team leader should consider what expectations are reasonable to ask of members. Virtual teams that span various companies must create some form of "shared understanding" (Symons, 1997, p427) in order for members to develop a set of expectations. Failure to establish understanding may result in standards that are not achievable by all members. External support frequently determines how resources, such as incentives and capital expenses, are contributed by team members. During the Rocketdyne-Boeing Project, expectations of each member were established at the outset of the project. (Malhotra, Majchzak, Carmen, Lott) Resolving how each member would contribute time, resources, and expertise reduced misunderstandings as the project progressed. Standards of excellence and external support intersect on many levels. Time and energy is well spent at the outset of a virtual team to evaluate the level of excellence the team will achieve. This is especially true when financial contributions require resources outside of the control of the virtual team. Managers of virtual teams need to understand the feasibility of their requests given the context of their members' management. ## Leadership Principled Leadership is the final ingredient identified by Larson and LaFasto (1989) for effective team performance. Pauleen (2004) tells us "leadership challenges are magnified in a virtual environment" and stresses the necessity of face-to-face meetings, stating "it is essential for them (leaders) to build personal relationships with team members before commencing a virtual working relationship. Strong relational links are associated with trust, creativity, motivation, morale, good decisions, and fewer process losses. However, Majchrzak, et al. (2004) argues that you can lead high-performing virtual teams without face-to-face meetings and provides several examples of successful teams whose members never met in person. This requires intensive communications to build a coherent identity and hold the team together, and their research found that the leaders of successful virtual teams "rarely let a day go by when members did not communicate with one another" and "frequent phone conversations between the team leader and individual members ...were not unusual." Research by Kirkman and Rosen, et al (2004) on the performance of virtual teams may provide a clue for leaders attempting to resolve this dilemma. They suggest that periodic face-to-face be held to focus on process improvement, but if this is not feasible "managers need to make extra efforts to empower virtual teams to deal directly and decisively with process improvement issues" (p. 188). Gibson and Cohen (2003) suggest virtual team leaders need to engage the group in openly discussing cultural differences and similarities to help develop communication norms. Thompson's (2000) work suggests the leader of a virtual team must also play a key role in assessing and balancing team performance levels across the four dimensions: team productivity; team satisfaction; individual growth; and organizational gains. Pauleen (2004) states that the leader of a virtual team must: assess team issues, boundaries, organizational policies, resources, and technology; target relationship levels necessary for performance; and develop effective strategies and select and utilize appropriate communication channels. ## Conclusions Virtual teams must deal with problems that befall face-to-face teams, along with some unique challenges. At the same time, they have the potential to realize additional process gains and deliver high-quality solutions by bringing together diverse individuals with complementary knowledge without the limitations of physical, organizational or cultural boundaries. Our competitive environment places a premium on the quality and speed of solutions, and technology is providing increasingly richer collaboration tools -- advancing from the telephone and the fax machine to video conferencing and virtual workspaces in a little over a decade. Organizations that learn to harness the power of virtual teams with these collaborative technologies will gain significant competitive advantage. ## References Duarte, Deborah L. and Nancy Tennant Snyder. Mastering Virtual Teams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2006. Gibson, Cristina B. and Susan G. Cohen. Virtual Teams That Work: Creating Conditions for Virtual Team Effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 2003. Review in HR Magazine. 2003, Vol. 48 Issue 7, p121. Guido Hertel, Udo Konradt, and Borris Orlikowski. "Managing Distance by Interdependence: Goal Setting, Task Interdependence, and Team-based Rewards in Virtual Teams". European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. 2004, Vol 13, No. 1, p1-28. Houghton G. Brown, Marshall Scott Poole, and Thomas L. Rodgers. "Interpersonal Traits, Complementarity, and Trust in Virtual Collaboration". Journal of Management Information Systems. 2004, Vol. 20, No. 4. p115-137. Huey, John. "The New Post-Heroic Leadership". Fortune Magazine. February 21, 1994. Jarvenpaa, Sirkka L., Thomas R. Shaw, and D. Sandy Staples. "Toward Contextualized Theories of Trust: The Role of Trust in Global Virtual Teams". Information Systems Research. Informs. 2004. Kerber, Kenneth W. and Anthony F. Buono. "Leadership Challenges in Global Virtual Teams: Lessons From the Field." SAM Advanced Management Journal. Autumn 2004, Vol. 69 Issue 4, p4-10. Kirkman, Bradley L., Benson Rosen, Paul E. Tesluk, and Cristina B. Gibson. "The Impact of Team Empowerment on Virtual Team Performance: The Moderating Role of Face-to-Face Interaction." Academy of Management Journal. 2004, Vol. 47, No. 2. Kirkman, Bradley L., Benson Rosen, Paul E. Tesluk, Cristina B. Gibson, and Simon O. McPherson. "Five challenges to virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc." Academy of Management Executive. August 2002, Vol.16, No.3, p67-79. Larson, Carl E. and Frank M. J. LaFasto. Teamwork: What must go right, what can go wrong. Sage, 1989. Majchrzak, Ann, Arvind Malhotra, Jeffrey Stamps, and Jessica Lipnack. "Can Absence Make a Team Grow Stronger?" Harvard Business Review. May 2004. Vol.82 Issue 5, p131-137. Malhotra, Arvind, Ann Majchzak, Robert Carmen, and Vern Lott. "Radical innovation without Collocation: A case Study at Boeing Rocketdyne". MIS Quarterly. Vol.25, No.2 p229-249. Massey, Anne P., Mitzi M. Montoya-Weiss, and Yu-Ting Hung. "Because Time Matters: Temporal Coordination in Global Virtual Project Teams". Journal of Management Information Systems. 2003. Vol. 19, No. 4. p129-155. McMahan, Kevin L. "Manage a Virtual Team". Effective Communication and Information Sharing in Virtual Teams. Journal of Accountancy. June 2005. Paul, Souren, Imad M. Samarah, Priya Seetharaman and Peter P. Mykytyn. "An Empirical Investigation of Collaborative Conflict Management Style in Group Support System-Based Global Virtual Teams". Journal of Management Information Systems. Vol. 21 No. 3, Winter 2005 pp. 185 - 222. Pauleen, David J. "An Inductively Derived Model of Leader-Initiated Relationship Building with Virtual Team Members." Journal of Management Information Systems. 2004, Vol. 20, No. 3. Pelled, Lisa Hope, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, and Katherine R. Xin. "Exploring the Black Box: An Analysis of Work Group Diversity, Conflict, and Performance." Administrative Science Quarterly. March 1999, Vol.44 Issue 1, p1-28. Piccoli, Gabriele and Blake Ives. "Trust and the Unintended Effects of Behavior Control in Virtual Teams." MIS Quarterly. Vol.27, No.3. September 2003. Symons, Frank. "Virtual departments, power, and location in different organizational settings." Economic Geography. Vol. 73, No. 4, p427. October 1997. Thompson, Leigh. Making the Team: A Guide for Managers. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. 2000. Weingart, Laurie and Karen A. Jehn. "Manage Intra-team Conflict through Collaboration." Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior. 2000. p226-238.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Stages ## Stages of Group Development One of the greatest challenges for team leaders or the team members themselves is progressing through the stages of team development. There are many different models and theories on team development and the stages of team formation. For the time being, most of this part of the chapter will focus on Bruce Tuckman's model of Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing established in the 1960's and 70's. ## Forming In this first stage the team members do not have defined roles and most likely it is not clear what they are supposed to do. The mission of the team may be nonexistent or in the early stages of development, thus individuals may not feel any sort of commitment or ownership toward the team and/or its mission. The individual team members probably don't know and/or haven't worked with other members on the team. Obviously there is no team history, and the norms of the team are not yet established. There is a high degree of learning in this phase as members learn about each other, the mission, and their place within the team. Because there is a high degree of unfamiliarity among team members there is high uncertainty and low conflict. Team members are generally on their best behavior, and tend to behave independently. The forming phase of team building can be a bit stressful for the team members, but is very important in laying a strong foundation for future teamwork. Teams in the forming stage must be careful to avoid cliques, or subgroups from forming within the team. Subgroups may or may not have a negative impact on the team's performance. It is best for the team leader-manager to carefully observe the subgroups behavior to ensure it is acting in the best interests of the team. This stage of team development is crucial and it is suggested that teams in the forming stage participate in team-building activities (as discussed later in this chapter). The below list is a non-exhaustive list of behaviors and outcomes that characterize this phase and which high performing team's generally complete. 1. Define roles of team members 2. Set the goal(s) of the team 3. Establish a mission 4. Determine directive leadership (this step may have been completed through an organization's structure) 5. Occasionally meet to work on common tasks 6. Team members decide to be on the team 7. Figure out how to build trust within the team 8. Establish expectations for the team and its members 9. Form relationships, make contact, and bond 10. Create and agree to a team charter ## Storming The storming stage of team development is a time for team members' ideas are considered and in competition. Individuals will try new ideas and push for power and position in the team. Agendas are quickly displayed. People may want to modify the team's mission. There can often be little team spirit and lots of personal attacks. Roles are expressed and refined. Those team members who are conflict avoidance will often participate little in this phase due to its inherent nature. Conversely, those that are not conflict avoiding will often participate more during this stage than others. If this phase is not carefully managed it can get out of control and be destructive to the effectiveness of the team. It is especially important for team members to manage this phase with patience and tolerance. The diversity and differences of the team members should be emphasized as well as a common goal. There are some teams that never move from this stage to the next because it can be de-motivating. Often cliques, subgroups, and splinter groups will form. For teams to move from the storming stage the norming stage they typically do the following tasks. 1. Recognize and publicize team wins 2. Display active listening skills among members 3. Make time to spend with the team 4. Build trust by honoring commitments 5. Provide and accept honest open feedback 6. Create and maintain a positive supporting atmosphere 7. Team leader asks for and expects results 8. Team leader constantly reinforces proper team behavior 9. Team leader facilitates the group for wins 10. Buy into goals, actions, and activities 11. Have a "We can succeed" mindset ## Norming Only few teams reach the norming stage. Member agree about the roles and processes required to solve problems. Members of the team adjust their work habits and behavior in order to accommodate other team members and make the work on the team more smooth and natural. Team members work through this phase by agreeing on rules, values, professional behavior, and methods. As team members learn more about each other their perspectives about each other change (for the better or for the worse). In this stage success occurs and the team has all the resources to meet their objectives. Within the team, members will develop an appreciation for each other as well as build trust. The team's purpose is accepted by the members. The team leader will support and reinforce correct team behavior. The team is creative, has more motivation, and commitment from all members. If there are any hidden agendas, they will typically be exposed as team members solidify team norms. Decisions are made through consensus building and negotiation. There are some common pitfalls that must be avoided in this phase. Creativity may be stifled if norming behaviors become too strong, or the group may begin to foster and display groupthink. Team members often fail to challenge each other, or issues that may prevent the team from performing to their optimal ability. Some team members can feel threatened by the large amount of responsibility they are given -- causing them resist and revert back to storming stage. To prevent this from happening team members must be aware of the common pitfalls that may occur during this stage and take appropriate steps to ensure they don't. Teams that want to enter the performing stage should take the following action steps during the norming stage. Maintain traditions Distribute responsibility evenly Communicate at all times Perform self-evaluations Express praise for other members commitment and work Share leadership based on unique skill sets Responsibility sharing Commit time to the team Set new higher goals to keep the team excelling Actively delegate responsibilities Share rewards and successes ## Performing During the performing stage teams become high performing teams. Teams collectively work to solve problems and get the job done without the need for outside supervision or unnecessary conflict. The team is focused, effective, and achieves extraordinary results. There is a collaborative environment in which team members use their resources most efficiently. Team members are autonomous, competent decision makers. Team leaders focus more on strategy as well as communicating successes and areas of opportunity because the team takes on the responsibility of decision making. Teams in this stage have the ability to recognize weaknesses and strengthen them. Team members will experience tremendous personal growth. Members care about each other, thus creating a unique team identity. Any arguments, disagreements, disputes, and the like will be channeled toward making the team stronger. Finally, performing teams utilize their established communication protocols and action plans. ## Adjourning Teams cannot exist indefinitely if there is overarching goal to achieve. If the team has met its objective, it is usually disbanded. Tuckman added the adjourning stage as a final stage to his four (now five) stage process. High performing teams typically have positive team experiences. Therefore, this stage is sometimes referred to as the mourning stage by teams that must break up. ## Conclusion There are four main stages of team development -- forming, storming, norming, and performing. Each stage has its own set of characteristics, but there may also be overlap among the phases. Teams that make it to the norming and performing stages have done so because the team members were willing to trust other members and care for them. Performing teams also are able to assess the team's effectiveness and make decisions on how improve in the future -- all autonomously. The certainty of change in a team (whether it be objectives, members, or other) will almost inevitably cause the team to revert back to earlier steps. Long standing teams will periodically go through these cycles as changing circumstances require. ## Links <http://www.e3smallschools.org/documents/TuckmansTeamDevelopmentModel.pdf> ## References Barret, D.J. (2006) _Leadership Communication._ McGraw Hill Irwin. Rickards, T., & Moger,S.T., (1999) Handbook for creative team leaders, Aldershot, Hants: Gower Rickards, T., & Moger, S., (2000) 'Creative leadership processes in project team development: An alternative to Tuckman's stage model', British Journal of Management, Part 4, pp273-283 Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399. Tuckman, B. W. & Jensen, M. A. (1977). Stages of small-group development revisited. Group Org. Studies 2:419-27 White A, (2009) From Comfort Zone to Performance Management. White & MacLean Publishing.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Group Dynamics ## Introduction ` Developing a group or ``team`` is a useful approach to accomplishing a task. During this discussion the term “group” and "team" are used interchangeably. When developed and run effectively a team can be used to pool the ideas and experiences of its members in search for a collective outcome. Organizations of all types can benefit from the work of teams. An effective team should be able to share experiences and provide each other feedback. By sharing experiences, teams can generate insight and become effective problem solvers through a collaborated effort. Developing a successful team requires understanding ``group dynamics`` and planning for those dynamics is an important step for building positive group dymanics. The first section of this chapter focused on Tuckman’s model`^`1`^`. His model gives a good idea of how teams are formed and some of the dynamics that develop as the team progresses. This section will focus on what is a team, what you can do to foster good group dynamics and what are some problems to look for.` ## What is a Team? ` A team is “two or more people who share a common definition and evaluation of themselves and behave in accordance with such a definition.”`^`2`^`. A team is any group of people organized to work together interdependently and cooperatively to meet a specific need, by accomplishing a purpose and goals. Teams are created for both long term and short term interaction. A Team can also be defined as a collection of people who act in response to a common goal or outcome. The team is only as good as its members and how they interact with each other. How many members should be on a team is largely dependent on the reason the team was established. According to Sharpening the Team Mind`^`3`^`, when deciding the number of members to have on a team consider the “uneven communication problem.” The theory states, only a handful of team members do all the talking. For example a team of six, three people do 86% of all the talking.` ## Create positive group dynamics Important aspects of a group that works well together, is how individuals interact with each other and how individuals react with the group. Positive relationships are important in a group, and understanding them is equally important. In order to develop good group dynamics, you must first develop good relationships. According to LaFasto and Larson in "When Teams Work Best,"^4^ there are four aspects of a good relationship: constructive, productive, mutual understanding and self-corrective. These four aspects are the basis for LaFasto and Larson's Connect model (Table 1), which can be used to develop good relationships. A _constructive_ relationship can also be between a person and the team. "Good relationships are constructive for both people."^4^ In order to have a constructive relationship, there must be trust and mutual understanding between both parties. Constructive relationships do not happen overnight, it takes time to develop trust and to be open with others. _Productive_ relationships are important because if the relationship between two individuals on a team is not productive, the team may not be productive. Productive relationships also, "allow us to focus on real issues --the ones that matter-- and to do so in a way that makes a difference."^4^ _Mutual understanding_ is critical because, "they encourage us to focus on and understand the other person's perspective, and they offer us the satisfaction of being understood."^4^ Not only is it important to validate another person's point of view, it is important for us to be validated. It goes back to trust and building a constructive relationship, in order to be understood, you have to be able to understand others. Good relationships are _self-corrective_. It is like a marriage, each part is committed to improving the relationship. By continuing to work on improving a relationship you are developing trust and mutual understanding between the parties. _Table #1_ The Connect Model (Summarized) 1993 Frank M. J. LaFasto, Ph.D. and Carl E. Larson, Ph.D. 1. Comment to a Relationship 2. Optimize Safety 3. Narrow to One Issue 4. Neutralize Defensiveness 5. Explain and Echo 6. Change one Behavior Each 7. Track It! As you are working on developing good relationships another way to foster good group dynamics is to identify strengths and weaknesses and assign group roles. For a new team that has not worked together, assigning roles can also help surface individual strengths and weaknesses. By simply assigning roles at the beginning of the project a team can quickly focus on the tasks. Everyone should be responsible for brain storming, problem solving and providing their experience and knowledge, but some roles are more generic and may or may not vary by task. Here are four roles that no team should be without: 1. A Leader -- In the event there is no clear chain of command, a team must be prepared to assign the role of leader. A leader can keep the team focused, mediate conflicts and ensure that individuals are held accountable. 2. A note taker or scribe -- again, a simple idea, but documenting every meeting is an important step in developing a productive team. A scribe can quickly get a team up to date with past notes so little time is wasted remembering where you left off. By documenting and distributing notes from each meeting, all members of the team will be equally informed. 3. Lessons Learned tracker -- Identify one person to track both positive and negative outcomes of meetings and projects. This individual can solicit input from other members. By documenting what everyone thinks went well and why and what did not go well and why, can keep a team productive by not repeating past mistakes. 4. Devil's Advocate -- Teams need to embrace conflict and different points of view. A devil's advocate is a person who brings up alternatives or objections to other\'s ideas. Having an individual like this can make the team more objective and reduce problems like Groupthink. Because this person\'s role can stir up conflict, it can be helpful to rotate who plays the devil\'s advocate role in the team. ## Problems that hinder good group dynamics ` There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other common challenges like, poor leadership, bad communication, and a lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles as mentioned above. ` The first challenge that hinders good group dynamics is poor leadership. There are a few things an individual can do if the poor team leadership is your boss or someone with authoritative power is in charge of your team. First, be supportive, if your boss trusts you and you are supportive, you may be able to influence decisions by suggesting alternatives. If the poor leader did not assign a devil's advocate, suggest it during a team meeting and why you think it would be beneficial. Once the devil's advocate is in place, coach him or her to bring up alternatives. Once alternatives are out in the open and debated, the poor leader may see that the new idea is better. Bad communications is a quick way for a team to be unproductive and ineffective. By using a scribe and lessons learned tracker to document team meetings and activities a team can easily be kept up to date and in the loop. An effective team leader can assign tasks and hold people accountable for their contributions, which can prevent social loafing and encourage good communications. Lack of focus can make a team just a group of individuals. Keeping the team focused takes constant effort. A good leader can keep teams focused and on task by assigning roles and enforcing accountability. A good method to keep teams focused is by using an agenda and distributing it prior to the meeting. An agenda can get people on the same page and will encourage them to prepare based on the topics under discussion. Groupthink, dominate personalities and social loafing are all challenges you will face when working with a team. The key to combating these challenges is to be able to identify when they are taking place. \- Groupthink is simply going along with the team on a decision because that seems to be the consensus and they want to avoid conflict. Having a strong devil's advocate will help reduce the chances of groupthink. \- Dominant personalities are difficult to deal with, sticking to an agenda, establishing protocols during meetings, and having an effective leader can be used to combat strong personalities. \- Social loafing is someone that is putting forth less effort as a member of a group than they would as an individual. Again, leadership and holding people accountable is a great tool to deal with social loafing. ## Conclusion When the team process is executed effectively a team can be used to pool the ideas and experiences of its members in search for a collective outcome. Team can help organizations of all types be more efficient in problem solving by pooling experienced employees to work together. A key to an effective team is to understand group dynamics. Good group dynamics begin with good relationships, both on an individual basis and the relationships of individuals with the team. LaFasto and Larson developed the Connect Model to assist individuals develop good relationships. The Connect Model was built around the four most important aspects of a good relationship, constructive, productive, mutual understanding and self-corrective. Once you have established good relationships, assigning positions in the team will give a team the opportunity to be successful. By identifying possible pitfalls that may hinder good team dynamics team members can combat the effects and develop a more productive and successful team. ## References 1. Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 384-399. 2. Hogg, Michael A., Vaughan, Graham M, Social psychology, 4th Edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005 3. Thompson, L., Making the Team: A Guide for Managers 3rd Edition, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Chapter 6. 4. Lafasto, F., Larson, C., When Teams Work Best, Sage Publications, 2001
# Managing Groups and Teams/Psychological Profiling ## Introduction Psychological profiling in team building can be a very useful tool in distinguishing personalities, traits, characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of each team member. From the beginning of time, people have had to work together and because no two people are alike, not even twins, the mind and overall psychological makeup or personality of a person can be an important aspect in building effective and productive teams. In the early 19th century, when astronomers timed the passage of stars overhead, they noticed they all came up with different results. They took these differences and made an analysis of what they called the \"personality\" of the eye. Even as far back as the mid-1800\'s, distinguished scholars were championing the whole person as a unit of study. From that point forward, individual psychologists began to conceptualize personality and behavior differently. Psychological profiling is a useful tool in the selection of a team, team alignment, personal development, coaching, and the overall team development. A team can certainly be formed without psychological profiling; however, with the power of knowing the personality and mind of each team member better, it gives the team a head start in meshing and forming the most effective team possible. ## What is Psychological Profiling? Psychological profiling is the analysis of an individual or teams behavior and psychological characteristics, used especially to identify and explain the makeup of that person or the team in question. If the organization or team can better understand the makeup, behavior, and characteristics of the members of that team, it is more likely that those paired up will behave more congenial and have more overall cohesion within the group. Sir Francis Galton may properly be called the first practitioner of psychological testing. It has been said that he originated mental tests, and assumed that intelligence could be measured in terms of a person\'s level of sensory capacity-the higher the intelligence, the higher the level of sensory discrimination. Galton also began a long line of research on mental imagery, much of which included the first extensive use of the psychological questionnaire. Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, James Cattell, B.F. Skinner and other great minds can also be much accredited for bringing psychological profiling to not only the individual, but to the groups or teams within organizations. Carl Jung\'s theory of psychological types says each person is \"wired\" with different tendencies and preferences. Some of us are extraverted while others are introverted, some are \"thinkers\" while others are \"feelers\", and so on. Carl Jung also once said, "Personality is the supreme realization of the innate idiosyncrasy of a living being. It is an act of high courage flung in the face of life, the absolute affirmation of all that constitutes the individual, the most successful adaptation to the universal condition of existence coupled with the greatest possible freedom for self-determination." In order for the team to understand the individual, the individual must also understand themselves. Personality is often said to be the major makeup of an individual person or team's make-up. A contemporary definition for personality is offered by Carver and Scheier (Professors of Psychology): "Personality is a dynamic organization, inside the person, of psychophysical systems that create a person's characteristic patterns of behavior, thoughts, and feelings." Important aspects of the psychological or personality makeup may be: - Dynamic Organization: suggests ongoing readjustments, adaptation to experience, continual upgrading and maintaining Personality doesn't just lie there. It has process and it's organized. - Inside the Person: suggests internal storage of patterns, supporting the notion that personality influences behaviors, etc. - Psychophysical systems: suggests that the physical is also involved in 'who we are' - Characteristic Patterns: implies that consistency/continuity which are uniquely identifying of an individual - Behavior, Thoughts, and Feelings: indicates that personality includes a wide range of psychological experience/manifestation: that personality is displayed in MANY ways. Carver & Scheier also suggest that the word personality "conveys a sense of consistency, internal causality, and personal distinctiveness". This issue of "personal distinctiveness" is very important. There are certain universal characteristics of the human race and particular features of individuals. We all for example experience stress and the elevated pressure that goes with it. The real key is this though - Every one of us is unique too. That is why using psychological profiling can point out much of those unique points and point the team in the right direction to play on those unique points, while also meshing with the similar characteristics. ## Types of Psychological Profiling There are many types or ways an organization can perform psychological profiling in building and sustaining teams. Actual tests or questionnaires can be performed -- possibly the number one way most people may think of psychological profiling. However, there are other ways. Psychological Profiles also known as Personality profiles can be deduced from any public information such as demographic data, internet search, media, opinions, blogs, social networking services, wikis, newsgroups, words, voice, pictures, videos, biological features, physical features, body language, forums, message boards including other methods such as statistical comparisons with peer groups. Factors such as how people create various usernames, emails, IM Names, the way people write, the style and method of writing, the words they use, their pictures, videos, voice, biological features, physical features, body language, their comments etc also have relevance. This can also help to understand and estimate behavior in different social and team situations. Relevancy of a personality profile also known as psychological profile is proportional to the accuracy of the background information you provide. The fundamental point of profiling is comparing a subject\'s behavior with the behavior of others in similar circumstances who have been studied in the past. The key to good profiling is in deducing what background effects what trait and identifying patterns. Often times what most people commonly consider to be irrelevant pieces of information could be very relevant for any trait. It is also possible that people have a certain trait but do not act upon it due to external circumstances that make it very difficult for them to act in accordance with their natural trait. In these situations when the external circumstances are removed people revert to their natural trait. There are no traits that are all bad or all good. Good or bad is very relative and defined according to the society one lives in or the circumstances. Certain traits in certain situations would be extremely desirable and those same traits in a different situation could be extremely undesirable. And even within the same society, concepts of good or bad may change over time, particularly if influenced by evolving societal values or expectations. Often times people\'s own perceptions about their behavior, thoughts or functioning are biased by their own ideal image and experiences. Objective observers, on the other hand can provide a more unbiased assessment of these behaviors. To you your own traits, may seem perfectly normal, typical or not typical. Yet to those around you, they may seem typical, odd or abnormal. Normal is often defined by what\'s statistically average. Most people fall in the middle ground, the average, while others fall to one extreme or the other. And what is normal also changes over time particularly when influenced by evolving societal values or expectations. Although there are a number of ways psychological profiling may be administered to the individual or the team as a whole, below are some major tools used by many organizations to understand the team building process better. It is best to analyze the particular industry and business that is in need of team building and decide upon the best tool available for that organization. One may find that not only one tool is sufficient, but may need multiple tools to understand fully and reach the goals of team building that are needed for ultimate success. The options available specifically for teams are bolded: Personal Competence Social Competence ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adversity Quotient (Paul Stolz, 2000) Similar to resilience and hardiness, the Adversity Quotient has been proposed as an indicator of capacity to withstand and thrive on challenging circumstances specifically related to business and the workplace. Enneagram (Google search) Personality tool based on 9 personality types. Developed with a more deeply historical and spiritual orientation than most other similar questionnaires by some leading humanistic psychologists, including Gurdjieff, Ichazo, and Naranjo. The types relate to the major roles that people seem to adopt and play in society. There is no definitive Enneagram questionnaire - various free and commercial versions are available. DiSC Management Strategies (Corexel) Commonly used tool and associated training program for providing feedback and improving on people\'s self-management and team management in workplace settings. Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (Herrmann, 1970\'s) The HBDI 120-item self-report diagnostic tool which provides thinking styles profiling based on left-right hemisphere preferences and cognitive vs. limbic thinking preferences. Can also be used for team profiling, building, and analysis. Human Synergistics (Human Synergistics International, 1970\'s) A thinking style / personality profiling and feedback system, plus training program, which can be completed on an individual, team and organization level to assess strengths and areas for improvement/change in individual effectiveness. Keirsey Temperament Sorter Similar to the MBTI, identifies 16 personality sub-types, based on dichotomous ratings on 4 main personality factors which are derived from the psychological work of Carl Jung. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator The MBTI is the most widely used personality assessment questionnaire, particularly in workplace training. The MBTI identifies people as being one of 16 overall types, based on dichotomous ratings on 4 main personality factors. Team Management Systems (Margerison & McCann, 1980\'s) Profiles the kinds of kind of roles people prefer to play in groups and teams. Provides individual and team-levels of analysis. Used to help improve quality of team performance. 360-Degree Feedback System for gathering feedback from others about personality and work styles which makes particular use of combining observer ratings and comparing with self-ratings. These instruments are commonly used and recommended as comprehensive personality and team profiling tools. These tools are often used by organizational consultants, managers, individual team members, and workplace trainers to help facilitate understanding of: - personal strengths and weaknesses - other team members\' strengths and weaknesses - a team\'s overall strengths and weaknesses - an organization\'s overall strengths and weaknesses ## Conclusion As we have discussed in this section, psychological profiling can be a very important and useful tool in team building and maintaining effective groups. With psychological profiling being the analysis of an individual or teams behavior and psychological characteristics, used especially to identify and explain the makeup of that person or the team in question, one may better understand the dynamics or make-up of each individual and overall team better. It is also imperative to remember that there are many types of psychological profiling as discussed in this section, ranging from search, media, opinions, blogs, social networking services, wikis, newsgroups, words and so forth, to actual testing, questionnaires, etc. Testing may include such options as: DISC Management Strategies, Team Management Systems, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and so on. These tools help to not only understand the individual and the "map" they are working on, but also how these individuals will affect the team and the overall potential of cohesiveness, productivity, and possible effectiveness. Understanding the benefits and drawbacks of psychological testing, knowing what tool to use and when to use it, can be a major assistance to any organization and or groups/teams. Recognize the audience being profiled and determine what is best for the purpose the organization is looking to achieve. ## *References* Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (2000). Perspectives on personality (4th ed.) Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Burger, J. M. (1993). Personality (3rd ed.) Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Ridley, M (1999). Genome: The autobiography of a species in 23 chapters. London: Fourth Estate. Schultz, D., & Schultz, S.E. (1994). Theories of personality (5th ed.) Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. Website References: <http://www.minddata.com/history2.asp> <http://www.abika.com/help/Accuracy.htm> <http://wilderdom.com/tools/ToolsPersonality.html>
# Managing Groups and Teams/Team Building Activities ## Team Building Activities Introduction Team building activities are important for a number of reasons. Everyone participating will enjoy the benefits including the work force, management, customers, up to the stockholders. Team building can keep employees motivated and enthusiastic about every phase of their job. It may not be easy to always get the group or team members excited about doing an activity, but if implemented well, it can bring a sense of purpose and unity unlike anything else. Once you get everyone to understand the importance of team-building, the program has a better chance of being accepted. Team-building activities help people understand the importance of working together. A company is more productive when everyone works together for a common goal, without factions or other divisive elements. Along with understanding the importance of working together, below are the benefits that can be reaped by effective team building activities, namely: Establish Rapport When an organization utilizes team building activities it helps employees to establish rapport with each other. This helps employee's work together in an amicable environment. More Productive Team building activities help employees understand that they are much more productive working as a cohesive unit trying to accomplish the same goals and objectives. More work is accomplished by a team than one person could ever hope to accomplish alone. Cut Costs Employees that participate in team building activities are more energetic, enthusiastic and are absent from work less often. This reduces costs for the company across the board. Quality Ideas When there are team building activities employees are more likely to submit ideas that ultimately help the organization function more efficiently and could save money. Ideas can help a company capture market share, develop people and save time. Brainstorming A team that comes together can accomplish just about any objective when they cooperate to brainstorm different scenarios aimed at achieving goals. Team Building Activity Examples and Starters: Activities that allow team members to work together in a scenario outside of their normal group environment can be an extremely effective way to build cohesion and unity. Some are simple and some can be complex. Some are short, and others can be very involved! Every team activity requires a small amount of planning, a few supplies, and an effective activity planner. Here are some examples of some fun and simple activity ideas! *EGG DROP ACTIVITY* Teams work to build a holding container that will protect an egg when dropped from two or three stories high. - Engaging and very messy small group activity (4 or 5) as part of larger group (e.g., 20 up to 100) - Can be run as a competition between teams - Task is to build a single egg package that can sustain a fall of whatever height you decide - Can be used to highlight any almost aspect of teamwork or leadership - Lends itself to production line or project management metaphors Materials (Provide the materials for each team to use, or allow them to gather their own materials.) A suggestion of useable supplies: Drinking Straws Tape Towel Rubber band Masking tape Egg Timing \~30-45 minutes to build package \~15-30 minutes for Great Egg Drop \~15-45 minutes cleanup & debrief *MULTI-WAY TUG-OF-WAR* Teams work to pull the other teams across a center line using guile and strategy. - Fun, finale-type activity. Physically exhausting and emotionally climaxing! - Works for kids through to corporate programs. Ideal for adolescents and possibly youth at risk. Especially with older adults, be careful with this activity, especially if they are unfit or if overexertion is contraindicated (e.g., heart problems). - Use for any size groups, indoor or outdoor. Ideal is large group outdoors. Pick a soft location e.g., grass/beach. - In traditional 1 on 1 tug-of-war it is mostly strength that wins, with a few tactics. - In multi-way tug-of-war it is mostly tactics that wins, with some strength. - Lay out the ropes, etc. as shown in diagram below. - Participants should prepare appropriately e.g., watches and hand jewellery off. - Divide into groups and make sure the groups appear to be of similar strength. - Brief group on normal tug-of-war safety rules, basically: - no wrapping or tying rope around anyone or anything - only hold rope with hands - watch out for rope burn on hands - let go if rope is moving through hands - watch out for rope burn on body - let go if you lose footing - First command from the Tug-of-War master is \"take the strain\". This is only to take up the slack, that\'s all. The Tug-of-War master makes sure the centre ring is stable and centered. This needs strong leadership because teams are always keen to add extra strain! - Second command is \"Go!!\" - Teams attempt to pull the center ring or knot over their finish line. This can rarely be achieved by strength alone and instead will require guile. Teams can swivel to cooperate / compete with other teams, then switch directions, etc. - Conduct several rounds. Continue, say, until one team earns 3 victories and the Tug-of-War title. - Allow teams plenty of time to physically recover and debrief/plan after each round. - Team building groups may wish to discuss what the secrets to success were in this activity - and whether these lessons apply elsewhere. Materials Make your own 4 way tug of war with several good quality ropes each \~60ft+ with attachment e.g., via knots, splicing or ring/karabiners Timing \~30-60 minutes References For descriptions on these and other great ideas for activites, see: <http://wilderdom.com/games/InitiativeGames.html> <http://www.teambuildingactivities.net/> <http://www.ehow.com/facts_5407800_importance-team-building-activities.html>
# Managing Groups and Teams/Glossary 1. Action oriented. This is the tendency to act and encourage others to perform. It is a intended effort to make something happen. 2. Accountability. Accountability is entailed by responsibility. Anyone who is responsible is thereby accountable. To be responsible is to accept judgments, acts and omissions (refusals or failures to act) as one\'s own burden where appropriate, and in whole or in part. Accountability is a state of responsiveness. The readiness or preparedness to give an explanation or justification to relevant others (stakeholders) for one\'s judgments, intentions, acts and omissions when appropriately called upon to do so. 3. Altruism. The satisfaction that comes from knowing that your responsibilities and work have a beneficial affect on others. 4. Ambivert. One who is not strongly inclined towards the characteristics of an extrovert or introvert. Rather, an ambivert tends to transition between the two personality types depending on the setting at hand. In groups and teams an ambivert may assert himself as a leader or vocal group participant or simply take a more quiet or reserved role. 5. Autonomy. One who values freedom in the work place and dislikes \"micromanagment\". 6. Belligerent. When a person is constantly involved in conflict which they have provoked or voluntarily entered. 7. Belittle. Use to make someone or something less important. 8. Collaboration. The willing exchange of diverse and varying ideas, visions, and perspectives with the objective of creating a unique and dynamic idea to better the organization while working together. 9. Competency Trap. Doing the thing we knew worked once, even though it isn\'t working now. 10. Confirmation Trap. A confirmation trap is the tendency to look for additional information that conforms to our understanding of a situation rather than seeking balanced and unbiased evidence that may be disconfirming. 11. Conformity. is the degree to which members of a group will change their behavior, views and attitudes to fit the views of the group. Sometimes conformity is distinguished by type: compliance, conforming only publicly, but keeping one\'s own views in private; identification, conforming while a group member, publicly and privately, but not after leaving the group; and internalization, conforming publicly and privately, during and after group membership. Sociologists believe that compliance is conformity that is usually a result of a direct order while internalization is conformity that comes from one\'s total and utter belief in one\'s act. 12. Consensus with qualification. When every member of a team discuss a problem or idea and after certain time can\'t have an agreedment and the final decision is make by a CEO involved. 13. Constructive Feedback. Communication which alerts an individual to an area in which his/her performance could improve. Constructive feedback is not criticism; it is descriptive and should always be directed to the action, not the person. 14. Core Competency. This is working knowledge. It is comprised of our experience to do the job and having the essential problem-solving skills needed to overcome obstacles. 15. Counterattack. When we feel that we need to be defensive and fight about something that we believe is important to us. 16. Convergent thinking. Thought process often adopted by groups in which the group brings together similar information focused on finding a single best answer to bring closure to and resulting in feelings of security about a question, discussion or project. Convergent thinking is characterized by the need or intent to find one solution or answer to a problem. In other words, the group \"converges\" on an answer. 17. Cross Functional Team. A cross-functional team consists of a group of people working toward a common goal and made of people with different functional expertise. It could include people from finance, marketing, operations, and human resources departments. Typically it also includes employees from all levels of an organization. Members may also come from outside an organization (in particular, from suppliers, key customers, or consultants). 18. Cross-functional teams. It is the team that has the mission to work on specific problem, issue or task with the goal of improve production. 19. Culture. Culture refers to the standards of social interaction, values, and beliefs from a given group of people. Cultural issues can affect team interactions through different understandings of communication, family, and can appear to be an excuse for preferential treatment. 20. Divergent thinking. Divergent thinking is characterized by the production of as many ideas as possible, avoiding repetition or convergence. 21. Diversity. Team Diversity is the uniqueness of each individual on a team. This should not only include the usual diverse selections such as religion, sex, age, and race, but also additional unique personality characteristics such as introverts and extroverts, liberals and conservatives, etc. 22. Dud-Person: A person on the team who does not have the skills they claimed to have to get on the team, or that their manager thought they had when they were assigned to the team. 23. Emotionally Tone-Deaf. Inability to 'read' body language signals in others. Inability to understand how other's emotions affect their actions/behaviors. 24. Empire Builders. Those to believe that the team that has more members is the one that will win. 25. Empowered Team It is the team that has the rights to plan and put in place any improvements to their process. 26. Entrenched. Something well establish. Not for changes. 27. Extrovert. Extroverts tend to be energetic, enthusiastic, action-oriented, talkative, assertive, gregarious and unreserved. Therefore, an extroverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. While extraversion is associated with high levels of warmth, and also with enjoyment of thrills and strong sensations, it is common also for people to have divergent levels of extraversion at this micro or \"facet\" level of the trait - for instance, preferring moderate group-sizes, but relishing excitement. They view team meetings as productive and energizing. A venue for essential thought provoking discussions and a place to surcease any problems that may arise. 28. Facilitator. A person whose job it is to make sure that meetings run well and achieve the goal they are seeking. 29. Feedback. Communication to a person or a team of people regarding the effect their behavior is having on another person, the organization, the customer, or the team. 30. Group. A group is a collection of individuals that are linked by some associational characteristic(s). In organizations, groups can include departments (Accounting, Marketing, etc.) as well as temporary sets of individuals (task forces, cross-department groups, etc.) 31. Group Contract. A formal written contract established by a group to eliminate confusion and set a standard for the group\'s expectations, individual responsibilities, forms of communication, and methods of discipline 32. Group Polarization. A group taking on the ideas of a single group member, i.e., one liberal talking, soon the whole group is liberal. 33. Group Potency. The spiritual energy of a team. Often referred to the team's ability to believe in themselves. 34. Group success. Success in groups is hard to define. The most obvious and commonly used measure of success is performance in the task (e.g., productivity). In addition, however, others (notably Hackman, 1986) have suggested the need to incorporate additional dimensions. Hackman suggests two dimensions that must be accounted for, the ability of group members to work together again (viability) and the growth of individuals participating in the team (learning). The ability of group members to work together again attempts to show that, even if a group performs its task well, it is not successful if the relationships between members are destroyed. Similarly, unless the individual growth objectives of group members are met through their participation in a group, the group cannot be considered a complete success. Although this expansion of notions of group success is valuable, the research literature on groups does not have a uniform or universal understanding of what constitutes group success. 35. Groupthink. Process where members of a group start thinking alike and there are less individual ideas and creativity. 36. Guided Experience. Process by which agencies can tap into the knowledge of their employees by using a coach to expedite the process and create a database of shared insights and knowledge. 37. Halo Effect. The halo effect is our tendency to assume that if one is excellent in some dimensions that will be excel in others even though they are not related in nature. 38. Heterogeneous Group. The people who join this kind of group usually have differente knowdlege, education, values, etc. This group usually are very competitive. 39. Homogeneous Group. The people who join this group have similar experience, feelings, values, etc. This group usually are very supportive. 40. Homosocial reproduction. The tendency of workplaces to promote according to social identification and individuals moving in the \"right\" social circles. For example, in a male-oriented workplace, corporate executives and managers may provide greater weight to the activities and interests of other men, thereby favoring them (sometimes unconsciously), giving them greater opportunity and greater access to promotions. 41. Infrastructure. The underlying base or foundation for the group or team. This could take the form of the various roles within the team/group or the policies and procedures that exist for the team. 42. Integration. The combining efforts of various departments, personnel, and social classes to promote diversity, collaboration and education in a safe and productive environment with the purpose of achieving a higher understanding and knowledge of any particular problem or solution. 43. Introvert. One who\'s thoughts and interests are directed inwardly rather than outwardly toward others. In groups and teams introverts may be inclined to take a back seat role rather than assert their opinions or views to the other group members. 44. Interface. A point where certain groups or teams can interact. This could be in the form of a certain person that acts as a liaison for multiple groups, or it could be a medium, such as teleconference or some other technology. 45. In-group. (from Wikipedia) In sociology, an ingroup is a social group towards which an individual feels loyalty and respect, usually due to membership in the group. This loyalty often manifests itself as an ingroup bias. Commonly encountered ingroups include family members, people of the same race or religion, and so on. Research demonstrates that people often privilege ingroup members over outgroup members even when the ingroup has no actual social standing; for instance, a group of people with the same last digit in their social security number. 46. Interdependence. A dynamic of being mutually responsible to and dependent on others. Each unique action is key to overall system success. 47. Interpersonal Reflex. The social phenomenon in which one person\'s behavior (smiling, complaining, goofing off) can cause others to unconsciously behave similarly. Also called the \"Dyadic Effect,\" the \"Norm of Reciprocity,\" and the \"Lock-in Effect.\" (Team 8) 48. Leadership. Skill that somebody has to drive a group or a team. Be the leader mean that other members of the team come to you with questions or because they need somebody to help them when they have a task assigned. Usually is the person with knowdlege and experience, but some people has a innate leadership. 49. Management. The close and steering direction of a group, often has a more negative connotation than leadership. 50. Marginalize. to place in a position of marginal importance, influence, or power 51. Mentoring. Mentoring is a supportive learning relationship between a caring individual who shares his/her knowledge, experience and wisdom with another individual who his willing and ready to benefit from this exchange to enrich his/her professional journey. 52. Meritocrats. Individuals that feel emotion, but do not believe that emotion should play a part in making decisions. These people have problems functioning because they do not understand the motivations that drive other's decision making processes. 53. Mindguarding. Symptom of groupthink in which an individual or individuals in a group appoint themselves to the role of protecting the group from adverse information or disturbing ideas that might threaten group complacency. 54. Motivate. To provide someone with an incentive to do something; proper incentives should outweigh actions required to achieve incentives, although it is not required. 55. Newcomer. A newcomer is an individual who has recently joined the group, a newby. A newcomer joins the group for a variety of reasons, including the need of the group for greater work capacity (in volume, skill, or knowledge) and the need of the individual to accomplish his or her own goals. 56. Openness. Be able to discuss an issue, a problem or situation with a peer, relative or superior and be honest and open about what we think and our feelings. 57. Organizational design. It is the way a office, group or company is structured and presented to all the employees and public in general. Employees will know to what area they belong and to who they have to report. 58. Organizational politics. The desire of those within an organization to further their own interests rather than achieving a collective goal. 59. Out-group "wikilink") (from Wikipedia) In sociology, an outgroup is a social group towards which an individual feels contempt, opposition, or a desire to compete. Members of outgroups may be subject to outgroup homogeneity biases, and generally people tend to privilege ingroup members over outgroup members in many situations. 60. Passive Conspiracy.A way of avoiding confrontation by dysfunction. It is an evolved group norm and results in an agreement to accept the condition rather than deal with it openly. 61. Peacekeeper. Person who avoids conflict at all cost, to the point of detrimental behavior. 62. Peacemaker. Recognize conflict; attempt to resolve rather than avoid. 63. Personal agendas. A dysfunctional group dynamic that undermines the group objectives. Occur when the natural process of jockeying for a position of status within the group progresses into individual members of the group becoming overly preoccupied with personal concerns and position within the group. 64. Positive Feedback. Communication which involves telling someone about their good performance. Make this feedback timely, specific, and frequent. 65. Primacy. Primacy is the tendency to form judgements and images of people based solely on the first impression and interaction. 66. Process Loss. 67. Projection. Process where we see our own psychology reflected in others. You assume that others have the same motivations and responses as you do. 68. Project Team. Are individuals working together who share a common goal that is achieved through the application of various combined skills. Common goals are essential to success, but the team unity should not be taken for granted. 69. Race.Race is defined as a group of people, often of a common geographic origin, that share genetically transmitted physical characteristics. Racism is the belief that these inherited characteristics affect an individual's behavior or abilities. 70. Risky Shift A special case of group polarization, also rooted in groupthink, in which group discussions lead members to adjust their positions to a more cautious or more risky position from the one they held in advance of the discussion. For instance, in a group of individuals that are cautious, a group decision is likely to be even more cautious than the individual positions would suggest once risky shift takes place. 71. Self-corrective. This is a term used in relationships in which all parties involved commit to making changes that will improve the relationship. 72. Self-directed teams It is the team that is responsible for supervisory responsibilities. 73. Self-motivated individual. An person who requires little external motivation from the team leader. 74. Self-Serving Bias. When people are more likely to claim responsibility for successes than failures. Manifests itself as a tendency for people to evaluate ambiguous information in a way beneficial to their interests. Self-serving bias also results in a statistical bias resulting from people thinking that they perform better than average in areas important to their self esteem.3 75. Social biases. Social biases are "shortcuts" that we, as individuals, use to make sense of the world. As people, we make systematic mistakes in the way we see the world. Social Psychology and other disciplines have worked to identify those biases and to understand how they can affect our behavior in social situations. Social biases are always related to the way in which we see and/or understand other people and their actions. They are broad, involving everything from how we form and use first impressions of others, to how we construct histories and motivations for the actions of others. 76. Social Loafing.The tendency of individual group members to reduce their work effort as groups increase in size as displayed by the inclination to \"goof off\" when performance is needed in a group, miss meetings, show up late, or fail to start or complete individual tasks. 77. Social processes. A social process is present in any situation where an individual is relating him- or herself to others. Social cognition, for instance, is present when an individual makes decisions on the basis of thinking of social categories or social interactions. Another type of social process is social interaction, where an individual actively interacts with one or more other individuals. Conversations and meetings are both examples of social interactions. 78. Soft Skills. A set of skills that influence how we interact with each other. It includes such abilities as effective communication, creativity, analytical thinking, diplomacy, flexibility, change-readiness, and problem solving, leadership, team building, and listening skills. 79. Stagnate. When something stops improving. Also used when a plan is not developing anymore. 80. Stereotype (from Wikipedia). We build stereotypes to simplify the world by putting people into categories, and then fitting individuals into the stereotype of that category. For example, if doctors are all X, and you are a doctor, then you must also be X. Stereotypes are beliefs that all members of specific groups share similar traits and are likely to behave in the same way. In most cases, the characteristics described by a stereotype tend to be negative (e.g., all engineers are eggheads who can't relate to people), although occasionally stereotypes involve positive attributes (e.g., accountants are very careful and precise). The problem is that individuals never conform to an exact stereotype, given that individual differences outweigh similarities with others in a group. 81. Strategy. A plan of action resulting from strategy or intended to accomplish a specific goal. The art or skill of using stratagems in endeavors such as politics and business. 82. Superordinate Goal. Goal for the team, that takes precedence over each team member's individual goal. 83. Supportive. Used specially in teams. Be a good member of the team, help each other and always looking for ways to help other members of the team to succeed. 84. Synergy. 85. Tangled. When a situation, problem or issue is confusing or complicated. 86. Team Contract. A team document that clearly and specifically outlines the expectations for performance, productivity, quality and quantity of work, and efficiency for each team member. 87. Team (from Wikipedia) 88. teamwork When two or more people get together to achieve a specific goal. The succeed of the team is responsibility of all members. 89. Veteran. A veteran in a group is an individual who has longer tenure within the group, who has a history with other members in the group context. 90. Virtual Team (from Wikipedia). A Virtual Team is a group of individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology. Like other teams, they have complementary skills and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. Geographically dispersed teams allow organizations to hire and retain the best people regardless of location. References 1. Foland, Jeremy. May 4, 2006. MGP-295.1 Managing Teams and Technology. UC Davis, Graduate School of Management. 2. Okhuysen, G.A., in \"A desperate attempt at referencing,\" Journal of Unmemorable Quotes, 2006.
# Managing Groups and Teams/Question Page This book is organized around questions related to topics on the management of groups and teams. In this page, we want to list questions that would be relevant to the topic, to eventually formulate answers for them and incorporate them into the main body of the book. Feel free to add questions to this list, and to reorganize them or group them together if you see common threads. As the questions are refined, they will be easier to answer. ## For Future Study ### Commitment - How can different levels of commitment be avoided during the selection process? - Is it necessary for all team members to be equally committed to a project? - If large disparities exist, how can these be addressed? - How should the team deal with members who are not committed? - How should the team deal with members who have taken on more than their share? ### Selection - How can teams change membership composition without disrupting the remaining members? - Are some personalities simply unsuited for teamwork? ### Effective Use of Time and Resources - What should the team and its members do when the tasks seem to be a waste of time? - What should the team do when its mission and goals are ambiguous? - How can the team choose an effective course of action when there are varying opinions on what to do? - What can team members do when meetings are ineffective or confrontational? - When should team members be flexible and when should they stick to their guns? - How can team members choose effective task orders, assignments, etc.? - What are some hallmarks of ineffective plans and how can these be avoided? - What makes for effective time management? - How can delegation be used effectively? ### Team Culture - How is team culture established? - How can remote and isolated team members become acculturated? - Is/should culture be established at the outset? Can culture be changed later on? ### Social Graces - What are the key social graces all team members should have? - What social criteria are important when selecting members? - What can teams do when members lack proper social graces? ### Knowledge Differences Among Team Members - How can teams deal with members who have different technical aptitudes? - What are the conflicting dynamics between older members who have experience, but may lack the technical knowledge of younger members? - Do varying levels of technical knowledge result in power inequalities? - How can members communicate effectively in light of knowledge asymmetries? - What can be done to avoid communication breakdowns? ### Leadership - What should team members do if the leaders motivations are political and do not have the teams best interest at heart? - Should team members ask a leader to step down if they have lost confidence in him or her? - What should a leader do if team members are losing confidence in him or her? - How can leaders encourage healthy communication? - What should people do when their role changes from team member to team leader? - How can leaders remain objective? Should leaders always be objective? - Do different organizations require different leadership styles---eg. government, military, academia etc.? - In a leaderless team, how can one effectively assume the role of the leader? ### Diversity in Teams - What cultural differences should team members be aware of? - How can team members ensure that cultural or political differences to not inhibit performance?
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Atomic & Nuclear Structure ![](Stylised_atom_with_three_Bohr_model_orbits_and_stylised_nucleus.png "Stylised_atom_with_three_Bohr_model_orbits_and_stylised_nucleus.png"){width="150"} You will have encountered much of what we will cover here in your high school physics. We are going to review this material again below so as to set the context for subsequent chapters. This chapter will also provide you with an opportunity to check your understanding of this topic. The chapter covers atomic structure, nuclear structure, the classification of nuclei, binding energy and nuclear stability. ## Atomic Structure The atom is considered to be the basic building block of all matter. Simple atomic theory tells us that it consists of two components: a nucleus surrounded by an electron cloud. The situation can be considered as being similar in some respects to planets orbiting the sun. From an electrical point of view, the nucleus is said to be positively charged and the electrons negatively charged. From a size point of view, the radius of an atom is about 10^-10^ m while the radius of a nucleus is about 10^-14^ m, i.e. about ten thousand times smaller. The situation could be viewed as something like a cricket ball, representing the nucleus, in the middle of a sporting arena with the electrons orbiting somewhere around where the spectators would sit. This perspective tells us that the atom should be composed mainly of empty space. However, the situation is far more complex than this simple picture portrays in that we must also take into account the physical forces which bind the atom together. Chemical phenomena can be thought of as interactions between the electrons of individual atoms. Radioactivity on the other hand can be thought of as changes which occur within the nuclei of atoms. ## The Nucleus A simple description of the nucleus tells us that it is composed of protons and neutrons. These two particle types are collectively called nucleons, i.e. particles which inhabit the nucleus. From a mass point of view the mass of a proton is roughly equal to the mass of a neutron and each of these is about 2,000 times the mass of an electron. So most of the mass of an atom is concentrated in the small region at its core. From an electrical point of view the proton is positively charged and the neutron has no charge. An atom all on its own (if that were possible to achieve!) is electrically neutral. The number of protons in the nucleus of such an atom must therefore equal the number of electrons orbiting that atom.\ ## Classification of Nuclei The term Atomic Number is defined in nuclear physics as the number of protons in a nucleus and is given the symbol Z. From your chemistry you will remember that this number also defines the position of an element in the Periodic Table of Elements. The term Mass Number is defined as the number of nucleons in a nucleus, that is the number of protons plus the number of neutrons, and is given the symbol A. Note that the symbols here are a bit odd, in that it would prevent some confusion if the Atomic Number were given the symbol A, and the Mass Number were given another symbol, such as M, but its not a simple world! It is possible for nuclei of a given element to have the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons, that is to have the same Atomic Number but different Mass Numbers. Such nuclei are referred to as Isotopes. All elements have isotopes and the number ranges from three for hydrogen to over 30 for elements such as caesium and barium. Chemistry has a relatively simple way of classifying the different elements by the use of symbols such as H for hydrogen, He for helium and so on. The classification scheme used to identify different isotopes is based on this approach with the use of a superscript before the chemical symbol to denote the Mass Number along with a subscript before the chemical symbol to denote the Atomic Number. In other words an isotope is identified as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{Z}}^{\mathbf{A}}\mathbf{X}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where X is the chemical symbol of the element; A is the \"Mass Number,\" (protons+ neutrons); Z is the \"Atomic Number,\" (number identifying the element on the periodic chart). Let us take the case of hydrogen as an example. It has three isotopes: - the most common one consisting of a single proton orbited by one electron, - a second isotope consisting of a nucleus containing a proton and a neutron orbited by one electron, - a third whose nucleus consists of one proton and two neutrons, again orbited by a single electron. A simple illustration of these isotopes is shown below. Remember though that this is a simplified illustration given what we noted earlier about the size of a nucleus compared with that of an atom. But the illustration is nevertheless useful for showing how isotopes are classified. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM2_6Ani.gif "NM2_6Ani.gif") ```{=html} </div> ``` The first isotope commonly called hydrogen has a Mass Number of 1, an Atomic Number of 1 and hence is identified as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_1^1\mathbf{H}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The second isotope commonly called deuterium has a Mass Number of 2, an Atomic Number of 1 and is identified as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_1^2\mathbf{H}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The third isotope commonly called tritium is identified as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_1^3\mathbf{H}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The same classification scheme is used for all isotopes. For example, you should now be able to figure out that the uranium isotope, ${}_{92}^{236}\mathbf{U}$ , contains 92 protons and 144 neutrons. A final point on classification is that we can also refer to individual isotopes by giving the name of the element followed by the Mass Number. For example, we can refer to deuterium as hydrogen-2 and we can refer to ${}_{92}^{236}\mathbf{U}$ as uranium-236. Before we leave this classification scheme let us further consider the difference between chemistry and nuclear physics. You will remember that the water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded with an oxygen atom. Theoretically if we were to combine atoms of hydrogen and oxygen in this manner many, many of billions of times we could make a glass of water. We could also make our glass of water using deuterium instead of hydrogen. This second glass of water would theoretically be very similar from a chemical perspective. However, from a physics perspective our second glass would be heavier than the first since each deuterium nucleus is about twice the mass of each hydrogen nucleus. Indeed water made in this fashion is called heavy water. ## Atomic Mass Unit The conventional unit of mass, the kilogram, is rather large for use in describing characteristics of nuclei. For this reason, a special unit called the Atomic Mass Unit (amu) is often used. This unit is sometimes defined as 1/12th of the mass of the stable most commonly occurring isotope of carbon, i.e. ^12^C. In terms of grams, 1 amu is equal to 1.66 x 10^-24^ g, that is, just over one million, million, million millionth of a gram. The masses of the proton, m~p~ and neutron, m~n~ on this basis are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` m~p~ = 1.00783 amu ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` m~n~ = 1.00866 amu ```{=html} </div> ``` while that of the electron is just 0.00055 amu. ## Binding Energy We are now in a position to consider the subject of nuclear stability. From what we have covered so far, we have seen that the nucleus is a tiny region in the centre of an atom and that it is composed of neutrally and positively charged particles. So, in a large nucleus such as that of uranium (Z=92) we have a large number of positively charged protons concentrated into a tiny region in the centre of the atom. An obvious question which arises is that with all these positive charges in close proximity, why doesn\'t the nucleus fly apart? How can a nucleus remain as an entity with such electrostatic repulsion between the components? Should the orbiting negatively-charged electrons not attract the protons away from the atoms centre? Let us take the case of the helium-4 nucleus as an example. This nucleus contains two protons and two neutrons so that in terms of amu we can figure out from what we covered earlier that the ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` mass of 2 protons = 2.01566 amu, ```{=html} </div> ``` and the ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` mass of 2 neutrons = 2.01732 amu. ```{=html} </div> ``` Therefore we would expect the total mass of the nucleus to be 4.03298 amu. The experimentally determined mass of a helium-4 nucleus is a bit less - just 4.00260 amu. In other words there is a difference of 0.03038 amu between what we might expect as the mass of this nucleus and what we actually measure. You might think of this difference as very small at just 0.75%. But remember that since the mass of one electron is 0.00055 amu the difference is actually equivalent to the mass of about 55 electrons. Therefore it is significant enough to wonder about. It is possible to consider that this missing mass is converted to energy which is used to hold the nucleus together; it is converted to a form of energy called Binding Energy. You could say, as with all relationships, energy must be expended in order to maintain them! Like the gram in terms of the mass of nuclei, the common unit of energy, the joule is rather cumbersome when we consider the energy needed to bind a nucleus together. The unit used to express energies on the atomic scale is the electron volt, symbol: eV. One electron volt is defined as the amount of energy gained by an electron as it falls through a potential difference of one volt. This definition on its own is not of great help to us here and it is stated purely for the sake of completeness. So do not worry about it for the time being. Just appreciate that it is a unit representing a tiny amount of energy which is useful on the atomic scale. It is a bit too small in the case of binding energies however and the mega-electron volt (MeV) is often used. Albert Einstein introduced us to the equivalence of mass, m, and energy, E, at the atomic level using the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` E = m c^2^ , ```{=html} </div> ``` where c is the velocity of light. It is possible to show that 1 amu is equivalent to 931.48 MeV. Therefore, the mass difference we discussed earlier between the expected and measured mass of the helium-4 nucleus of 0.03038 amu is equivalent to about 28 MeV. This represents about 7 MeV for each of the four nucleons contained in the nucleus. ## Nuclear Stability In most stable isotopes the binding energy per nucleon lies between 7 and 9 MeV. There are two competing forces in the nuclei, electrostatic repulsion between protons and the attractive nuclear force between nucleons (protons and neutrons). The electrostatic force is a long range force that becomes more difficult to compensate for as more protons are added to the nucleus. The nuclear force, which arises as the residual strong force (the strong force binds the quarks together within a nucleon), is a short range force that only operates on a very short distance scale (\~ 1.5 fm) as it arises from a Yukawa potential. (Electromagnetism is a long range force as the force carrier, the photon, is massless; the nuclear force is a short range force as the force carrier, the pion, is massive). Therefore, larger nuclei tend to be less stable, and require a larger ratio of neutrons to protons (which contribute to the attractive strong force, but not the long-range electrostatic repulsion). For the low Z nuclides the ratio of neutrons to protons is approximately 1, though it gradually increases to about 1.5 for the higher Z nuclides as shown below on the Nuclear Stability Curve. !The nuclear stability curve. In other words to combat the effect of the increase in electrostatic repulsion when the number of protons increases the number of neutrons must increase more rapidly to contribute sufficient energy to bind the nucleus together. As we noted earlier there are a number of isotopes for each element of the Periodic Table. It has been found that the most stable isotope for each element has a specific number of neutrons in its nucleus. Plotting a graph of the number of protons against the number of neutrons for these stable isotopes generates what is called the Nuclear Stability Curve: Note that the number of protons equals the number of neutrons for small nuclei. But notice also that the number of neutrons increases more rapidly than the number of protons as the size of the nucleus gets bigger so as to maintain the stability of the nucleus. In other words more neutrons need to be there to contribute to the binding energy used to counteract the electrostatic repulsion between the protons. ## Radioactivity There are about 2,450 known isotopes of the approximately one hundred elements in the Periodic Table. You can imagine the size of a table of isotopes relative to that of the Periodic Table! The unstable isotopes lie above or below the Nuclear Stability Curve. These unstable isotopes attempt to reach the stability curve by splitting into fragments, in a process called Fission, or by emitting particles and/or energy in the form of radiation. This latter process is called Radioactivity. It is useful to dwell for a few moments on the term radioactivity. For example what has nuclear stability to do with radio? From a historical perspective remember that when these radiations were discovered about 100 years ago we did not know exactly what we were dealing with. When people like Henri Becquerel and Marie Curie were working initially on these strange emanations from certain natural materials it was thought that the radiations were somehow related to another phenomenon which also was not well understood at the time - that of radio communication. It seems reasonable on this basis to appreciate that some people considered that the two phenomena were somehow related and hence that the materials which emitted radiation were termed radio-active. We know today that the two phenomena are not directly related but we nevertheless hold onto the term radioactivity for historical purposes. But it should be quite clear to you having reached this stage of this chapter that the term radioactive refers to the emission of particles and/or energy from unstable isotopes. Unstable isotopes for instance those that have too many protons to remain a stable entity are called radioactive isotopes - and called radioisotopes for short. The term radionuclide is also sometimes used. Finally about 300 of the 2,450-odd isotopes mentioned above are found in nature. The rest are man-made, that is they are produced artificially. These 2,150 or so artificial isotopes have been made during the last 100 years or so with most having been made since the second world war. We will return to the production of radioisotopes in a later chapter of this wikibook and will proceed for the time being with a description of the types of radiation emitted by radioisotopes. ## Multiple Choice Questions Click `<b>`{=html}here`</b>`{=html} to access multiple choice questions on atomic and nuclear structure. ## External Links - Novel Periodic Table - an interactive table providing information about each element. - Marie and Pierre Curie and the Discovery of Polonium and Radium - an historical essay from The Nobel Foundation. - Natural Radioactivity - an overview of radioactivity in nature - includes sections on primordial radionuclides, cosmic radiation, human produced radionuclides, as well as natural radioactivity in soil, in the ocean, in the human body and in building materials - from the University of Michigan Student Chapter of the Health Physics Society. - The Particle Adventure - an interactive tour of the inner workings of the atom which explains the modern tools physicists use to probe nuclear and sub-nuclear matter and how physicists measure the results of their experiments using detectors - from the Particle Data Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, USA and mirrored at CERN, Geneva. - WebElements - an excellent web-based Periodic Table of the Elements which includes a vast array of data about each element - originally from Mark Winter at the University of Sheffield, England. ca:Física bàsica de la medicina nuclear/Estructura atòmica i nuclear
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Radioactive Decay !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}`</span>`{=html} We saw in the last chapter that radioactivity is a process used by unstable nuclei to achieve a more stable situation. It is said that such nuclei decay in an attempt to achieve stability. So, an alternative title for this chapter is Nuclear Decay Processes. We also saw in the previous chapter that we can use the Nuclear Stability Curve as a means of describing what is going on. So a second alternative title for this chapter is Methods of Getting onto the Nuclear Stability Curve. We are going to follow a descriptive or phenomenological approach to the topic here by describing in a fairly simple fashion what is known about each of the major decay mechanisms. Once again you may have already covered this material in high school physics. But bear with us because the treatment here will help us set the scene for subsequent chapters. ## Methods of Radioactive Decay Rather than considering what happens to individual nuclei it is perhaps easier to consider a hypothetical nucleus that can undergo many of the major forms of radioactive decay. This hypothetical nucleus is shown below: !A hypothetical nucleus which can undergo many forms of radioactive decay.{width="320"} Firstly we can see two protons and two neutrons being emitted together in a process called alpha-decay. Secondly, we can see that a proton can release a positron in a process called beta-plus decay, and that a neutron can emit an electron in a process called beta-minus decay. We can also see an electron being captured by a proton. Thirdly we can see some energy (a photon) being emitted which results from a process called gamma-decay as well as an electron being attracted into the nucleus and being ejected again. Finally there is the rather catastrophic process where the nucleus cracks in half called spontaneous fission. We will now describe each of these decay processes in turn. ## Spontaneous Fission This is a very destructive process which occurs in some heavy nuclei which split into 2 or 3 fragments plus some neutrons. These fragments form new nuclei which are usually radioactive. Nuclear reactors exploit this phenomenon for the production of radioisotopes. Its also used for nuclear power generation and in nuclear weaponry. The process is not of great interest to us here and we will say no more about it for the time being. ## Alpha Decay In this decay process two protons and two neutrons leave the nucleus together in an assembly known as an alpha particle. Note that an alpha particle is really a helium-4 nucleus. So why not call it a helium nucleus? Why give it another name? The answer to this question lies in the history of the discovery of radioactivity. At the time when these radiations were discovered we didn\'t know what they really were. We found out that one type of these radiations had a double positive charge and it was not until sometime later that we learned that they were in fact nuclei of helium-4. In the initial period of their discovery this form of radiation was given the name alpha rays (and the other two were called beta and gamma rays), these terms being the first three letters of the Greek alphabet. We still call this form of radiation by the name alpha particle for historical purposes. Calling it by this name also contributes to the specific jargon of the field and leads outsiders to think that the subject is quite specialized! But notice that the radiation really consists of a helium-4 nucleus emitted from an unstable larger nucleus. There is nothing strange about helium since it is quite an abundant element on our planet. So why is this radiation dangerous to humans? The answer to this question lies with the energy with which they are emitted and the fact that they are quite massive and have a double positive charge. So when they interact with living matter they can cause substantial destruction to molecules which they encounter in their attempt to slow down and to attract two electrons to become a neutral helium atom. An example of this form of decay occurs in the uranium-238 nucleus. The equation which represents what occurs is: ```{=html} <div style="text-align:center;"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{92}}^{\mathbf{238}}\mathbf{U}$ → ${}_{\mathbf{90}}^{\mathbf{234}}\mathbf{Th}$ `+ `${}_{\mathbf{2}}^{\mathbf{4}}\mathbf{He}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Here the uranium-238 nucleus emits a helium-4 nucleus (the alpha particle) and the parent nucleus becomes thorium-234. Note that the Mass Number of the parent nucleus has been reduced by 4 and the Atomic Number is reduced by 2 which is a characteristic of alpha decay for any nucleus in which it occurs. ## Beta Decay There are three common forms of beta decay: (a) Electron Emission : Certain nuclei which have an excess of neutrons may attempt to reach stability by converting a neutron into a proton with the emission of an electron. The electron is called a beta-minus particle -- the minus indicating that the particle is negatively charged. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : We can represent what occurs as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` n^0^ → p^+^ + e^-^ ```{=html} </div> ``` : where a neutron converts into a proton and an electron. Notice that the total electrical charge is the same on both sides of this equation. We say that the electric charge is conserved. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : We can consider that the electron cannot exist inside the nucleus and therefore is ejected. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Once again there is nothing strange or mysterious about an electron. What is important though from a radiation safety point of view is the energy with which it is emitted and the chemical damage it can cause when it interacts with living matter. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : An example of this type of decay occurs in the iodine-131 nucleus which decays into xenon-131 with the emission of an electron, that is ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{53}}^{\mathbf{131}}\mathbf{I}$ `→ `${}_{\mathbf{54}}^{\mathbf{131}}\mathbf{Xe}$` + `${}_{\mathbf{-1}}^{\mathbf{0}}\mathbf{e}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : The electron is what is called a beta-minus particle. Note that the Mass Number in the above equation remains the same and that the Atomic Number increases by 1 which is characteristic of this type of decay. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : You may be wondering how an electron can be produced inside a nucleus given that the simple atomic description we gave in the previous chapter indicated that the nucleus consists of protons and neutrons only. This is one of the limitations of the simple treatment presented so far and can be explained by considering that the two particles which we call protons and neutrons are themselves formed of smaller particles called quarks. We are not going to consider these in any way here other than to note that some combinations of different types of quark produce protons and another combination produces neutrons. The message here is to appreciate that a simple picture is the best way to start in an introductory text such as this and that the real situation is a lot more complex than what has been described. The same can be said about the treatment of beta-decay given above as we will see in subsequent chapters. (b) Positron Emission : When the number of protons in a nucleus is too large for the nucleus to be stable it may attempt to reach stability by converting a proton into a neutron with the emission of a positively-charged electron. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : That is not a typographical error! An electron with a positive charge also called a positron is emitted. The positron is the beta-plus particle. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The history here is quite interesting. A brilliant Italian physicist, Enrico Fermi developed a theory of beta decay and his theory predicted that positively-charged as well as negatively-charged electrons could be emitted by unstable nuclei. These particles could be called pieces of anti-matter and they were subsequently discovered by experiment. They do not exist for very long as they quickly combine with a normal electron and the subsequent reaction called annihilation gives rise to the emission of two gamma rays. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Science fiction writers had a great time following the discovery of anti-matter and speculated along with many scientists that parts of our universe may contain negatively-charged protons forming nuclei which are orbited by positively-charged electrons. But this is taking us too far away from the topic at hand! ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The reaction in our unstable nucleus which contains one too many protons can be represented as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` p^+^ → n^0^ + e^+^ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Notice, once again, that electric charge is conserved on each side of this equation. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : An example of this type of decay occurs in sodium-22 which decays into neon-22 with the emission of a positron: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{11}}^{\mathbf{22}}\mathbf{Na}$ → ${}_{\mathbf{10}}^{\mathbf{22}}\mathbf{Ne}$ + ${}_{\mathbf{+1}}^{\mathbf{0}}\mathbf{e}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Note that the Mass Number remains the same and that the Atomic Number decreases by 1. (c) Electron Capture : In this third form of beta decay an inner orbiting electron is attracted into an unstable nucleus where it combines with a proton to form a neutron. The reaction can be represented as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` e^-^ + p^+^ → n^0^ ```{=html} </div> ``` : This process is also known as K-capture since the electron is often attracted from the K-shell of the atom. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : How do we know that a process like this occurs given that no radiation is emitted? In other words the event occurs within the atom itself and no information about it leaves the atom. Or does it? The signature of this type of decay can be obtained from effects in the electron cloud surrounding the nucleus when the vacant site left in the K-shell is filled by an electron from an outer shell. The filling of the vacancy is associated with the emission of an X-ray from the electron cloud and it is this X-ray which provides a signature for this type of beta decay. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : This form of decay can also be recognised by the emission of gamma-rays from the new nucleus. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : An example of this type of radioactive decay occurs in iron-55 which decays into manganese-55 following the capture of an electron. The reaction can be represented as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{26}}^{\mathbf{55}}\mathbf{Fe}$ + ${}_{\mathbf{-1}}^{\mathbf{0}}\mathbf{e}$ → ${}_{\mathbf{25}}^{\mathbf{55}}\mathbf{Mn}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Note that the Mass Number once again is unchanged in this form of decay and that the Atomic Number is decreased by 1. ## Gamma Decay Gamma decay involves the emission of energy from an unstable nucleus in the form of electromagnetic radiation. You should remember from your high school physics that electromagnetic radiation is the biggest physical phenomenon we have so far discovered. The radiation can be characterised in terms of its frequency, its wavelength and its energy. Thinking about it in terms of the energy of the radiation we have very low energy electromagnetic radiation called radio waves, infra-red radiation at a slightly higher energy, visible light at a higher energy still, then ultra-violet radiation and the higher energy forms of this radiation are called X-rays and gamma-rays. You should also remember that these radiations form what is called the Electromagnetic Spectrum. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM3_11.gif "NM3_11.gif") ```{=html} </div> ``` Before proceeding it is useful to pause for a moment to consider the difference between X-rays and gamma-rays. These two forms of radiation are high energy electromagnetic rays and are therefore virtually the same. The difference between them is not what they consist of but where they come from. In general we can say that if the radiation emerges from a nucleus it is called a gamma-ray and if it emerges from outside the nucleus from the electron cloud for example, it is called an X-ray. One final point is of relevance before we consider the different forms of gamma-decay and that is what such a high energy ray really is. It has been found in experiments that gamma-rays (and X-rays for that matter!) sometimes manifest themselves as waves and other times as particles. This wave-particle duality can be explained using the equivalence of mass and energy at the atomic level. When we describe a gamma ray as a wave it has been found useful to use terms such as frequency and wavelength just like any other wave. In addition when we describe a gamma ray as a particle we use terms such as mass and electric charge. Furthermore the term electromagnetic photon is used for these particles. The interesting feature about these photons however is that they have neither mass nor charge! There are two common forms of gamma decay: (a) Isomeric Transition : A nucleus in an excited state may reach its ground or unexcited state by the emission of a gamma-ray. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : An example of this type of decay is that of technetium-99m -- which by the way is the most common radioisotope used for diagnostic purposes today in medicine. The reaction can be expressed as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ${}_{\mathbf{43}}^{\mathbf{99m}}\mathbf{Tc}$ → ${}_{\mathbf{43}}^{\mathbf{99}}\mathbf{Tc}$ + `<b>`{=html}`<big>`{=html}$\gamma$`</big>`{=html}`</b>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` : Here a nucleus of technetium-99 is in an excited state, that is, it has excess energy. The excited state in this case is called a metastable state and the nucleus is therefore called technetium-99m (m for metastable). The excited nucleus looses its excess energy by emitting a gamma-ray to become technetium-99. (b) Internal Conversion : Here the excess energy of an excited nucleus is given to an atomic electron, e.g. a K-shell electron. ## Decay Schemes Decay schemes are widely used to give a visual representation of radioactive decay. A scheme for a relatively straight-forward decay is shown below: ![](NM3_12.gif){width="150"} This scheme is for hydrogen-3 which decays to helium-3 with a half-life of 12.3 years through the emission of a beta-minus particle with an energy of 0.0057 MeV. A scheme for a more complicated decay is that of caesium-137. ![](NM3_13.gif){width="150"} This isotope can decay through through two beta-minus processes. In one which occurs in 5% of disintegrations a beta-minus particle is emitted with an energy of 1.17 MeV to produce barium-137. In the second which occurs more frequently (in the remaining 95% of disintegrations) a beta-minus particle of energy 0.51 MeV is emitted to produce barium-137m -- in other words a barium-137 nucleus in a metastable state. The barium-137m then decays via isomeric transition with the emission of a gamma-ray of energy 0.662 MeV. ![](NM3_14.gif) The general method used for decay schemes is illustrated in the diagram on the right. The energy is plotted on the vertical axis and atomic number on the horizontal axis -- although these axes are rarely displayed in actual schemes. The isotope from which the scheme originates is displayed at the top -- X in the case above. This isotope is referred to as the parent. The parent loses energy when it decays and hence the products of the decay referred to as daughters are plotted at a lower energy level. The diagram illustrates the situation for common forms of radioactive decay. Alpha-decay is illustrated on the left where the mass number is reduced by 4 and the atomic number is reduced by 2 to produce daughter A. To its right the scheme for beta-plus decay is shown to produce daughter B. The situation for beta-minus decay followed by gamma-decay is shown on the right side of the diagram where daughters C and D respectively are produced. ## Multiple Choice Questions Click `<b>`{=html}here`</b>`{=html} to access multiple choice questions on radioactive decay. ## External links - Basics about Radiation -- overview of the different types of ionising radiation from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation -- a cooperative Japan-United States Research Organization which conducts research for peaceful purposes. - Radiation and Life -- from the World Nuclear Association website. - Radiation and Radioactivity -- a self-paced lesson developed by the University of Michigan\'s Student Chapter of the Health Physics Society, with sections on radiation, radioactivity, the atom, alpha radiation, beta radiation and gamma radiation.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/The Radioactive Decay Law !Graph of the stability of every known nucleus, plotted as Z (number of protons) versus N (number of neutrons). The color corresponds to the value of the half-life T½ with a strong log scale, since it varies between 10^−20^ and 10^20^ seconds. versus N (number of neutrons). The color corresponds to the value of the half-life T½ with a strong log scale, since it varies between 10−20 and 1020 seconds.") We covered radioactive decay from a phenomenological perspective in the last chapter. In this chapter we consider the topic from a more general analytical perspective. The reason for doing this is so that we can develop a form of thinking which will help us to understand what is going on in a quantitative, mathematical sense. We will be introduced to concepts such as the Decay Constant and the Half Life as well as units used for the measurement of radioactivity. You will also have a chance to develop your understanding by being brought through three questions on this subject. ## Assumptions The usual starting point in most forms of analysis in physics is to make some assumptions which simplify the situation. By simplifying the situation we can dispose of irrelevant effects which tend to complicate matters but in doing so we sometimes make the situation so simple that it becomes a bit too abstract and apparently hard to understand. For this reason we will try here to relate the subject of radioactive decay to a more common situation which we will use as an analogy and hopefully we will be able to overcome the abstract feature of the subject matter. The analogy we will use here is that of making popcorn. So think about putting some oil in a pot, adding the corn, heating the pot on the cooker and watching what happens. You might also like to try this out while considering the situation! For our radioactive decay situation we first of all consider that we have a sample containing a large number of radioactive nuclei all of the same kind. This is our unpopped corn in the pot for example. Secondly we assume that all of the radioactive nuclei decay by the same process be it alpha, beta or gamma-decay. In other words our unpopped corn goes pop at some stage during the heating process. Thirdly take a few moments to ponder on the fact that we can only really consider what is going on from a statistical perspective. If you look at an individual piece of corn, can you figure out when it is going to pop? Not really. You can however figure out that a large number of them will have popped after a period of time. But its rather more difficult to figure out the situation for an individual piece of corn. So instead of dealing with individual entities we consider what happens on a larger scale and this is where statistics comes in. We can say that the radioactive decay is a statistical one-shot process, that is when a nucleus has decayed it cannot repeat the process again. In other words when a piece of corn has popped it cannot repeat the process. Simple! In addition as long as a radioactive nucleus has not decayed the probability for it doing so in the next moment remains the same. In other words if a piece of corn has not popped at a certain time the chance of it popping in the next second is the same as in the previous second. The bets are even! Let us not push this popcorn analogy too far though in that we know that we can control the rate of popping by the heat we apply to the pot for example. However as far as our radioactive nuclei are concerned there is nothing we can do to control what is going on. The rate at which nuclei go pop (or decay, in other words) cannot be influenced by heating up the sample. Nor by cooling it for that matter or by putting it under greater pressures, by changing the gravitational environment by taking it out into space for instance, or by changing any other aspect of its physical environment. The only thing that determines whether an individual nucleus will decay seems to be the nucleus itself. But on the average we can say that it will decay at some stage. ## The Radioactive Decay Law Let us now use some symbols to reduce the amount of writing we have to do to describe what is going on and to avail ourselves of some mathematical techniques to simplify the situation even further than we have been able to do so far. Let us say that in the sample of radioactive material there are N nuclei which have not decayed at a certain time, t. So what happens in the next brief period of time? Some nuclei will decay for sure. But how many? On the basis of our reasoning above we can say that the number which will decay will depend on overall number of nuclei, N, and also on the length of the brief period of time. In other words the more nuclei there are the more will decay and the longer the time period the more nuclei will decay. Let us denote the number which will have decayed as dN and the small time interval as dt. So we have reasoned that the number of radioactive nuclei which will decay during the time interval from t to t+dt must be proportional to N and to dt. In symbols therefore: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-dN \propto N \cdot dt\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` the minus sign indicating that N is decreasing. Turning the proportionality in this equation into an equality we can write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-dN = \lambda N \cdot dt\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where the constant of proportionality, λ (named lambda) is called the Decay Constant. Dividing across by N we can rewrite this equation as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-\frac{dN}{N} = \lambda \cdot dt$ ```{=html} </div> ``` So this equation describes the situation for any brief time interval, dt. To find out what happens for all periods of time we simply add up what happens in each brief time interval. In other words we integrate the above equation. Expressing this more formally we can say that for the period of time from t = 0 to any later time t, the number of radioactive nuclei will decrease from N~0~ to N~t~, so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-\int_{N_0}^{N_t} \frac{dN}{N} = \lambda \int_{0}^t dt$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln \left ( \frac{N_t}{N_0} \right ) = -\lambda t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \frac{N_t}{N_0} = \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore N_t = N_0 \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This final expression is known as the Radioactive Decay Law. It tells us that the number of radioactive nuclei will decrease in an exponential fashion with time with the rate of decrease being controlled by the Decay Constant. Before looking at this expression in further detail let us review the mathematics which we used above. First of all we used integral calculus to figure out what was happening over a period of time by integrating what we knew would occur in a brief interval of time. Secondly we used a calculus relationship that the ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\int \frac{dx}{x} = \ln x$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where ln x represents the natural logarithm of x. And thirdly we used the definition of logarithms that when ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\ln x = y\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` then, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $x = \text{exp}\ y\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Now, to return to the Radioactive Decay Law. The Law tells us that the number of radioactive nuclei will decrease with time in an exponential fashion with the rate of decrease being controlled by the Decay Constant. The Law is shown in graphical form in the figure below: ![](NM4_11a.gif "NM4_11a.gif") The graph plots the number of radioactive nuclei at any time, N~t~, against time, t. We can see that the number of radioactive nuclei decreases from N~0~ that is the number at t = 0 in a rapid fashion initially and then more slowly in the classic exponential manner. The influence of the Decay Constant can be seen in the following figure: ![](NM4_12a.gif "NM4_12a.gif") All three curves here are exponential in nature, only the Decay Constant is different. Notice that when the Decay Constant has a low value the curve decreases relatively slowly and when the Decay Constant is large the curve decreases very quickly. The Decay Constant is characteristic of individual radionuclides. Some like uranium-238 have a small value and the material therefore decays quite slowly over a long period of time. Other nuclei such as technetium-99m have a relatively large Decay Constant and they decay far more quickly. It is also possible to consider the Radioactive Decay Law from another perspective by plotting the logarithm of N~t~ against time. In other words from our analysis above by plotting the expression: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\ln \left ( \frac{N_t}{N_0} \right ) = - \lambda t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` in the form ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\ln N_t = -\lambda t + \ln N_0\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Notice that this expression is simply an equation of the form y = mx + c where m = -l and c = ln N~0~. As a result it is the equation of a straight line of slope -l as shown in the following figure. Such a plot is sometimes useful when we wish to consider a situation without the complication of the direct exponential behaviour. ![](NM4_15a.gif "NM4_15a.gif") ## Half-Life Most of us have not been taught to think instinctively in terms of logarithmic or exponential terms even though many natural phenomena display exponential behaviours. Most of the forms of thinking which we have been taught in school are based on linear changes and as a result it is rather difficult for us to grasp the Radioactive Decay Law intuitively. For this reason an indicator is usually derived from the law which helps us think more clearly about what is going on. This indicator is called the Half Life and it expresses the length of time it takes for the radioactivity of a radioisotope to decrease by a factor of two. From a graphical point of view we can say that when: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N_t = \frac{N_0}{2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` the time taken is the Half Life: ![](NM4_18a.gif "NM4_18a.gif") Note that the half-life does not express how long a material will remain radioactive but simply the length of time for its radioactivity to halve. Examples of the half lives of some radioisotopes are given in the following table. Notice that some of these have a relatively short half life. These tend to be the ones used for medical diagnostic purposes because they do not remain radioactive for very long following administration to a patient and hence result in a relatively low radiation dose. Radioisotope Half Life (approx.) -------------- --------------------- ^81m^Kr 13 seconds ^99m^Tc 6 hours ^131^I 8 days ^51^Cr 1 month ^137^Cs 30 years ^241^Am 462 years ^226^Ra 1620 years ^238^U 4.51 x 10^9^ years But they do present a logistical problem when we wish to use them when there may not be a radioisotope production facility nearby. For example suppose we wish to use ^99m^Tc for a patient study and the nearest nuclear facility for making this isotope is 5,000 km away. The production facility could be in Sydney and the patient could be in Perth for instance. After making the isotope at the nuclear plant it would be decaying with a half life of 6 hours. So we put the material on a truck and drive it to Sydney airport. The isotope would be decaying as the truck sits in Sydney traffic then decaying still more as it waits for a plane to take it to Perth. Then decaying more as it is flown across to Perth and so on. By the time it gets to our patient it will have substantially reduced in radioactivity possibly to the point of being useless for the patient\'s investigation. And what about the problem if we needed to use ^81m^Kr instead of ^99m^Tc for our patient? You will see in another chapter of this book that logistical challenges such as this have given rise to quite innovative solutions. More about that later! You can appreciate from the table above that other isotopes have a very long half lives. For example ^226^Ra has a half life of over 1,500 years. This isotope has been used in the past for therapeutic applications in medicine. Think about the logistical problems here. They obviously do not relate to transporting the material from the point of production to the point of use. But they relate to how the material is kept following its arrival at the point of use. We must have a storage facility so that the material can be kept safely for a long period of time. But for how long? A general rule of thumb for the quantities of radioactivity used in medicine is that the radioactivity will remain significant for about 10 half lives. So we would have to have a safe environment for storage of the ^226^Ra for about 16,000 years! This storage facility would have to be secure from many unforeseeable events such as earthquakes, bombing etc. and be kept in a manner which our children\'s, children\'s children can understand. A very serious undertaking indeed! ## Relationship between the Decay Constant and the Half Life On the basis of the above you should be able to appreciate that there is a relationship between the Decay Constant and the Half Life. For example when the Decay Constant is small the Half Life should be long and correspondingly when the Decay Constant is large the Half Life should be short. But what exactly is the nature of this relationship? We can easily answer this question by using the definition of Half Life and applying it to the Radioactive Decay Law. Once again the law tells us that at any time, t: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N_t = N_0\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and the definition of Half Life tells us that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N_t = \frac{N_0}{2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` when ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $t = t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` We can therefore re-write the Radioactive Decay Law by substituting for N~t~ and t as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{N_0}{2} = N_0\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{1}{2} = \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore 2^{-1} = \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln 2^{-1} = -\lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln 2 = \lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore 0.693 = \lambda t_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $t_{\frac{1}{2}} = \frac{0.693}{\lambda}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\lambda = \frac{0.693}{t_{\frac{1}{2}}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` These last two equations express the relationship between the Decay Constant and the Half Life. They are very useful as you will see when solving numerical questions relating to radioactivity and usually form the first step in solving a numerical problem. ## Units of Radioactivity The SI or metric unit of radioactivity is named after Henri Becquerel, in honour of his discovery of radioactivity, and is called the becquerel with the symbol Bq. The becquerel is defined as the quantity of radioactive substance that gives rise to a decay rate of 1 decay per second. In medical diagnostic work 1 Bq is a rather small amount of radioactivity. Indeed it is easy to remember its definition if you think of it as a buggerall amount of radioactivity. For this reason the kilobecquerel (kBq) and megabecquerel (MBq) are more frequently used. The traditional unit of radioactivity is named after Marie Curie and is called the curie, with the symbol Ci. The curie is defined as the amount of radioactive substance which gives rise to a decay rate of 3.7 x 10^10^ decays per second. In other words 37 thousand, million decays per second which as you might appreciate is a substantial amount of radioactivity. For medical diagnostic work the millicurie (mCi) and the microcurie (µCi) are therefore more frequently used. Why two units? It in essence like all other units of measurement depends on what part of the world you are in. For example the kilometer is widely used in Europe and Australia as a unit of distance and the mile is used in the USA. So if you are reading an American textbook you are likely to find the curie used as the unit of radioactivity, if you are reading an Australian book it will most likely refer to becquerels and both units might be used if you are reading a European book. You will therefore find it necessary to know and understand both units. ## Multiple Choice Questions Click `<b>`{=html}here`</b>`{=html} to access an MCQ on the Radioactive Decay Law. ## Questions Three questions are given below to help you develop your understanding of the material presented in this chapter. The first one is relatively straight-forward and will exercise your application of the Radioactive Decay Law as well as your understanding of the concept of Half Life. The second question is a lot more challenging and will help you relate the Radioactive Decay Law to the number of radioactive nuclei which are decaying in a sample of radioactive material. The third question will help you understand the approach used in the second question by asking a similar question from a slightly different perspective. Question 1 $a$ The half-life of ^99m^Tc is 6 hours. After how much time will 1/16th of the radioisotope remain? $b$ Verify your answer by another means. Answer: : $a$ Starting with the relationship we established earlier between the Decay Constant and the Half Life we can calculate the Decay Constant as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\lambda = \frac{0.693}{t_{\frac{1}{2}}} = \frac{0.693}{6} = 0.1155\ \text{hr}^{-1}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Now applying the Radioactive Decay Law, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N_t = N_0\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : we can re-write it in the form: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{N_t}{N_0} = \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : The question tells us that N~0~ has reduced to 1/16th of its value, that is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{N_t}{N_0} = \frac{1}{16}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{1}{16} = \text{exp}\,(-0.1155t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : which we need to solve for t. One way of doing this is as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $16^{-1} = \text{exp}\,(-0.1155t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore -\ln 16 = -0.1155t\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $t = \frac{\ln 16}{0.1155} = 24\ \text{hours}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : So it will take 24 hours until 1/16th of the radioactivity remains. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : $b$ A way in which this answer can be verified is by using the definition of Half Life. We are told that the Half Life of ^99m^Tc is 6 hours. Therefore after six hours half of the radioactivity remains. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Therefore after 12 hours a quarter remains; after 18 hours an eighth remains and after 24 hours one sixteenth remains. And we arrive at the same answer as in part (a). So we must be right! ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Note that this second approach is useful if we are dealing with relatively simple situations where the radioactivity is halved, quartered and so on. But supposing the question asked how long would it take for the radioactivity to decrease to a tenth of its initial value. Deduction from the definition of half life is rather more difficult in this case and the mathematical approach used for part (a) above will yield the answer more readily. Question 2 Find the radioactivity of a 1 g sample of ^226^Ra given that t~1/2~: 1620 years and Avogadro\'s Number: 6.023 x 10^23^. Answer: : We can start the answer like we did with Question 1(a) by calculating the Decay Constant from the Half Life using the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\lambda = \frac{0.693}{t_{\frac{1}{2}}} = \frac{0.693}{1620} = 4.28 \cdot 10^{-4}\ \text{year}^{-1}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \lambda = 1.36 \cdot 10^{-11} s^{-1}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Note that the length of a year used in converting from \'per year\' to \'per second\' above is 365.25 days to account for leap years. In addition the reason for converting to units of \'per second\' is because the unit of radioactivity is expressed as the number of nuclei decaying per second. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Secondly we can calculate that 1 g of ^226^Ra contains: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N = \frac{(\text{Avogadro No.})(\text{Mass})}{\text{Mass Number}} = \frac{(6.023 \cdot 10^{23})(1g)}{226} = 2.7 \cdot 10^{21}\ \text{nuclei}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Thirdly we need to express the Radioactive Decay Law in terms of the number of nuclei decaying per unit time. We can do this by differentiating the equation as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N = N_0\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \frac{dN}{dt} = N_0 \cdot -\lambda\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t) = -\lambda N_0\ \text{exp}\,(-\lambda t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \frac{dN}{dt} = -\lambda N$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \left \| \frac{dN}{dt} \right \| = \lambda N$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : The reason for expressing the result above in absolute terms is to remove the minus sign in that we already know that the number is decreasing. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : We can now enter the data we derived above for λ and N: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\left \| \frac{dN}{dt} \right \| = (1.36 \cdot 10^{-11})(2.7 \cdot 10^{21})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \left \| \frac{dN}{dt} \right \| = 3.6 \cdot 10^{10}\ \text{decays per second}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : So the radioactivity of our 1 g sample of radium-226 is approximately 1 Ci. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : This is not a surprising answer since the definition of the curie was originally conceived as the radioactivity of 1 g of radium-226! Question 3 What is the minimum mass of ^99m^Tc that can have a radioactivity of 1 MBq? Assume the half-life is 6 hours and that Avogadro\'s Number is 6.023 x 10^23^. Answer : Starting again with the relationship between the Decay Constant and the Half Life: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\lambda = \frac{0.693}{6} = 0.1155\ \text{hour}^{-1} = 3.21 \cdot 10^{-5}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Secondly the question tells us that the radioactivity is 1 MBq. Therefore since 1 MBq = 1 x 10^6^ decays per second, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\left \| \frac{dN}{dt} \right \| = \lambda N = 1 \cdot 10^6\ \text{dps}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore N = \frac{\left \| \frac{dN}{dt} \right \|}{\lambda} = \frac{1 \cdot 10^6}{3.21 \cdot 10^{-5}} = 3.116 \cdot 10^{10}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Finally the mass of these nuclei can be calculated as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\text{Mass of N nuclei} = \frac{(\text{No. of Nuclei})(\text{Mass No.})}{\text{Avogadro Number}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $= \frac{(3.116 \cdot 10^{10})(99)}{6.023 \cdot 10^{23}} = 5.122 \cdot 10^{-12}\ \text{g}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : In other words a mass of just over five picograms of ^99m^Tc can emit one million gamma-rays per second. The result reinforces an important point that you will learn about radiation protection which is that you should treat radioactive materials just like you would handle pathogenic bacteria!
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Units of Radiation Measurement !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}.`</span>`{=html}{width="256"} ## Introduction This is the fourth chapter of a wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. After that rather long and detailed chapter we have just finished we will now proceed at a more leisurely pace for a short treatment of some of the more common units of measurement used in this field. Before we do so however it is useful to consider the typical radiation environment. By doing so we will gain an appreciation of the various quantities that can be measured before considering the units which are used to express such measurements. So, we will first of all consider a typical radiation situation and then go on to consider the various units of measurement. ## A Typical Radiation Situation A typical radiation set-up is shown in the figure below. Firstly there is a source of radiation, secondly a radiation beam and thirdly some material which absorbs the radiation. So the quantities which can be measured are associated with the source, the radiation beam and the absorber. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM5_1.gif "NM5_1.gif") ```{=html} </div> ``` This type of environment could be one where the radiation from the source is used to irradiate a patient (that is the absorber) for diagnostic purposes where we would place a device behind the patient for producing an image or for therapeutic purposes where the radiation is intended to cause damage to a specific region of a patient. It is also a situation where we as an absorber may be working with a source of radiation. ## The Radiation Source When the radiation source is a radioactive one the quantity that is typically measured is the radioactivity of the source. We saw in the previous chapter that the units used to express radioactivity are the becquerel (SI unit) and the curie (traditional unit). ## The Radiation Beam The characteristic of a radiation beam that is typically measured is called the Radiation Exposure. This quantity expresses how much ionisation the beam causes in the air through which it travels. We will see in the following chapter that one of the major things that happens when radiation encounters matter is that ions are formed -- air being the form of matter it encounters in this case. So the radiation exposure produced by a radiation beam is expressed in terms of the amount of ionisation which occurs in air. A straight-forward way of measuring such ionisation is to determine the amount of electric charge which is produced. You will remember from your high school physics that the SI unit of electric charge is the coulomb. The SI unit of radiation exposure is the coulomb per kilogram -- and is given the symbol C kg^-1^. It is defined as the quantity of X- or gamma-rays such that the associated electrons emitted per kilogram of air at standard temperature and pressure (STP) produce ions carrying 1 coulomb of electric charge. The traditional unit of radiation exposure is the roentgen, named in honour of Wilhelm Roentgen (who discovered X-rays) and is given the symbol R. The roentgen is defined as the quantity of X- or gamma-rays such that the associated electrons emitted per kilogram of air at STP produce ions carrying 2.58 x 10^-4^ coulombs of electric charge. So 1 R is a small exposure relative to 1 C kg^-1^ -- in fact it is 3,876 times smaller. Note that this unit is confined to radiation beams consisting of X-rays or gamma-rays. Often it is not simply the exposure that is of interest but the exposure rate, that is the exposure per unit time. The units which tend to be used in this case are the C kg^-1^ s^-1^ and the R hr^-1^. ## The Absorber Energy is deposited in the absorber when radiation interacts with it. It is usually quite a small amount of energy but energy nonetheless. The quantity that is measured is called the Absorbed Dose and it is of relevance to all types of radiation be they X- or gamma-rays, alpha- or beta-particles. The SI unit of absorbed dose is called the gray, named after a famous radiobiologist, LH Gray, and is given the symbol Gy. The gray "wikilink") is defined as the absorption of 1 joule of radiation energy per kilogram of material. So when 1 joule of radiation energy is absorbed by a kilogram of the absorber material we say that the absorbed dose is 1 Gy. The traditional unit of absorbed dose is called the rad, which supposedly stands for Radiation Absorbed Dose "wikilink"). It is defined as the absorption of 10^-2^ joules of radiation energy per kilogram of material. As you can figure out 1 Gy is equal to 100 rad. There are other quantities derived from the gray and the rad which express the biological effects of such absorbed radiation energy when the absorber is living matter -- human tissue for example. These quantities include the Equivalent Dose, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}H`</span>`{=html}, and the Effective Dose, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}E`</span>`{=html}. The Equivalent Dose is based on estimates of the ionization capability of the different types of radiation which are called Radiation Weighting Factors, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}w~R~`</span>`{=html}, such that ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}H = w~R~ D`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}D`</span>`{=html} is the absorbed dose. The Effective Dose includes `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}w~R~`</span>`{=html} as well as estimates of the sensitivity of different tissues called Tissue Weighting Factors, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}w~T~`</span>`{=html}, such that ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}E = Σ w~T~ H`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where the summation, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}Σ`</span>`{=html}, is over all the tissue types involved. Both the Equivalent Dose and the Effective Dose are measured in derived SI units called sieverts (Sv). Let us pause here for a bit to ponder on the use of the term dose. It usually has a medical connotation in that we can say that someone had a dose of the \'flu, or that the doctor prescribed a certain dose of a drug. What has it to do with the deposition of energy by a beam of radiation in an absorber? It could have something to do with the initial applications of radiation in the early part of the 20^th^ century when it was used to treat numerous diseases. As a result we can speculate that the term has stayed in the vernacular of the field. It would be much easier to use a term like absorbed radiation energy since we are talking about the deposition of energy in an absorber. But this might make the subject just a little too simple! ## Specific Gamma Ray Constant A final quantity is worth mentioning with regard to radiation units. This is the Specific Gamma-Ray Constant for a radioisotope. This quantity is an amalgam of the quantities we have already covered and expresses the exposure rate produced by the gamma-rays emitted from a radioisotope. It is quite a useful quantity from a practical viewpoint when we are dealing with a radioactive source which emits gamma-rays. Supposing you are using a gamma-emitting radioactive source (for example ^99m^Tc or ^137^Cs) and you will be standing at a certain distance from this source while you are working. You most likely will be interested in the exposure rate produced by the source from a radiation safety point of view. This is where the Specific Gamma-Ray Constant comes in. It is defined as the exposure rate per unit activity at a certain distance from a source. The SI unit is therefore the ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}C kg^-1^ s^-1^ Bq^-1^ at 1 m `</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html}, ```{=html} </div> ``` and the traditional unit is the ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}R hr^-1^ mCi^-1^ at 1 cm `</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} . ```{=html} </div> ``` These units of measurement are quite cumbersome and a bit of a mouthful. It might have been better if they were named after some famous scientist so that we could call the SI unit 1 smith and the traditional unit 1 jones for example. But again things are not that simple! ## The Inverse Square Law Before we finish this chapter we are going to consider what happens as we move our absorber away from the radiation source. In other words we are going to think about the influence of distance on the intensity of the radiation beam. You will find that a useful result emerges from this that has a very important impact on radiation safety. The radiation produced in a radioactive source is emitted in all directions. We can consider that spheres of equal radiation intensity exist around the source with the number of photons/particles spreading out as we move away from the source. Consider an area on the surface of one of these spheres and assume that there are a certain number of photons/particles passing though it. If we now consider a sphere at a greater distance from the source the same number of photons/particles will now be spread out over a bigger area. Following this line of thought it is easy to appreciate that the radiation intensity, I will decrease with the square of the distance, r from the source, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I \propto \frac{1}{r^2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This effect is known as the Inverse Square Law. As a result if we double the distance from a source, we reduce the intensity by a factor of two squared, that is 4. If we triple the distance the intensity is reduced by a factor of 9, that is three squared, and so on. This is a very useful piece of information if you are working with a source of radiation and are interested in minimising the dose of radiation you will receive. ## External links - Radiation and Risk -- covers the effect of radiation, how risks are determined, comparison of radiation with other risks and radiation doses. - Radiation Effects Overview -- results of studies of victims of nuclear bombs including early effects on survivors, effects on the in utero exposed, and late effects on the survivors -- from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, a cooperative Japan-United States Research Organization. - The Radiation and Health Physics Home Page -- all you ever wanted to know about radiation but were afraid to ask\....with hundreds of WWW links -- from the Student Chapter of the Health Physics Society, University of Michigan containing sections on general information, regulatory Information, professional organizations and societies, radiation specialties, health physics research and education. - What You Need to Know about Radiation -- to protect yourself to protect your family to make reasonable social and political choices -- covers sources of radiation and radiation protection -- by Lauriston S. Taylor.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Interaction of Radiation with Matter !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}.`</span>`{=html}{width="150"} We have focussed in previous chapters on the source of radiation and the types of radiation. We are now in a position to consider what happens when this radiation interacts with matter. Our main reason for doing this is to find out what happens to the radiation as it passes through matter and also to set ourselves up for considering how it interacts with living tissue and how to detect radiation. Since all radiation detectors are made from some form of matter it is useful to first of all know how radiation interacts so that we can exploit the effects in the design of such detectors in subsequent chapters of this wikibook. Before we do this let us first remind ourselves of the physical characteristics of the major types of radiation. We have covered this information in some detail earlier and it is summarised in the table below for convenience. We will now consider the passage of each type of radiation through matter with most attention given to gamma-rays because they are the most common type used in nuclear medicine. One of the main effects that you will notice irrespective of the type of radiation is that ions are produced when radiation interacts with matter. It is for this reason that it is called ionizing radiation. +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+ \| Radiation \| Mass \| Electric \| Velocity \| \| \| \| Charge \| \| +================+================+================+================+ \| Alpha \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| Particles \| <div c \| <div c \| <div c \| \| \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| relatively \| double \| relatively \| \| \| heavy \| positive \| slow \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+ \| Beta Particles \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div c \| <div c \| <div c \| \| \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| about 8,000 \| negative \| less than the \| \| \| times lighter \| \| velocity of \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| light \| \| \| ```{=html} \| </div> \| \| \| \| </div> \| ``` \| ```{=html} \| \| \| ``` \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+ \| Gamma Rays \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div c \| <div c \| <div c \| \| \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| lass="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| None \| None \| 3 x 10^8^ m/s \| \| \| \| \| in free space \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| ```{=html} \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+ Before we start though you might find an analogy useful to help you with your thinking. This analogy works on the basis of thinking about matter as an enormous mass of atoms (that is nuclei with orbiting electrons) and that the radiation is a particle/photon passing through this type of environment. So the analogy to think about is a spaceship passing through a meteor storm like you might see in a science-fiction movie where the spaceship represents the radiation and the meteors represent the atoms of the material through which the radiation is passing. One added feature to bring on board however is that our spaceship sometimes has an electric charge depending on the type of radiation it represents. ## Alpha Particles We can see from the table above that alpha-particles have a double positive charge and we can therefore easily appreciate that they will exert considerable electrostatic attraction on the outer orbital electrons of atoms near which they pass. The result is that some electrons will be attracted away from their parent atoms and that ions will be produced. In other words ionizations occur. We can also appreciate from the table that alpha-particles are quite massive relative to the other types of radiation and also to the electrons of atoms of the material through which they are passing. As a result they travel in straight lines through matter except for rare direct collisions with nuclei of atoms along their path. A third feature of relevance here is the energy with which they are emitted. This energy in the case of alpha-particles is always distinct. For example ^221^Ra emits an alpha-particle with an energy of 6.71 MeV. Every alpha-particle emitted from this radionuclide has this energy. Another example is ^230^U which emits three alpha-particles with energies of 5.66, 5.82, 5.89 MeV. Finally it is useful to note that alpha-particles are very damaging biologically and this is one reason why they are not used for in-vivo diagnostic studies. We will therefore not be considering them in any great detail in this wikibook. ## Beta Particles We can see from the table that beta-particles have a negative electric charge. Notice that positrons are not considered here since as we noted in chapter 2 these particles do not last for very long in matter before they are annihilated. Beta-minus particles last considerably longer and are therefore the focus of our attention here. Because of their negative charge they are attracted by nuclei and repelled by electron clouds as they pass through matter. The result once again without going into great detail is ionization. The path of beta-particles in matter is often described as being tortuous, since they tend to ricochet from atom to atom. A final and important point to note is that the energy of beta-particles is never found to be distinct in contrast to the alpha-particles above. The energies of the beta-particles from a radioactive source forms a spectrum up to a maximum energy -- see figure below. Notice from the figure that a range of energies is present and features such as the mean energy, E~mean~, or the maximum energy, E~max~, are quoted. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM6_1.gif "NM6_1.gif"){width="280"} ```{=html} </div> ``` The question we will consider here is: why should a spectrum of energies be seen? Surely if a beta-particle is produced inside a nucleus when a neutron is converted into a proton, a single distinct energy should result. The answer lies in the fact that two particles are actually produced in beta-decay. We did not cover this in our treatment in chapter 2 for fear of complicating things too much at that stage of this wikibook. But we will cover it here briefly for the sake of completeness. The second particle produced in beta-decay is called a neutrino and was named by Enrico Fermi. It is quite a mysterious particle possessing virtually no mass and carrying no charge, though we are still researching its properties today. The difficulty with them is that they are very hard to detect and this has greatly limited our knowledge about them so far. The beta-particle energy spectrum can be explained by considering that the energy produced when a neutron is converted to a proton is shared between the beta-particle and the anti-neutrino. Sometimes all the energy is given to the beta-particle and it receives the maximum energy, E~max~. But more often the energy is shared between them so that for example the beta-particle has the mean energy, E~mean~ and the neutrino has the remainder of the energy. Finally it is useful to note that beta-particles are quite damaging biologically and this is one reason why they are not used for in-vivo diagnostic studies. We will therefore not consider them in any great detail in this wikibook. ## Gamma Rays Since we have been talking about energies above, let us first note that the energies of gamma-rays emitted from a radioactive source are always distinct. For example ^99m^Tc emits gamma-rays which all have an energy of 140 keV and ^51^Cr emits gamma-rays which have an energy of 320 keV. Gamma-rays have many modes of interaction with matter. Those which have little or no relevance to nuclear medicine imaging are: ::\* Mössbauer Effect ::\* Coherent Scattering ::\* Pair Production and will not be described here. Those which are very important to nuclear medicine imaging, are the Photoelectric Effect and the Compton Effect. We will consider each of these in turn below. Note that the effects described here are also of relevance to the interaction of X-rays with matter since as we have noted before X-rays and gamma-rays are essentially the same entities. So the treatment below is also of relevance to radiography. #### Photoelectric Effect : When a gamma-ray collides with an orbital electron of an atom of the material through which it is passing it can transfer all its energy to the electron and cease to exist -- see figure below. On the basis of the Principle of Conservation of Energy we can deduce that the electron will leave the atom with a kinetic energy equal to the energy of the gamma-ray less that of the orbital binding energy. This electron is called a photoelectron. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM6_2.gif "NM6_2.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` : Note that an ion results when the photoelectron leaves the atom. Also note that the gamma-ray energy is totally absorbed in the process. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Two subsequent points should also be noted. Firstly the photoelectron can cause ionisations along its track in a similar manner to a beta-particle. Secondly X-ray emission can occur when the vacancy left by the photoelectron is filled by an electron from an outer shell of the atom. Remember that we came across this type of feature before when we dealt with Electron Capture in chapter 2. #### Compton Effect : This type of effect is somewhat akin to a cue ball hitting a coloured ball on a pool table. Here a gamma-ray transfers only part of its energy to a valance electron which is essentially free -- see figure below. Notice that the electron leaves the atom and may act like a beta-particle and that the gamma-ray deflects off in a different direction to that with which it approached the atom. This deflected or scattered gamma-ray can undergo further Compton Effects within the material. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Note that this effect is sometimes called Compton Scattering. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM6_3.gif "NM6_3.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` The two effects we have just described give rise to both absorption and scattering of the radiation beam. The overall effect is referred to as attenuation of gamma-rays. We will investigate this feature from an analytical perspective in the following chapter. Before we do so, we\'ll briefly consider the interaction of radiation with living matter. ## Radiation Biology It is well known that exposure to ionizing radiation can result in damage to living tissue. We\'ve already described the initial atomic interactions. What\'s important in radiation biology is that these interactions may trigger complex chains of biomolecular events and consequent biological damage. We\'ve seen above that the primary means by which ionizing radiations lose their energy in matter is by ejection of orbital electrons. The loss of orbital electrons from the atom leaves it positively charged. Other interaction processes lead to excitation of the atom rather than ionization. Here, an outer valence electron receives sufficient energy to overcome the binding energy of its shell and moves further away from the nucleus to an orbit that is not normally occupied. This type of effect alters the chemical force that binds atoms into molecules and a regrouping of the affected atoms into different molecular structures can result. That is, excitation is an indirect method of inducing chemical change through the modification of individual atomic bonds. Ionizations and excitations can give rise to unstable chemical species called free radicals. These are atoms and molecules in which there are unpaired electrons. They are chemically very reactive and seek stability by bonding with other atoms and molecules. Changes to nearby molecules can arise because of their production. But, let\'s go back to the interactions themselves for the moment\..... In the case of X- and gamma-ray interactions, the energy of the photons is usually transferred by collisions with orbital electrons, e.g. via photoelectric and Compton effects. These radiations are capable of penetrating deeply into tissue since their interactions depend on chance collisions with electrons. Indeed, nuclear medicine imaging is only possible when the energy of the gamma-rays is sufficient for complete emission from the body, but low enough to be detected. The interaction of charged particles (e.g. alpha and beta particles), on the other hand, can be by collisions with atomic electrons and also via attractive and repulsive electrostatic forces. The rate at which energy is lost along the track of a charged particle depends therefore on the square of the charge on that particle. That is, the greater the particle charge, the greater the probability of it generating ion pairs along its track. In addition, a longer period of time is available for electrostatic forces to act when a charged particle is moving slowly and the ionization probability is therefore increased as a result. The situation is illustrated in the following figure where tracks of charged particles in water are depicted. Notice that the track of the relatively massive α-particle is a straight line, as we\'ve discussed earlier in this chapter, with a large number of interactions (indicated by the asterisks) per unit length. Notice also that the tracks for electrons are tortuous, as we\'ve also discussed earlier, and that the number of interactions per unit length is considerably less. !Ionizations and excitations along particle tracks in water, for a 5.4 MeV α-particle (top left), for electrons generated following the absorption of a 1.5 keV X-ray photon (top right) and electrons generated during the decay of iodine-125., for electrons generated following the absorption of a 1.5 keV X-ray photon (top right) and electrons generated during the decay of iodine-125."){width="320"} The Linear Energy Transfer (LET) is defined as the energy released per unit length of the track of an ionizing particle. A slowly moving, highly charged particle therefore has a substantially higher LET than a fast, singly charged particle. An alpha particle of 5 MeV energy and an electron of 1 MeV energy have LETs, for instance, of 95 and 0.25 keV/μm, respectively. The ionization density and hence the energy deposition pattern associated with the heavier charged particle is very much greater than that arising from electrons, as illustrated in the figure above. The energy transferred along the track of a charged particle will vary because the velocity of the particle is likely to be continuously decreasing. Each interaction removes a small amount of energy from the particle so that the LET gradually increases along a particle track with a dramatic increase (called the Bragg Peak) occurring just before the particle comes to rest. The International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU) suggest that lineal energy is a better indicator of relative biological effectiveness (RBE). Although lineal energy has the same units as LET (e.g. keV/μm), it is defined as the: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}ratio of the energy deposited in a volume of tissue to the average diameter of that volume.`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` Since the microscopic deposition of energy may be quite anisotropic, lineal energy should be a more appropriate measure of potential damage than that of LET. The ICRU and the ICRP have accordingly recommended that the radiation effectiveness of a particular radiation type should be based on lineal energy in a 1 μm diameter sphere of tissue. The lineal energy can be calculated for any given radiation type and energy and a Radiation Weighting Factor, (w~R~) can then be determined based on the integrated values of lineal energy along the radiation track. All living things on this planet have been exposed to ionizing radiation since the dawn of time. The current situation for humans is summarized in the following table: +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Source \| Effective Dose \| Comment \| \| \| (mSv/year) \| \| +======================+======================+======================+ \| Cosmic radiation \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \~0.4 \| About 100,000 cosmic \| \| \| \| ray neutrons and \| \| \| ```{=html} \| 400,000 secondary \| \| \| </div> \| cosmic rays \| \| \| ``` \| penetrate our bodies \| \| \| \| every hour -- and it \| \| \| \| increases with \| \| \| \| altitude! \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Terrestrial \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| radiation \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \~0.5 \| Over 200 million \| \| \| \| gamma-rays pass \| \| \| ```{=html} \| through our body \| \| \| </div> \| every hour from \| \| \| ``` \| sources such as soil \| \| \| \| and building \| \| \| \| materials \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Internal radiation \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \~0.3 \| About 15 million \| \| \| \| ^40^K atoms and \| \| \| ```{=html} \| about 7,000 natural \| \| \| </div> \| uranium atoms \| \| \| ``` \| disintegrate inside \| \| \| \| our bodies every \| \| \| \| hour, primarily from \| \| \| \| our diet \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Radon and other \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| gases \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \~1.3 \| About 30,000 atoms \| \| \| \| disintegrate inside \| \| \| ```{=html} \| our lungs every hour \| \| \| </div> \| as a result of \| \| \| ``` \| breathing \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ : Adapted with permission from Applied Imaging Technology. \ The sum total of this Natural Background Radiation is about 2.5 mSv per year, with large variations depending on altitude and dietary intake as well as geological and geographical location. Its generally considered that repair mechanisms exist in living matter and that these can be invoked following radiation damage at the biomolecular level. These mechanisms are likely to have an evolutionary basis arising as a response to radiation fluxes generated by natural background sources over the aeons. Its also known that quite considerable damage to tissues can arise at quite higher radiation fluxes, even at medical exposures. Cell death and transformations to malignant states can result leading to latent periods of many years before clinical signs of cancer or leukemia, for instance, become manifest. Further treatment of this vast field of radiation biology however is beyond our scope here. ## Practical Radiation Safety Radiation hazards arise since nuclear medicine involves the handling of radioactive materials. Although this risk may be small, it remains important to keep occupational exposures as low as reasonably achievable. Essential practices for achieving this aim include: `<b>`{=html}Administration`</b>`{=html} ::\Maintaining a comprehensive record of all radioactive source purchases, usage, movement and storage. ::\Ensuring that any Codes of Safe Practice are adhered to and develop sensible written protocols and working rules for handling radioisotopes. ::\Protocols for dealing with minor contamination incidents of the environment or of staff members must be established. Remember that no matter how good work practices are, minor accidents or incidents involving spillage of radioisotopes can take place. `<b>`{=html}Facility`</b>`{=html} ::\Storage of radioactive sources in a secure shielded environment. Specially dedicated facilities are required for the storage, safe handling, manipulation and dispensing of unsealed radioactive sources. Storage areas should be designed for both bulk radioisotope and radioactive waste. Furthermore, radioactive patients should be regarded as unsealed sources. ::\Adequate ventilation of any work area. This is particularly important to minimize the inhalation of Technigas and potentially volatile radioisotopes such as I-125 and I-131. It is preferable to use fume hoods when working with volatile materials. ::\Benches should be manufactured with smooth, hard impervious surfaces with appropriate splash-backs to allow ready decontamination following any spillage of radioisotopes. Laboratory work should be performed in stainless steel trays lined with absorbent paper. ::\Excretion of radioactive materials by patients may be via faeces, urine, saliva, blood, exhaled breath or the skin. Provision to deal with any or all of these potential pathways for contamination must be made. ::\Provision for collection and possible storage of both liquid and solid radioactive waste may be necessary in some circumstances. Most short-lived, water soluble liquid waste can be flushed into the sewers but longer lived isotopes such as I-131 may have to be stored for decay. Such waste must be adequately contained and labelled during storage. `<b>`{=html}Equipment`</b>`{=html} ::\Ensure that appropriate survey monitors are available to determine if any contamination has occurred and to assist in decontamination procedures. Routine monitoring of potentially contaminated areas must be performed. ::\Ensure that all potentially exposed staff are issued with individual personnel monitors. ::\Protective clothing such as gowns, smocks, overboots and gloves should be provided and worn to prevent contamination of the personnel handling the radioactivity. In particular, gloves must be worn when administering radioactive materials orally or intravenously to patients. It should be noted that penetration of gloves may occur when handling some iodine compounds so that wearing a second pair of gloves is recommended. In any event, gloves should be changed frequently and discarded ones treated as radioactive waste. `<b>`{=html}Behaviours`</b>`{=html} ::\Eating and drinking of food, smoking, and the application of cosmetics is prohibited in laboratories in which unsealed sources are utilized. ::\Mouth pipetting of any radioactive substance is totally prohibited. ::\Precautions should be taken to avoid punctures, cuts, abrasions and any other open skin wounds which otherwise might allow egress of radiopharmaceuticals into the blood stream. `<b>`{=html}Optimization`</b>`{=html} ::\Always ensure that there is a net benefit resulting from the patient procedure. Can the diagnosis or treatment be made by recourse to an alternative means using non ionizing radiation? ::\Ensure that all staff, including physicians, technologists, nurses and interns and other students, who are involved in the practice of nuclear medicine receive the relevant level of training and education appropriate to their assigned tasks. The training program could be in the form of seminars, refresher courses and informal tutorials. ::\A substantive Quality Assurance (QA) program should be implemented to ensure that the function of the Dose Calibrator, Gamma Camera, computer and other ancillary equipment is optimized. The potential hazards to staff in a nuclear medicine environment include: ::\Milking the ^99m^Tc generator, drawing up and measuring the quantity of radioisotope prior to administration. ::\Delivering the activity to the patient by injection or other means and positioning the now radioactive patient in the imaging device. ::\Removing the patients from the imaging device and returning them to the ward where they may continue to represent a radiation hazard for some time. For Tc-99m, a short-lived radionuclide the hazard period will be only a few hours but for therapeutic isotopes the hazardous period may be several days. ::\Disposal of radioactive waste including body fluids, such as blood and urine, but also swabs, syringes, needles, paper towels etc. ::\Cleaning up the imaging area after the procedure. ::\Contamination. The table below lists the dose rates from patients having nuclear medicine examinations. In general, the hazards from handling or dealing with radioactive patients arise in two parts: ::\External hazard: This will be the case when the radioisotope emits penetrating gamma-rays. Usually, this hazard can be minimised by employing shielding and sensible work practices. ::\*Radioactive contamination: This is potentially of more concern as it may lead to the inhalation or ingestion of radioactive material by staff. Possible sources of contamination are radioactive blood, urine and saliva, emanating from a patient, or airborne radioactive vapour. Sensible work practices, which involve high levels of personal hygiene, should ensure that contamination is not a major issue. !Dose rates from patients following administration.{width="600"} One of the most common nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures is the bone scan using the isotope Tc-99m. The exposure rate at 1 metre from a typical patient will peak at approximately 3 μSv per hour immediately after injection dropping steadily because of radioactivity decay and through excretion so that after 2 hours it will be about 1.5 μSv per hour. Neglecting any further excretion, the total exposure received by an individual, should that person stand one meter from the patient for the whole of the first 24 hours, would be \~17 μSv. For a person at 3 meters from the patient this number would reduce to 1.7 μSv and for a distance of 5 metres it would be \~0.7 μSv. These values have been estimated on the basis of the inverse square law. Patients should be encouraged to drink substantial quantities of liquid following their scan, as this will improve excretion and aid in minimizing not only their radiation dose but also that of nursing staff. ![](radSafetyNutShell.jpg "radSafetyNutShell.jpg"){width="480"}
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Attenuation of Gamma-Rays !The Compton effect{width="150"} We covered the interaction of gamma-rays with matter from a descriptive viewpoint in the previous chapter and we saw that the Compton and Photoelectric Effects were the major mechanisms. We will consider the subject again here but this time from an analytical perspective. This will allow us to develop a more general understanding of the phenomenon. Note that the treatment here also refers to the attenuation of X-rays since, as we noted before gamma-rays and X-rays are essentially the same physical entities. Our treatment begins with a description of a simple radiation experiment which can be performed easily in the laboratory and which many of the early pioneers in this field did. We will then build on the information obtained from such an experiment to develop a simple equation and some simple concepts which will allow us generalise the situation to any attenuation situation. ## Attenuation Experiment The experiment is quite simple. It involves firing a narrow beam of gamma-rays at a material and measuring how much of the radiation gets through. We can vary the energy of the gamma-rays we use and the type of absorbing material as well as its thickness and density. The experimental set-up is illustrated in the figure below. We refer to the intensity of the radiation which strikes the absorber as the incident intensity, I~0~, and the intensity of the radiation which gets through the absorber as the transmitted intensity, I~x~. Notice also that the thickness of the absorber is denoted by x. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM7_1.gif "NM7_1.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` From what we covered in the previous chapter we can appreciate that some of the gamma-rays will be subjected to interactions such as the Photoelectric Effect and the Compton Effect as they pass through the absorber. The transmitted gamma-rays will in the main be those which pass through without any interactions at all. We can therefore expect to find that the transmitted intensity will be less than the incident intensity, that is ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I_x < I_0\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` But by how much you might ask. Before we consider this let us denote the difference between I~x~ and I~0~ as ∆I, that is ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\Delta I = I_0 - I_x\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` #### Effect of Atomic Number : Let us start exploring the magnitude of ∆I by placing different absorbers in turn in the radiation beam. What we would find is that the magnitude of ∆I is highly dependent on the atomic number of the absorbing material. For example we would find that ∆I would be quite low in the case of an absorber made from carbon (Z=6) and very large in the case of lead (Z=82). ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : We can gain an appreciation of why this is so from the following figure: ![](NM7_5.gif "NM7_5.gif"){width="220"} : The figure illustrates a high atomic number absorber by the large circles which represent individual atoms and a low atomic number material by smaller circles. The incident radiation beam is represented by the arrows entering each absorber from the left. Notice that the atoms of the high atomic number absorber present larger targets for the radiation to strike and hence the chances for interactions via the Photoelectric and Compton Effects is relatively high. The attenuation should therefore be relatively large. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : In the case of the low atomic number absorber however the individual atoms are smaller and hence the chances of interactions are reduced. In other words the radiation has a greater probability of being transmitted through the absorber and the attenuation is consequently lower than in the high atomic number case. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : With respect to our spaceship analogy used in the previous chapter the atomic number can be thought of as the size of individual meteors in the meteor cloud. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : If we were to precisely control our experimental set-up and carefully analyse our results we would find that:\ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\Delta I \propto Z^3\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Therefore if we were to double the atomic number of our absorber we would increase the attenuation by a factor of two cubed, that is 8, if we were to triple the atomic number we would increase the attenuation by a factor of 27, that is three cubed, and so on. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : It is for this reason that high atomic number materials (e.g. Pb) are used for radiation protection. #### Effect of Density : A second approach to exploring the magnitude of ∆I is to see what happens when we change the density of the absorber. We can see from the following figure that a low density absorber will give rise to less attenuation than a high density absorber since the chances of an interaction between the radiation and the atoms of the absorber are relatively lower. In addition, the density determines the transmission coefficient as it relates to the sample, since the lower the density, the higher the transmission coefficient due to the porous nature of the material. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM7_6.gif "NM7_6.gif"){width="220"} ```{=html} </div> ``` : So in our analogy of the spaceship entering a meteor cloud think of meteor clouds of different density and the chances of the spaceship colliding with a meteor. #### Effect of Thickness : A third factor which we could vary is the thickness of the absorber. As you should be able to predict at this stage the thicker the absorber the greater the attenuation. #### Effect of Gamma-Ray Energy : Finally in our experiment we could vary the energy of the gamma-ray beam. We would find without going into it in any great detail that the greater the energy of the gamma-rays the less the attenuation. You might like to think of it in terms of the energy with which the spaceship approaches the meteor cloud and the likelihood of a slow spaceship getting through as opposed to a spaceship travelling with a higher energy. ## Mathematical Model We will consider a mathematical model here which will help us to express our experimental observations in more general terms. You will find that the mathematical approach adopted and the result obtained is quite similar to what we encountered earlier with Radioactive Decay. So you will not have to plod your way through any new maths below, just a different application of the same form of mathematical analysis! Let us start quite simply and assume that we vary only the thickness of the absorber. In other words we use an absorber of the same material (i.e. same atomic number) and the same density and use gamma-rays of the same energy for the experiment. Only the thickness of the absorber is changed. From our reasoning above it is easy to appreciate that the magnitude of ∆I should be dependent on the radiation intensity as well as the thickness of the absorber, that is for an infinitesimally small change in absorber thickness: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-d I \propto I \cdot dx\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` the minus sign indicating that the intensity is reduced by the absorber. Turning the proportionality in this equation into an equality, we can write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-d I = \mu I \cdot dx\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where the constant of proportionality, μ, is called the Linear Attenuation Coefficient. Dividing across by I we can rewrite this equation as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $-\frac{d I}{I} = \mu \cdot dx$ ```{=html} </div> ``` So this equation describes the situation for any tiny change in absorber thickness, dx. To find out what happens for the complete thickness of an absorber we simply add up what happens in each small thickness. In other words we integrate the above equation. Expressing this more formally we can say that for thicknesses from x = 0 to any other thickness x, the radiation intensity will decrease from I~0~ to I~x~, so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $- \int_{I_0}^{I_x} \frac{dI}{I} = \mu \int_{0}^x dx$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln \left ( \frac{I_x}{I_0} \right ) = -\mu x$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \frac{I_x}{I_0} = \text{exp}\ (-\mu x)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore I_x = I_0\ \text{exp}\ (-\mu x)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This final expression tells us that the radiation intensity will decrease in an exponential fashion with the thickness of the absorber with the rate of decrease being controlled by the Linear Attenuation Coefficient. The expression is shown in graphical form below. The graph plots the intensity against thickness, x. We can see that the intensity decreases from I~0~, that is the number at x = 0, in a rapid fashion initially and then more slowly in the classic exponential manner. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- ![](NM7_14.gif "NM7_14.gif"){width="220"} ![](NM7_15.gif "NM7_15.gif"){width="220"} ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- : Graphical representation of the dependence of radiation intensity on the thickness of absorber: Intensity versus thickness on the left and the natural logarithm of the intensity versus thickness on the right. ```{=html} </div> ``` The influence of the Linear Attenuation Coefficient can be seen in the next figure. All three curves here are exponential in nature, only the Linear Attenuation Coefficient is different. Notice that when the Linear Attenuation Coefficient has a low value the curve decreases relatively slowly and when the Linear Attenuation Coefficient is large the curve decreases very quickly. !Exponential attenuation expressed using a small, medium and large value of the Linear Attenuation Coefficient, µ. The Linear Attenuation Coefficient is characteristic of individual absorbing materials. Some like carbon have a small value and are easily penetrated by gamma-rays. Other materials such as lead have a relatively large Linear Attenuation Coefficient and are relatively good absorbers of radiation: Absorber 100 keV 200 keV 500 keV --------------- ---------- ---------- ---------- Air 0.000195 0.000159 0.000112 Water 0.167 0.136 0.097 Carbon 0.335 0.274 0.196 Aluminium 0.435 0.324 0.227 Iron 2.72 1.09 0.655 Copper 3.8 1.309 0.73 Lead 59.7 10.15 1.64 : Linear Attenuation Coefficients (in cm^-1^) for a range of materials at gamma-ray energies of 100, 200 and 500 keV. The materials listed in the table above are air, water and a range of elements from carbon (Z=6) through to lead (Z=82) and their Linear Attenuation Coefficients are given for three gamma-ray energies. The first point to note is that the Linear Attenuation Coefficient increases as the atomic number of the absorber increases. For example it increases from a very small value of 0.000195 cm^-1^ for air at 100 keV to almost 60 cm^-1^ for lead. The second point to note is that the Linear Attenuation Coefficient for all materials decreases with the energy of the gamma-rays. For example the value for copper decreases from about 3.8 cm^-1^ at 100 keV to 0.73 cm^-1^ at 500 keV. The third point to note is that the trends in the table are consistent with the analysis presented earlier. Finally it is important to appreciate that our analysis above is only strictly true when we are dealing with narrow radiation beams. Other factors need to be taken into account when broad radiation beams are involved. ## Half Value Layer As with using the Half Life to describe the Radioactive Decay Law an indicator is usually derived from the exponential attenuation equation above which helps us think more clearly about what is going on. This indicator is called the Half Value Layer and it expresses the thickness of absorbing material which is needed to reduce the incident radiation intensity by a factor of two. From a graphical point of view we can say that when: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I_x = \frac{I_0}{2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` the thickness of absorber is the Half Value Layer: ![](NM7_19.gif "NM7_19.gif"){width="320"} The Half Value Layer for a range of absorbers is listed in the following table for three gamma-ray energies: Absorber 100 keV 200 keV 500 keV --------------- --------- --------- --------- Air 3555 4359 6189 Water 4.15 5.1 7.15 Carbon 2.07 2.53 3.54 Aluminium 1.59 2.14 3.05 Iron 0.26 0.64 1.06 Copper 0.18 0.53 0.95 Lead 0.012 0.068 0.42 : Half Value Layers (in cm) for a range of materials at gamma-ray energies of 100, 200 and 500 keV. The first point to note is that the Half Value Layer decreases as the atomic number increases. For example the value for air at 100 keV is about 35 meters and it decreases to just 0.12 mm for lead at this energy. In other words 35 m of air is needed to reduce the intensity of a 100 keV gamma-ray beam by a factor of two whereas just 0.12 mm of lead can do the same thing. The second thing to note is that the Half Value Layer increases with increasing gamma-ray energy. For example from 0.18 cm for copper at 100 keV to about 1 cm at 500 keV. Thirdly note that relative to the data in the previous table there is a reciprocal relationship between the Half Value Layer and the Linear Attenuation Coefficient, which we will now investigate. ## Relationship between μ and the HVL As was the case with the Radioactive Decay Law, where we explored the relationship between the Half Life and the Decay Constant, a relationship can be derived between the Half Value Layer and the Linear Attenuation Coefficient. We can do this by using the definition of the Half Value Layer: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I = \frac{I_0}{2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` when ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $x = x_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and inserting it in the exponential attenuation equation, that is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I = I_0\ \text{exp}\ (-\mu x)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` to give ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{I_0}{2} = I_0\ \text{exp}\ (-\mu x_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{1}{2} = \text{exp}\ (-\mu x_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore 2^{-1} = \text{exp}\ (-\mu x_{\frac{1}{2}})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln 2^{-1} = -\mu x_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore \ln 2 = \mu x_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore 0.693 = \mu x_{\frac{1}{2}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\mu = \frac{0.693}{x_{\frac{1}{2}}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $x_{\frac{1}{2}} = \frac{0.693}{\mu}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` These last two equations express the relationship between the Linear Attenuation Coefficient and the Half Value Layer. They are very useful as you will see when solving numerical questions relating to attenuation and frequently form the first step in solving a numerical problem. ## Mass Attenuation Coefficient We implied above that the Linear Attenuation Coefficient was useful when we were considering an absorbing material of the same density but of different thicknesses. A related coefficient can be of value when we wish to include the density, ρ, of the absorber in our analysis. This is the Mass Attenuation Coefficient which is defined as the: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{\text{Linear Attenuation Coefficient}}{\text{Density}} = \frac{\mu}{\rho}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The measurement unit used for the Linear Attenuation Coefficient in the table above is cm^-1^, and a common unit of density is the g cm^-3^. You might like to derive for yourself on this basis that the cm^2^ g^-1^ is the equivalent unit of the Mass Attenuation Coefficient. ## Questions Two questions are given below to help you develop your understanding of the material presented in this chapter. The first one is relatively straight-forward and will exercise your application of the exponential attenuation equation. The second question is a lot more challenging and will help you relate exponential attenuation to radioactivity and radiation exposure. Question 1 How much aluminium is required to reduce the intensity of a 200 keV gamma-ray beam to 10% of its incident intensity? Assume that the Half Value Layer for 200 keV gamma-rays in Al is 2.14 cm. Answer : The question phrased in terms of the symbols used above is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I = \frac{I_0}{10},\ \text{when}\ x = \text{?}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : We are told that the Half Value Layer is 2.14 cm. Therefore the Linear Attenuation Coefficient is ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\mu = \frac{0.693}{x_{\frac{1}{2}}} = \frac{0.693}{2.14} = 0.324\ \text{cm}^{-1}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Now combining all this with the exponential attenuation equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I = I_0\ \text{exp}\ (-\mu x)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : we can write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{I_0}{10} = I_0\ \text{exp}\ (-0.324x)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : Therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{1}{10} = \text{exp}\ (-0.324x)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore -\ln 10 = -0.324x$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore x = \frac{\ln 10}{0.324} = \frac{2.3}{0.324} = 7.1\ \text{cm}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore x \approx 7\ \text{cm}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : So the thickness of aluminium required to reduce these gamma-rays by a factor of ten is about 7 cm. This relatively large thickness is the reason why aluminium is not generally used in radiation protection - its atomic number is not high enough for efficient and significant attenuation of gamma-rays. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : You might like to try this question for the case when Pb is the absorber - but you will need to find out the Half Value Layer for the 200 keV gamma-rays yourself! ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Here\'s a hint though: have a look at one of the tables above. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : And here\'s the answer for you to check when you\'ve finished: `<b>`{=html}2.2 mm`</b>`{=html}. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : In other words a relatively thin thickness of Pb is required to do the same job as 7 cm of aluminium. Question 2 A 10^5^ MBq source of ^137^Cs is to be contained in a Pb box so that the exposure rate 1 m away from the source is less than 0.5 mR/hour. If the Half Value Layer for ^137^Cs gamma-rays in Pb is 0.6 cm, what thickness of Pb is required? The Specific Gamma Ray Constant for ^137^Cs is 3.3 R hr^-1^ mCi^-1^ at 1 cm. Answer : This is a fairly typical question which arises when someone is using radioactive materials. We wish to use a certain quantity of the material and we wish to store it in a lead container so that the exposure rate when we are working a certain distance away is below some level for safety reasons. We know the radioactivity of the material we will be using. But its quoted in SI units. We look up a reference book to find out the exposure rate for this radioisotope and find that the Specific Gamma Ray Constant is quoted in traditional units. Just as in our question! ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : So let us start by getting our units right. The Specific Gamma Ray Constant is given as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` 3.3 R hr^-1^ mCi^-1^ at 1 cm from the source. ```{=html} </div> ``` : This is equal to: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` 3300 mR hr^-1^ mCi^-1^ at 1 cm from the source, ```{=html} </div> ``` : which is equal to: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{3300}{(100)^2}\ \text{mR hr}^{-1}\ \text{mCi}^{-1}\ \text{at 1 m from the source}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : on the basis of the Inverse Square Law. This result expressed per becquerel is ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{3300}{10^4 (3.7 \cdot 10^7)}\ \text{mR hr}^{-1}\ \text{Bq}^{-1}\ \text{at 1 m from the source}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : since 1 mCi = 3.7 x 10^7^ Bq. And therefore for 10^5^ MBq, the exposure rate is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{3300 \cdot 10^5 \cdot 10^6}{10^4 (3.7 \cdot 10^7)}\ \text{mR hr}^{-1}\ (10^5\ \text{MBq})^{-1}\ \text{at 1 m from the source}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : That is the exposure rate 1 meter from our source is `<b>`{=html}891.9 mR hr^-1^`</b>`{=html}. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : We wish to reduce this exposure rate according to the question to less than 0.5 mR hr^-1^ using Pb. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : You should be able at this stage to use the exponential attenuation equation along with the Half Value Layer for these gamma-rays in Pb to calculate that the thickness of Pb required is about `<b>`{=html}6.5 cm`</b>`{=html}. ## External Links - Mucal on the Web - an online program which calculates x-ray absorption coefficients - by Pathikrit Bandyopadhyay, The Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation at the Illinois Institute of Technology. - Tables of X-Ray Mass Attenuation Coefficients - a vast amount of data for all elements from National Institute of Science & Technology, USA.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Gas-Filled Radiation Detectors ![](Geiger_counter.jpg "Geiger_counter.jpg") We have learned in the last two chapters about how radiation interacts with matter and we are now in a position to apply our understanding to the detection of radiation. One of the major outcomes of the interaction of radiation with matter is the creation of ions as we saw in Chapter 5. This outcome is exploited in gas-filled detectors as you will see in this chapter. The detector in this case is essentially a gas, in that it is the atoms of a gas which are ionised by the radiation. We will see in the next chapter that solids can also be used as radiation detectors but for now we will deal with gases and be introduced to detectors such as the Ionization Chamber and the Geiger Counter. Before considering these specific types of gas-filled detectors we will first of all consider the situation from a very general perspective. ## Gas-Filled Detectors As we noted above the radiation interacts with gas atoms in this form of detector and causes ions to be produced. On the basis of what we covered in Chapter 5 it is easy to appreciate that it is the Photoelectric and Compton Effects that cause the ionisations when the radiation consists of gamma-rays with energies useful for diagnostic purposes. There are actually two particles generated when an ion is produced - the positive ion itself and an electron. These two particles are collectively called an ion pair. The detection of the production of ion pairs in the gas is the basis upon which gas detectors operate. The manner in which this is done is by using an electric field to sweep the electrons away to a positively charged electrode and the ions to a negatively charged electrode. Let us consider a very simple arrangement as shown in the following figure: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM8_1.gif "NM8_1.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` Here we have two electrodes with the gas between them. Something like a capacitor with a gas dielectric. The gas which is used is typically an inert gas, for example argon or xenon. The reason for using an inert gas is so that chemical reactions will not occur within the gas following the ionisations which could change the characteristics of our detector. A dc voltage is placed between the two electrodes. As a result when the radiation interacts with a gas atom the electron will move towards the positive electrode and the ion will move towards the negative electrode. But will these charges reach their respective electrodes? The answer is obviously dependent on the magnitude of the dc voltage. For example if at one extreme we had a dc voltage of a microvolt (that is, one millionth of a volt) the resultant electric field may be insufficient to move the ion pair very far and the two particles may recombine to reform the gas atom. At the other extreme suppose we applied a million volts between the two electrodes. In this case we are likely to get sparks flying between the two electrodes - a lightning bolt if you like - and our detector might act something like a neon sign. Somewhere in between these two extremes though we should be able to provide a sufficient attractive force for the ion and electron to move to their respective electrodes without recombination or sparking occurring. We will look at this subject in more detail below. Before we do let us see how the concept of the simple detector illustrated above is applied in practice. The gas-filled chamber is generally cylindrical in shape in real detectors. This shape has been found to be more efficient than the parallel electrode arrangement shown above. A cross-sectional view through this cylinder is shown in the following figure: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM8_2.gif "NM8_2.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` The positive electrode consists of a thin wire running through the centre of the cylinder and the negative electrode consists of the wall of the cylinder. In principle we could make such a detector by getting a section of a metal pipe, mounting a wire through its centre, filling it with an inert gas and sealing the ends of the pipe. Actual detectors are a little bit more complex however but let us not get side-tracked at this stage. We apply a dc voltage via a battery or via a dc voltage supply and connect it as shown in the figure using a resistor, R. Now, assume that a gamma-ray enters the detector. Ion pairs will be produced in the gas - the ions heading towards the outer wall and the electrons heading towards the centre wire. Let us think about the electrons for a moment. When they hit the centre wire we can simply think of them as entering the wire and flowing through the resistor to get to the positive terminal of the dc voltage supply. These electrons flowing through the resistor constitute an electric current and as a result of Ohm\'s Law a voltage is generated across the resistor. This voltage is amplified by an amplifier and some type of device is used to register the amplified voltage. A loud-speaker is a fairly simple device to use for this purpose and the generation of a voltage pulse is manifest by a click from the loud-speaker. Other display devices include a ratemeter which displays the number of voltage pulses generated per unit time - something like a speedometer in a car - and a pulse counter (or scaler) which counts the number of voltage pulses generated in a set period of time. A voltage pulse is frequently referred to in practice as a count and the number of voltage pulses generated per unit time is frequently called the count rate. ## DC Voltage Dependence If we were to build a detector and electronic circuit as shown in the figure above we could conduct an experiment that would allow us to explore the effect of the dc voltage on the magnitude of the voltage pulses produced across the resistor, R. Note that the term pulse height is frequently used in this field to refer to the magnitude of voltage pulses. Ideally, we could generate a result similar to that illustrated in the following figure: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ![](NM8_3.gif "NM8_3.gif"){width="320"} ```{=html} </div> ``` The graph illustrates the dependence of the pulse height on the dc voltage. Note that the vertical axis representing the pulse height is on a logarithmic scale for the sake of compressing a large linear scale onto a reasonably-sized graph. The experimental results can be divided into five regions as shown. We will now consider each region in turn. - Region A Here V~dc~ is relatively low so that recombination of positive ions and electrons occurs. As a result not all ion pairs are collected and the voltage pulse height is relatively low. It does increase as the dc voltage increases however as the amount of recombination reduces. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Region B V~dc~ is sufficiently high in this region so that only a negligible amount of recombination occurs. This is the region where a type of detector called the Ionization Chamber operates. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Region C V~dc~ is sufficiently high in this region so that electrons approaching the centre wire attain sufficient energy between collisions with the electrons of gas atoms to produce new ion pairs. Thus the number of electrons is increased so that the electric charge passing through the resistor, R, may be up to a thousand times greater than the charge produced initially by the radiation interaction. This is the region where a type of detector called the Proportional Counter operates. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Region D V~dc~ is so high that even a minimally-ionizing particle will produce a very large voltage pulse. The initial ionization produced by the radiation triggers a complete gas breakdown as an avalanche of electrons heads towards and spreads along the centre wire. This region is called the Geiger-Müller Region, and is exploited in the Geiger Counter. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - Region E Here V~dc~ is high enough for the gas to completely breakdown and it cannot be used to detect radiation. We will now consider features of the Ionisation Chamber and the Geiger Counter in more detail. ## Ionisation Chamber The ionisation chamber consists of a gas-filled detector energised by a relatively low dc voltage. We will first of all make an estimate of the voltage pulse height generated by this type of detector. We will then consider some applications of ionisation chambers. When a beta-particle interacts with the gas the energy required to produce one ion pair is about 30 eV. Therefore when a beta-particle of energy 1 MeV is completely absorbed in the gas the number of ion pairs produced is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $n = \frac{1\ \text{MeV}}{30\ \text{eV}} = \frac{1 \cdot 10^6}{30} \approx 3 \cdot 10^4\ \text{ion pairs}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The electric charge produced in the gas is therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $Q = n \cdot e$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore (3 \cdot 10^4\ \text{ion pairs}) \cdot (1.6 \cdot 10^{-19}\ \text{C})$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore Q = 5 \cdot 10^{-15}\ \text{C}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` If the capacitance of the ionisation chamber (remember that we compared a gas-filled detector to a capacitor above) is 100 pF then the amplitude of the voltage pulse generated is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $V = \frac{Q}{C} = \frac{5 \cdot 10^{-15}\ \text{C}}{100 \cdot 10^{-12}\ \text{F}} = 5 \cdot 10^{-5}\ \text{V}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore V = 50\ \mu\text{V}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Because such a small voltage is generated it is necessary to use a very sensitive amplifier in the electronic circuitry connected to the chamber. We will now learn about two applications of ionisation chambers. The first one is for the measurement of radiation exposures. You will remember from Chapter 4 that the unit of radiation exposure (be it the SI or the traditional unit) is defined in terms of the amount of electric charge produced in a unit mass of a air. An ionization chamber filled with air is the natural instrument to use for such measurements. The second application is the measurement of radioactivity. The ionisation chamber used here is configured in what is called a re-entrant arrangement (see figure below) so that the sample of radioactive material can be placed within the detector using a holder and hence most of the emitted radiation can be detected. The instrument is widely referred to as an Isotope Calibrator and the trickle of electric current generated by such a detector is calibrated so that a reading in units of radioactivity (for example MBq or mCi) can be obtained. Most well-run Nuclear Medicine Departments will have at least one of these devices so that doses of radioactivity can be checked prior to administration to patients. ![](NM8_10.gif "NM8_10.gif"){width="320"} Here are some photographs of ionisation chambers designed for various applications: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !An exposure-area product detector used in radiography.{width="150"} !A range of ionisation chambers of different volumes using for measuring radiation exposure.{width="150"} !An exposure meter used in radiography.{width="150"} !An isotope calibrator used in nuclear medicine - the blue cylinder on the left contains the re-entrant chamber.{width="150"} !An exposure meter used in radiography.{width="150"} !A contemporary Geiger counter.{width="150"} --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ## Geiger Counter We saw earlier that the Geiger Counter operates at relatively high dc voltages (for example 400-900 volts) and that an avalanche of electrons is generated following the absorption of radiation in the gas. The voltage pulses produced by this detector are relatively large since the gas effectively acts as an amplifier of the electric charge produced. There are four features of this detector which we will discuss. The first is that a sensitive amplifier (as was the case with the Ionization Chamber) is not required for this detector because of the gas amplification noted above. The second feature results from the fact that the generation of the electron avalanche must be stopped in order to reform the detector. In other words when a radiation particle/photon is absorbed by the gas a complete gas breakdown occurs which implies that the gas is incapable of detecting the next particle/photon which enters the detector. So in the extreme case one minute we have a radiation detector and the following moment we do not. A means of stopping the electron avalanche is therefore required - a process called Quenching. One means of doing this is by electronically lowering the dc voltage following an avalanche. A more widely used method of quenching is to add a small amount of a quenching gas to the inert gas. For example the gas could be argon with ethyl alcohol added. The ethyl alcohol is in vapour form and since it consists of relatively large molecules energy which would in their absence give rise to sustaining the electron avalanche is absorbed by these molecules. The large molecules act like a brake in effect. Irrespective of the type of quenching used the detector is insensitive for a small period of time following absorption of a radiation particle/photon. This period of time is called the Dead Time and this is the third feature of this detector which we will consider. Dead times are relatively short but nevertheless significant - being typically of the order of 200-400 µs. As a result the reading obtained with this detector is less than it should be. The true count rate, T, can be obtained using the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $T = \frac{A}{1 - \tau A}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where A is the (actual) reading and τ is the dead time. Some instruments perform this calculation automatically. The fourth feature to note about this detector is the dependence of its performance on the dc voltage. The Geiger-Müller Region of our figure above is shown in more detail below: ![](NM8_12.gif "NM8_12.gif"){width="320"} Notice that it contains a plateau where the count rate obtained is independent of the dc voltage. The centre of this plateau is where most detectors are operated. It is clear that the count rate from the detector is not affected if the dc voltage fluctuates about the operating voltage. This implies that a relatively straight-forward dc voltage supply can be used. This feature coupled with the fact that a sensitive amplifier is not needed translates in practice to a relatively inexpensive radiation detector. ## External Links - Inside a smoke detector - about the ion chamber used in smoke detectors - from the How Stuff Works website. - Ionisation Chambers - a brief description from the Triumf Safety Group. - Radiation and Radioactivity - a self-paced lesson developed by the University of Michigan\'s Student Chapter of the Health Physics Society with a section on gas filled detectors. - The Geiger Counter - a brief overview from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Scintillation Detectors ![](PET-detectorsystem.png) The second type of radiation detector we will discuss is called the scintillation detector. Scintillations "wikilink") are minute flashes of light which are produced by certain materials when they absorb radiation. These materials are variously called fluorescent materials, fluors, scintillators or phosphors. If we had a radioactive source and a scintillator in the lab we could darken the room, move the scintillator close to the source and see the scintillations. These small flashes of light might be green or blue or some other colour depending on the scintillator. We could also count the number of flashes produced to gain an estimate of the radioactivity of the source, that is the more flashes of light seen the more radiation present. The scintillation detector was possibly the first radiation detector discovered. You might have heard the story of the discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895. He was working one evening in his laboratory in Wurzburg, Germany with a device which fired a beam of electrons at a target inside an evacuated glass tube. While working with this device he noticed that some platino-barium cyanide crystals, which he just happened to have close by, began to glow -- and that they stopped glowing when he switched the device off. Roentgen had accidentally discovered a new form of radiation. He had also accidentally discovered a scintillator detector. Although scintillations can be seen we have a more sophisticated way of counting and measuring them today by using some form of photodetector. We will learn about the construction and mode of operation of this type of detector in this chapter. In addition, we will see how it can be used not just for detecting the presence of ionizing radiation but also for measuring the energy of that radiation. Before we do however it is useful to note that scintillators are very widely used in the medical radiations field. For example the X-ray cassette used in radiography contains a scintillator (called an intensifying screen) in close contact with a photographic film. A second example is the X-ray Image Intensifier used in fluoroscopy which contains scintillators called phosphors. Scintillators are also used in some CT Scanners and as we will see in the next chapter, in the Gamma Camera and PET Scanner. Their application is not limited to the medical radiations field in that scintillators are also used as screens in television sets and computer monitors and for generating light in fluorescent tubes -- to mention just two common applications. What other applications can you think of? So scintillators are a lot more common than you might initially think and you will therefore find the information presented here useful to you not just for your studies of nuclear medicine. ## Fluorescent Materials Some fluorescent materials are listed in the following table. Thallium-activated sodium iodide, NaI(Tl) is a crystalline material which is widely used for the detection of gamma-rays in scintillation detectors. We will be looking at this in more detail below. Another crystalline material sodium-activated caesium iodide, CsI(Na) is widely used for X-ray detection in devices such as the X-ray image intensifier. Another one called calcium tungstate, CaWO~4~ has been widely used in X-ray cassettes although this substance has been replaced by other scintillators such as lanthanum oxybromide in many modern cassettes. Material Form ---------------------------- --------- NaI (Tl) crystal CsI (Na) crystal CaWO~4~ crystal ZnS (Ag) powder p-terphenyl in toluene liquid p-terphenyl in polystyrene plastic Notice that some scintillation materials are activated with certain elements. What this means is that the base material has a small amount of the activation element present. The term doped "wikilink") is sometimes used instead of activated. This activating element is used to influence the wavelength (colour) of the light produced by the scintillator. Silver-activated zinc sulphide is a scintillator in powder form and p-terphenyl in toluene is a liquid scintillator. The advantage of such forms of scintillators is that the radioactive material can be placed in close contact with the scintillating material. For example if a radioactive sample happened to be in liquid form we could mix it with a liquid scintillator so as to optimise the chances of detection of the emitted radiation and hence have a very sensitive detector. A final example is p-terphenyl in polystyrene which is a scintillator in the form of a plastic. This form can be easily made into different shapes like most plastics and is therefore useful when detectors of particular shapes are required. ## Photomultiplier Tube A scintillation crystal coupled to a photomultiplier tube (PMT) is illustrated in the following figure. The overall device is typically cylindrical in shape and the figure shows a cross-section through this cylinder: ![](NM9_1.gif "NM9_1.gif") The scintillation crystal, NaI(Tl) is very delicate and this is one of the reasons it is housed in an aluminium casing. The inside wall of the casing is designed so that any light which strikes it is reflected downwards towards the PMT. The PMT itself consists of a photocathode, a focussing grid, an array of dynodes and an anode housed in an evacuated glass tube. The function of the photocathode is to convert the light flashes produced by radiation attenuation in the scintillation crystal into electrons. The grid focuses these electrons onto the first dynode and the dynode array is used for electron multiplication. We will consider this process in more detail below. Finally the anode collects the electrons produced by the array of dynodes. The electrical circuitry which is typically attached to a PMT is shown in the next figure: ![](NM9_2.gif "NM9_2.gif") It consists of a high voltage supply, a resistor divider chain and a load resistor, R~L~. The high voltage supply generates a dc voltage, V~dc~ which can be up to 1,000 volts. It is applied to the resistor divider chain which consists of an array of resistors, each of which has the same resistance, R. The function of this chain of resistors is to divide up V~dc~ into equal voltages which are supplied to the dynodes. As a result voltages which increase in equal steps are applied to the array of dynodes. The load resistor is used so that an output voltage, V~out~ can be generated. Finally the operation of the device is illustrated in the figure below: ![](NM9_3.gif "NM9_3.gif") The ionizing radiation produces flashes of light in the scintillation crystal. This light strikes the photocathode and is converted into electrons. The electrons are directed by the grid onto the first dynode. Dynodes are made from certain alloys which emit electrons when their surface is struck by electrons with the advantage that more electrons are emitted than are absorbed. A dynode used in a PMT typically emits between two and five electrons for each electron which strikes it. So when an electron from the photocathode strikes the first dynode between two and five electrons are emitted and are directed towards the second dynode in the array (three are illustrated in the figure). This electron multiplication process is repeated at the second dynode so that we end up with nine electrons for example heading towards the third dynode. An electron avalanche therefore develops so that a sizeable number of electrons eventually hits the anode at the bottom of the dynode chain. These electrons flow through the load resistor, R~L~ and constitute an electric current which according to Ohm\'s Law generates a voltage, V~out~ which is measured by electronic circuitry (which we will describe later). A number of photographs of devices based on scintillation detection are shown below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !An X-ray cassette used in radiography.{width="150"} !A NaI crystal coupled to a photomultiplier tube.{width="150"} !A number of identical photomultiplier tubes from a Gamma Camera.{width="150"} !A single channel analyser.{width="150"} !A single channel analyser with a crystal-PMT assembly.{width="150"} !A well detector.{width="150"} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The important feature of the scintillation detector is that this output voltage, V~out~ is directly proportional to the energy deposited by the radiation in the crystal. We will see what a useful feature this is below. Before we do so we will briefly analyze the operation of this device. ## Mathematical Model A simple mathematical model will be presented below which will help us get a better handle on the performance of a scintillation detector. We will do this by quantifying the performance of the scintillator, the photocathode and the dynodes. Let\'s use the following symbols to characterize each stage of the detection process: - m: number of light photons produced in crystal - k: optical efficiency of the crystal, that is the efficiency with which the crystal transmits light - l: quantum efficiency of the photocathode, that is the efficiency with which the photocathode converts light photons to electrons - n: number of dynodes - R: dynode multiplication factor, that is the number of secondary electrons emitted by a dynode per primary electron absorbed. Therefore the charge collected at the anode is given by the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $Q = m k l R^n e\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where e: the electronic charge. For example supposing a 100 keV gamma-ray is absorbed in the crystal. The number of light photons produced, m, might be about 1,000 for a typical scintillation crystal. A typical crystal might have an optical efficiency, k, of 0.5 -- in other words 50% of the light produced reaches the photocathode which might have a quantum efficiency of 0.15. A typical PMT has ten dynodes and let us assume that the dynode multiplication factor is 4.5. Therefore ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $Q = 1000(0.5)(0.15)(4.5^{10})(1.6 \cdot 10^{-19})\ \text{C}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore Q = 41 \cdot 10^{-12}\ \text{C}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\therefore Q \approx 40\ \text{pC}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This amount of charge is very small. Even though we have used a sophisticated photodetector like a PMT we still end up with quite a small electrical signal. A very sensitive amplifier is therefore needed to amplify this signal. This type of amplifier is generally called a pre-amplifier and we will refer to it again later. ## Output Voltage We noted above that the voltage measured across the resistor, R~L~, is proportional to the energy deposited in the scintillation crystal by the radiation. Let us consider how the radiation might deposit its energy in the crystal. Let us consider a situation where gamma-rays are detected by the crystal. We learnt in Chapter 5 that there were two interaction mechanisms involved in gamma-ray attenuation -- the Photoelectric Effect and the Compton Effect. You will remember that the Photoelectric Effect involves the total absorption of the energy of a gamma-ray, while the Compton Effect involves just partial absorption of this energy. Since the output voltage of a scintillation detector is proportional to the energy deposited by the gamma-rays it is reasonable to expect that Photoelectric Effects in the crystal will generate distinct and relatively large output voltages and that Compton Effects will result in lower output voltages. The usual way of presenting this information is by plotting a graph of the count rate versus the output voltage pulse height as shown in the following figure: ![](NM9_8.gif "NM9_8.gif") This plot illustrates what is obtained for a monoenergetic gamma-emitting radioisotope, for example ^99m^Tc -- which, as we have noted before emits a single gamma-ray with an energy of 140 keV. Before we look at it in detail remember that we noted above that the output voltage from this detector is proportional to the energy deposited by the radiation in the crystal. The horizontal axis can therefore be used to represent the output voltage or the gamma-ray energy. Both of these quantities are shown in the figure to help with this discussion. In addition note that this plot is often called a Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum. The figure above contains two regions. One called the Photopeak and the other called the Compton Smear. The Photopeak results because of Photoelectric absorption of the gamma-rays from the radioactive source -- remember that we are dealing with a monoenergetic emitter in this example. It consists of a peak representing the gamma-ray energy (140 keV in our example). If our radioisotope emitted gamma-rays of two energies we would have two photopeaks in our spectrum and so on. Notice that the peak has a statistical spread. This has to do with how good our detector is and we will not get into any detail about it here other than to note that the extent of this spread is a measure of the quality of our detector. A high quality (and more expensive!) detector will have a narrower statistical spread in the photopeaks which it measures. The other component of our spectrum is the Compton Smear. It represents a range of output voltages which are lower than that for the Photopeak. It is therefore indicative of the partial absorption of the energy of gamma-rays in the crystal. In some Compton Effects a substantial scattering with a valence electron can occur which gives rise to relatively large voltage pulses. In other Compton Effects the gamma-ray just grazes off a valence electron with minimal energy transfer and hence a relatively small voltage pulse is generated. In between these two extremes are a range of scattering events involving a range of energy transfers and hence a range of voltage pulse heights. A \'smear\' therefore manifests itself on the gamma-ray energy spectrum. It is important to note that the spectrum illustrated in the figure is simplified for the sake of this introductory discussion and that actual spectra are a little more complex -- see figure below for an example: ![](NM9_4a.gif "NM9_4a.gif"){width="320"} You will find though that your understanding of actual spectra can easily develop on the basis of the simple picture we have painted here. It is also important to appreciate the additional information which this type of radiation detector provides relative to a gas-filled detector. In essence gas-filled detectors can be used to tell us if any radiation is present as well as the amount of that radiation. Scintillation detectors also give us this information but they tell us about the energy of this radiation as well. This additional information can be used for many diverse applications such as the identification of unknown radioisotopes and the production of nuclear medicine images. Let us stay a little bit longer though with the fundamental features of how scintillation detectors work. The photopeak of the Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum is generally of interest in nuclear medicine. This peak is the main signature of the radioisotope being used and its isolation from the Compton Smear is normally achieved using a technique called Pulse Height Analysis. ## Pulse Height Analysis This is an electronic technique which allows a spectrum to be acquired using two types of circuitry. One circuit is called a Lower Level Discriminator which only allows voltages pulses through it which are higher than its setting. The other is called an Upper Level Discriminator which only allows voltage pulses though which are lower than its setting. The result of using both these circuits in combination is a variable-width window which can be placed anywhere along a spectrum. For example if we wished to obtain information from the photopeak only of our simplified spectrum we would place the discrimination controls as shown in the following figure: ![](NM9_9.gif "NM9_9.gif") A final point to note here is that since the scintillation detector is widely used to obtain information about the energies of the radiation emitted from a radioactive source it is frequently referred to as a Scintillation Spectrometer. ## Scintillation Spectrometer Types of scintillation spectrometer fall into two basic categories -- the relatively straight-forward Single Channel Analyser and the more sophisticated Multi-Channel Analyser. The Single Channel Analyser is the type of instrument we have been describing so far in this discussion. A block diagram of the instrument is shown below: ![](NM9_10.gif "NM9_10.gif"){width="320"} It consists of a scintillation crystal coupled to a photomultiplier tube which is powered by a high voltage circuit (H.V.). The output voltages are initially amplified by a sensitive pre-amplifier (Pre-Amp) as we noted above before being amplified further and conditioned by the amplifier (Amp). The voltage pulses are then in a suitable form for the pulse height analyser (P.H.A.) -- the output pulses from which can be fed to a Scaler and a Ratemeter for display of the information about the portion of the spectrum we have allowed to pass through the PHA. The Ratemeter is a display device just like the speedometer in a car and indicates the number of pulses generated per unit time. The Scaler on the other hand usually consists of a digital display which shows the number of voltage pulses produced in a specified period of time. We can illustrate the operation of this circuitry by considering how it might be used to generate a Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum. What we would do is set up the LLD and ULD so as to define a narrow window and place this to pass the lowest voltage pulses produced by the detector through to the Scaler and Ratemeter. In other words we would place a narrow window at the extreme left of the spectrum and acquire information about the lowest energy gamma-ray interactions in the crystal. We would then adjust the LLD and ULD settings to acquire information about the interactions of the next highest energy. We would proceed in this fashion to scan the whole spectrum. A more sophisticated detector circuit is illustrated in the following figure: ![](NM9_11.gif "NM9_11.gif"){width="320"} It is quite similar to that in the previous figure with the exception that the PHA, Scaler and Ratemeter are replaced by a Multi-Channel Analyser and a computer. The Multi-Channel Analyser (MCA) is a circuit which is capable of setting up a large number of individual windows to look at a complete spectrum in one go. The MCA might consist of 1024 individual windows for example and the computer might consist of a personal computer which can acquire information simultaneously from each window and display it as an energy spectrum. The computer generally contains software which allows us to manipulate the resultant information in a variety of ways. Indeed the ^137^Cs spectrum shown above was generated using this approach. ## External links
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Nuclear Medicine Imaging Systems !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}`</span>`{=html} Topics we have covered in this wikibook have included radioactivity, the interaction of gamma-rays with matter and radiation detection. The main reason for following this pathway was to bring us to the subject of this chapter: nuclear medicine imaging systems. These are devices which produce pictures of the distribution of radioactive material following administration to a patient. The radioactivity is generally administered to the patient in the form of a radiopharmaceutical -- the term radiotracer is also used. This follows some physiological pathway to accumulate for a short period of time in some part of the body. A good example is ^99m^Tc-tin colloid which following intravenous injection accumulates mainly in the patient\'s liver. The substance emits gamma-rays while it is in the patient\'s liver and we can produce an image of its distribution using a nuclear medicine imaging system. This image can tell us whether the function of the liver is normal or abnormal or if sections of it are damaged from some form of disease. Different radiopharmaceuticals are used to produce images from almost every region of the body: Part of the Body Example Radiotracer -------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Brain ^99m^Tc-HMPAO_exametazime "wikilink") Thyroid Na^99m^TcO~4~ Lung (Ventilation) ^133^Xe gas Lung (Perfusion) ^99m^Tc-MAA_albumin_aggregated "wikilink") Liver ^99m^Tc-Tin (or Sulphur) Colloid Spleen ^99m^Tc-Damaged Red Blood Cells Pancreas ^75^Se-Selenomethionine Kidneys ^99m^Tc-DMSA Note that the form of information obtained using this imaging method is mainly related to the physiological functioning of an organ as opposed to the mainly anatomical information which is obtained using X-ray imaging systems. Nuclear medicine therefore provides a different perspective on a disease condition and generates additional information to that obtained from X-ray images. Our purpose here is to concentrate on the imaging systems used to produce the images. Early forms of imaging system used in this field consisted of a radiation detector (a scintillation detector for example) which was scanned slowly over a region of the patient in order to measure the radiation intensity emitted from individual points within the region. One such device was called the Rectilinear Scanner. Such imaging systems have been replaced since the 1970s by more sophisticated devices which produce images much more rapidly. The most common of these modern devices is called the Gamma Camera and we will consider its construction and mode of operation below. A review of recent developments in this technology for cardiac applications can be found in Slomka et al (2009)[^1]. ## Gamma Camera The basic design of the most common type of gamma camera used today was developed by an American physicist, Hal Anger and is therefore sometimes called the Anger Camera. It consists of a large diameter NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal which is viewed by a large number of photomultiplier tubes. A block diagram of the basic components of a gamma camera is shown below: !Block diagram of a gamma camera The crystal and PM Tubes are housed in a cylindrical shaped housing commonly called the camera head and a cross-sectional view of this is shown in the figure. The crystal can be between about 25 cm and 40 cm in diameter and about 1 cm thick. The diameter is dependent on the application of the device. For example a 25 cm diameter crystal might be used for a camera designed for cardiac applications while a larger 40 cm crystal would be used for producing images of the lungs. The thickness of the crystal is chosen so that it provides good detection for the 140 keV gamma-rays emitted from ^99m^Tc -- which is the most common radioisotope used today. Scintillations produced in the crystal are detected by a large number of PM tubes which are arranged in a two-dimensional array. There are typically between 37 and 91 PM tubes in modern gamma cameras. The output voltages generated by these PM tubes are fed to a position circuit which produces four output signals called ±X and ±Y. These position signals contain information about where the scintillations were produced within the crystal. In the most basic gamma camera design they are fed to a cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO). We will describe the operation of the CRO in more detail below. Before we do so we should note that the position signals also contain information about the intensity of each scintillation. This intensity information can be derived from the position signals by feeding them to a summation circuit (marked ∑ in the figure) which adds up the four position signals to generate a voltage pulse which represents the intensity of a scintillation. This voltage pulse is commonly called the Z-pulse which, following pulse height analysis, (PHA) is fed as the unblank pulse to the CRO. So we end up with four position signals and an unblank pulse sent to the CRO. Let us briefly review the operation of a CRO before we continue. The core of a CRO consists of an evacuated tube with an electron gun at one end and a phosphor-coated screen at the other end. The electron gun generates an electron beam which is directed at the screen and the screen emits light at those points struck by the electron beam. The position of the electron beam can be controlled by vertical and horizontal deflection plates and with the appropriate voltages fed to these plates the electron beam can be positioned at any point on the screen. The normal mode of operation of an oscilloscope is for the electron beam to remain switched on. In the case of the gamma camera the electron beam of the CRO is normally switched off -- it is said to be blanked. When an unblank pulse is generated by the PHA circuit the electron beam of the CRO is switched on for a brief period of time so as to display a flash of light on the screen. In other words the voltage pulse from the PHA circuit is used to unblank the electron beam of the CRO. So where does this flash of light occur on the screen of the CRO? The position of the flash of light is dictated by the ±X and ±Y signals generated by the position circuit. These signals as you might have guessed are fed to the deflection plates of the CRO so as to cause the unblanked electron beam to strike the screen at a point related to where the scintillation was originally produced in the NaI(Tl) crystal. Simple! The gamma camera can therefore be considered to be a sophisticated arrangement of electronic circuits used to translate the position of a flash of light in a scintillation crystal to a flash of light at a related point on the screen of an oscilloscope. In addition the use of a pulse height analyser in the circuitry allows us to translate the scintillations related only to photoelectric events in the crystal by rejecting all voltage pulses except those occurring within the photopeak of the gamma-ray energy spectrum. Let us summarise where we have got to before we proceed. A radiopharmaceutical is administered to the patient and it accumulates in the organ of interest. Gamma-rays are emitted in all directions from the organ and those heading in the direction of the gamma camera enter the crystal and produce scintillations (note that there is a device in front of the crystal called a collimator which we will discuss later). The scintillations are detected by an array of PM tubes whose outputs are fed to a position circuit which generates four voltage pulses related to the position of a scintillation within the crystal. These voltage pulses are fed to the deflection circuitry of the CRO. They are also fed to a summation circuit whose output (the Z-pulse) is fed to the PHA and the output of the PHA is used to switch on (that is, unblank) the electron beam of the CRO. A flash of light appears on the screen of the CRO at a point related to where the scintillation occurred within the NaI(Tl) crystal. An image of the distribution of the radiopharmaceutical within the organ is therefore formed on the screen of the CRO when the gamma-rays emitted from the organ are detected by the crystal. What we have described above is the operation of a fairly traditional gamma camera. Modern designs are a good deal more complex but the basic design has remained much the same as has been described. One area where major design improvements have occurred is the area of image formation and display. The most basic approach to image formation is to photograph the screen of the CRO over a period of time to allow integration of the light flashes to form an image on photographic film. A stage up from this is to use a storage oscilloscope which allows each flash of light to remain on the screen for a reasonable period of time. The most modern approach is to feed the position and energy signals into the memory circuitry of a computer for storage. The memory contents can therefore be displayed on a computer monitor and can also be manipulated (that is processed) in many ways. For example various colours can be used to represent different concentrations of a radiopharmaceutical within an organ. The use of digital image processing is now widespread in nuclear medicine in that it can be used to rapidly and conveniently control image acquisition and display as well as to analyse an image or sequences of images, to annotate images with the patient\'s name and examination details, to store the images for subsequent retrieval and to communicate the image data to other computers over a network. The essential elements of a modern gamma camera are shown in the next figure. Gamma rays emitted by the patient pass through the collimator and are detected within the camera head, which generates data related to the location of scintillations in the crystal as well as to the energy of the gamma rays. This data is then processed on-the-fly by electronic hardware which corrects for technical factors such as spatial linearity, PM tube drift and energy response so as to produce an imaging system with a spatially-uniform sensitivity and distortion-free performance. A multichannel analyzer (MCA) is used to display the energy spectrum of gamma rays which interact inside the crystal. Since these gamma rays originate from within the patient, some of them will have an energy lower than the photopeak as a result of being scattered as they travel through the patient\'s tissues -- and by other components such as the patient table and structures of the imaging system. Some of these scattering events may involve just glancing interactions with free electrons, so that the gamma rays lose only a small amount of energy. These gamma rays may have an energy just below that of the photopeak so that their spectrum merges with the photopeak. The photopeak for a gamma camera imaging a patient therefore contains information from spatially-correlated, unattenuated gamma rays (which is the information we want) and from spatially-uncorrelated, scattered gamma rays. The scattered gamma rays act like a variable background within the true photopeak data and the effect is that of a background haze in gamma camera images. !Essential elements of a modern gamma camera. MCA: Multi-Channel Analyzer{width="400"} While scatter may not be a significant problem in planar scintigraphy, it has a strong bearing on the fidelity of quantitative information derived from gamma camera images and is a vital consideration for accurate image reconstruction in emission tomography. It is the unattenuated gamma rays (also called the `<b>`{=html}primary`</b>`{=html} radiation) that contain the desired information, because of their direct dependence on radioactivity. The scatter situation is illustrated in more detail in the figure below, which shows estimates of the primary and scatter spectra for ^99m^Tc in patient imaging conditions. Such spectral estimates can be generated using Monte Carlo methods. It is seen in the figure that the energy of the scattered radiation forms a broad band, similar to the Compton Smear described previously, which merges into and contributes substantially to the detected photopeak. The detected photopeak is therefore an overestimate of the primary radiation. The extent of this overestimate is likely to be dependent on the specific imaging situation because of the different thicknesses of tissues involved. It is clear however that the scatter contribution within the detected photopeak needs to be accounted for if an accurate measure of radioactivity is required. !Detected gamma ray energy spectrum for ^99m^Tc (green) with estimates of the scatter (blue) and primary (red) components. with estimates of the scatter (blue) and primary (red) components."){width="400"} One method of compensating for the scatter contribution is illustrated in the figure below and involves using data from a lower energy window as an estimate for subtraction from the photopeak, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Primary Counts =Photopeak Window Counts- k (Scatter Window Counts) ```{=html} </div> ``` where k is a scaling factor to account for the extent of the scatter contribution. This approach to scatter compensation is referred to as the `<b>`{=html}Dual-Energy Window`</b>`{=html} (DEW) method. It can be implemented in practice by acquiring two images, one for each energy window, and subtracting a fraction (k) of the scatter image from the photopeak image.\ \ For the spectrum shown above, it can be seen that the scaling factor, k, is about 0.5, but it should be appreciated that its exact value is dependent on the scattering conditions. Gamma cameras which use the DEW method therefore generally provide the capability of adjusting k for different imaging situations. Some systems use a narrower scatter window than that illustrated, e.g. 114-126 keV, with a consequent increase in k to about 1.0, for instance.\ \ A host of other methods of scatter compensation have also been developed. These include more complex forms of energy analysis such as the `<b>`{=html}Dual-Photopeak`</b>`{=html} and the `<b>`{=html}Triple-Energy Window`</b>`{=html} techniques, as well as approaches based on deconvolution and models of photon attenuation. An excellent review of these developments is provided in Zaidi & Koral (2004). !Gamma ray energy spectrum for ^99m^Tc, with energy discrimination settings of 92-126 keV for scatter estimation (blue) and of 126-154 keV, centred on 140 keV, for the photopeak (red). and of 126-154 keV, centred on 140 keV, for the photopeak (red)."){width="400"} Some photographs of gamma cameras and related devices are shown below: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !A single-headed gamma camera.{width="160"} !Another single-headed gamma camera.{width="160"} !The NaI crystal of a gamma camera.{width="160"} !The cathode ray oscilloscope (CRO) of a gamma camera. of a gamma camera."){width="160"} !The image processing system of a gamma camera.{width="160"} !A dual-headed gamma camera.{width="160"} !Another view of a dual-headed gamma camera.{width="160"} !The image acquisition and processing console of a dual-headed gamma camera.{width="160"} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We will continue with our description of the gamma camera by considering the construction and purpose of the collimator. ## Collimation The collimator is a device which is attached to the front of the gamma camera head. It functions something like a lens used in a photographic camera but this analogy is not quite correct because it is rather difficult to focus gamma-rays. Nevertheless in its simplest form it is used to block out all gamma rays which are heading towards the crystal except those which are travelling at right angles to the plane of the crystal: !Diagram of parallel-hole collimator attached to a crystal of a gamma camera. Obliquely incident gamma-rays are absorbed by the septa.{width="360"} The figure illustrates a magnified view of a parallel-hole collimator attached to a crystal. The collimator simply consists of a large number of small holes drilled in a lead plate. Notice that gamma-rays entering at an angle to the crystal get absorbed by the lead and that only those entering along the direction of the holes get through to cause scintillations in the crystal. If the collimator was not in place these obliquely incident gamma-rays would blur the images produced by the gamma camera. In other words the images would not be very clear. Most gamma cameras have a number of collimators which can be fitted depending on the examination. The basic design of these collimators is the same except that they vary in terms of the diameter of each hole, the depth of each hole and the thickness of lead between each hole (commonly called the septum thickness). The choice of a specific collimator is dependent on the amount of radiation absorption that occurs (which influences the sensitivity of the gamma camera), and the clarity of images (that is the spatial resolution) it produces. Unfortunately these two factors are inversely related in that the use of a collimator which produces images of good spatial resolution generally implies that the instrument is not very sensitive to radiation. Other collimator designs beside the parallel hole type are also in use. For example a diverging hole collimator produces a minified image and converging hole and pin-hole collimators produce a magnified image. The pin-hole collimator is illustrated in the following figure: !Diagram of a pin-hole collimator illustrating the inversion of acquired images.{width="360"} It is typically a cone-shaped device with its walls made from lead. A cross-section through this cone is shown in the figure. It operates in a similar fashion to a pin-hole photographic camera and produces an inverted image of an object -- an arrow is used in the figure to illustrate this inversion. This type of collimator has been found useful for imaging small objects such as the thyroid gland. ## Example Images A representative selection of nuclear medicine images is shown below: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ !A SPECT slice of the distribution of ^99m^Tc Ceretec within a patient\'s brain.{width="120"} !A SPECT slice through a patient\'s liver.{width="120"} !Images from a patient\'s bone scan.{width="120"} !A PET slice of a patient\'s brain, with a region of interest drawn to indicate the skin surface.{width="120"} !Images from a ventilation (V) and perfusion (Q) scan of a patient\'s lungs. and perfusion (Q) scan of a patient's lungs."){width="120"} !A series of planar images acquired every 10 seconds during a renogram of a patient with a stone blocking their right kidney.{width="120"} !Selected images from a renogram series.{width="120"} !A graphical display showing the number of counts in each kidney versus time for a renogram.{width="120"} !A SPECT slice of a patient\'s heart.{width="120"} !A blood pool study covering the whole body of a patient.{width="120"} !A series from a SPECT study of a patient\'s brain.{width="120"} !Images from a SPECT study of a patient\'s heart.{width="120"} !A thyroid uptake study.{width="120"} !A gastric-emptying study evaluating a patient\'s digestive system.{width="120"} !A ^201^Tl study of the whole body of a patient.{width="120"} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ## Emission Tomography The form of imaging which we have been describing is called Planar Imaging. It produces a two-dimensional image of a three-dimensional object. As a result images contain no depth information and some details can be superimposed on top of each other and obscured or partially obscured as a result. Note that this is also a feature of conventional X-ray imaging. The usual way of trying to overcome this limitation is to take at least two views of the patient, one from the front and one from the side for example. So in chest radiography a posterio-anterior (PA) and a lateral view can be taken. And in a nuclear medicine liver scan an antero-posterior (AP) and lateral scan are acquired. This limitation of planar X-ray imaging was overcome by the development of the CAT Scanner about 1970 or thereabouts. CAT stands for Computerized Axial Tomography or Computer Assisted Tomography and today the term is often shortened to Computed Tomography or CT scanning (the term tomography comes from the Greek word `<i>`{=html}tomos`</i>`{=html} meaning slice). Irrespective of its exact name the technique allows images of slices through the body to be produced using a computer. It does this in essence by taking X-ray images at a number of angles around the patient. These slice images show the third dimension which is missing from planar images and thus eliminate the problem of superimposed details. Furthermore images of a number of successive slices through a region of the patient can be stacked on top of each other using the computer to produce a three-dimensional image_reconstruction "wikilink"). Clearly CT scanning is a very powerful imaging technique relative to planar imaging. The equivalent nuclear medicine imaging technique is called Emission Computed Tomography. We will consider two implementations of this technique below. #### Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) : This SPECT technique uses a gamma camera to record images at a series of angles around the patient. These images are then subjected to a form of digital image processing called Image Reconstruction in order to compute images of slices through the patient. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The Back Projection reconstruction process is illustrated below. Let us assume for simplicity that the slice through the patient actually consists of a 2x2 voxel array with the radioactivity in each voxel given by A1\...A4: !Illustration of the acquisition of four projections around the patient, P1\...P4{width="320"} : The first projection, P1, is imaged from the right and the second projection, P2, from the right oblique and so on. The back projection process involves firstly adding the projections to each other as shown below: !Illustration of the back projection computation process.{width="320"} : and then normalising the summed (or superimposed) projections to generate an estimate of the radioactivity in each voxel. Since this process can generate streaking artefacts in reconstructed images, the projections are generally filtered prior to back projection, as described in a later chapter, with the overall process referred to as Filtered Back Projection (FBP): !Illustration of the filtered back projection computation process.{width="320"} : An alternative image reconstruction technique is called Iterative Reconstruction, a successive approximation technique. The Maximum-Likelihood Expectation-Maximisation (ML-EM) algorithm is widely applied where a division process is used to compare the actual and estimated projections, as shown below: !Illustration of the Maximum-Likelihood Expectation-Maximisation (ML-EM) algorithm. algorithm."){width="480"} : One cycle of data through this processing chain is referred to as one `<b>`{=html}iteration`</b>`{=html}. Sixteen or more iterations can be required in order to generate an adequate reconstruction and, as a result, computation times can be rather long. The Ordered-Subsets Expectation-Maximisation (OS-EM) algorithm can be used to substantially reduce the computation time by utilising a limited number of projections (called `<b>`{=html}subsets`</b>`{=html}) in a sequential fashion within the iterative process. Noise generated during the reconstruction process can be reduced, for example, using a Gaussian filter built into the reconstruction calculations or applied as a post-filter: !Illustration of an Iterative Reconstruction process.{width="480"} : Images generated using different iterations, subsets and filtration settings can be found in an online book. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : A comparison of these image reconstruction techniques is shown below for a slice through a ventilation scan of a patient\'s lungs: ![](fbpiRComp.jpg "fbpiRComp.jpg"){width="480"} : The gamma camera is typiclly rotated around the patient in order to acquire the images. Modern gamma cameras which are designed specifically for SPECT scanning can consist of two camera heads mounted parallel to each other with the patient in between. The time required to produce images is therefore reduced by a factor of about two. In addition some SPECT gamma cameras designed for brain scanning have three camera heads mounted in a triangular arrangement. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : A wide variety of strategies can be used for the acquisition and processing of SPECT images. #### Positron Emission Tomography (PET) : You will remember from chapter 2 that positrons can be emitted from radioactive nuclei which have too many neutrons for stability. You will also remember that positrons do not last for very long in matter since they will quickly encounter an electron and a process called annihilation results. In the process the positron and electron vanish and their energy is converted into two gamma-rays which are emitted at roughly 180^o^ degrees to each other. The emission is often referred to as two back-to-back gamma-rays and they each have a discrete energy of 0.51 MeV. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : So if we administer a positron-emitting radiopharmaceutical to a patient an emitted positrons can annihilate with a nearby electron and two gamma-rays will be emitted in opposite directions. These gamma-rays can be detected using a ring of radiation detectors encircling the patient and tomographic images can be generated using a computer system. The detectors are typically specialised scintillation devices which are optimised for detection of the 0.51 MeV gamma-rays. This ring of detectors, associated apparatus and computer system are called a PET Scanner: ![](petDiag2.jpg "petDiag2.jpg"){width="320"} : The locations of positron decays within the patient are highlighted by the solid circles in the above diagram. In addition only a few detectors are shown in the diagram for reasons of clarity. Each detector around the ring is operated in coincidence with a bank of opposing detectors and the annihilation gamma-rays thus detected are used to build up a single profile. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : It has also been found that gamma cameras fitted with thick crystals and special collimators can be used for PET scanning. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : The radioisotopes used for PET scanning include ^11^C, ^13^N, ^15^O and ^18^F. These isotopes are usually produced using an instrument called a cyclotron. In addition these isotopes have relatively short half lives. PET scanning therefore needs a cyclotron and associated radiopharmaceutical production facilities located close by. We will consider cyclotrons in the next chapter of this wikibook. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : Standardized Uptake Value (SUV) is a semi-quantitative index used in PET to express the uptake of a radiopharmaceutical in a region of interest of a patient\'s scan. Its typically calculated as the ratio of the radioactivity in the region to the injected dose, corrected for body weight. It should be noted that the SUV is influenced by several major sources of variability and it therefore should not be used as a quantitative measure. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : A number of photographs of a PET scanner are shown below: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !The detectors and associated electronic circuitry.{width="200"} !The scanner itself -- the detectors are under the covering panel.{width="200"} !Another view of the detectors.{width="200"} !The image processing computer.{width="200"} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images reconstructed using different settings of subsets and iterations for iterative reconstruction[^2] are shown below: !centre\\|frame\\|Images reconstructed using different subsets/iterations settings within an iterative reconstruction algorithm (VPFXS). GF: Gaussian filtered. GF: Gaussian filtered") ## References ```{=html} <references /> ``` ## External links - Centre for Positron Emission Tomography at the Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne with sections on what PET is, current facilities, projects & research and a PET image library [^1]: Slomka PJ, Patton JA, Berman DS & Germano G, 2009. Advances in technical aspects of myocardial perfusion SPECT imaging. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, 16(2), 255--76. [^2]: Maher KP, 2016. Iterations, Subsets & Gaussian Filtration, 3rd Edition (Bookemon.com\]
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Computers in Nuclear Medicine ## Introduction This is a developing chapter for a Wikibook entitled Basics Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Computers are widely used in almost all areas of Nuclear Medicine today. The main application for our purposes is imaging acquisition and processing. This chapter outlines the design of a generalised digital image processor and gives a brief introduction to digital imaging. Before considering these topics, some general comments are required about the form in which information is handled by computers as well as the technology which underpins the development of computers so that a context can be placed on our discussion. ## Binary Representation Virtually all computers in use today are based on the manipulation of information which is coded in the form of binary numbers. A binary number can have only one of two values, i.e. 0 or 1, and these numbers are referred to as binary digits -- or `<b>`{=html}bits`</b>`{=html}, to use computer jargon. When a piece of information is represented as a sequence of bits, the sequence is referred to as a `<b>`{=html}word`</b>`{=html}; and when the sequence contains eight bits, the word is referred to as a `<b>`{=html}byte`</b>`{=html} -- the byte being commonly used today as the basic unit for expressing amounts of binary-coded information. In addition, large volumes of coded information are generally expressed in terms of `<b>`{=html}kilobytes`</b>`{=html}, `<b>`{=html}megabytes`</b>`{=html} etc. It is important to note that the meanings of these prefixes can differ slightly from their conventional meanings because of the binary nature of the information coding. As a result, `<b>`{=html}kilo`</b>`{=html} in computer jargon can represent 1024 units -- 1024 (or 2^10^) being the nearest power of 2 to one thousand. Thus, `<b>`{=html}1 kbyte`</b>`{=html} can refer to 1024 bytes of information and `<b>`{=html}1 Mbyte`</b>`{=html} can represent 1024 times 1024 bytes. To add a bit of confusion here, some hardware manufacturers refer to a megabyte as 1 million bytes and a gigabyte as a 1,000 million bytes. Its not a simple world, it seems! Binary coding of image information is needed in order to store images in a computer. Most imaging devices used in medicine however generate information which can assume a continuous range of values between preset limits, i.e. the information is in analogue form. It is therefore necessary to convert this analogue information into the discrete form required for binary coding when images are input to a computer. This is commonly achieved using an electronic device called Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC). Furthermore, since many display and photographic devices used in medicine are designed for handling images in analogue format, it is necessary to reconvert the discrete, binary data when outputting images from a computer using a Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC). ## Development of Modern Computers The development of modern computers has been almost totally dependent on major developments in material science and digital electronics which have occurred over the last thirty years or so. These developments have allowed highly complex electronic circuitry to be compressed into small plastic packages called integrated circuits. These packages contain tiny pieces of silicon (or other semiconductor material) which have been specially manufactured to perform complex electronic processes. The pieces of silicon are generally referred to as silicon chips. Within the circuitry of a chip, a relatively high electronic voltage can be used to represent the digit \'1\' and a relatively low voltage can be used to represent the binary digit \'0\'. Thus the circuitry can be used to manipulate information which is coded in the form of binary numbers. An important feature of these electronic components is the very high speed at which the two voltage levels can be changed in different parts of the circuitry. This results in the ability of the computer to rapidly manipulate the binary information. Furthermore, the tiny size of modern integrated circuits has allowed the manufacture of computers which are very small physically and which do not generate excessive amounts of heat -- previous generations of computers having occupied whole rooms, which required cooling because they were built using larger electronic components such as valves and transistors. Thus modern computers are capable of being mounted on a desk in an environment which does not require air-conditioning. In addition, the ability to manufacture integrated circuits using mass production methods has given rise to enormous decreases in costs -- which has contributed to the phenomenal explosion of this technology in recent years. Before beginning, it is worth noting that the information in this chapter is likely to change by the time the chapter is read, given the ongoing, rapid developments in this field. The treatment here is therefore focused on general concepts -- and you should note that current technologies and techniques may well differ from those described here. In addition, note that mention of any hardware or software product in this chapter does in no way intend support for such a product and its use in this discussion is purely for illustrative purposes. ## Hardware The figure below shows a block diagram of the major hardware components of a general-purpose computer. It shows that a computer consists of a central communication pathway, called a bus, to which dedicated electronic components are connected. Each of these components is briefly described below. !Block diagram of a general-purpose computer Central Processing Unit (CPU) This component is based, in many modern computers, on an integrated circuit called a microprocessor. Its function is to act as the brains of the computer where instructions are interpreted and executed, and where data is manipulated. The CPU typically contains two sub-components -- the Control Unit (CU) and the Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU). The Control Unit is used for the interpretation of instructions which are contained in computer programs as well as the execution of such instructions. These instructions might be used, for example, to send information to other components of the computer and to control the operation of these other components. The ALU is primarily used for data manipulation using mathematical techniques -- for example, the addition or multiplication of two numbers. Important features of individual microprocessors include word length, architecture, programming flexibility and speed. An indicator of speed is the clock rate and values for common microprocessors are given in the following table. Note that the clock rate on its own does not provide a complete indication of computer performance since the specifications of other components must also be considered. Microprocessor Manufacturer Clock Rate (MHz) Example Microcomputer ---------------- ------------------ ---------------------- --------------------------- Pentium Intel 60-200 IBM-PC Compatible PowerPC 604e Motorola 160-350 Power Macintosh Turbo SPARC Sun 170 SPARC Station 5 STP1031LGA Sun 250 Ultra SPARC II Pentium II Intel 233-450 IBM-PC Compatible PowerPC 750 Motorola 233-500 Power Macintosh Alpha 21164 DEC 300-625 DEC Alpha Pentium 4 Intel 1,300-1,700 IBM-PC Compatible \ Main Memory This component typically consists of a large number of integrated circuits which are used for the storage of information which is currently required by the computer user. The circuitry is generally of two types -- Random Access Memory (RAM) and Read Only Memory (ROM). RAM is used for the short-term storage of information. It is a volatile form of memory since its information contents are lost when the electric power to the computer is switched off. Its contents can also be rapidly erased -- and rapidly filled again with new information. ROM, on the other hand, is non-volatile and is used for the permanent storage of information which is required for basic aspects of the computer\'s operation. Secondary Memory This component is used for the storage of information in permanent or erasable form for longer-term purposes, i.e. for information which is not currently required by the user but which may be of use at some later stage. There are various types of devices used for secondary memory and some of their features are summarised in the following table. RAM is also included in the table for comparison. The type of technology used is generally based on magnetic materials -- similar to those used for sound recording in hi-fi systems. Here, the information is stored by controlling the local magnetism at different points of the storage material and is retrieved by detecting this magnetism. The local magnetism, as might be expected, can assume one of two magnetic states because of the binary nature of the coded information. Materials such as plastic tapes and disks, which have been coated with a layer of magnetic material, are used. Magnetic tapes generally consist of open reels or enclosed cassettes, while magnetic disks generally consist of flexible (or floppy) disks or disks made from a harder plastic. Floppy disks, like magnetic tapes, can be removed from the computer system and are used for external storage of information. Memory sticks can also be used for this purpose. They also allow the capability of transporting information between computers. Hard disks, on the other hand, are usually fixed inside the computer and thus cannot be easily removed -- although removable versions are also in use, e.g. the iPod and similar devices. Device Capacity (Mbyte) Access Time Erasable? --------------------- ---------------------- ----------------- --------------- Magnetic Tape 500-16,000 minutes Yes Floppy Disk 0.3-1.5 200-500 ms Yes Hard Disk 1,000-300,000 20-80 ms Yes Removable Hard Disk 100-100,000 100-200 ms Yes Optical Disk 250-4,700 100-500 ms Yes/No RAM 256-4,000 10-100 ns Yes \ Recent developments in our understanding of magnetic and optical characteristics of materials has led to the production of the so-called optical disk -- which is similar to the compact disk (CD) used in hi-fi systems. Three general types of optical disk are available: those containing programs supplied by software companies (as in the CD-ROM disk), those which can be written to once by the user (as in the CD-R disk) and those which are erasable (as in the CD-RW disk and the magneto-optical disk). The Digital Versatile Disk (DVD) is a likely successor to the CD-ROM -- the first generation having a storage capacity of 4,700 Mbyte (4.7 Gbyte) and the second generation an expected 17,000 Mbyte (17 Gbyte). A general difference between tape and disk as a secondary storage medium results from the sequential nature of the access to information stored on tape, in contrast to the random nature of the access provided by disks. As a result, disk-based media are typically faster for information storage/retrieval than those based on tape. A number of modern designs of secondary memory are therefore based on hard magnetic disks for routine information storage, with floppy disks used for back-up storage of small volumes of information and optical disks for back-up storage of larger volumes of information. Input/Output Devices These components are used for user-control of the computer and generally consist of a keyboard, display device and printer. A wide range of technologies are used here -- the details however are beyond the scope of this chapter. These components also include devices such as the mouse, joystick and trackpad, which are used to enhance user-interaction with the computer. Computer Bus This consists of a communication pathway for the components of the computer -- its function being somewhat analogous to that of the central nervous system. The types of information communicated along the bus include that which specifies data and control instructions as well as the memory addresses where information is to be stored/retrieved. As might be anticipated, the speed at which a computer operates is dependent on the speed at which this communication link works. This speed must be compatible with that of other components, such as the CPU and main memory. ## Software There is more to computer technology than just the electronic hardware. In order for the assembly of electronic components to operate, information in the form of data and computer instructions is required. This information is generally referred to as software. Computer instructions are generally contained within computer programs. Categories of computer program include: - Operating systems -- which are used for operating the computer and for managing various resources of the computer. Examples of operating systems are Windows, MacOS X, Linux and UNIX; - Application packages -- which are for the use of routine users of the computer. These packages include programs which are used for word-processing (e.g. MS Word), spreadsheets (e.g. MS Excel), databases (e.g. FileMaker Pro), graphics (e.g. Adobe Illustrator) and digital image processing (including software used for operating specific medical imaging scanners); - Programming packages -- which are used for writing programs. Examples of common computer languages which are used for writing programs are C (and its many variants) and Java. A number of additional pieces of software are required in order for such programs to be written. These include: - An Editor for writing the text of the program into the computer (which is similar to programs used for word-processing); - A Library of subroutines -- which are small programs for operating specific, common functions; - A Linker which is used to link the user-written program to the subroutine library; - A Compiler or Interpreter for translating user-written programs into a form which can be directly understood by the computer, i.e. it is used to code the instructions in digital format. : These programming functions and more are combined in packages which generate an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), a good example being Xcode. ## Digital Image Processor Computers used for digital image processing generally consist of a number of specialised components in addition to those used in a general-purpose computer. These specialised components are required because of the very large amount of information contained in images and the consequent need for high capacity storage media as well as very high speed communication and data manipulation capabilities. Digital image processing involves both the manipulation of image data and the analysis of such information. An example of image manipulation is the computer enhancement of images so that subtle features are displayed with greater clarity. An example of image analysis is the extraction of indices which express some functional aspect of an anatomical region under investigation. Most medical imaging systems provide extensive image manipulation capabilities with a limited range of image analysis features. Systems for processing nuclear medicine images (including SPECT and PET) also provide extensive data analysis capabilities. This situation arises because of the functional, in contrast to an anatomical, emphasis in nuclear medicine. A generalised digital image processor is shown in the following figure. The shaded components at the bottom of the diagram are those of a general-purpose computer which have been described above. The digital image processing components are those which are connected to the image data bus. Each of these additional components is briefly described below. The shaded components at the top of the diagram are external devices which are widely used in medical imaging systems. !Block diagram of a digital image processing computer Imaging System This is the device which produces the primary image information. Examples of these devices include CT scanners, ultrasound machines, x-ray fluorography systems, MRI systems, gamma cameras, PET scanners and computed radiography systems "wikilink"). The device is often physically separate from the other components as in the CT scanner, but may also be mounted in the same cabinet as the other components -- as is the case for ultrasound machines. Image information produced by the imaging system is fed to the image acquisition circuitry of the digital image processor. Connections from the digital image processor to the imaging system are generally also present, for controlling specific aspects of the operation of the imaging system, e.g. gantry movement of a SPECT camera. These additional connections are not shown in the figure for reasons of clarity. Image Acquisition This component is used to convert the analogue information produced by the imaging system so that it is coded in the form of binary numbers. The type of device used for this purpose is called an Analogue-to-Digital Converter (ADC). The image acquisition component may also include circuitry for manipulating the digitised data so as to correct for any imaging aberrations. The type of device which can be used for this purpose is called an Input Look-Up Table. Examples of this type of data manipulation include pre-processing functions on ultrasound machines and logarithmic image transformation in digital fluorography systems. Image Display This component is sometimes referred to as a display controller and its main use is to convert digital images into a form which is suitable for a visual display device. It includes a Digital-to-Analogue Converter (DAC) when a CRT monitor is used, for instance, and a digital visual interface (DVI) when a digital display such as an LCD monitor is used. The image display component can also include circuitry for manipulating the displayed images so as to enhance their appearance. The type of device which can be used for this purpose is called an Output Look-Up Table. Examples of this type of data manipulation include post-processing functions on ultrasound machines and windowing functions on Nuclear Medicine systems. Other forms of image processing provided by the image display component can include image magnification, image rotation/mirroring and the capability of displaying a number of images on one screen. This component can also allow for the annotation of displayed images with the patient name and details relevant to the patient\'s examination. Image Memory This component typically consists of a volume of RAM which is sufficient for the storage of a number of images which are of current interest to the user. Image Storage This component generally consists of magnetic disks of sufficient capacity to store large numbers of images which are not of current interest to the user and which may be transferred to image memory when required. Image ALU This component consists of an ALU designed specifically for handling image data. It is generally used for relatively straight-forward calculations, such as image subtraction in DSA and the reduction of noise through averaging a sequence of images. Array Processor This component consists of circuitry designed for more complex manipulation of image data and at higher speeds than the Image ALU. It typically consists of an additional CPU as well as specialised high speed data communication and storage circuitry. It may be viewed as a separate special-purpose computer whose design has traded a loss of operational flexibility for enhanced computational speed. This enhanced speed is provided by the capability of manipulating data in a parallel fashion as opposed to a sequential fashion (which is an approach widely used in general-purpose computing). This array processor is used, for example, for calculating Fast Fourier Transforms and for image reconstruction calculations in cross-sectional imaging modalities, such as CT, SPECT and MRI. Image Data Bus This component consists of a very high speed communication link designed specifically for image data. ## Digital Imaging The digitisation of images generally consists of two concurrent processes -- sampling "wikilink") and quantisation "wikilink"). These two processes are described briefly below and a consideration of the storage requirements for digital images follows. Image Sampling This process is used to digitise the spatial information in an image. It is typically achieved by dividing an image into a square or rectangular array of sampling points. Each of the sampling points is referred to as a picture element -- or pixel to use computer jargon. !An illustration of a digital image obtained when an original, consisting of a central dark region with the brightness increasing towards the periphery, is digitised with N=8 and G=4 (i.e. m=2)") The process may be summarised as the digitisation of an analogue image into an N x N array of pixel data. Examples of values for N are 128 for a nuclear medicine scan, 512 for CT and MRI scans, 1024 for a DSA image, and 2048 for a computed radiograph image and digital radiograph. Note that N has values which are integer powers of 2, because of the binary nature of modern computing techniques. Naturally, the larger the number of pixels, the closer the spatial resolution of the digitised image approximates that of the original analogue image -- see the images below. Image Quantisation This process refers to the digitisation of the brightness information in an image. It is typically achieved by representing the brightness of a pixel by an integer whose value is proportional to the brightness. This integer is referred to as a \'pixel value\' and the range of possible pixel values which a system can handle is referred to as the gray scale. Naturally, the greater the gray scale, the closer the brightness information in the digitised image approximates that of the original, analogue image -- see the images below. The process may be considered as the digitisation of image brightness into G shades of gray. The value of G is dependent on the binary nature of the information coding. Thus G is generally an integer power of 2, i.e. G=2^m^, where m is an integer which specifies the number of bits required for storage. Examples of values of G are 256 (m=8) in ultrasonography, 1024 (m=10) in DSA and 4096 (m=12) in nuclear medicine. !A bone scan of a patient\'s hand displayed with digital image resolutions of 256x256x8 bits, 32x32x8 bits and 256x256x2 bits. Digital Image Resolution The number of bits, b, required to represent an image in digital format is given by\ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<big>`{=html}`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}b = N x N x m`</span>`{=html}`</big>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` The following table shows the number of bits required to represent images which are digitised at different spatial resolutions for a range of gray scales. It is seen that very large values are required to achieve the resolution used in medical imaging (you might confirm as an exercise that the asterisked value in the Table represents 0.25 Mbytes). The resulting amounts of computer memory needed to store such images are therefore quite large and processing times can be relatively long when manipulating such large volumes of data. This feature of digital images gives rise to the need for dedicated hardware for image data which is separate from the components of a general-purpose computer as we have described above -- although this distinction is vanishing with ongoing technological developments. N x N m = 8 m = 10 m = 12 ------------- ------------- ------------ ------------ 128 x 128 131,072 163,840 196,608 256 x 256 524,288 655,360 786,432 512 x 512 2,097,152\* 2,621,440 3,145,728 1024 x 1024 8,388,608 10,485,760 12,582,912 2048 x 2048 33,554,432 41,943,040 50,331,648 : The number of binary digits (bits) required to store images which have been digitised to spatial resolutions of N x N pixels and to 2^m^ shades of gray. ## Digital Image Processing Contrast enhancement as an example of a very common form of digital processing of images (also referred to as windowing) is described below. It is just one from the wide range of data manipulation processes which are available on modern systems. Contrast enhancement is a form of gray-level transformation where the real pixel values in an image are replaced by processed pixel values for display purposes. !An illustration of the gray-level transformation required for contrast enhancement of images with 256 shades of gray (i.e. m=8). In this example, the unprocessed data is transformed so that all pixels with a pixel value less than 50 are displayed as black, all pixels with a pixel value greater than 150 are displayed as white and all pixels with pixel values between 50 and 150 are displayed using an intermediate shade of gray.. In this example, the unprocessed data is transformed so that all pixels with a pixel value less than 50 are displayed as black, all pixels with a pixel value greater than 150 are displayed as white and all pixels with pixel values between 50 and 150 are displayed using an intermediate shade of gray.") The process is generally performed using the Output Look-Up Table section of the image display component of the digital image processor. As a result, the original data in image memory is not affected by the process, so that from an operational viewpoint, the original image data can be readily retrieved in cases where an unsatisfactory output image is obtained. In addition, the process can be implemented at very high speed using modern electronic techniques so that, once again from an operational viewpoint, user-interactivity is possible. An example of a Look-Up Table (LUT) which can be used for contrast enhancement is illustrated in the following figure. This information is usually presented using a graph of the real pixel values stored in image memory versus the pixel values used for display purposes. The process is generally controlled using two controls on the console of the digital image processor -- the LEVEL control and the WINDOW control. It should be noted that variations in the names for these controls, and in their exact operation, exist between different systems but the general approach described here is sufficient for our purposes. It is seen the figure that the LEVEL controls the threshold value below which all pixels are displayed as black and the WINDOW controls a similar threshold value for a white output. The simultaneous use of the two controls allows the application of a gray-level window, of variable width, which can be placed anywhere along the gray scale. Subtle gray-level changes within images can therefore be enhanced so that they are displayed with greater clarity. A common application of this form of digital image processing in nuclear medicine is the removal of background counts from images. Other forms of contrast enhancement used in Nuclear Medicine include using LUTs with logarithmic, exponential or other nonlinear input/output relationship -- the logarithmic LUT being used for instance to accommodate a broad range of counts on one grey scale. Colour LUTs are also popular, where the digital contrast resolution of an image is represented by a range of different colours -- a rainbow scheme for example as shown in the following figure -- or by hues of one or a small number of colours. ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ![](twoHandsGreyscale.jpg "twoHandsGreyscale.jpg") ![](rainbowCLUT.gif "rainbowCLUT.gif") ![](twoHandsRainbow.jpg "twoHandsRainbow.jpg") ---------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Graphical representation of a Colour Look-Up Table (CLUT) which converts a grey scale into a spectrum of rainbow colours.\ The red, green and blue channels are represented by the plots with the respective colours.\ Click HERE to view a QuickTime movie (\~9 Mbyte) demonstrating the effects of various CLUTs on a fused SPECT/CT study. ```{=html} </div> ``` Other examples of digital image processing are illustrated in figure below:\ !Image processing options based on the same unprocessed bone scan shown in top left. A detailed treatment of the image processing capabilities of a modern personal computer is provided at this `<b>`{=html}external link`</b>`{=html}. Other common forms of digital image processing include applying geometric transformations to images so as to magnify or zoom in on specific details or to correct for geometric distortions introduced by the imaging system. Image zoom can be readily achieved in the display controller using a pixel replication process, where each pixel is displayed N^2^ times, where N is the zoom factor, as illustrated below: !Illustration of a pixel replication process used to display an image zoomed by a factor of two. A disadvantage of this approach however is that zoomed images can have a blocky appearance reflecting the larger size of each effective pixel. Although the application of a smoothing filter can reduce this pixelation effect, a more visually pleasing result can be generated using spatial interpolation techniques. Here, the pixel values of unknown pixels are estimated using the pixel values of known neighbouring pixels. Suppose the image above is zoomed again and suppose that this time the known pixels are distributed to the corners of the zoomed image, as shown in the following figure: !Illustration of image interpolation applied to zooming an image by a factor of two. The task of the interpolation process is to calculate the pixel values of the unknown pixels based on the known pixel values of the corner pixels. The simplest approach is linear interpolation where a linear relationship between the pixel values of the known pixels is assumed. Let\'s suppose that we wish to estimate the pixel value of the pixel shaded red in the figure above. In the case of two-dimensional linear interpolation, also called bilinear interpolation, the first step is to calculate the pixel value of the pixel at position `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}(x,0)`</span>`{=html}, shaded yellow on the top line of the matrix, as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}P(x,0) = x P(1,0) + (1-x) P(0,0)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}x`</span>`{=html}: fractional distance along the horizontal axis. Similarly, the pixel value of the pixel shaded yellow on the bottom line of the matrix, at position `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}(x,1)`</span>`{=html}, is calculated using the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}P(x,1) = x P(1,1) + (1-x) P(0,1)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` Finally, the pixel value for the unknown red-shaded pixel in the figure can be obtained by linear interpolation between these two calculated (yellow-shaded) pixel values, as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}P(x,y) = y P(x,1) + (1-y) P(x,0)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}y`</span>`{=html}: fractional distance along the vertical axis. This process is applied to all unknown pixels in an image. Example images are shown below: !Images magnified by pixel replication and interpolated zoom. Functions other than linear can also be applied, e.g. two-dimensional polynomial and cubic spline interpolation, to effect a more visually pleasing result. Remember however that the interpolated data is not real and the approach simply generates estimates of pixel values in an effort to improve the blocky nature of the simple zoom technique considered earlier. We\'ll be considering further applications of image interpolation in our chapter on X-ray CT. ## The Fourier Transform -- A Pictorial Essay The treatment of the Fourier Transform (FT) in many textbooks uses a level of mathematics which is quite alien to many students of the medical sciences. The treatment here will adopt a different approach, based on a pictorial essay, in an attempt to convey more effectively the concept on which the transform is based. It does in no way substitute for a rigorous mathematical treatment, and is solely aimed at supporting your understanding of image filtering. !Illustration of the use of the Fourier Transform. The FT and its inverse allow us to convert image data from the spatial to spatial frequency domains and vice versa, respectively. This presentation will demonstrate that images can be thought about from both spatial and spatial frequency perspectives. The spatial perspective is the conventional way of presenting image data and relates to real world parameters such as distance and time. An image may also be considered as consisting of a large number of spatial frequencies interacting with each other. This aspect will be examined using a fairly simple image to begin with, and then by considering a more complicated one, namely a chest radiograph, i.e. an example of medical image which consists of a very broad range of spatial frequencies. The FT transforms the image data from the spatial representation to the spatial frequency representation and the inverse FT performs the reverse operation -- see the figure on the right. An image of a sinusoidal brightness pattern running at an angle of 45 degrees to the horizontal is shown below in panel (a). A plot of pixel values along the line AB demonstrates this sinusoidal pattern in one dimension as demonstrated in panel (b). It can also be represented in a different fashion by plotting the amplitude of the sine waves present in panel (b) against their spatial frequency. This is shown in panel (c). This latter plot confirms that there is just one spatial frequency dominating the image, as might be expected. This type of plot is called a 1D Fourier spectrum and utilises a one-dimensional FT of the image data. Note that panels (b) and (c) illustrate the frequency information in just one dimension. When the frequency information is displayed in 2 dimensions, as in panel (d), it is called a 2D Fourier spectrum and this is achieved using a 2D FT of the image data. It demonstrates spatial frequencies for the vertical and horizontal image dimensions along its vertical and horizontal axes, with the origin at the centre (shown by the tiny white dot). Two other dots are seen in panel (d), with slight horizontal streaking beside them -- one to the upper left and the other to the bottom right of the origin. These correspond to the frequency of the sine wave in panel (a). Since the FT generates both positive and negative values for the frequency, the resulting two frequencies are displayed on either side of the origin as indicated. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` !(a) Image of a sinusoidal pattern. (b) Image brightness profile along the line AB in (a) demonstrating the presence of one strong single spatial frequency as confirmed by the 1D Fourier spectrum of (b) in (c). Finally, the 2D FT or Fourier spectrum of (a) is illustrated in (d). Image of a sinusoidal pattern. (b) Image brightness profile along the line AB in (a) demonstrating the presence of one strong single spatial frequency as confirmed by the 1D Fourier spectrum of (b) in (c). Finally, the 2D FT or Fourier spectrum of (a) is illustrated in (d).")\ ```{=html} </div> ``` A more complicated 2-D Fourier spectrum is obtained when a chest radiograph is transformed to the spatial frequency domain as illustrated in the next figure. The transformed data show a broad range of spatial frequencies, with significant vertical and horizontal features, as might be expected from the horizontal ribs and vertical vertebral column displayed in the radiograph. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` !A chest radiograph is illustrated in (a) with its 2-D Fourier spectrum in (b). The spatial frequency data show a broad range of values with significant vertical and horizontal features associated with the vertebral column and ribs, respectively. with its 2-D Fourier spectrum in (b). The spatial frequency data show a broad range of values with significant vertical and horizontal features associated with the vertebral column and ribs, respectively.")\ ```{=html} </div> ``` A potential use of the FT and its inverse is the removal of unwanted or corrupt data from a digital image and this process is illustrated in the final figure below. An extreme example of a corrupt image may be generated by adding together the two images just analysed, as in panel (a). The Fourier spectrum in panel (b) portrays the frequency characteristics of the summed image. The undesirable features attributable to the sinusoidal pattern may be removed by editing of the data in the frequency domain as in panel (c), before the inverse FT is performed to recover an image largely free of artifact, as in panel (d). ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` !The use of the FT and its inverse to remove unwarranted information from an image. (a) An image obtained by adding the sine wave and chest radiography images together with its equivalent Fourier spectrum in (b). The unwanted interference caused by the sinusoidal brightness pattern can be removed by editing the spatial frequency information as shown by the blackened areas in (c). The inverse FT then recovers the original chest image largely undistorted as shown in (d). Further refinement of the editing process would ideally allow complete restoration of the image quality. An image obtained by adding the sine wave and chest radiography images together with its equivalent Fourier spectrum in (b). The unwanted interference caused by the sinusoidal brightness pattern can be removed by editing the spatial frequency information as shown by the blackened areas in (c). The inverse FT then recovers the original chest image largely undistorted as shown in (d). Further refinement of the editing process would ideally allow complete restoration of the image quality.")\ ```{=html} </div> ``` The key finding to be gleaned from these three examples is that the spatial and spatial frequency representations of the image data are entirely equivalent. The frequency representation has numerous advantages in terms of data manipulation. In general the FT and its inverse provide us with the tools to transform the data from the real world to one of spatial frequency and vice versa. A more formal treatment of the Fourier transform is presented in our chapter on Fourier Methods. Grundlagen der Nuklearmedizin/ Computer in der
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Fourier Methods Fourier methods are described below in quite general terms. We will see that any waveform can be broken up mathematically into sine waves of different amplitudes and frequencies using the Fourier transform. We will also see that the resulting Fourier Spectrum can be modified to enhance and/or suppress frequencies of interest. The aim of this exercise is to treat the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and the filtration stage of the tomographic image reconstruction process in greater detail than previously. ## Periodic Functions A periodic waveform, is a function which repeats itself regularly over a given interval of time or space. A good example is a sine wave or a square wave. When the waveform fluctuates with respect to time, the wave can be characterised by its frequency (see the figure below), which is defined as the number of cycles passing a given point each second. Frequency is expressed in units of cycles per second, or hertz (Hz). A good example of such a periodic waveform in medicine is the electrocardiogram (ECG). !A sine wave in the temporal domain. When the waveform fluctuates with respect to distance (see the following figure), the wave is characterised by its spatial frequency, which is defined as the number of cycles per unit distance, e.g. cycles per mm. !A sine wave in the spatial domain. A medical imaging example of this latter type of fluctuation is the Pb bar pattern which is widely used to determine the spatial resolution of an imaging system (see the following figure). In this case, the spatial frequency is expressed in, for example, line pairs per mm, since each section of Pb and its adjacent void is referred to as a line pair. !(a) An image of a test object used to determine the limiting spatial resolution of a gamma camera. (b) An image of a test object used to determine the limiting spatial resolution of a radiographic imaging system. (c) A plot of the number of counts (or the radiographic density) against distance for well resolved regions of image (a) or (b). An image of a test object used to determine the limiting spatial resolution of a gamma camera. (b) An image of a test object used to determine the limiting spatial resolution of a radiographic imaging system. (c) A plot of the number of counts (or the radiographic density) against distance for well resolved regions of image (a) or (b)."){width="380"} ## Fourier Series Almost all periodic functions of interest in medical imaging can be represented by a Fourier Series. This approach considers that any periodic waveform can be represented by the sum of a series of sine and cosine waves as follows: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $f(x) = \frac{1}{2}a_0 + a_1 \cos (x) + a_2 \cos (2x)... + a_n \cos (nx) + b_1 \sin (x) + b_2 \sin (2x)... + b_n \sin (nx)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` A square wave, for example, can thus be represented by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $f(x) = \frac{4h}{\pi} \left ( \sin (x) + \frac{1}{3} \sin (3x) + \frac{1}{5} \sin (5x) + \frac{1}{7} \sin (7x) + ... \right )\ \ (1)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where h is the amplitude of the square wave. The opposite consideration is also true mathematically, i.e. a square wave can be constructed by adding together a large number of sine waves of different frequencies and amplitudes. The addition of the first four terms of equation (1) is demonstrated in the following figure. The first term (sin x) is shown in panel (a), the addition of the second term to the first term is shown in panel (b) and so on. Notice that the fundamental, or first harmonic \[panel (a)\], has the same frequency as the square wave and that the higher frequencies progressively build up the shape of the square waveform \[panels (b)-(d)\]. We can conclude that the higher frequencies contribute to the sharpness of the sides of the square wave. !Illustration of the addition of sine waves to approximate a square wave.{width="380"} ## Fourier Spectrum The Fourier Series can also be represented as a frequency spectrum. For example, the amplitudes of the frequency components for the square wave in equation (1) are plotted against spatial frequency in the following figure. Note that the Fourier Spectrum can be used to identify the frequencies and amplitudes of the sine waves which contribute to make up a given waveform. Note also that plots of amplitude versus distance are generally referred to as the spatial domain representation, and plots of amplitude versus spatial frequency as the frequency domain representation. !The Fourier Spectrum for a square wave.{width="280"} ## Fourier Transform The Fourier transform is an elegant mathematical technique for converting data from the spatial domain to the frequency domain (see the next figure). In other words, the frequencies and amplitudes of the sine waves which make up any waveform can be readily determined by taking the Fourier transform of that waveform. !The Fourier Transform can be used to generate the Fourier Spectrum of any waveform, including the square wave above.{width="380"} The Fourier transform is used widely throughout medical imaging, where its applications include: - determining the spatial resolution of imaging systems, - spatial localisation in magnetic resonance imaging, - analysis of Doppler ultrasound signals, - image filtering in emission and transmission computed tomography. The Inverse Fourier Transform is the mathematical technique used for coverting data in the opposite direction, i.e. from the frequency domain to the spatial domain -- see the following figure: !The Inverse Fourier Transform can be used to generate any waveform of interest, including the square wave above.{width="380"} In conclusion, the Fourier Transform (FT) allows us to identify the component sine waves of a waveform, and the Inverse Fourier Transform (IFT) allows us to construct a waveform from its component sine waves. Finally, it should be noted that the computation of Fourier Transforms using a digital computer is generally achieved using a special algorithm called the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). ## The Dirac Delta Function An interesting case to consider from a medical imaging perspective is the delta function: !The delta function on the left and its Fourier Spectrum on the right.{width="380"} The Fourier Transform of the Dirac delta function tells us that it is composed of an infinite number of sine waves, each of the same amplitude. If we begin to broaden this function -- as in the following figure -- we see that the low frequency sine waves have a high amplitude and that the amplitudes of the sine waves decrease as the spatial frequency increases: !The Fourier Transform of a broadened delta function.{width="380"} ## Modulation Transfer Function This broadening phenomenon is similar to what happens in medical imaging. We can consider the amplitude versus distance plot in the previous figure to be similar to a: - density profile through an image of a small hole in a sheet of Pb, or a - count rate profile through an image of a point source of radioactivity. This type of plot is called a Point Spread Function (PSF) in medical imaging, and its Fourier Spectrum is called the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF): !Illustration of the MTF of an ideal and an actual imaging system.{width="240"} A comparison of general and imaging terms used in this field is shown in the following table: Domain General Terminology Imaging Terminology ----------------------- --------------------- ------------------------------------ Spatial Input Function Point Spread Function (PSF) Spatial Frequency Fourier Spectrum Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) In addition, the MTF may be derived from: :\* a Line Spread Function (LSF) :\* a differentiated Edge Response Function (ERF). Symbolically, we can write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I_{\text{actual}} = I_{\text{ideal}} * PSF\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where $$ indicates a convolution operation. In other words, the actual image is obtained when the ideal image is convolved with the PSF of the imaging system. To restore the ideal image, all that is required theoretically is to remove the effect of the PSF (e.g. attempts to solve imaging problems encountered by the Hubble space telescope). This can be achieved readily using the Fourier transform because the convolution process in the spatial domain is equivalent to a multiplication process in the spatial frequency domain, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $FT(I_{\text{actual}}) = FT(I_{\text{ideal}}) \cdot FT(PSF)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and therefore, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $FT(I_{\text{ideal}}) = \frac{FT(I_{\text{actual}})}{FT(PSF)}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The complete restoration process is referred to as a deconvolution operation and is given by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $I_{\text{ideal}} = IFT \left \lbrace \frac{FT(I_{\text{actual}})}{FT(PSF)} \right \rbrace$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Filtering the Fourier Spectrum The image restoration process discussed above is an example of Fourier spectrum filtering. In other words, once a Fourier Spectrum has been generated for an image, it can be filtered so that certain spatial frequencies can be modified, e.g. enhanced or suppressed. This filtered spectrum can then be inverse transformed to generate a filtered image with, for example, sharpened or smoothed features -- as illustrated in the following figure: !The Fourier filtering process.{width="280"} An example is shown in the following figure in the case of a bone scan of the hand. Its 2D FFT is shown in the top right panel. The result of applying a filter which suppresses spatial frequencies below 0.05 cycles/pixel and above 0.3 cycles/pixel, i.e. a bandpass of 3-20 pixels, is shown in the centre row of the figure, while that of a filter which suppresses frequencies below 0.01 and above 0.1 cycles/pixels in shown on the bottom row. !Illustration of bandpass filtration to selectively suppress high and low spatial frequencies and preserve intermediate frequencies.{width="380"} A feature we need to consider in more detail before proceeding is the spatial frequency nature of the image data itself. Remember that images are generally sampled digitally using a square matrix composed of pixels, the size of which dictate how well a digital image approximates its analogue counterpart. The resultant digital spatial resolution places a limit on the maximum spatial frequency that can be accommodated. The criterion usually applied in digital imaging is based on the Nyquist-Shannon Sampling Theorem which implies that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<big>`{=html}When an image has spatial frequency components with a maximum spatial frequency, f, then the image data should be sampled with a sampling frequency of at least twice f for faithful reproduction.`</big>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` This sampling frequency is commonly called the Nyquist frequency. At lower sampling frequencies, the resultant digital images can contain artefactual patterns, called Moiré patterns, and the phenomenon is sometimes referred to as aliasing. ## Filtered Back Projection The streaking inherent in the simple backprojection process makes the actual image appear as if it had been combined mathematically with a 1/r function, where `<big>`{=html}r`</big>`{=html} is the radial distance in the Fourier domain. In filtered backprojection, Fourier filtering can be used to remove the effect of this * blurring*. Symbolically, a measured projection can be considered to be the result of a convolution with a blurring function: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $P_{\text{measured}} = P \cdot \frac{1}{r}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The first stage of the filtration process is to calculate the Fourier transform of the measured projection data, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $FT(P_{\text{measured}}) = FT(P) \cdot FT \left ( \frac{1}{r} \right )$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The corrected projection, P, is then obtained by dividing the FT of the measured projection by FT(), and taking the inverse transform of the result, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $P = IFT \left \lbrace \frac{FT(P_{\text{measured}})}{FT \left ( \frac{1}{r}\right )} \right \rbrace$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The FT()* function is simply that of a ramp. In other words, when the FT of the measured projection is calculated and the result is divided by this ramp function, then the corrected projection can be obtained by calculating the IFT of this quotient. In addition, if some variation is introduced into the FT() function, it is possible to simultaneously correct for this blurring effect and to enhance or suppress features in the back-projected image. For example, the blurring artifact can be removed and, at the same time: :\* the fine detail can be enhanced (as in the so-called bone algorithms in X-ray CT), or :\* the image noise can be suppressed (as in the so-called soft tissue algorithms in X-ray CT). In general, variation in the ramp function can be achieved by multiplying it by a second function, e.g. a Butterworth function used in SPECT: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\text{Amplitude} = \frac{1}{1+(\frac{f}{f_c})^{2n}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where: - f~c~: cut-off frequency, which defines the frequency at which the amplitude drops by 50%, and - n: the order of the function. !A ramp function and a Butterworth function (of variable order and cut-off frequency) are multiplied to form the Fourier filter used in the FBP process. are multiplied to form the Fourier filter used in the FBP process."){width="480"} Characteristics of a number of filters used in SPECT imaging are shown in the following table: +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Filter \| Equation \| Comment \| +======================+======================+======================+ \| Ram-Lak \| $\text{Amp \| star artifact \| \| \| litude} = 1\ \,\text \| removal; noise \| \| \| {for}\ f < f_c\,\!$\ \| sensitivity \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Butterworth \| $\text{Amplit \| noise reduction \| \| \| ude} = \frac{1}{1+(\ \| \| \| \| frac{f}{f_c})^{2n}}$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Metz \| $\text{Amplitude} = \| noise reduction; \| \| \| \frac{1-\big(1-MTF(f \| contrast enhancement \| \| \| )^2\big)^x}{MTF(f)}$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Wiener \| de} = \frac{1}{MTF(f \| contrast enhancement \| \| \| )} \left \lbrace \fr \| \| \| \| ac{MTF(f)^2}{S+MTF(f \| \| \| \| )^2} \right \rbrace$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Scramp \| $\text{Am \| noise reduction; \| \| \| plitude} = 1 + \frac \| contrast enhancement \| \| \| {f}{f_c} \lbrace MTF \| \| \| \| (f_c)-1 \rbrace\ \,\ \| \| \| \| text{for}\ f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Inverse MTF \| $ \| noise reduction; \| \| \| \text{Amplitude} = \ \| contrast suppression \| \| \| frac{1}{MTF(f)}\ \,\ \| \| \| \| text{for}\ f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Hamming \| $\text{Amplitude \| noise reduction \| \| \| } = 0.54 + 0.46 \cos \| \| \| \| \left ( \pi \frac{f \| \| \| \| }{f_c} \right )\ \,\ \| \| \| \| text{for}\ f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Parzen \| $\text{Ampl \| noise reduction \| \| \| itude} = 2 \left \lb \| \| \| \| race 1 - \left (\fra \| \| \| \| c{f}{f_c} \right )^3 \| \| \| \| \right \rbrace\ \,\ \| \| \| \| text{for}\ f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Shepp-Logan \| $\ \| noise reduction \| \| \| text{Amplitude} = \f \| \| \| \| rac{2f_c}{\pi f} \si \| \| \| \| n \left (\pi \frac{f \| \| \| \| }{f_c} \right )\ \,\ \| \| \| \| text{for}\ f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Hann \| $\text{Amplitude} \| noise reduction \| \| \| = \frac{f}{2} \left \| \| \| \| (1+ \cos \pi \frac{ \| \| \| \| f}{f_c} \right )\ \, \| \| \| \| \text{for} f < f_c$\ \| \| \| \| \ \| \| \| \| $\text{Am \| \| \| \| plitude} = 0\ \,\tex \| \| \| \| t{for}\ f > f_c\,\!$ \| \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ The choice of filter for a given image reconstruction task is generally a compromise between the extent of noise reduction and fine detail suppression (and of contrast enhancement in some cases) as well as the spatial frequency pattern of the image data of interest. ## Further reading - Engineering Analysis/Multi-Dimensional Fourier Series - The Feynman lectures Chapter 50 Harmonics
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/X-Ray CT in Nuclear Medicine The need for attenuation compensation in SPECT imaging has been understood for many years but it has only been in recent times that effective techniques have been applied in commercial systems. Gamma rays get attenuated by the medium through which they pass, as we\'ve seen earlier, via photoelectric absorption and Compton scattering. The projections measured in SPECT imaging therefore contain impressions of this attenuation which reduce their fidelity for tomographic reconstruction, as illustrated in the following figure: !Tomographic slices from a cardiac study reconstructed without attenuation correction on the top row and with attenuation correction on the bottom row. Note the more uniform distribution of radioactivity in the cardiac muscle depicted in the attenuation corrected images.{width="280"} Patient specific attenuation maps can be used to correct the measured projections. These can be produced using the gamma camera to generate a transmission scan of the patient using a radioisotope source -- see the following figure for an example: !A posterior-anterior transmission image of the author\'s chest acquired using an uncollimated gamma camera and an 18.5 MBq point source of ^99m^Tc at a focal distance of two metres.{width="160"} The transmission scan contains the attenuation information for the volume of interest within the patient and a map of this attenuation pattern is subsequently applied to each SPECT projection prior to filtered back projection. A more powerful approach is to use an X-ray CT scanner to generate the attenuation maps -- see the following figure. Numerous hybrid scanners have been produced as a result which combine nuclear medicine with CT imaging, as in SPECT/CT and PET/CT -- see the following figure for an example: !A SPECT/CT system, with relevant components labelled in the photograph on the right.{width="280"} An additional benefit of these developments is the simultaneous capability, with sufficient computing power, of blending the nuclear medicine and CT images so as to generate physiological images colocalized with images of patient anatomy -- as shown in the following figure -- and hence improve the diagnostic utility of nuclear medicine procedures. !A SPECT image blended with a CT scan. Blending, indicated by the + sign, in this case involved sub-processes which included image magnification, contrast enhancement, application of a colour look-up table and layering of one image on top of the other using an appropriate transparency.{width="280"} Hybrid scanners generally have a single patient couch with the gamma camera gantry moulded to the front of a CT unit so that the patient can be transported into the X-ray beam before or after the SPECT acquisition. Some CT units are of a low resolution design and generate crude, single slice CT images which are sufficiently accurate for SPECT attenuation correction but are of insufficient quality on their own for diagnostic purposes -- see the example below. There are also higher resolution CT units in use for hybrid scanning with capabilities of acquiring, for instance, 16-slice helical scans which can compete directly with the diagnostic capabilities of dedicated CT scanners. !A low resolution CT scan generated for attenuation correction applications in a SPECT/CT system. This chapter provides an overview of the physical aspects of X-ray CT scanning from a nuclear medicine perspective. We begin with various scanner designs and will explore a number of computational techniques relevant to this form of imaging. The intention is to provide a foundation for understanding the application of X-ray CT in nuclear medicine. ## Conventional Radiography The attenuation of an X-ray beam in the body is used in conventional radiography to project a shadow onto an image receptor (as shown in the figure below). These shadowgraphs record a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional object. Small lesions are therefore not readily identified because of overlapping and underlying anatomy, image distortion occurs because of unequal magnification effects and low contrast masses are poorly delineated since scatter contributes substantially to the image data. !Bird\'s eye view of a conventional radiographic procedure on the left, with a chest radiograph displayed on the right using a nuclear medicine-oriented look-up table -- where low counts are assigned a dark shade on a grey scale and high counts as whiter shades.{width="380"} We can consider that there is a degeneracy introduced into such images, i.e. two anatomically quite different objects may produce the same film density because the effective attenuation they each produce is identical, as illustrated in the following figure: !The origin of Image Degeneracy in conventional radiography. The attenuation of each element may be characterised by `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}μ`</span>`{=html}, the linear attenuation coefficient as in panel (a). The total attenuation of each of the two columns of elements in panel (b) is identical so that the image density is the same for quite different anatomical detail.. The total attenuation of each of the two columns of elements in panel (b) is identical so that the image density is the same for quite different anatomical detail.") Panel (a) shows a pencil beam of X-radiation of incident intensity, I~o~, attenuated by the body, represented here for simplicity by four volume elements each of thickness, Δx, and of different linear attenuation coefficients, μ~1~ thru μ~4~. The transmitted intensity, when no scattered radiation is detected, is given by I, which is dependent on the sum of these linear attenuation coefficients, according to the exponential attenuation equation. Panel (b) illustrates that two adjacent columns of volume elements can generate identical values of the transmitted intensity, I, even though the two columns contain volume elements with different linear attenuation coefficients. In other words, what is detected in the integrated contribution of the linear attenuation coefficients without any information about the contribution from any individual volume element. One way to improve this situation is to use X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT). Note that the image reconstruction algorithms developed for X-ray CT can also be applied to gamma camera images (as in SPECT) to overcome limitations of planar nuclear imaging and to images generated using positron-emitting radioisotopes (as in PET). ## Back Projection We have considered this method of computerized image reconstruction in a previous chapter in the context of SPECT. Our intention here is to consider this reconstruction method in the context of X-Ray CT. The following figure is a representation of how back projection works. The basic premise is that any attenuation of the X-ray beam is assumed to have occurred uniformly along the entire ray path. !Back projection reconstruction.{width="280"} Thus, the result of the back projection of the first profile, P~1~ is to put the values 7 and 9 in both elements of the first and second rows, respectively. The second profile, P~2~ adds a `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}4`</span>`{=html} to the top right element, 1 to the bottom left element and 11 to the other two elements when back projected. The other profiles are treated in similar fashion. Following subtraction of an offset (16 in this case) and renormalisation (division by 3 in this case) of the data set, the final image is obtained. You should confirm for yourself that this final matrix satisfies all projections. The principle is demonstrated in more detail in the following figure: !A demonstration of simple back projection: (a) An X-ray tube scans a phantom, consisting of a radio-dense object in an otherwise uniform container, and generates the profile as shown for the back projection process. (b) Four profiles generated by scanning at slightly different angles around the phantom. (c) The image reconstructed from just four projections. An X-ray tube scans a phantom, consisting of a radio-dense object in an otherwise uniform container, and generates the profile as shown for the back projection process. (b) Four profiles generated by scanning at slightly different angles around the phantom. (c) The image reconstructed from just four projections."){width="380"} A single profile is back projected to give a dark stripe across the entire image plane \[panel (a)\]. As we scan the phantom from many directions and back project the ray profiles onto the image plane \[panel (b)\], an image of the radio-dense dot, albeit a poor one, begins to resolve \[panel (c)\]. As the number of projections increases, the quality improves but some blurring will always remain in the image. This blurring can be removed using what is known as Filtered Back Projection. ## Filtered Back Projection The blurring inherent in the simple back projection process can be suppressed mathematically using filtering techniques and the overall reconstruction process is then called Filtered Back Projection. In this technique (see the following figure), the attenuation profile is first filtered to counteract the effect of sudden density changes which cause the blurring in simple back projection. Note that the graphical representation in the figure is very crude as the filtered profile may be a quite complicated function of distance as illustrated in panel (c). The filter is also referred to as a convolution filter, or convolution kernel. After completion of the filtration process, the Inverse Fourier Transform is applied to the data for each profile before the back projection process is undertaken. Notice that the reconstructed image \[panel (d)\] is free of the star artefact generated in unfiltered back projection. !A demonstration of filtered back projection: (a) An X-ray tube scans a phantom and generates the profile which is filtered using the Fourier transform. (b) Four filtered profiles generated by scanning at slightly different angles around the phantom. (c) A detailed view of the effect of the filtration process on one ray profile. (d) The reconstructed image is free of the star artefact. An X-ray tube scans a phantom and generates the profile which is filtered using the Fourier transform. (b) Four filtered profiles generated by scanning at slightly different angles around the phantom. (c) A detailed view of the effect of the filtration process on one ray profile. (d) The reconstructed image is free of the star artefact."){width="380"} Most CT scanners offer a choice of filters which may be selected by the operator to enhance either soft tissue features or bone detail in images. Indeed, the image can be post-processed using a different filter after the scan has been completed if so desired. Images can be generated to enhance bone detail on the one hand and to observe subtle low contrast masses on the other, without the need to re-scan the patient. Thus, the filter choice will have a major impact on image quality. Two common filters used in X-ray CT are those due to Ramachandran & Lakshminarayanan (Ram-Lak) and to Shepp & Logan. In SPECT, Butterworth, Hanning and Metz are used, as you will remember. The ramp filter on its own compensates for artefacts introduced by the simple back projection process but does not compensate for the increasing noise content of the data with increasing spatial frequency. The Ram-Lak is a ramp filter which leaves all frequencies unchanged except those above a cut-off, which are eliminated. Most of the other filters suppress higher frequencies to varying degrees. Sometimes these filters are referred to as algorithms. The term kernel is also used. Images of an axial tomogram reconstructed with a soft tissue and with a bone algorithm are shown below as examples: !A tomogram reconstructed using (a) a soft tissue filter, and (b) using a bone filter. Notice the subtle edge enhancement effect generated using the bone filter and the more smooth nature of the soft tissue filtration. a soft tissue filter, and (b) using a bone filter. Notice the subtle edge enhancement effect generated using the bone filter and the more smooth nature of the soft tissue filtration."){width="280"} There\'s an excellent online CT reconstruction simulator available via the Biomedical Imaging Group at the EPFL. As an exercise, you might like to explore your understanding of filtered back projection by varying the type of filter used prior to reconstruction. You might also like to explore the influence of the number of angles used for profile acquisition on the quality of the reconstructed image. ## CT Scanning Geometries !First generation CT scanner design. Most CT scanner designs use some form of mechanical gantry which allows movement of the X-ray tube and the detector around the patient. The X-ray beam was collimated to a pencil beam in early designs and consists of a wide fan beam in modern systems. The thickness of the slice, typically 1 to 10 mm, is generally defined by pre-patient collimation using motor driven adjustable wedges external to the X-ray tube. Even with relatively large fan beams the volume of tissue irradiated is still small quite compared with projection radiography and scatter is a less serious problem. The detectors have collimators placed in front of them to minimise the impact of out of slice scatter. To minimise the effects of beam hardening CT scanners use a heavily filtered beam (the Siemens Somatom Plus uses 2.7 mm Al plus 0.2 mm Cu, for instance) operating at 120 -- 140 kVp. Note that even with the best radiographic geometry, such as in the third generation scanners, object magnification is substantial and the finite size of the focal spot, typically 1 mm, may well limit the achievable spatial resolution. The first generation of CT scanner used what is referred to as Translate-Rotate geometry. The original EMI Mk 1 scanner (see the figure on the right), for instance, used a pencil X-ray beam and a single detector (a NaI:Tl scintillator coupled to a photomultiplier tube). During the translational motion of the gantry, the transmitted X-ray beam was sampled 160 times to produce a single profile. A rotation through 1 degree with the X-ray beam off then followed before a new profile was obtained. This procedure was completed until the patient\'s head was scanned from 180 different angles. !Second generation CT scanner design. The whole procedure took about 5 minutes and depended on the patient remaining completely still. The patient\'s head was usually clamped to minimise patient motion. In addition, their head was surrounded by a water bag which helped to overcome problems associated with afterglow in the NaI(Tl) scintillator and the very substantial signal dynamic range that would otherwise be present at the detectors. Subsequent generations of scanners have sought to decrease the scan time to a few seconds to minimise the movement artifact. The second generation of scanner addressed this issue by using a small fan beam (see the next figure) with multiple detectors -- up to 30 in some designs. The detectors collect multiple data readings during a translation so that fewer translations and rotations are required. Each of the detectors collects its own limited profile during each translation. Typically, a rotation of 30 degrees was employed between translational movements so that only six rotational movements were required to obtain the data for one slice. Scan times of between 5 to 90 seconds were achieved with this design. The detector elements were scintillators but the water bag was dispensed with and body scans could be performed for the first time. The use of multiple detectors gave a quantum leap in performance. The third generation of CT scanner decreased scan times even further by using a Rotate-Rotate geometry (see the figure on the right). Most scanners today are of the third generation type. A typical machine employs a large fan beam such that the patient is completely encompassed by the fan. The number of detector elements is typically in the hundreds, e.g. :\* the GE Hispeed Advantage has 852 elements 1.0 mm apart; :\* the Siemens Somatom Plus 4 has 768 elements 1.1 mm apart; and :\* the Toshiba Xpress/SX has 896 elements 1.03 mm apart. !Third generation CT scanner design. The detector elements are aligned along the arc of a circle centred on the focus of the X-ray tube. The X-ray tube and detector array rotate as one through 360 degrees during which time several hundred discrete profiles are obtained. Both solid state detectors and pressurised xenon gas detectors are used for data acquisition. Because the fan beam totally encompasses the patient, translational motion is not needed and the tube and detector array rotate as one about the patient. The number of profiles recorded depends on the chosen scan parameters but is at least a few hundred and can be in excess of a thousand. Scan times can be as low as a second. Although the dynamic range of the detectors is very high, some manufacturers control excessive variations in signal strength by using bow-tie shaped filters chosen to suit the body or head shape. Such filters generally attenuate the peripheral part of the fan beam to a greater extent than the central part. It also helps overcome the effects of beam hardening and to minimise patient skin dose in the peripheral part of the field of view. A number of variants on this geometry have been developed, which include those based on offsetting the centre of rotation and the use of a flying focus X-ray tube. !Fourth generation CT scanner design. The fourth generation of CT scanner uses a Rotate-Fixed Ring geometry where a ring of fixed detectors completely surrounds the patient. The X-ray tube rotates inside the detector ring through a full 360 degrees with a wide fan beam. Only those detectors which see the beam are activated at any one time which means that only a small fraction of thousands of detector elements (e.g. the Picker PQ-5000V has 4800 detector elements 1.1 mm apart) are in use at any given time. Scan time is comparable with third generation scanners but the radiographic geometry is poor because the X-ray tube must be closer to the patient than the detectors, i.e. the geometric magnification is large. The disadvantages of poor geometry noted above has been alleviated very neatly by the so called nutating geometry. The X-ray tube is external to the detector ring but slightly out of the detector plane. Scan times as low as 0.6 s can be achieved using machines of this type with interscan delays of as little as 100 ms. Excellent resolution (0.35 mm) can be obtained by using as many several thousand detector elements. ## Helical Scanning Innovations in slip-ring technology, beginning with the Siemens Somatom Plus and the Toshiba TCT 900S, have enabled the X-ray tube to rotate continuously in the same direction which overcomes problems of interscan delays. When the continuous motion of the X-ray tube is combined with a continuous advance of the patient table along the axis of the scanner we have helical (also called spiral) scanning, as illustrated the following figure. Typical table velocities are 1 -- 10 mm/s; a complete 360 degree rotation can be achieved in 0.5 s and the nominal fan beam thickness is 1 mm or greater. !Illustration of helical scanning. In the context of helical scanning a parameter called pitch is defined as the: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}ratio of the distance that the patient couch moves in one rotation to the slice thickness.`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` In other words, for a couch advance of 10 mm and a nominal slice width of 10 mm, the pitch is 1. Pitch values are typically in the range of 1 to 2 depending on the required spatial resolution in the direction of the couch motion. Its a coverage indicator, in other words. A significant reduction in scan times results from helical scanning because large volumes can be scanned contiguously without any gaps and with little influence from patient motion. The Somatom Plus-4A, for instance, allows up to 80 slices to be scanned contiguously in 60 seconds of non-stop scanning. Single breathhold scanning of the thorax is therefore possible and reconstruction, with minimal loss of spatial resolution, of sagittal and coronal planes is feasible. Axial reconstruction in helical scanning is illustrated in the following figure. It is seen that no axial slices are actually irradiated during the scan and that any transaxial image data needs to be estimated from the acquired helical record. One estimation technique is referred to as z-interpolation, because it applies data interpolation techniques along the z-dimension of the acquired data, i.e. the patient\'s head-to-foot axis. !Illustration of transaxial reconstruction in helical scanning. The filtered back projection reconstruction process is therefore modified to include an z-interpolation step prior to Fourier filtration, as illustrated in the following flow diagram: !The image reconstruction process in helical scanning. ## Interpolation & Extrapolation Before proceeding, let\'s briefly review the topic of interpolation and extrapolation to clarify our basic understanding and to put the subsequent discussion in context. Let\'s start with a simple one-dimensional case, as illustrated in the following graph. Suppose we\'ve taken measurements A and B and plotted them on the graph, and wish to estimate the value at an in-between point, C. Such an estimation process is called interpolation, and if we assume that there\'s a linear relationship between variables X and Y as illustrated in our graph, the process of estimating point C is called linear interpolation. Other functions can also be used as interpolatants for more complex data than we\'re considering here. !Illustration of interpolation and extrapolation. If we also require knowledge about point D on our graph, i.e. a point outside the measured range, we refer to the estimation process as extrapolation, and linear extrapolation is illustrated in our graph above. Mathematically we can write that given: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $A \Rightarrow (x_1, y_1)\ \ B \Rightarrow (x_2, y_2)\ \ C \Rightarrow (x_3, y_3)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` then the Y-value of point C is given by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $y_3 = y_1 + \frac{(x_3 - x_1)(y_2 - y_1)}{(x_2 - x_1)}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` using linear interpolation. You might like to develop a similar equation as an exercise which can be used to determine the Y-value of point, D. Since helical scanning is a three-dimensional phenomenon, we need to develop some two-dimensional perspectives on the situation before proceeding with our discussion -- as illustrated in the following figure: !Three perspectives of the helical scan in the top left corner. We\'ll use the side view in the following discussion. ## Interpolation in Helical CT A large number of computational methods have been developed for helical scanning. The 360^o^ linear interpolation algorithm is illustrated in the following figure as an example: !A side view of a helical scan and parameters used in the 360^o^ linear interpolation algorithm (360LI), where Z~ref~ indicates the position of the axial slice to be interpolated., where Zref indicates the position of the axial slice to be interpolated.") The following equation can be developed on the basis of our earlier discussion for linear interpolation of the transaxial data of interest: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $P_z(i, \alpha) = (1-w)P_j(i, \alpha) + wP_{j+1}(i, \alpha)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where: : P~z~(i, α) is the interpolated projection for an angle, α, at position Z~ref~; : P~j~(i, α) is the helical projection measured in rotation j at position Z~j~ and projection angle α; : P~j+1~(i, α) is the helical projection measured in rotation j+1 at position Z~j+1~ and projection angle α; and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $w = \frac{Z_{\text{ref}} - Z_j}{d}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This interpolation process is applied throughout all data points in the helix to generate estimates of the axial data, prior to filtered backprojection. Higher order interpolation is also possible where data points from, say, four rays are used in the estimation. In addition, sophisticated z-axis filters can be applied for these estimations in multi-slice CT. ## Volume Imaging It is possible to produce a number of slices per rotation when the fan beam of a CT scanner is broadened along the z-axis and two-dimensional detectors are used. The fan beam can be formed into the shape of a cone on this basis and concepts such as volume imaging and cone beam CT can be applied. Terms such as multi-slice and multi-detector CT can also be used in this context, although as you will see the second of these two terms is probably the more appropriate. The 2-D detectors are solid-state devices and the simplest example is the Matrix Array, as illustrated below: !Illustration of four modes of multi-slice acquisition for a matrix array CT detector.{width="280"} The array can consist of (say) 912 columns by 16 rows of identical detectors, each 1.25 mm square, curved to fit an arc of the x-ray tube rotation. Eight of these columns are shown in panel (a) above being irradiated by an X-ray beam of width 6 mm, with the implication that data for four 1.25 mm axial slices can be acquired simultaneously. More rows, up to sixteen in this case, can be irradiated simultaneously with this arrangement when the x-ray beam is broadened to encompass the width of the detector array. Flexibility can be built into this design by coupling the outputs of adjacent detector rows, as illustrated in panels (b), (c) and (d), where the outputs of 2, 3 and 4 rows, respectively, are summed to simultaneously generate four 2.5 mm thick slices, or four 3.75 mm slices, or (you guessed it!) four 5 mm slices. A more flexible design is provided by the Adaptive Array detector, as illustrated in the next figure: !Illustration of an adaptive array CT detector.{width="280"} Rather than columns of square detectors, this array uses columns of detectors of variable width, such that the width in the two central columns is relatively narrow, e.g. 1 mm as in the figure above, with the column width increasing towards the periphery, e.g. from 1.5 mm, through 2.5 mm to 5 mm as in our figure. The reason for this pattern is explained below. Four modes of operation of this detector array are shown in the following figure: !Illustration of four modes of multi-slice acquisition for an adaptive array CT detector.{width="280"} We can see in panel (a) that two 0.5 mm slices can be acquired when a 1 mm thick fan beam is aligned with the central columns of the adaptive array. In panel (b) we can see that four 1 mm slices can be acquired using a fan beam of thickness 4 mm. Detector coupling is illustrated in panels (c) and (d), where the outputs of detectors in the four central columns are coupled so as to simulate two 2.5 mm wide detection columns and hence acquire data for four 2.5 mm slices. How do you think this coupling process is applied in panel (d) to generate four 5 mm slices? A second advantage of the adaptive array is that the number of individual detector elements on each row can be considerably reduced, from 16 to 8 in the case we\'ve just discussed. This adds greatly to the speed with which data can be generated by the array and reduces the number of computations necessary for uniformity and other corrections that must also be applied to the measured data. The interpolation process in multi-slice helical CT is illustrated in our final figure where the situation in a 4-slice system using a 360^o^ multi-slice filtered interpolation algorithm is shown: !Illustration of the 360MFI algorithm.{width="280"} The number of detector rows in Multi-Detector CT (MDCT) in 2010 is typically 8, 16 or 64, or greater -- even a 320-slice scanner has been developed. ## CT Image Display After the computer calculates the linear attenuation coefficient for each pixel via filtered back projection, the values are normalised to the value for water as a reference, scaled and presented as a Hounsfield or CT-number which is defined as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $H = 1000 \frac{\mu_m - \mu_{\text{water}}}{\mu_{\text{water}}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where μ~m~ and μ~water~ are the linear attenuation coefficients for the tissue material and for water, respectively. The CT-number of water is therefore zero. CT-numbers for a number of tissues are shown in the following table: Tissue CT-Number (H) --------------------- --------------- Lung -300 Fat -90 White Matter 30 Gray Matter 40 Muscle 50 Trabecular Bone 300-500 Cortical Bone 600-3,000 The image is usually presented on a computer monitor using a grey scale. The grey scale is chosen to encompass all or some part of the entire range of CT-numbers by selecting a suitable window level and window width. The window width is the range of CT-numbers we select for display and the window level is, usually but not always, the central CT-number about which the window is chosen. Typically, the highest number is assigned to white and the lowest number to black with all intervening numbers assigned intensities on a linear scale. Thus, air will be displayed as black and cortical bone will appear relatively bright. Examples of image display manipulation are shown in the following two figures. In the first, the same image of a slice through a patient\'s liver is displayed using a relatively narrow window (high contrast) and also with a wide window. The image with the narrower window appears noisier, but this is merely a reflection of the fact that the gray scale spreads over a narrow range of CT-numbers. !Effect of window width and level on CT image display. (a) Level = 50; Width = 200. (b) Level = 50; Width = 400. The image in (a) is displayed with greater contrast and appears noisier than that in (b). Level = 50; Width = 200. (b) Level = 50; Width = 400. The image in (a) is displayed with greater contrast and appears noisier than that in (b)."){width="380"} In the second figure, a relatively narrow window has been used to highlight pathology: !Effect of window width and level on CT image display. (a) Level = -600; Width = 1700. (b) Level = -60; Width = 400. The image in (a) displays the lung tissue more clearly, whereas the image in (b) highlights pulmonary metastases. Level = -600; Width = 1700. (b) Level = -60; Width = 400. The image in (a) displays the lung tissue more clearly, whereas the image in (b) highlights pulmonary metastases."){width="380"} ## Scanned Projection Radiography Most CT systems use scanned projection radiography (SPR), also known as a scout view and scanogram, to establish a consistent set of anatomical markers for all subsequent procedures. In SPR, the fan beam is not rotated about the patient but is fixed, and the patient couch is moved slowly through the beam. Each detector element measures a varying amount of radiation intensity as the anatomy changes between the focus and the detector. These discrete detector signals are digitised but not processed to any great extent. The computer stores the signals from all the detectors as a series of line images. The width of each line is small, typically 1.5 -- 2 mm, corresponding to the finite width of the fan beam. Subsequently, a projection radiograph is synthesized by making a composite of these line scan images with the grey scale suitably chosen to display the anatomy with an adequate contrast -- see an example image below: !Lateral view SPR image of a patient\'s head acquired prior to CT scanning.{width="280"} The volume of tissue to be examined in CT mode can be defined once the SPR image has been generated. The CT procedure can then be automatically controlled by the computer once the appropriate scanning factors have been selected.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/PACS and Advanced Image Processing ## Picture Archival & Communication Systems (PACS) With the phenomenal development of computer technology in recent times has come the possibility of storing and communicating medical images in digital format. PACS systems are generally based on a dedicated computer which can access data stored in the digital image processors of different imaging modalities and transfer this data at high speeds to remote viewing consoles, to archival storage media and to other computer systems either within the hospital or at external locations -- see the figure below: !Basic elements of a generic PACS solution for a teaching hospital. Images from the modalities are sent to short term RAID storage and archived simultaneously. Archived images may also be retrieved as required. Access to images is enabled through the high speed local area network which distributes the images to clinical and diagnostic workstations, to a Web server and to a teleradiology server for dispatch to remote sites via a wide area network (WAN).\ _Glossary_ -- HIS: Hospital Information System; RIS: Radiology Information System; LAN: Local Area Network; RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks.. Glossary – HIS: Hospital Information System; RIS: Radiology Information System; LAN: Local Area Network; RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks.") Successful implementation of PACS is critically dependent on several factors which include image format standardization, HIS and RIS integration, image display devices, image transfer rates and storage capacity. These features are discussed below. Standardization of the manner in which the image data is interchanged between different medical imaging devices. The Digital Imaging & Communications in Medicine (DICOM) standard has been embraced by most equipment manufacturers to facilitate this. Another file format which has been developed specifically for nuclear medicine images is called Interfile. Besides specifying the format of digital image data, these information interchange formats also cover patient and examination details which are embedded within the image file. This latter feature is particularly important in medical imaging so that patient studies do not get mixed up, for example, and can be regarded as generating a birth certificate for each acquired image, or set of images. An example of such DICOM header information is shown in the following four figures (the header, which is typically one continuous document, has been broken into four parts here to assist with our discussion): !The first part of a DICOM file header. Notice that the data provide patient details as well as the image type, the date and time of the study, the modality, the scanner manufacturer and image processing workstation used. The second part of this header is shown below: !The second part of a DICOM file header. Notice that this data covers the slice thickness and spacing used in this SPECT study, image sampling and quantization information, the number of images and the photon energy window used by the scanner. The third part of this header is shown next: !The third part of a DICOM file header. Notice that this data covers details of the scanner movement used to acquire the study. The fourth and final part of this header is shown below: !The fourth and final part of a DICOM file header. Notice that this final part details the patient and scanner orientation as well as the actual image data. Other image formats are in common use in medicine, for purposes other than primary diagnosis. These formats can be useful for teaching, multimedia and publication purposes. Examples of these formats are included in the following table. +--------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Format \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Compression \| Comment \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +========+======================+======================+ \| JPEG \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Lossy \| Small file sizes \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| PNG \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Lossless \| Header information \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| TIFF \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Lossless/Lossy \| Large file sizes \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| GIF \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Lossy \| Graphical data \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------+----------------------+----------------------+ The Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG) format is widely used for image transfer using the World Wide Web because the image data can be reduced in size using image compression techniques and hence can be transferred relatively quickly. The compression technique used by this format typically results in the loss of image data which cannot be exactly recovered. Hence the reference to Lossy compression in the Table. The format, as you might appreciate, is not used for primary diagnosis but is nevertheless useful for teaching and related applications. The Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format is the most recent of these formats and has advantages in terms of Lossless compression, platform independent image display and compression features and the ability to embed patient and study identification information. The Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) is widely used in the publication industry and provides the capability for both lossless and lossy compression. Its lossless compression however results in large image file sizes. Finally the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) is widely used for transferring graphical images (e.g. graphs, diagrams, flowcharts etc.) via the World Wide Web, and can also be used for animated graphics. High quality display devices are generally needed for medical images. Cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors are widely used with their visual characteristics matched to the display task. Monitors for digital mammograms and chest radiographs, for instance, require a relatively high luminance and spatial resolution, while those used for nuclear medicine and ultrasound images don\'t have such stringent specifications but do require colour and dynamic imaging functionality -- and those used for CT and MRI are the same, except maybe for colour processing, but also require a high contrast resolution. In addition, monitors used for clinical review generally have lower spatial resolution requirements than those used for primary diagnosis. The CRT technology has disadvantages which include a nonuniform luminance and a high veiling glare. The luminance of a CRT monitor is generally highest in the centre and falls off, as does its spatial resolution, towards the periphery of the screen. Veiling glare results from light reflections inside the tube and can have a substantial negative influence on both spatial resolution and contrast. LCD monitors, on the other hand, are characterized by increased luminance, luminance uniformity, spatial resolution and contrast, as well as a lower electrical power consumption and desktop footprint. Visualization of displayed images is affected however when the viewer is not directly in front of the screen, because of optical polarization effects, but this is about the only disadvantage relative to CRTs. Luminance is an important feature because of its negative affect on diagnostic accuracy and a number of medical display standards therefore specify minimum values, e.g. the American College of Radiology specifies a minimum of 160 cd/m^2^. Viewboxes, which have been used traditionally in medical imaging, have a considerably higher luminance than computer display devices, whether they be CRTs or LCDs. Luminance values for various display devices are compared in the following table: +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Display \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| Device \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| *Size \| \| Luminance \| Contrast \| \| \| (cm)** \| Resolution \| (cd/m^2^)* \| Ratio \| \| \| \| (Pixels) \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| ```{=html} \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| </div> \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| \| +=============+=============+=============+=============+=============+ \| Mammography \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| Viewbox \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 57 \| \- \| 3,500 -- \| \- \| \| \| \| \| 5,000 \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| ```{=html} \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| </div> \| ``` \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| C \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| onventional \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| Viewbox \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 57 \| \- \| 1,000 -- \| \- \| \| \| \| \| 3,000 \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| ```{=html} \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| </div> \| ``` \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Greyscale \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| -- 3 \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| Megapixels \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 53 \| 2048 x 1536 \| 600 \| 600:1 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Greyscale \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| -- 2 \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| Megapixels \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 48 \| 1200 x 1600 \| 800 \| 700:1 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Colour \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 76 \| 1280 x 768 \| 450 \| 350:1 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Colour \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 51 \| 1200 x 1600 \| 350 \| 350:1 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Colour \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 46 \| 1280 x 1024 \| 240 \| 350:1 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ Notice in the table that viewboxes have a luminance five times or more greater than LCD monitors. As a result, windowing techniques are widely used to compensate. Notice also in the table that greyscale monitors tend to have a higher luminance than their colour counterparts. In addition, the image display workstation interface must be user-friendly. That is, interfaces which control the display, manipulation, analysis, storage and distribution of images need to be intuitive, efficient and specific within a medical context. +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ \| Connection \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Speed \| Time to Transfer\ \| \| \| \| a 5 Mbyte Image File \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| </div> \| ```{=html} \| \| \| ``` \| </div> \| \| \| \| ``` \| +=================+======================+========================+ \| Telephone Modem \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 56 kbit/s \| about 12 minutes \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ \| ISDN \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 128 kbit/s \| about 5 minutes \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ \| DSL \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 384 kbit/s \| 1.8 minutes \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ \| Ethernet \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 10 Mbit/s \| 4 seconds \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ \| Fast Ethernet \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 100 Mbit/s \| 0.4 seconds \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-----------------+----------------------+------------------------+ Further, the efficient distribution of images throughout large hospital campuses and associated clinics has been enhanced by the availability of free web browsing software and has meant that distribution of images can be achieved at a fraction of what the cost was prior to their introduction. Image transfer times should be short in any PACS system for obvious reasons. Ideally an image should appear on the monitor within 2 seconds of the request for the image. The increasing availability of high speed networks are allowing this requirement to be met more readily. A comparison of transfer speeds for a number of common network connections are shown in the following table. Finally, PACS environments should have access to relatively cheap archival storage up to a few Tbytes (i.e. a few million Mbytes) of image data and must provide retrieval of non-current image files in a reasonable time -- say, less than a minute or two. Current solutions include robotic digital tape archives and optical disk Juke Boxes. ## The Internet & The World Wide Web The Internet is a global assemblage of computer networks and an explosion in its use has occurred in recent years. Its origins can be traced to activities associated with connecting US university, military and research networks about 30 years ago by the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Inter-Networking Working Group, to the US National Science Foundation network in 1986, through the release of public-domain software by groups at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 1991 and at the University of Illinois National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in 1993 to the recent generation of substantial global interest. The system facilitates the transfer of data, computer programs and electronic mail and allows for discussion of specialised topics among newsgroups as well as other features such as telnet, internet relay chat and file sharing. Irrespective of the application however, the system essentially allows for the convenient exchange of information between computers on a global basis. This section gives a very brief overview of the Internet from a general perspective of electronic communication protocols and the World Wide Web. All forms of communication, be they based on electronic or other means, are reliant on some form of protocol. A common protocol when someone answers a telephone, for instance, is to say hello, to give a greeting or to announce the location/telephone number of the receiver. Communication between computers connected to the Internet uses a protocol called the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). This approach is an amalgam of two protocols, the details of which are of no great relevance to our discussion here, other than to note that they together provide an electronic communication protocol which allows two computers to connect via the Internet. One feature of TCP/IP to note however is that it can be used to communicate between different types of computers, i.e. it is platform independent. An IBM-compatible personal computer can therefore communicate with, for example, an Apple computer or a UNIX workstation. Related protocols which are used when computers communicate over a telephone line are the Serial Line Internet Protocol (SLIP) and the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). Once communication has been established between two computers, an additional protocol is needed to exchange computer files. A common protocol used for this purpose is called the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The types of files which can be transferred are typically computer programs as well as data such as word processed documents, spreadsheets, database files and images. A refinement to FTP is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) which allows the transfer of documents which contain data in the form of different media-types, and is widely used for webpage display. Examples of media-types are text, images and sound. Finally, two protocols relevant to electronic mail are the Post Office Protocol (POP) and the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and a protocol in use for newsgroups is the Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). !Illustration of a client-server connection on the WWW. The World Wide Web (WWW) is a conceptual interpretation of the Internet when it is used to transfer documents using the HTTP. These documents are generally called web pages and are written using an editing language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). This format provides control over, for instance, the size and colour of text, the use of tables and, possibly most importantly, the facility to link the document to documents which exist elsewhere on the WWW. HTML also allows the insertion of various media-types into documents. Images can be inserted, for instance, in formats such as the Graphical Interchange Format (GIF), the Joint Photographical Experts Group (JPEG) format or the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format, as discussed earlier, and image sequences can be displayed using one of the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) formats. This latter functionality is useful for instance, for display of dynamic nuclear medicine studies. The transfer of HTML documents is illustrated in the following figure. The user\'s computer (referred to as the client) is equipped with software (called a web browser) which allows it to interpret HTML documents and to communicate via the Internet using TCP/IP. The computer is also equipped with hardware which allows it to physically connect to the Internet, for example: :\* an ADSL modem for connecting via a telephone line to an Internet Service Provider, and :\* Local Area Network (LAN) hardware for connecting via an institutional network, such as an Ethernet connection. At the other end of the connection is a computer containing a document or set of documents of interest to the user. This second computer is called a server and contains the documents in HTML format. An example of a software package which is used within the server computer is Apache. The sequence of events is typically as follows: - The user establishes contact between the client and server computers by directing the browser at the Uniform Resource Location (URL) of the server and requests a given HTML document. The direction is typically of the form:\ \ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}http: //www.server.type.code/doc.html`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where: --------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <http://> the transfer protocol to be used server the name of the server computer type shorthand for the environment where that computer resides, e.g. com: company and edu: educational institution code shorthand for the country where the server is located, e.g. au: Australia and i.e.: Ireland doc the name of the document .html identifies the format of the document --------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - The server receives the request, gets the requested document from its storage device and sends the document using HTTP to the client. ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - The client receives the document and the browser interprets the HTML so that text, links and media-types are presented appropriately on the display device. Many WWW browsers also provide the ability for the user to download files using the file transfer protocol (FTP), to send and receive e-mail messages and to contribute to newsgroups. For example, the process for downloading files using FTP is similar to that illustrated in the last figure except that the user directs the browser at a URL of the form:\ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}ftp: //ftp.server.type.code/doc.xxx`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` Sophisticated WWW browsers, such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, also provide the ability to generate more than basic web-pages at the client\'s computer. One implementation is the ability to interpret client-side scripts. These are small programmes which are downloaded as part of the HTML document and are executed using the client computer\'s resources. By this means, for instance, the script can read the date and time from the client computer or use its arithmetic functions to make calculations, and embed this information in downloaded webpages. Client-side scripts can be written using languages such as JavaScript. Another implementation is the ability to execute small applications (called applets) which are downloaded with the HTML document and run on the client computer. Such applets can be generated using languages such as Java (not to be confused with JavaScript!). Applets are well developed for graphics applications, such as animations and scrolling banners. One exciting development in this field is the ability to download image processing software along with an image, so that the user can manipulate the image without the need for a special image processing program. Finally, a refinement to HTTP server software allows interaction from the client so that information can be returned to the server for executing specific tasks, such as searching a database, entering information into a database or automatically correcting and giving feedback on multiple choice exam questions. Additional software is required for this server-side processing -- a common form of which uses the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) protocol. Small CGI programs are generally referred to as scripts and are written in a language such as Perl. Online databases can also be accommodated within the client/server model. For example, mySql is a package which has been widely adopted for this purpose. Scripts for administering this server software can be written in languages such as PHP. As might be anticipated, the field of electronic communication introduces a vast range of additional concepts to those discussed above -- and, like PACS, are just as unrelated to medical concepts! However, further treatment of the subject is beyond our scope here since our interest is confined in the main to the distribution of medical images. ## Spatial Registration of Images Correlative imaging is widely used in medical diagnosis so that information gleaned from a number of imaging modalities can be merged to form a bigger picture about a patient\'s condition. However, the actual merging of image data on a routine basis in hospitals and clinics has had to await the development of relatively cheap and powerful computers and such image fusion is now commonplace. It is generally necessary to spatially align image data prior to the fusion process so as to address differences in orientation, magnification and other acquisition factors. This alignment process is generally referred to as image registration. Suppose we have two images to be registered -- a planar nuclear medicine scan and a radiograph, for instance: !A nuclear medicine bone scan of a patient\'s hands on the left and a radiograph of their right hand on the right. The arrowed curves indicate examples of correspondence between these images on the basis of our knowledge of anatomy. The registration process generally assumes that a correspondence exists between spatial locations in the two images so that a co-ordinate transfer function (CTF) can be established which can be used to map locations in one image to those of the other. In the above example, as in many clinical situations, a number of compatibility issues need to be addressed first. The obvious one arises from the different protocols used for image acquisitions, i.e. a palmar view in the bone scan and a posterior-anterior projection radiograph. We can handle this issue in our example case by extracting the right hand data from the bone scan and then flipping it around the horizontal axis. A related issue arises when different digital resolutions are used -- in this case, the nuclear medicine image was acquired using a 256 x 256 x 8-bit resolution, while the radiograph was acquired using a 2920 x 2920 pixel matrix with a 12-bit contrast resolution. Since we may be interested in maintaining the fine spatial resolution of the radiograph, we can magnify the bone scan to the radiographic resolution using an interpolated zoom process. The outcome of these steps is illustrated below: !A nuclear medicine bone scan of a patient\'s hand on the left extracted from the previous image and mirrored horizontally, and the radiograph on the right. The arrowed lines indicate examples of correspondence between these images. When we assume minimal spatial distortion and identical positioning in the projection radiograph, we can infer a spatially uniform CTF, i.e. the transform applied to one pixel can also be applied to each and every other pixel. Let\'s call the two images to be registered `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}B`</span>`{=html}, with image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html} being the one to be processed geometrically to correspond as exactly as possible with image B. The CTF can then be represented by the following equations: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html} u = f(x,y)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}v = g(x,y)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where: :\`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}f`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}g`</span>`{=html} define the transform in the horizontal and vertical image dimensions; :\(`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}u,w`</span>`{=html}) are the spatial co-ordinates in image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html}; and :\(`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}x,y`</span>`{=html}) those in image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}B`</span>`{=html}. The first computing step is to generate an initially empty image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}C`</span>`{=html} in the co-ordinate frame (`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}x,y`</span>`{=html}) and fill it with pixel values derived from applying the CTF to image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html}. The resultant image we can say is a version of image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html} registered to image `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}B`</span>`{=html}. The question, of course, is how to determine the CTF. For situations where simple geometric translations and rotations in the x- and y-dimensions are required, the functions `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}f`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}g`</span>`{=html} can involve relatively straight-forward bilinear interpolations. Such transformations can also compensate for image magnification effects, and the resultant processes are referred to as rigid* transforms. When spatial non-uniformities are encountered, non-rigid transforms can be used to apply different magnification factors in both x- and y-dimensions, as well as other geometric translations -- in which case higher order interpolants can be applied. Determination of the parameters of the CTF is obviously needed and there are numerous methods we can use, for example: :\* Landmarks -- where corresponding locations of prominent anatomical features in both images can be identified and two sets of co-ordinates can be derived on this basis to define the CTF. Note that artificial landmarks can be created using external markers during image acquisition, where, for instance, a set of markers which are both radioactive and NMR sensitive can be fixed to the surface of the patient during image acquisition for subsequent registration of SPECT and MRI scans. :\* Function Minimization/Maximization -- where an indicator of the quality of registration is monitored as various geometric transformations are applied to the image in an iterative fashion to search for a set of parameters which minimize (or maximise) this indicator. When both images are SPECT scans, acquired some months apart for instance, a quality measure such as the sum of the absolute pixel value differences can be applied. A more complex quality measure is typically required when the two images are from different modalities. We will concentrate our discussion below on this latter scenario. The concept of the joint histogram is important in this regard. Individual statistical histograms for our two images are shown below: !Histograms of pixel values displayed in black (with the logarithms of the frequencies displayed in grey so that lower frequencies can be discerned) for the bone scan on the left and the radiograph on the right. for the bone scan on the left and the radiograph on the right.") The bone scan\'s histogram indicates that a substantial proportion of the image is composed of dark pixels, with a much smaller number of brighter pixels arising from the hot spot. The histogram for the radiograph indicates that the image is composed of a substantial number of bright pixels with a broad spread of grey shades. Note that the term frequency used in this context refers to the frequency of occurrence of pixel values, i.e. the number of times individual pixel values occur in an image, and not to the terms temporal frequency and spatial frequency which we\'ve encountered elsewhere in this wikibook. The joint histogram is a related concept to the individual image histograms where the pixel values for pairs of pixels in the two images are plotted against each other on the one graph. In other words, the value of a pixel in one image is plotted against the value for the same pixel location in the second image. A good way to introduce this concept is by first of all comparing an image with a duplicate of itself, and then with shifted versions of this duplicated image, as illustrated in the following figure. We can use colour processing to assist in our visual comparisons, where the bone scan (the reference image) can be displayed using a red CLUT, for instance, and its shifted version using a green CLUT. As a result, where the two images overlay each other, the layered image data is displayed in shades of yellow, i.e. red plus green on the colour spectrum, in overlapping regions. The top row in our figure shows the situation when the two images are in perfect alignment. Note the resultant yellow-only colour scale. The joint histogram for this case consists of a diagonal straight line because the values of all pixel pairs in the two images are identical. The next row of our figure illustrates the effect of a horizontal shift of eight pixels between the two images. Notice that regions of mismatch are seen in shades of red and shades of green, as the case may be, and overlapping regions in shades of yellow. The joint histogram now has the appearance of a scatter plot because pixel values in the two images no longer correspond spatially. A bright pixel value in one image might now overlay with a dark region of the other, for instance, and vice-versa. !Joint histograms of an image against itself on the top row, and against spatially shifted versions of itself on the other three rows. See text for details. The third row in our figure illustrates the effect of a rotation of 15 degrees and the bottom row shows the combined effect of shifting and rotation. The basic lesson to learn from this is that perfect alignment between two identical images is indicated by a straight diagonal line in the joint histogram and lack of alignment results in a form of scatter plot. The major lesson to learn is that when two images are out of alignment, statistical techniques can be applied which endeavour to minimize the scatter in the joint histogram -- and hence effect a spatial registration of the two images. The situation is a bit more complicated when the two images to be registered are acquired using different imaging modalities, e.g. a nuclear medicine scan and a radiograph, because their individual histograms are likely to be substantially different from each other -- as we\'ve seen in our earlier figure. Nevertheless, methods to minimize the scatter plot in the resultant joint histogram can be used to register the two images, as illustrated in the following figure: !Joint histograms, on the top row for a non-registered bone scan and a radiograph and, on the bottom row, following function minimization. Compatibility issues between the two images for this registration process were addressed by first converting the radiograph from 2920 x 2920 x 12-bit resolution to 256 x 256 x 8-bits. The top row of the figure illustrates the situation and the joint histogram shows significant scattering in this data, as might be expected. The bottom row illustrates the outcome of a Mutual Information (MI) maximization process where a solution was found that involved shifting, rotating and magnifying the bone scan. While the joint histogram still depicts substantial scattering, the MI index can be seen to increase from 0.17 in the non-registered situation to 0.63 following registration, and the overlay image depicts the lesion in the bone scan registered to (or colocalized with, as is sometimes said) the radiograph. This type of image registration can ideally be generated automatically using a computer. An iterative process is generally followed, where the MI indicator is maximized initially for low resolution versions of the two images and then progressively for increasingly higher resolutions. Note however that reducing the resolution of the radiograph can substantially effect its spatial quality and that, while registration may be effected at this lower resolution, the resultant CTF can be used with appropriate magnification to register the bone scan with the full resolution radiograph -- as illustrated below: !The bone scan registered with the radiograph, where a yellow CLUT has been used for the radiograph and a red/white CLUT for the bone scan data.{width="512"} Other image similarity measures besides Mutual Information can also be applied depending on the nature of the data in the two images. These include: :\* Count Difference Minimization: where the sum of the absolute count differences between all pixels is minimized. :\* Shape Difference Minimization: where segmentation techniques are used to define the borders of the object to be registered in the two images and a similarity measure based on the distance between these borders is minimized. :\* Sign Change Maximization: which maximizes the number of positive/negative sign changes following subtraction of shifted versions of one image relative to the reference image. :\* Image Variance Minimization: which minimizes the statistical variance between two images. :\* Square Root Minimization: which minimizes the square root of the absolute count differences between all pixels in the two images. :\* Gradient Matching: which is based on comparing edges in the two images. The technique chosen for an individual pair of images is primarily dependent on the nature of the image data. Some techniques may be readily applied to intra-patient, intra-modality studies where, for instance, bone scans of the same region of the same patient acquired some time apart are compared -- in a follow-up study for example. Other techniques may be required for inter-modality comparisons, e.g. a nuclear medicine and an MRI scan, while others still for inter-patient, intra-modality comparisons -- where a patient\'s images are compared with those in an atlas of normal and diseased conditions, for instance. Finally, its of relevance to note that while spatial registration techniques were introduced here using 2D images, the approach can also be readily extended to the 3D case through comparisons of statistical features in voxel data, e.g. registering SPECT and CT scans, or PET and MRI scans, for example. Here registration of individual slices can be applied sequentially through the volume of interest. ## Image Segmentation Many forms of image analysis require the identification of structures and objects within an image. Image segmentation is the process of partitioning an image into distinct regions by grouping together pixels which belong to the same object. Two general approaches have been developed: :\* Threshold Definition: where some property of an image is compared to a fixed or variable threshold on a pixel-by-pixel basis. A simple example is a grey-level threshold where a look-up table (LUT) of the form illustrated in the left hand panel of the figure below is applied, and where the value of the threshold, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}T`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html}, can be adjusted interactively. !A threshold look-up table on the left and thresholding a bimodal distribution on the right.{width="512"} : : This is a useful technique when the image contains a single, well-defined object or group of objects of similar pixel value superimposed on a background with a substantially different pixel value. However, difficulties can arise with grey-level thresholding when objects are close together, e.g. cardiac chambers. Histogram analysis can be used as an alternative where pixel values are thresholded on the basis of their frequency of occurrence, as illustrated in the right hand panel of the figure above. Other alternatives include thresholding colours when a CLUT is applied, monitoring the time of arrival of a tracer or contrast medium in a region of an image and analysis of the variation in pixel values in the neighbourhood of a pixel within an object of interest. :\* Region Growth: which exploits two characteristics of imaged objects: :::# pixels for an object tend to have similar pixel values, and :::# pixels for the same object are contiguous. : : A common technique is based on firstly defining a starting pixel in the object and then testing neighbouring pixels on the basis of a specific criterion for addition to a growing region. This criterion could be based on pixel value considerations, as in the following figure for instance, or on the anticipated size or shape of the object. !Region Growth: The object of interest in a CT scan is identified in the top left panel. A pixel value range for this object is specified to highlight the resultant region in the top right panel, to identify the borders of the region in the bottom left panel or to extract the object into another image in the bottom right panel. : : Note that this approach can be extended to grow regions in three-dimensions when the image data consists of a set of contiguous tomographic slices. ## Image Fusion A method of combining image data to form a fusion display is required once images have been registered. A simple approach is to add the two images. Multiplying them is also an option. However, this form of image fusion tends to obscure the underlying anatomy when hot spots exist in the nuclear medicine data, as illustrated in the following figure: !A bone scan is combined with a radiograph through addition on the left, and multiplication on the right. A second approach is to interlace the two images so that a fusion display is built up using alternate pixels, alternate pixel groups or alternate lines of data from each image, as illustrated in the following figure: !A bone scan is combined with a radiograph using interlaced vertical lines on the left, interlaced alternate pixels in the middle and tiling on the right. However, such interlacing can highlight features associated with the interlacing process itself, as illustrated by the vertical lines in the left panel of the figure above. The so-called checkerboard display, as illustrated in the right panel above, is a related technique where alternate groups of pixels are displayed in a tiled fashion. A third approach is to use an image compositing technique called Alpha Blending, which uses a transparency value, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}α`</span>`{=html}, to determine a proportional mixing of the two images, as illustrated in the following figure: !A bone scan is combined with a radiograph using alpha blending, with a transparency value of 0.5 on the left, and 0.2 on the right. This type of approach is highly developed in the publishing industry and a wide range of fusion options are available. A common one, which was used for the images above, is to apply an equation of the form: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}Fused Image = (α) Image1 + (1-α) Image2`</span>`{=html}. ```{=html} </div> ``` A transparency value of 0.5 was used to generate the image in the left panel above, for instance, with the result that the underlying anatomy can be discerned through the hot spot. A powerful feature of this approach is that the fusion transparency can be varied interactively so as to optimize the data presentation, for instance, or to confirm the quality of the registration process (as illustrated in the right hand panel above). This blending approach can be extended to incorporate a variable opacity function, where different transparency values are applied to different parts of the grey scale of one image. Note that the terms transparency and opacity have a reciprocal relationship in this context. Example blends are shown in the following figure: !Image blending using four different opacity functions -- Linear: a linear opacity function; High-Low-High: a high opacity is used for both small and large pixels values and a low opacity for intermediate pixel values; Low-High-Low: low opacity used for both small and large pixel values and high opacity for intermediate pixel values; Flat: a constant opacity is applied. The High-Low-High opacity function, for instance, applies a high level of opacity to pixel values at the top and bottom ends of the contrast scale of one of the images and a low opacity to intermediate pixel values. The result is improved visualization of fused data outside of hot spot regions -- as illustrated in the top right panel above. The Low-High-Low function has the opposite effect and generates the capability to visualize the relevant anatomical detail with a highlighted region around it -- as shown in the bottom left panel above. Logarithmic, exponential and other opacity functions can also be applied, depending on the nature of the two images to be fused. The choice of opacity function and CLUT for use in image fusion applications would appear to be an artistic, in contrast to a scientific or infotech, endeavour in that the final result is often achieved using aethestic impressions which convey the medical information of relevance. Each study can require a reasonably unique combination of image processing steps depending upon whether hot or cold spots exist in the nuclear medicine study and upon the nature of the image data in the anatomical study, be it from radiography, X-ray CT, sonography or from one of the various forms of magnetic resonance imaging. It is for this reason that computers used for this type of application tend to feature highly intuitive and tacit user interfaces with powerful visualization capabilities. OsiriX, for example, runs only on the Macintosh platform for this reason. A second example is provided by a major medical equipment manufacturer which gave the name Leonardo to a product line! A final method of image fusion that we\'ll mention briefly is referred to as Selective Integration, where segmentation techniques, for instance, can be used to extract structures from one image so that they can be pasted to relevant regions of a second, spatially-registered image. We\'ll conclude this chapter with an example illustrating the 3D alignment and misalignment of the fused study shown in the following image: !Fused SPECT and CT multi-planar reconstructions with an interface which can be used to control their relative 3D alignment.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Three-Dimensional Visualization Techniques ## Introduction This is a developing chapter of a wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Three-dimensional visualization techniques are used to integrate a series of tomographic slices into a form which is often easier to interpret than the slices on their own. An overview of the major visualization techniques used in medical imaging is presented in this chapter. We\'ll start with the integration of two-dimensional (2D) axial images before considering various three-dimensional (3D) image presentation methods. The following set of images will be used to help us with our task. They consist of a SPECT lung-ventilation study, illustrated by the animated sequence on the left, a SPECT lung-perfusion study, in the middle, and a CT pulmonary angiogram (CTPA) from the same patient on the right: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Animated sequence from a patient\'s SPECT lung-ventilation study.{width="256"} !Animated sequence from the patient\'s SPECT lung-perfusion study.{width="256"} !Animated sequence from the patient\'s X-ray CTPA study.{width="256"} -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We\'ll use these image sets at various stages in this chapter so as to provide examples which will help with demonstrating the essence of the techniques we\'ll consider. Acquisition factors for the image sets include 128 x 128 pixel slices each of thickness 4.8 mm for the SPECT studies and 512 x 512 pixel contiguous slices of thickness 1.5 mm for the axial images reconstructed from the CTPA helical scan. In addition, the lung-perfusion scan was acquired immediately following the ventilation scan, so that residual activity from the latter is present in the former at a level of about 20%. Its helpful, before proceeding, to consider the axial slices, be they SPECT or CT, stacked one behind the other, as illustrated below: !A stack of SPECT tomograms from a perfusion study of a patient\'s lungs. Notice that the figure illustrates each image as a thin slice when the data represents in reality a slice wide enough to fill the gap between it and the next slice, so that the image data can be considered to be a matrix of volume elements -- called voxels for short. A convention applied in medical imaging is to display axial image stacks with the axes oriented as shown in the following figure: !Labels for the axial imaging space. So the left side of an axial scan represents the patient\'s right side viewed from below, with their anterior surface at the top of the image. A modification of a little ditty by Spike Milligan might help you remember this perspective: ----------------------------------------------------------------- `<i>`{=html}I\'d love to be a fish,`</i>`{=html} `<i>`{=html}Who could swim beneath the ice,`</i>`{=html} `<i>`{=html}And look up at all the people skating,`</i>`{=html} `<i>`{=html}Oh wouldn\'t it be nice!`</i>`{=html} ----------------------------------------------------------------- You\'re likely to find that its a good idea to experience the real thing when reading this chapter so as to help overcome the abstract nature of many of the topics we\'ll encounter, as well as the limitations of using a 2D medium (i.e. this webpage) to communicate 3D visualization concepts. Numerous open source 3D programs and image libraries are available via the World Wide Web. The software used to generate images in this chapter, for instance, includes OsiriX (MacOS X only), Madena and ImageJ (multi-platform). ## Axial Projection The first technique we\'ll consider is a relatively simple one called Axial Projection. It involves integrating a number of axial images to display a composite which presents a three-dimensional impression of that volume of image data. The technique is sometimes referred to as Thick Slab or Z-Projection. The figure below illustrates the outcome of a range of z-projection methods, with a single slice shown in the bottom right hand corner for reference purposes. The first image in the top left shows the result of summing 16 slices, and the other two images on that row show the results of computing the mean and median of these slices. !A range of z-projections of 16 axial slices from the CT scan, with a reference, single slice shown in the bottom right corner. The first two images in the second row show the result of what are called a Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) and a Minimum Intensity Projection (MinIP), respectively. A MIP evaluates each voxel along each line of voxels through the volume to determine the maximum voxel value and forms an image using the values so determined for each line. A MinIP uses the minimum voxel values, as illustrated in the following figure: !A single line of voxels through eight axial slices illustrating the determination of the maximum voxel value for MIPs on the left, and the minimum value for MinIPs on the right. Volume rendered projections are shown in the first two images along the bottom row of our collection of example axial projections. This image compositing method involves applying an opacity function to the voxel data as well as a recursive addition of the resulting data. An equation of the form: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}C~n~ = A~n~ + B~n~`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where : : `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A~n~ = (α).(Voxel Value of voxel, n)`</span>`{=html}, : : `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}B~n~ = (1-α).(Voxel Value of voxel, n-1)`</span>`{=html}, and : : `<span style="color:red;">`{=html} α = opacity`</span>`{=html}, in the range `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}0`</span>`{=html} (i.e. fully transparent) to `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}1`</span>`{=html} (i.e. fully opaque), : is applied to each line of voxels as illustrated in the following figure: !Illustration of the volume rendering technique. The figure shows the line of voxels we\'ve used previously with an opacity table in the top right corner. The opacity function shown is one where a zero opacity is applied to voxel values below a threshold level, a linear increase in opacity is applied to an intermediate range of voxel values and maximum opacity applied to high voxel values. The opacity table is somewhat like the look-up table used for greyscale windowing which we\'ve described earlier, with the function applied to the opacity of voxel values instead of to their grey levels. Note that more complex opacity tables to the one used in our figure above can be also applied, e.g. logarithmic and exponential functions. The bottom half of the figure shows the steps involved in calculating the volume rendered value of the composited voxel. Voxel values are shown on the top row with opacity values, derived from a crude opacity table, for each voxel shown on the second row. The third, fourth and fifth rows detail the values of `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}A`</span>`{=html}, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}B`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}C`</span>`{=html}, calculated using our volume rendering equation above. The final voxel value is obtained by summing the bottom row, and normalizing the result to, say, a 256 level grey scale. The outcome of this form of processing is the generation of an image which includes visual depth cues on the basis that similar voxel values will be displayed with a similar transparency and those closest to the reference slice having a stronger contribution than those from more distal slices. Further, note that all voxel values in each line contribute to the rendered image, in contrast to the limited number of voxels that contribute to a MIP or a MinIP image. A 3D effect results from volume rendering, as illustrated in the images above. Notice that volume rendering can be applied from distal to proximal slices, as illustrated in our figure, as well as in the opposite direction, i.e. from proximal to distal slices. Hence the terms Volume Rendering Up and Volume Rendering Down used in our set of nine example images above. The type of axial projection method appropriate to an individual patient study is dependent on the anatomical and/or functional information of relevance to the diagnostic process. Let\'s take the case of imaging contrast-filled blood vessels, for example, in our nine example images above. Note that a MIP can be used to give a visually-stunning impression of the vessel bed in the patient\'s lungs. There\'s little depth information in this projection, however, so that overlapping and underlying vessels can obscure lesions that might be present in blood vessels of interest. The application of this form of axial projection to angiography is therefore limited to studies where vessel overlap isn\'t an issue. The inclusion of voxel transparency and depth weighting in volume rendered images addresses this limitation of MIP processing. A final point to note is that this form of image projection can also be applied to multi-planar reconstructions of axial slices, which we\'ll consider next\..... ## Multi-Planar Reconstruction In the simplest case, multi-planar reconstruction (MPR) involves generating perspectives at right angles to a stack of axial slices so that coronal and sagittal images can be generated. We\'ll start this section by describing these orthogonal projections before considering their synchronized composite display. We\'ll also describe three variants on this theme: oblique reconstruction, curved reconstruction and integrated three-dimensional presentation. - `<big>`{=html}Coronal Reconstruction`</big>`{=html} : : Here the image stack is rotated so that the z-axis becomes the vertical and a stack of images is reconstructed using parallel planes of voxels arranged from the patient\'s anterior to posterior surface, as illustrated in the following figure: !Labels for the coronal image space. : : Example coronal reconstructions from our image sets are shown below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Animated sequence of reconstructed coronal slices from a SPECT lung-perfusion study. !Animated sequence of reconstructed coronal slices from a CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) study. study.") ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : : Here the reconstructed slices are typically displayed from the patient\'s anterior to their posterior surface with the patient\'s head towards the top of the slices and their right hand side on the left of the slices. - `<big>`{=html}Sagittal Reconstruction`</big>`{=html} : : Sagittal reconstructions are possible through additional rotations of the image stack so that a patient\'s left-to-right slice sequence can be generated as illustrated in the following figure: !Labels for the sagittal image space. : : Example sagittal reconstructions from our image sets are shown below: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Animated sequence of reconstructed (left-to-right) sagittal slices from a SPECT lung-perfusion study. sagittal slices from a SPECT lung-perfusion study.") !Animated sequence of reconstructed (left-to-right) sagittal slices from a CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) study. sagittal slices from a CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) study.") ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : : Here the reconstructed slices are typically displayed from the patient\'s left to right side, with their head towards the top and their anterior surface towards the left of the slices. Note that a right-to-left sagittal stack can also be generated using additional geometric transformation of the data. - `<big>`{=html}Composite MPR Display`</big>`{=html} : : Coronal and sagittal reconstructions are referred to as Orthogonal MPRs because the perspectives generated are from planes of image data which are at right angles to each other. Composite MPR displays can be generated so that linked cursors or crosshairs can be used to locate a point of interest from all three perspectives, as illustrated in these images: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !A composite orthogonal MPR display with linked cursors on the axial and sagittal images. !A composite orthogonal MPR display with linked crosshairs on all three images. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- : : This form of image presentation is sometimes referred to as a TCS display -- implying the viewing of _T_ransaxial, _C_oronal and _S_agittal slices. It can be combined with the slice projection methods we discussed earlier, as illustrated in the two sets of images below, where the blue lines highlight the limits of the coronal projections: !Axial and sagittal reconstructions from the SPECT lung-perfusion study with various coronal projections. !Axial and sagittal reconstructions from the CT study with a coronal MIP. - `<big>`{=html}Oblique Reconstruction`</big>`{=html} : : Oblique MPRs are possible by defining angled planes through the voxel data , as illustrated in the following figure: !CT MPR incorporating an oblique MIP. : : Here the plane can be defined in, say, the axial images (red line, top left) and a maximum intensity projection (the limits used are highlighted by the blue lines), for example, can be displayed for the reconstructed plane (right). This technique is useful when attempting to generate perspectives in cases where the visualization of three-dimensional structures is complicated by overlapping anatomical detail. - `<big>`{=html}Curved Reconstruction`</big>`{=html} : : Curved MPRs can be used for the reconstruction of more complex perspectives, as illustrated in the next figure: !An axial slice from the CT scan on the left with a curve (highlighted in green) which is used to define the reconstruction on the right. which is used to define the reconstruction on the right.") : : Here a curve (highlighted in green) can been positioned in the axial images (left panel) to define a curved surface which extends through the voxel data in the z-direction, and voxels from this data can be reconstructed into a two-dimensional image (right panel). Note that more complex curves than the one illustrated can be generated so that, for instance, the three-dimensional course of a major blood vessel can be isolated, or CT head scans can be planarized for orthodontic applications. - `<big>`{=html}3D Multi-Planar Reconstruction`</big>`{=html} : : A final variant on the MPR theme is the generation of a three-dimensional display showing all three orthogonal projections combined so that a defined point of interest locates the intersection of the planes, as illustrated in the following figure: !3D Orthogonal MPR rotating sequence. : : The point of intersection is located for illustrative purposes at the centre of the voxel data in the figure above. It can typically be placed at any point in the 3D data using interactive controls. In addition, the perspective used for the rotating sequence can typically be manipulated interactively to improve the visualization of a region of interest. Note that the image sequence illustrated above is one from a myriad of perspectives that can thus be generated. Note also that slice projections (e.g. MIPs) can be combined with this form of display to provide additional perspectives on a feature of interest. ## Maximum Intensity Projection We\'ve described the maximum intensity projection (MIP) earlier in the context of axial projection, where the maximum voxel value is determined for lines running in parallel through the projected slice thickness. A sequence of such images can be generated when this computation is applied at successive angles around the voxel data. One simple sequence is a rotating one for 360 degrees around the horizontal plane, as illustrated in the left panel of the figure below, where the maximum intensity is projected for every 9 degrees around the patient and the resultant 40 images compiled into a repeating, temporal (e.g. movie) sequence: !3D MIPs of a CT scan: Horizontal rotating sequences using parallel projections (left) and perspective projections (right). and perspective projections (right).") Notice that the 3D MIP derives its information from the most attenuating regions of the CT scan (given that the CT-number is directly dependent on the linear attenuation coefficient) and hence portrays bone, contrast media and metal with little information from surrounding, lower attenuating tissues. Notice also that continued viewing of the rotating MIP sequence can generate a disturbing effect where the direction of rotation appears to periodically reverse -- which may be an aspect of perceptual oscillation. The perspective MIP, illustrated in the panel on the right in the above figure, can reduce this limitation by providing spatial cues which can be used to guide continued visual inspection. Perspective projections can be generated by changing from the parallel lines used to generate the parallel projections to lines of voxels which diverge from an apparent point behind the volume at a distance such that the viewer of the display can visualize closer features of the image data as relatively larger than deeper features -- see the following figure: !Illustration of parallel (left) and perspective (right) projections using conceptualized lateral views of the voxel data and the eye of the viewer of the projected image. and perspective (right) projections using conceptualized lateral views of the voxel data and the eye of the viewer of the projected image.") ## Volume Rendering Volume rendering can be applied to the voxel data in the successive rotation manner described for MIPs above, as illustrated by the results in the following figure: !3D VR: Parallel projection (left) and perspective projection (right). and perspective projection (right).") Note that the volume rendering can be contrast enhanced so as to threshold, for instance, through the voxel values to eliminate low attenuating surfaces, as illustrated in the following figure: !3D VR contrast enhancement progressively applied, from top left to bottom right panels, through the voxel value range. Note also that the colour look-up table (CLUT) can be varied to highlight features of particular interest, as shown in the set of images below: !3D volume renderings using four different CLUTs. The influence of the opacity table is illustrated in the following example images: !3D volume renderings using four different opacity tables. The influence on volume rendering of various shading settings is shown below: !3D VR shading comparison. The shading settings used for the above images are as follows: +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Image \| Ambient \| Diffuse \| Specular \| Specular \| \| \| Coefficient \| Coefficient \| Coefficient \| Power \| +=============+=============+=============+=============+=============+ \| Top Left \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 0.15 \| 0.9 \| 0.3 \| 15.0 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Top Middle \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| `<span sty \| 0.9 \| 0.3 \| 15.0 \| \| \| le="color:r \| \| \| \| \| \| ed;">`{=htm \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| l}0.75`</sp \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| an>`{=html} \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Top Right \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 0.15 \| `<span st \| 0.3 \| 15.0 \| \| \| \| yle="color: \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| red;">`{=ht \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| ml}0.1`</sp \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| an>`{=html} \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Bottom Left \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 0.15 \| 0.9 \| `<span st \| 15.0 \| \| \| \| \| yle="color: \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| red;">`{=ht \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| ml}1.2`</sp \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| an>`{=html} \| ``` \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Bottom \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| Middle \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 0.15 \| 0.9 \| 0.1 \| `<span st \| \| \| \| \| \| yle="color: \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| red;">`{=ht \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| </div> \| ml}1.0`</sp \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| an>`{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| Bottom \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| Right \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| <div clas \| \| \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| s="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 0.15 \| 0.9 \| `<span st \| `<span st \| \| \| \| \| yle="color: \| yle="color: \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| red;">`{=ht \| red;">`{=ht \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| ml}0.6`</sp \| ml}1.0`</sp \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| an>`{=html} \| an>`{=html} \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ \| \| \| \| \| \| +-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+-------------+ A final feature to note about volume rendering is that 3D editing techniques can be applied so as to exclude unwanted features from the computations and to expose internal structure. This is illustrated in the following figure, where planes of an orthogonal frame can be moved to crop the voxel data from six directions. !3D volume rendering with cropping frame (left) and cropped, magnified projection (right). and cropped, magnified projection (right).") ## Surface Rendering Surface rendering is also referred to as Shaded Surface Display (SSD) and involves generating surfaces from regions with similar voxel values in the 3D data as illustrated by the SPECT lung-perfusion scan shown in the left panel below: !3D surface rendering: shaded surface and wireframe display. The process involves the display of surfaces which might potentially exist within the 3D voxel data on the basis that the edges of objects can be expected to have similar voxel values. One approach is to use a grey-level thresholding technique where voxels are extracted once a threshold value is encountered in the line of the projection -- see the following diagram. Triangles are then used to tesselate the extracted voxels, as shown in the right panel of the figure above -- and the triangles are filled using a constant value with shading applied on the basis of simulating the effects of a fixed virtual light source -- as shown in the left panel above. !Illustration of surface rendering. An opacity table can be applied to the results so that surfaces from internal features can also be visualized. As an example, two surfaces have been identified in the following image from the CT scan where voxel values from bone surfaces are coded in an opaque yellow colour and tissue surfaces in a transparent shade of red. !SSD of two surfaces. A second example of using an opacity table is shown in the following figure. Here, axial CT data from the patient\'s airways have been segmented using a region growth technique and the result processed using surface rendering, with full opacity as shown in the left panel and with a reduced opacity (30%) as shown in the right panel: !3D SSD: opaque and transparent display. Notice that internal features of each lung can be discerned when the opacity is reduced. Notice also that continued viewing of this type of transparency display can generate apparent reversal of the image rotation, similar to that noted for the 3D MIPs above. One method of overcoming this type of problem is to segment each lung, for instance. and to blend the results, as illustrated in the following figure: !3D SSD: blending of each lung following segmentation. ## subFusion Processing We\'ll conclude this chapter by considering an application of 3D visualization which integrates many of the image processing techniques we\'ve described in this wikibook. We\'ll use the two SPECT scans, from a patient\'s lung-ventilation (V) and lung-perfusion (Q) studies, in an attempt to visualize any mismatch(es) characteristic of pulmonary embolism (PE). The application we\'ll consider is called subFusion Processing because it involves both image subtraction and image fusion techniques. Note again that the SPECT studies were generated using a swamping technique where the perfusion scan was acquired immediately following the ventilation scan using an administered activity which generated a relative count rate of about 5:1 between scans. The first image processing step therefore is to correct the perfusion scan for the background ventilation activity. Since the ventilation tracer in this case was administered using a aerosol, we can assume for simplicity that its biodistribution is reasonably identical in the two scans. Further, since the scans were acquired about 15 minutes apart using the ^99m^Tc radioisotope, we can assume a negligible effect from radioactive decay. We can simply therefore subtract the ventilation stack from the perfusion stack, on the basis of these assumptions, to isolate what we\'ll call the \"pure perfusion\" scan. The second step is to normalize the two scans by multiplying the ventilation stack by a factor such that the mean counts (for example) in the two stacks are similar. : `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}We can now compare apples with apples!`</span>`{=html} Since a PE mismatch is likely to arise from regions of the lungs which contain counts in the ventilation scan and are relatively bereft of such counts in the perfusion scan, we can subtract the \"pure perfusion\" stack from the ventilation stack, as a third image processing step, to isolate any such differences as positively-valued features. The final image processing step is to volume render this difference stack along with the \"pure perfusion\" scan and to blend the results, as illustrated in the following image: frame\\|center\\|subFusion processing applied to a SPECT lung ventilation-perfusion scan: Both lungs of the patient displayed on the left, with their right lung displayed in the top right and their left lung below it. The \"pure perfusion\" scan is displayed using a grey-scale and the difference data using a spectrum CLUT, where large differences are coded in red with intermediate differences in yellow and smaller differences in green. The steps involved are outlined in the following diagram. Note that minor processes, such as CLUT selection, relative opacity adjustment and contrast enhancement are omitted from this diagram for the sake of simplicity. Note also that an image registration step may need inclusion at the beginning of the procedure in cases where patient movement occurs between the two SPECT acquisitions. !Block diagram of the 3D subFusion process. A final point to note is the larger appearance of the patient\'s lungs in the segmented CTPA images relative to the SPECT images. This arises because the CTPA study was acquired using a single breath-hold and the SPECT studies with the patient breathing quietly over the period of gamma camera rotation. The spatial registration of the three sets of images is therefore not possible directly, and would require the application of spatial warping and other techniques which, unfortunately, are beyond the scope of our treatment here.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Patient Dosimetry This chapter overviews the MIRD method of estimating doses in nuclear medicine and gives results of surveys of typical patient doses for a small range of examinations. Doses from X-ray CT surveys are also given for comparison purposes, and to aid with your appreciation of the dosimetric impact of PET/CT and SPECT/CT. ## MIRD Calculations The direct measurement of the absorbed dose to organs of the body from nuclear medicine procedures is rarely possible. Most estimates depend on Monte Carlo simulation. To compute a dose distribution, many hundreds of thousands of virtual gamma rays originating in numerous source organs must be traced through the body as they interact with tissues by Compton scattering and photoelectric absorption. Contributions to the dose from Auger electrons, internal conversion electrons and beta decays must also be included This latter part of the simulation is usually quite straight-forward since these radiations can be considered to be absorbed in the organ they originate in. The Medical Internal Radiation Dose (MIRD) Committee in the USA has provided a substantial body of data to assist in dose estimation. The MIRD method of calculation allows estimation of the dose to organs of significance from radioactivity distributed homogeneously throughout a particular source organ. The method can be split into two parts: - Firstly, some assumptions are made about or measurements are taken of the biological distribution of radioactivity throughout the body, taking into account both the biological and physical half-life of the labelled radionuclide. : The cumulated activity, Ã~s~, in any particular source organ is calculated by integrating the instantaneous activity over time. This data might be obtained from theoretical modelling (such as Compartmental Analysis) or from measurements using a gamma camera to measure the count rate as a function of time in the organ of interest - see the following figure: !Estimation of the cumulated activity. The curve in this example could for example represent the activity in part of the skeleton after administration of ^99m^Tc-MDP. : Mathematically, this type of activity/time curve can be represented by the equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\tilde{A}_s = \int A_s (t) \cdot dt$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : : where A~s~(t) is the activity in the source organ, s at time, t. - Secondly, the absorbed dose to a target organ, D~t~, is calculated from: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $D_t = \sum_{s} \tilde{A}_s \cdot S(t,s)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` : where the summation over s is intended to account for contributions from all source organs to the target organ. The S-factor, S(t,s) is the mean absorbed dose to the target organ, t, from unit activity of the relevant radioisotope distributed homogeneously within the source organ, s. Note that its possible for the source and target organ to be the same entity. ## The S-Factor The challenging part of the MIRD method is the calculation of the S-factor because it depends on accurate knowledge of the radiations emitted by the radionuclide. Although the MIRD publications assist by providing representative values of S-factors for most organs and for a variety of radionuclides, it is important to understand the methodology and hence the limitations of this technique. The S-factor for each radiation type can be broken down into component factors: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $S(t,s) = D \frac{f(t,s)}{m}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where: - D is a measure of the total energy associated with the particular radiation type and is a physical entity known from the radioisotope\'s decay scheme, - f(t,s) is the absorbed fraction for the particular radiation emitted in the source organ, s, and absorbed by the target organ, t, and - m is the mass of the target organ. The absorbed fraction represents the fraction of the total energy emitted by radiation of a particular type that is absorbed in the target organ. For beta particles, which have a short range in tissue, it can be assumed that all the energy will be deposited in the source organ and other target organs will not be irradiated. That is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $f(t,s) = 0\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Unless t = s, in which case: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $f(t,s) = 1\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The determination of the S-factor is very simple in this case. For gamma-rays, however, no such simple approach is possible since the amount of energy deposited in the source organ and in the target organ is dependent on: - the gamma ray energy, as well as - the size, shape and separation of the two organs in question. Furthermore, we need to take into account not just the gamma-rays from the nucleus of the radioisotope but also emissions from the whole atom, i.e. emissions resulting from the electron shells when stimulated by emissions from the nucleus. The situation for ^99m^Tc is illustrated in the following table, as an example: Radiation Radiations/Disintegration Radiation Energy (keV) Dose (keV/Disintegration) ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- ------------------------ --------------------------- Conversion electrons from M-shell, γ~1~ 0.75 1.63 1.21 γ~2~ 0.89 140.5 125 Conversion electrons from K-shell, γ~2~ 0.09 119.5 10.6 Conversion electrons from L-shell, γ~2~ 0.01 137.5 1.47 Conversion electrons from M-shell, γ~2~ 0.002 140.0 0.27 Conversion electrons from N- and outer shells, γ~2~ 0.0004 140.4 0.05 Conversion electrons from K-shell, γ~3~ 0.006 121.6 0.67 Conversion electrons from L-shell, γ~3~ 0.002 139.6 0.24 Conversion electrons from M-shell, γ~3~ 0.0003 142.1 0.05 K~α1~ X-ray 0.04 18.4 0.74 K~α2~ X-ray 0.02 18.3 0.39 K~β~ X-ray 0.01 20.6 0.25 K-Auger electron 0.02 15.5 0.32 L-Auger electron 0.1 2.2 0.22 : Adapted from the ENSDF Decay Data for ^99m^Tc (approximate values). We can see in the table that a range of radiations are generated within the atom as a whole. For instance, on the first line the energy of a gamma-ray emitted by the nucleus is given to an M-shell electron in about 75% of one type of isomeric transition giving it a maximum energy of 1.63 keV, i.e. about 1.2 keV per nuclear disintegration. On the second line, a gamma-ray resulting from another isomeric transition in 89% of instances emerges unscathed from the atom with an energy of 140.5 keV, or about 125 keV per disintegration. In a third case, in about 9% of these latter isomeric transitions, an electron in the K-shell gains energy of 119.5 keV, which is sufficient for it to overcome the binding energy (about 21 keV) of that shell and leave the atom. Notice that fluorescent X-rays, resulting from electronic transitions to fill vacancies in the K-shell are also produced - as well as Auger electrons. Part of a resultant MIRD table of S-factors for ^99m^Tc is reproduced below as examples of typical values:\ Target Organ Liver as Source Spleen as Source ------------------ ----------------- ------------------ Bladder Wall 4.3 x 10^-5^ 3.2 x 10^-5^ Stomach Wall 5.1 x 10^-4^ 2.7 x 10^-3^ Liver 1.2 x 10^-2^ 2.6 x 10^-4^ Lungs 1.4 x 10^-4^ 6.2 x 10^-4^ Pancreas 1.1 x 10^-3^ 5.1 x 10^-3^ Spleen 2.5 x 10^-4^ 8.9 x 10^-2^ : The absorbed dose per unit cumulated activity, S(t,s), for ^99m^Tc (in mGy/MBq/hour) The unit of the S-factor is typically mGy/MBq/hour. Note that substantial discrepancies between actual and calculated values can be expected depending on differences in anatomy and physiological function between individual patients. ## The Dose in a Liver Scan To illustrate how the table above can be used in a hypothetical situation, suppose a liver scan is performed in which 37 MBq of ^99m^Tc-labelled sulphur colloid is administered to a patient. Suppose also that it is found from metabolic modelling that: - 80% of the cumulated activity goes to the patient\'s liver and - 20% goes to their spleen. When it is then assumed that the biological half-life for the colloid is infinite in these two organs, which is a reasonable approximation, the calculation of cumulated total activity is much simplified as illustrated in the box below: : {\\| class=\"toc\" style=\"background:transparent; text-align:left;\" \\| rowspan=\"5\" style=\"vertical-align:top; padding-right:5px;\" \\| $\tilde{A}_{\text{liver}}$ \\| $= \int A(t) \cdot dt$ \\|- \\| $= \int A_0\ \text{exp} \left ( \frac{-0.693t}{T_\frac{1}{2}} \right ) \cdot dt$ \\|- \\| $= A_0 \cdot 1.44 \cdot T_{\frac{1}{2}}$ \\|- \\| $= 0.8 \cdot 37 \cdot 1.44 \cdot 6.03 \cdot \text{MBq.h}\,\!$ \\|- \\| $= 256.6\ \text{MBq.h}\,\!$ \\|- \\| \\|\\| \\|- \\| rowspan=\"2\" style=\"vertical-align:top; padding-right:5px;\" \\| $\tilde{A}_{\text{spleen}}$ \\| $= 0.2 \cdot 37 \cdot 1.44 \cdot 6.03\ \text{MBq.h}\,\!$ \\|- \\| $= 64.1\ \text{MBq.h}\,\!$ \\|- \\| \\|\\| \\|- \\| rowspan=\"2\" style=\"vertical-align:top; padding-right:5px;\" \\| $D_{\text{liver}}\,\!$ \\| $= (1.2 \cdot 10^{-2} \cdot 256.6) + (2.6 \cdot 10^{-4} \cdot 64.1)\ \text{mGy}\,\!$ \\|- \\| $= 3.2\ \text{mGy}\,\!$ \\|} Note that the liver dose arises almost exclusively from the presence of radioactivity in the liver and that the activity in the spleen contributes little to this dose - just 5%. In similar way, the dose to the spleen can be calculated to be `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}5.8 mGy`</span>`{=html}. Note that even though less activity accumulates in the spleen the absorbed dose is higher. This apparent paradox can be resolved however when you recall that the absorbed dose is the energy absorbed per unit mass. The International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) have published more accurate organ absorbed doses derived on the basis of knowledge of physiological data for what is known as the Reference Man and from the MIRD data. Note that the absorbed doses to the liver and to the spleen in the following table are `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}2.74`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}2.85`</span>`{=html} mGy, respectively - somewhat lower than we calculated in our simple, hypothetical situation above. Target Organ w~T~ Absorbed Dose (mGy) w~T~.H~T~ (mSv) ------------------- ------- -------------------------------------------------------- ----------------- Gonads (F) 0.2 0.081 0.016 Red Marrow 0.12 0.41 0.049 Colon 0.12 0.07 0.008 Lung 0.12 0.2 0.024 Stomach 0.12 0.23 0.028 Bladder 0.05 0.04 0.002 Breast 0.05 0.1 0.005 Liver 0.05 `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}2.74`</span>`{=html} 0.137 Oesophagus 0.05 0.1 0.005 Thyroid 0.05 0.03 0.0015 Bone Surfaces 0.01 0.24 0.0024 Spleen 0.025 `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}2.85`</span>`{=html} 0.071 Remainder 0.05 0.21 0.005 : Data for estimation of effective dose, E, for a liver scan using 37 MBq ^99m^Tc labelled colloid, where w~T~ is the tissue weighting factor and H~T~ is the equivalent dose for tissue, T. Note that an effective dose of 0.35 mSv can be obtained by summing the values in the right hand column of the table. Finally, note that a radiation weighting factor, w~R~, of unity has been assumed for simplicity throughout the above discussion for all the radiation energies arising from the decay of ^99m^Tc. ## Typical Nuclear Medicine Doses The following table lists the effective dose from a number of nuclear medicine procedures (adapted from ICRP 53): +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Exa \| Rad \| Activity \| Organ \| Absorbed \| E \| \| mination \| iopharma \| (MBq) \| \| Dose \| ffective \| \| \| ceutical \| \| \| (mGy) \| Dose \| \| \| \| \| \| \| (mSv) \| +==========+==========+==========+==========+==========+==========+ \| Bone \| ^99 \| 740 \| Bone\ \| 46\ \| 4.2 \| \| Scan \| m^Tc-MDP \| \| Bladder \| 38 \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Heart \| ^201^Tl- \| 120 \| Testes\ \| 68\ \| 26(M) \| \| Wall \| Thallous \| \| Colon\ \| 44\ \| 16(F) \| \| \| Chloride \| \| Kidney \| 65 \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Inf \| ^67^Ga \| 150 \| Bone\ \| 94\ \| 15 \| \| ection \| -Gallium \| \| Colon\ \| 25\ \| \| \| \| Citrate \| \| Red \| 31\ \| \| \| \| \| \| Marrow\ \| 14\ \| \| \| \| \| \| Adrenal \| 15 \| \| \| \| \| \| Glands\ \| \| \| \| \| \| \| Spleen \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Re \| ^99m \| 150 \| Bladder \| 9.3 \| 0.73 \| \| nogram \| ^Tc-DTPA \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Liver \| ^99m^Tc \| 74 \| Liver\ \| 5.2\ \| 0.7 \| \| Scan \| -Sulphur \| \| Spleen \| 5.6 \| \| \| \| Colloid \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| \| ^99 \| 74 \| Lung\ \| 4.9\ \| 0.8 \| \| Lung-Per \| m^Tc-MAA \| \| Liver \| 1.2 \| \| \| fusion \| \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| Lu \| ^ \| 20 \| Lung \| 2.2 \| 0.3 \| \| ng-Venti \| 99m^Tc-T \| \| \| \| \| \| lation \| echnigas \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| * \| ^99m^ \| 185 \| Colon\ \| 8.0\ \| 1.9 \| \| Thyroid \| Tc-Perte \| \| Stomach\ \| 4.8\ \| \| \| Scan* \| chnetate \| \| Thyroid \| 4.1 \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| * \| ^131^ \| 150 \| Bladder\ \| 91\ \| 9.2 \| \| Thyroid \| I-Sodium \| \| Stomach \| 5 \| \| \| Scan* \| Iodide \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ \| PET \| ^18^ \| 180 \| Bladder\ \| 29\ \| 3.4 \| \| Scan \| F-2-Deox \| \| Heart \| 11 \| \| \| \| yglucose \| \| \| \| \| +----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+ Note that typical effective doses from ^99m^Tc scans are of the order of a few mSv. Also note the high effective dose from a ^201^Tl scan - arising in part because of the high uptake of activity in the testes - and also those from ^67^Ga and ^131^I. The administered activities listed in the table are consistent with the most commonly used activities found in a survey of Australasian Nuclear Medicine practices conducted in 2000. ## Typical Doses in X-Ray CT The radiation dose delivered to the patient in X-ray CT is determined by factors which include the radiation energy and intensity characteristics, the size of the patient, the efficiency of the radiation detectors as well as factors derived from the specific form of image acquisition used (axial versus helical scanning, for example). The absorbed dose is far from uniform within the patient - being greatest at the skin and a factor of about three lower in the centre of the irradiated region. Typical values for skin absorbed doses range from about 5 mGy to 50 mGy. Head scan absorbed doses are usually higher than body scan doses because of the substantial attenuation in the skull. In addition, the lens of the eye can receive a relatively large dose, typically 50 to 100 mGy, and if repeat examinations are undertaken the deterministic limit for cataract induction may be exceeded. Protocols, using appropriate gantry angulation, should be developed to minimise the possibility for direct irradiation of the eye. Likewise, relatively large uterine doses may arise from abdominal or pelvic CT scans and this may be a concern in scanning women of child bearing age. A number of surveys have been published in recent years in which the effective dose from CT scans have been estimated - see the table below. The data indicates that the effective dose is typically 2 to 20 mSv with the higher values relating to CT scans of the abdomen and pelvis and the lower values relating to the head and cervical spine. This variation is largely a reflection of the number of radiosensitive organs that may be irradiated by the primary beam. The dose variation between countries is a different matter! Examination New Zealand Australia United Kingdom ------------------ ------------- ----------- ---------------- Head 2.2 2.7 1.8 Chest 9.8 10.7 7.8 Abdomen 11.6 17.5 7.6 Liver 6.5 13.4 7.2 Lumbar Spine 5.0 5.4 3.3 Pelvis 7.2 11.2 7.1 : CT effective doses (mSv) Notice that effective doses from nuclear medicine procedures are of a similar order of magnitude, but generally lower, than that from CT examinations. To assist with your comparison: the effective dose from a chest X-ray is about 0.02 mSv, while that from a mammogram is about 0.4 mSv and from an intravenous pyelogram (IVP) its about 3 mSv. How does this last figure compare with the dose from a renogram? You might like to speculate on the reasons for the large difference as an exercise to further develop your understanding of this topic.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Production of Radioisotopes !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}.`</span>`{=html} Most of the radioisotopes found in nature have relatively long half lives. They also belong to elements which are not handled well by the human body. As a result medical applications generally require the use of radioisotopes which are produced artificially. We have looked at the subject of radioactivity in earlier chapters of this wikibook and have then progressed to cover the interaction of radiation with matter, radiation detectors and imaging systems. We return to sources of radioactivity in this chapter in order to learn about methods which are used to make radioisotopes. The type of radioisotope of value to nuclear medicine imaging should have characteristics which keep the radiation dose to the patient as low as possible. For this reason they generally have a short half life and emit only gamma-rays - that is no alpha-particle or beta-particle emissions. From an energy point of view the gamma-ray energy should not be so low that the radiation gets completely absorbed before emerging from the patient\'s body and not too high that it is difficult to detect. For this reason most of the radioisotopes used emit gamma-rays of medium energy, that is between about 100 and 200 keV. Finally since the radioisotope needs to be incorporated into some form of radiopharmaceutical it should also be capable of being produced in a form which is amenable to chemical, pharmaceutical and sterile processing. The production methods we will consider are nuclear fission, nuclear bombardment and the radioisotope generator. ## Nuclear Fission We were introduced to spontaneous fission in chapter 2 where we saw that a heavy nucleus can break into a number of fragments. This disintegration process can be induced to occur when certain heavy nuclei absorb neutrons. Following absorption of a neutron such nuclei break into smaller fragments with atomic numbers between about 30 and 65. Some of these new nuclei are of value to nuclear medicine and can be separated from other fission fragments using chemical processes. The fission process is controlled inside a device called a nuclear reactor. One such reactor exists in Australia at Lucas Heights in New South Wales and many others exist throughout the world. ## Nuclear Bombardment In this method of radioisotope production charged particles are accelerated up to very high energies and caused to collide into a target material. Examples of such charged particles are protons, alpha particles and deuterons. New nuclei can be formed when these particles collide with nuclei in the target material. Some of these nuclei are of value to nuclear medicine. An example of this method is the production of ^22^Na where a target of ^24^Mg is bombarded with deuterons, that is: `{{nowrap\|{{chem\|24\|Mg}} + {{chem\|2\|H}} → {{chem\|22\|Na}} + {{chem\|4\|He}}.}}`{=mediawiki} A deuteron you will remember from chapter 1 is the second most common isotope of hydrogen, that is ^2^H. When it collides with a ^24^Mg nucleus a ^22^Na nucleus plus an alpha particle is produced. The target is exposed to the deuterons for a period of time and is subsequently processed chemically in order to separate out the ^22^Na nuclei. The type of device commonly used for this method of radioisotope production is called a cyclotron. It consists of an ion gun for producing the charged particles, electrodes for accelerating them to high energies and a magnet for steering them towards the target material. All arranged in a circular structure. ## Radioisotope Generator ![](NM11_2.gif "NM11_2.gif"){width="140"} This method is widely used to produce certain short-lived radioisotopes in a hospital or clinic. It involves obtaining a relatively long-lived radioisotope which decays into the short-lived isotope of interest. A good example is ^99m^Tc which as we have noted before is the most widely used radioisotope in nuclear medicine today. This isotope has a half-life of six hours which is rather short if we wish to have it delivered directly from a nuclear facility. Instead the nuclear facility supplies the isotope ^99^Mo which decays into ^99m^Tc with a half life of about 2.75 days. The ^99^Mo is called the parent isotope and ^99m^Tc is called the daughter isotope. So the nuclear facility produces the parent isotope which decays relatively slowly into the daughter isotope and the daughter is separated chemically from the parent at the hospital/clinic. The chemical separation device is called, in this example, a ^99m^Tc Generator: It consists of a ceramic column with ^99^Mo adsorbed onto its top surface. A solution called an eluent is passed through the column, reacts chemically with any ^99m^Tc and emerges in a chemical form which is suitable for combining with a pharmaceutical to produce a radiopharmaceutical. The arrangement shown in the figure on the right is called a Positive Pressure system where the eluent is forced through the ceramic column by a pressure, slightly above atmospheric pressure, in the eluent vial. The ceramic column and collection vials need to be surrounded by lead shielding for radiation protection purposes. In addition all components are produced and need to be maintained in a sterile condition since the collected solution will be administered to patients. Finally an Isotope Calibrator is needed when a ^99m^Tc Generator is used to determine the radioactivity for preparation of patient doses and to check whether any ^99^Mo is present in the collected solution.\ ## Operation of a 99m-Tc Generator Suppose we have a sample of ^99^Mo and suppose that at time $t=0$ there are $N_0$ nuclei in our sample and nothing else. The number $N(t)$ of ^99^Mo nuclei decreases with time according to radioactive decay law as discussed in Chapter 3:\ \ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N(t)=N_\mathrm{0}e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}t}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` \ where $\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}$ is the decay constant for ^99^Mo.\ \ Thus the number of ^99^Mo nuclei that decay during a small time interval $dt$ is given by\ \ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\mathrm{d}N(t)=-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo} N_\mathrm{0} e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}t}\mathrm{d}t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` \ Since ^99^Mo decays into ^99m^Tc, the same number of ^99m^Tc nuclei are formed during the time period $dt$. At a time $t'$, only a fraction $\mathrm{d}n(t')$ of these nuclei will still be around since the ^99m^Tc is also decaying. The time for ^99m^Tc to decay is given by $t'-t$. Plugging this into radioactive the decay law we arrive at:\ \ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\mathrm{d}n(t')=-\mathrm{d}N(t)e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}\left(t'-t\right)}=\lambda_\mathrm{Mo} N_\mathrm{0}e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}t}e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}\left(t'-t\right)}\mathrm{d}t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` \ Now we sum up the little contributions $\mathrm{d}n(t')$. In other words we integrate over $t$ in order to find the number $n(t')$, that is the number of all ^99m^Tc nuclei present at the time $t'$:\ \ ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $n(t')=\int_0^{t'}-\mathrm{d}N(t')e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}\left(t'-t\right)}=\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}N_\mathrm{0}e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}t'} \int_0^{t'}e^{\left( \lambda_\mathrm{Tc}-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}\right)t} \mathrm{d}t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` \ Finally solving this integral we find: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\begin{matrix} \Rightarrow n(t')&=& \frac{\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}}{\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}}N_\mathrm{0} e^{-\lambda_\mathrm{Tc}t'}\left(e^{\left( \lambda_\mathrm{Tc}-\lambda_\mathrm{Mo}\right)t'} -1\right) \\ \end{matrix}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The figure below illustrates the outcome of this calculation. The horizontal axis represents time (in days), while the vertical one represents the number of nuclei present (in arbitrary units). The green curve illustrates the exponential decay of a sample of pure ^99m^Tc. The red curve shows the number of ^99m^Tc nuclei present in a ^99m^Tc generator that is never eluted. Finally, the blue curve shows the situation for a ^99m^Tc generator that is eluted every 12 hours. !Comparison of the physical decay of ^99m^Tc with its activity arising from ^99^Mo decay in a radioisotope generator with and without elution at 12 hour intervals. Photographs taken in a nuclear medicine hot lab are shown below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Pb shielding surrounding the laminar flow cabinet, where radiopharmaceuticals are prepared.{width="180"} !Another view of the Pb shielding surrounding a laminar flow cabinet.{width="180"} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ## External links - Concerns over Molybdenum Supplies -- news from 2008 compiled by the British Nuclear Medicine Society. - Cyclotron Java Applet -- a Java-based interactive demonstration of the operation of a cyclotron from GFu-Kwun Hwang, Dept. of Physics, National Taiwan Normal University, Virtual Physics Laboratory. - Nuclear Power Plant Demonstration -- a Java-based interactive demonstration of controlling a nuclear reactor. Also contains nuclear power Information links. - ANSTO -- information about Australia\'s nuclear organization. - Medical Valley -- contains information on what nuclear medicine is, production of nuclear pharmaceuticals, molybdenum and technetium -- from The Netherlands Energy Research Foundation Petten.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Chapter Review !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}.`</span>`{=html} ## Chapter Review: Atomic & Nuclear Structure - The atom consists of two components -- a nucleus (positively charged) and an electron cloud (negatively charged); - The radius of the nucleus is about 10,000 times smaller than that of the atom; - The nucleus can have two component particles -- neutrons (no charge) and protons (positively charged) -- collectively called nucleons; - The mass of a proton is about equal to that of a neutron -- and is about 1,840 times that of an electron; - The number of protons equals the number of electrons in an isolated atom; - The Atomic Number specifies the number of protons in a nucleus; - The Mass Number specifies the number of nucleons in a nucleus; - Isotopes of elements have the same atomic number but different mass numbers; - Isotopes are classified by specifying the element\'s chemical symbol preceded by a superscript giving the mass number and a subscript giving the atomic number; - The atomic mass unit is defined as 1/12th the mass of the stable, most commonly occurring isotope of carbon (i.e. C-12); - Binding energy is the energy which holds the nucleons together in a nucleus and is measured in electron volts (eV); - To combat the effect of the increase in electrostatic repulsion as the number of protons increases, the number of neutrons increases more rapidly -- giving rise to the Nuclear Stability Curve; - There are \~2450 isotopes of \~100 elements and the unstable isotopes lie above or below the Nuclear Stability Curve; - Unstable isotopes attempt to reach the stability curve by splitting into fragments (fission) or by emitting particles/energy (radioactivity); - Unstable isotopes \<=\> radioactive isotopes \<=\> radioisotopes \<=\> radionuclides; - \~300 of the \~2450 isotopes are found in nature -- the rest are produced artificially. ## Chapter Review: Radioactive Decay - Fission: Some heavy nuclei decay by splitting into 2 or 3 fragments plus some neutrons. These fragments form new nuclei which are usually radioactive; - Alpha Decay: Two protons and two neutrons leave the nucleus together in an assembly known as an alpha-particle; - An alpha-particle is a He-4 nucleus; - Beta Decay -- Electron Emission: Certain nuclei with an excess of neutrons may reach stability by converting a neutron into a proton with the emission of a beta-minus particle; - A beta-minus particle is an electron; - Beta Decay -- Positron Emission: When the number of protons in a nucleus is in excess, the nucleus may reach stability by converting a proton into a neutron with the emission of a beta-plus particle; - A beta-plus particle is a positron; - Positrons annihilate with electrons to produce two back-to-back gamma-rays; - Beta Decay -- Electron Capture: An inner orbital electron is attracted into the nucleus where it combines with a proton to form a neutron; - Electron capture is also known as K-capture; - Following electron capture, the excited nucleus may give off some gamma-rays. In addition, as the vacant electron site is filled, an X-ray is emitted; - Gamma Decay -- Isomeric Transition: A nucleus in an excited state may reach its ground state by the emission of a gamma-ray; - A gamma-ray is an electromagnetic photon of high energy; - Gamma Decay -- Internal Conversion: the excitation energy of an excited nucleus is given to an atomic electron. ## Chapter Review: The Radioactive Decay Law - The radioactive decay law in equation form; - Radioactivity is the number of radioactive decays per unit time; - The decay constant is defined as the fraction of the initial number of radioactive nuclei which decay in unit time; - Half Life: The time taken for the number of radioactive nuclei in the sample to reduce by a factor of two; - Half Life = (0.693)/(Decay Constant); - The SI Unit of radioactivity is the becquerel (Bq) - 1 Bq = one radioactive decay per second; - The traditional unit of radioactivity is the curie (Ci); - 1 Ci = 3.7 x 10^10^ radioactive decays per second. # Chapter Review: Units of Radiation Measurement == - Exposure expresses the intensity of an X- or gamma-ray beam; - The SI unit of exposure is the coulomb per kilogram (C/kg); - 1 C/kg = The quantity of X- or gamma-rays such that the associated electrons emitted per kg of air at STP produce in air ions carrying 1 coulomb of electric charge; - The traditional unit of exposure is the roentgen (R); - 1 R = The quantity of X- or gamma-rays such that the associated electrons emitted per kg of air at STP produce in air ions carrying 2.58 x 10^-4^ coulombs of electric charge; - The exposure rate is the exposure per unit time, e.g. C/kg/s; - Absorbed dose is the radiation energy absorbed per unit mass of absorbing material; - The SI unit of absorbed dose is the gray (Gy); - 1 Gy = The absorption of 1 joule of radiation energy per kilogram of material; - The traditional unit of absorbed dose is the rad; - 1 rad = The absorption of 10^-2^ joules of radiation energy per kilogram of material; - The Specific Gamma-Ray Constant expresses the exposure rate produced by the gamma-rays from a radioisotope; - The Specific Gamma-Ray Constant is expressed in SI units in C/kg/s/Bq at 1 m; - Exposure from an X- or gamma-ray source follows the Inverse Square Law and decreases with the square of the distance from the source. ## Chapter Review: Interaction of Radiation with Matter - Alpha-Particles: - exert considerable electrostatic attraction on the outer orbital electrons of atoms near which they pass and cause ionisations; - travel in straight lines -- except for rare direct collisions with nuclei of atoms in their path; - energy is always discrete. - Beta-Minus Particles: - attracted by nuclei and repelled by electron clouds as they pass through matter and cause ionisations; - have a tortuous path; - have a range of energies; - range of energies results because two particles are emitted -- a beta-particle and a neutrino. - Gamma-Rays: - energy is always discrete; - have many modes of interaction with matter; - important interactions for nuclear medicine imaging (and radiography) are the Photoelectric Effect and the Compton Effect. - Photoelectric Effect: - when a gamma-ray collides with an orbital electron, it may transfer all its energy to the electron and cease to exist; - the electron can leave the atom with a kinetic energy equal to the energy of the gamma-ray less the orbital binding energy; - a positive ion is formed when the electron leaves the atom; - the electron is called a photoelectron; - the photoelectron can cause further ionisations; - subsequent X-ray emission as the orbital vacancy is filled. - Compton Effect: - A gamma-ray may transfer only part of its energy to a valence electron which is essentially free; \\ gives rise to a scattered gamma-ray; - is sometimes called Compton Scatter; - a positive ion results; - Attenuation is term used to describe both absorption and scattering of radiation. ## Chapter Review: Attenuation of Gamma-Rays - Attenuation of a narrow-beam of gamma-rays increases as the thickness, the density and the atomic number of the absorber increases; - Attenuation of a narrow-beam of gamma-rays decreases as the energy of the gamma-rays increases; - Attenuation of a narrow beam is described by an equation; - the Linear Attenuation Coefficient is defined as the fraction of the incident intensity absorbed in a unit distance of the absorber; - Linear attenuation coefficients are usually expressed in units of cm^-1^; - the Half Value Layer is the thickness of absorber required to reduce the intensity of a radiation beam by a factor of 2; - Half Value Layer = (0.693)/(Linear Attenuation Coefficient); - the Mass Attenuation Coefficient is given by the linear attenuation coefficient divided by the density of the absorber; - Mass attenuation coefficients are usually expressed in units of cm^2^ g^-1^. ## Chapter Review: Gas-Filled Detectors - Gas-filled detectors include the ionisation chamber, the proportional counter and the Geiger counter; - They operate on the basis of ionisation of gas atoms by the incident radiation, where the positive ions and electrons produced are collected by electrodes; - An ion pair is the term used to describe a positive ion and an electron; - The operation of gas-filled detectors is critically dependent on the magnitude of the applied dc voltage; - The output voltage of an ionisation chamber can be calculated on the basis of the capacitance of the chamber; - A very sensitive amplifier is required to measure voltage pulses produced by an ionisation chamber; - The gas in ionisation chambers is usually air; - Ionisation chambers are typically used to measure radiation exposure (in a device called an Exposure Meter) and radioactivity (in a device called an Isotope Calibrator); - The total charge collected in a proportional counter may be up to 1000 times the charge produced initially by the radiation; - The initial ionisation triggers a complete gas breakdown in a Geiger counter; - The gas in a Geiger counter is usually an inert gas; - The gas breakdown must be stopped in order to prepare the Geiger counter for a new event by a process called quenching; - Two types of quenching are possible: electronic quenching and the use of a quenching gas; - Geiger counters suffer from dead time, a small period of time following the gas breakdown when the counter is inoperative; - The true count rate can be determined from the actual count rate and the dead time using an equation; - The value of the applied dc voltage in a Geiger counter is critical, but high stability is not required. ## Chapter Review: Scintillation Detectors - NaI(Tl) is a scintillation crystal widely used in nuclear medicine; - The crystal is coupled to a photomultiplier tube to generate a voltage pulse representing the energy deposited in the crystal by the radiation; - A very sensitive amplifier is needed to measure such voltage pulses; - The voltages pulses range in amplitude depending on how the radiation interacts with the crystal, i.e. the pulses form a spectrum whose shape depends on the interaction mechanisms involved, e.g. for medium-energy gamma-rays used in in-vivo nuclear medicine: the Compton effect and the Photoelectric effect; - A Gamma-Ray Energy Spectrum for a medium-energy, monoenergetic gamma-ray emitter consists (simply) of a Compton Smear and a Photopeak; - Pulse Height Analysis is used to discriminate the amplitude of voltage pulses; - A pulse height analyser (PHA) consists of a lower level discriminator (which passes voltage pulses which are than its setting) and an upper level discriminator (which passes voltage pulses lower than its setting); - The result is a variable width window which can be placed anywhere along a spectrum, or used to scan a spectrum; - A single channel analyser (SCA) consists of a single PHA with a scaler and a ratemeter; - A multi-channel analyser (MCA) is a computer-controlled device which can acquire data from many windows simultaneously. ## Chapter Review: Nuclear Medicine Imaging Systems - A gamma camera consists of a large diameter (25-40 cm) NaI(Tl) crystal, \~1 cm thick; - The crystal is viewed by an array of 37-91 PM tubes; - PM tubes signals are processed by a position circuit which generates +/- X and +/- Y signals; - These position signals are summed to form a Z signal which is fed to a pulse height analyser; - The +/- X, +/- Y and discriminated Z signals are sent to a computer for digital image processing; - A collimator is used to improve the spatial resolution of a gamma-camera; - Collimators typically consist of a Pb plate containing a large number of small holes; - The most common type is a parallel multi-hole collimator; - The most resolvable area is directly in front of a collimator; - Parallel-hole collimators vary in terms of the number of holes, the hole diameter, the length of each hole and the septum thickness -- the combination of which affect the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the imaging system; - Other types include the diverging-hole collimator (which generates minified images), the converging-hole collimator (which generates magnified images) and the pin-hole collimator (which generates magnified inverted images); - Conventional imaging with a gamma camera is referred to as Planar Imaging, i.e. a 2D image portraying a 3D object giving superimposed details and no depth information; - Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) produces images of slices through the body; - SPECT uses a gamma camera to record images at a series of angles around the patient; - The resultant data can be processed using Filtered Back Projection and Iterative Reconstruction; - SPECT gamma-cameras can have one, two or three camera heads; - Positron Emission Tomography (PET) also produces images of slices through the body; - PET exploits the positron annihilation process where two 0.51 MeV back-to-back gamma-rays are produced; - If these gamma-rays are detected, their origin will lie on a line joining two of the detectors of the ring of detectors which encircles the patient; - A Time-of-Flight method can be used to localise their origin; - PET systems require on-site or nearby cyclotron to produce short-lived radioisotopes, such as C-11, N-13, O-15 and F-18. ## Chapter Review: Production of Radioisotopes - Naturally-occurring radioisotopes generally have long half lives and belong to relatively heavy elements -- and are therefore unsuitable for medical diagnostic applications; - Medical diagnostic radioisotopes are generally produced artificially; - The fission process can be exploited so that radioisotopes of interest can be separated chemically from fission products; - A cyclotron can be used to accelerate charged particles up to high energies so that they to collide into a target of the material to be activated; - A radioisotope generator is generally used in hospitals to produce short-lived radioisotopes; - A technetium-99m generator consists of an alumina column containing Mo-99, which decays into Tc-99m; - Saline is passed through the generator to elute the Tc-99m -- the resulting solution is called sodium pertechnetate; - Both positive pressure and negative pressure generators are in use; - An isotope calibrator is needed when a Tc-99m generator is used in order to determine the activity for preparation of patient doses and to test whether any Mo-99 is present in the collected solution. ## Exercise Questions 1\. Discuss the process of radioactive decay from the perspective of the nuclear stability curve. 2\. Describe in detail FOUR common forms of radioactive decay. 3\. Give the equation which expresses the Radioactive Decay Law, and explain the meaning of each of its terms. 4\. Define each of the following: : $a$ Half life; : $b$ Decay Constant; : $c$ Becquerel. 5\. A sample of radioactive substance is found to have an activity of 100 kBq. Its radioactivity is measured again 82 days later and is found to be 15 kBq. Calculate: : $a$ the half-life; : $b$ the decay constant. 6\. Define each of the following radiation units: : $a$ Roentgen; : $b$ Becquerel; : $c$ Gray. 7\. Estimate the exposure rate at 1 metre from a 100 MBq source of radioactivity which has a Specific Gamma Ray Constant of 50 mR per hour per MBq at 1 cm. 8\. Briefly describe the basic principle of operation of gas-filled radiation detectors. 9\. Illustrate using a graph how the magnitude of the voltage pulses from a gas-filled radiation detector varies with applied voltage and identify on the graph the regions associated with the operation of Ionisation Chambers and the Geiger Counters. 10\. Describe the construction and principles of operation of a scintillation spectrometer. 11\. Discuss the components of the energy spectrum from a monoenergetic, medium energy gamma- emitting radioisotope obtained using a scintillation spectrometer on the basis of how the gamma-rays interact with the scintillation crystal. 12\. Describe the construction and principles of operation of a Gamma Camera. 13\. Compare features of three types of collimator which can be used with a Gamma Camera.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Dynamic Studies in Nuclear Medicine ## Introduction This is a developing chapter of a Wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. The metabolism of a substance in the human body is the result of a number of inter-related dynamic processes which include the absorption, distribution, utilization, degradation and excretion of the substance. The measurement of just one of these parameters can give a result which is indicative of a disease, but may not identify the actual cause of the disease. More detailed information about the cause may be determined when knowledge of the complete metabolic system is obtained. One method of gaining such knowledge is through mathematical simulation of the physiological system. The outcomes of this approach include generating a representation of the entire system as well as an understanding of interactions between its component parts. The approach typically involves: 1\. obtaining experimental data following stimulation of the system by addition of a suitable tracer,\ 2. comparing experimental data with data predicted by the mathematical simulation, and\ 3. varying parameters of the simulation until the two sets of data agree as closely as possible using methods such as least squares, maximum likelihood and Monte Carlo simulation. The general assumptions for this approach are that: - the addition of the tracer does not perturb the system, - the tracee (i.e. the substance under investigation) is conserved throughout the process, - the tracer is conserved throughout the process -- allowing for radioactive decay, and - the system is in a steady state (i.e. the amount of tracee in each compartment of the system remains constant as does the exchange of tracee between each compartment). There are two major types of mathematical model in use: - - Deterministic: where analytical expressions are used to describe the exact behaviour of the tracer in each part of the system with time. The mathematical expressions used are usually exponential or power functions, ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - - Stochastic: where the behaviour of the system is determined by random processes which are described by probability functions. Deterministic models are considered in some detail below. ## Compartmental Analysis This form of deterministic analysis involves dividing the physiological system into a number of interconnected compartments -- where a compartment is defined as any anatomical, physiological, chemical or physical subdivision of a system. A basic assumption is that the tracer is uniformly distributed throughout a compartment. The simplest of such systems to consider is the single compartment model. We will start our treatment with this simple model and then extend it to more complex ones -- the initial ones being considered simply to develop the framework with the later ones providing direct relevance to nuclear medicine dynamic studies; their acquisition and analysis. There is an ImageJ plug-in available, named Compartments_TP, which provides simulations of a number of additional models. ## Single Compartment Model The flow of a tracer through a blood vessel following an ideal bolus injection is shown in the following figure as an illustration of a single compartment model. The compartment illustrated is closed except for the inflow and outflow of the tracee, and the tracer is injected as indicated. In these theoretical conditions, the tracer will mix immediately and uniformly throughout the compartment following its injection. And its quantity will reduce with time depending on the rate of outflow. The variables used in the figure are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` q: the quantity of tracer in the compartment at time, t, and\ F: the outflow. ```{=html} </div> ``` !The single compartment model We can define the fractional turnover, k, as the ratio of these two parameters, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $k = \frac{-dq/dt}{q}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` which can be rewritten as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{dq}{dt} = -kq$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Without going into the mathematical details (which are similar to the derivation of the radioactive decay law!), the solution to this equation is: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q = q_0\ exp(-kt)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where q~o~ is the quantity of tracer present at time, t = 0. This equation is plotted below to illustrate the influence of the value of the fractional turnover, k: !Graphical illustration of the quantity of tracer, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}q`</span>`{=html} versus time for relatively high and low values of the fractional turnover, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}k`</span>`{=html}.\< The graph indicates that the quantity of tracer in the compartment will decrease exponentially with time following injection at a rate dependent on the outflow, as might be intuitively expected. ## Two Compartment Model -- Closed System A more complex, and yet still relatively simple, set of models are those based on two compartments. In a closed system the tracer simply moves between the two compartments without any overall loss or gain -- see the following figure: !Closed two compartment model Therefore, --------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------- $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = k_{21} q_2 - k_{12} q_1$ and $\frac{dq_2}{dt} = k_{12} q_1 - k_{21} q_2$. --------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------- Since there is no loss of tracer from the system, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_1 + q_2 = \text{constant} = q_0\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Therefore, ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = -\frac{dq_2}{dt}\,,$ ```{=html} </div> ``` indicating that as the quantity of tracer in Compartment #1 decreases, the quantity in Compartment #2 increases, and vice versa. Now, consider the situation illustrated in the figure above, where the tracer is injected into Compartment #1 at time, t = 0. At this time, ----------------- ----- ------------------ $q_1 = q_0\,\!$ and $q_2 = 0\,,\,\!$ ----------------- ----- ------------------ and, initially, --------------------------------- ----- -------------------------------- $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = -k_{12} q_0$ and $\frac{dq_2}{dt} = k_{12} q_0$ --------------------------------- ----- -------------------------------- The solutions to these equations are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_1 = q_0 \left \lbrack 1 - \frac{k_{12}}{k_{12} + k_{21}} \left \lbrace 1 -\ \text{exp}\ - (k_{12} + k_{21}) t \right \rbrace \right \rbrack$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_2 = q_0 \left \lbrack \frac{k_{12}}{k_{12} + k_{21}} \left \lbrace 1 -\ \text{exp}\ - (k_{12} + k_{21}) t \right \rbrace \right \rbrack$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and their behaviour in the special case when k~12~ = k~21~, and the volume of the two compartments is the same, is illustrated below: !Graphical illustration of the change in the quantity of tracer in Compartments #1 and #2 versus time. Note that this model predicts that a steady state will be reached as the quantity of tracer in Compartment #1 decreases exponentially and the quantity in Compartment #2 increases exponentially, with the rate of each change controlled by the sum of the turnover rates.\ ## Two Compartment Model -- Open Catenary System This is an extension of the single compartment model considered earlier with two compartments connected in series, as shown in the following figure: !Open catenary two compartment model. In this model, --------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------- $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = -k_{12} q_1$ and $\frac{dq_2}{dt} = k_{12} q_1 - k_{20} q_2$ --------------------------------- ----- --------------------------------------------- The solutions to these equations are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_1 = q_0\ \text{exp}(-k_{12}t)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_2 = q_0 \frac{k_{12}}{k_{12} - k_{20}}\lbrack \text{exp}(-k_{20}t) - \text{exp}(-k_{12}t)\rbrack\,,$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and the behaviour of q~1~ and q~2~ is shown in the figure below for the special case of k~20~ being three times the value of k~12~: !Graphical illustration of the quantity of tracer versus time in the open catenary two compartment model. Note that the behaviour of q~2~ in this figure is similar to arterial tracer flow following an intravenous injection, and to the cumulated activity parameter used in radiation dosimetry. ## Two Compartment Model -- Open Mamillary System This model is equivalent to the closed two compartment system considered above with the addition of an outflow from one compartment: !Open mamillary two compartment model. In this case, -------------------------------------------------------- ----- ------------------------------------------- $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = -k_{10}q_1 - k_{12}q_1 + k_{21}q_2$ and $\frac{dq_2}{dt} = k_{12}q_1 - k_{21}q_2$ -------------------------------------------------------- ----- ------------------------------------------- At t = 0: ----------------- ----- --------------- $q_1 = q_0\,\!$ and $q_2 = 0\,\!$ ----------------- ----- --------------- and, initially ------------------------------------------- ----- ------------------------------- $\frac{dq_1}{dt} = -(k_{10} + k_{12})q_1$ and $\frac{dq_2}{dt} = k_{12}q_0$ ------------------------------------------- ----- ------------------------------- The solutions to these equations are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_1 = q_0 \left \lbrack \frac{k_{21} - a_1}{a_2 - a_1} \text{exp}(-a_1t) + \frac{k_{21} - a_2}{a_1 - a_2}\text{exp}(-a_2t) \right \rbrack$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_2 = \frac{q_0 k_{12}}{a_2 - a_1} \lbrack \text{exp}(-a_1t) - \text{exp}(-a_2t) \rbrack$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where ----------------------------- ----- -------------------------------------------- $a_1a_2 = k_{10}k_{21}\,\!$ and $a_1 + a_2 = k_{10} + k_{21} + k_{12}\,\!$ ----------------------------- ----- -------------------------------------------- The behaviour of q~1~ and q~2~ is illustrated in the figure below: !Graphical illustration of the quantity of tracer versus time in the open mamillary two compartment model. This model has been widely adopted in the study of: - metabolism of plasma proteins, where Compartment #1 is the plasma and Compartment #2 is the extravascular space, - trapping of pertechnetate ion in the thyroid gland, where: - Compartment #1: the plasma, - Compartment #2: the thyroid gland, - k~12~: clearance rate from plasma into the gland, and - k~21~: leakage rate from the gland into the plasma. ## Models with Three Compartments The open mamillary model above has been extended to study iodine uptake using a third compartment which is fed by an irreversible flow, k~23~, from Compartment #2: !Thyroid iodine uptake model. where: - Compartment #1: the plasma, - Compartment #2: the trapping of inorganic iodide in the thyroid gland, and - Compartment #3: iodide within the gland which has become organically bound as part of hormone systhesis processes. The open mamillary type of model has also been applied to renal clearance with the system consisting of an intravascular compartment, with an extravascular compartment exchanging with it and connected irreversibly with a urine compartment: !Renal clearance model. The intravascular compartment (#1) in the figure above represents tracer which is exchangeable with the renal parenchyma and the extravascular space. The urine compartment (#2) represents tracer which has been cleared by the kidneys and is therefore associated with the renal pelvis and the bladder. The extravascular compartment (#3) represents the tracer which has not been cleared, e.g. tracer which becomes bound to other molecules or tracer in extrarenal tissues. When the tracer is injected into the intravascular compartment via a peripheral vein, the initial distribution will not be uniform throughout the body -- but this non-uniformity will even out as the blood circulates. For a highly vascular region, a plot of the quantity of tracer versus time will show an initial sharp rise which will rapidly fall off. The magnitude of this spike will vary with: - the anatomical region, - the site of the injection, and - the speed of the injection. Compartmental analysis cannot therefore be applied to this phase of a renogram since the basic assumption of uniform tracer distribution, implicit in compartmental analysis, cannot be applied. Following this phase, the quantity of tracer in the intravascular compartment begins to fall because of: - uptake by the kidneys -- represented by k~12~ in the figure above, - diffusion into the extravascular space -- represented by k~13~. As the quantity of tracer in the extravascular compartment builds up, exchange in the opposite direction begins to occur (represented by k~31~), and so a maximum is reached before its quantity of tracer falls off. This is illustrated in the figure below for a situation where: --------------------------- --------------------------- --------------------------- k~12~ = 0.05 per minute k~13~ = 0.04 per minute k~31~ = 0.06 per minute l~1~ = 0.13 per minute l~2~ = 0.024 per minute A~1~ = 0.65 A~2~ = 0.35 --------------------------- --------------------------- --------------------------- !Predictions of the renal clearance model. Ultimately, all the tracer will end up in the urine compartment. The equations used for the figure above are: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_1 = A_1\ \text{exp}(-l_1t) + A_2\ \text{exp}(-l_2t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_2 = A_3\ \text{exp}(-l_1t) - A_4\ \text{exp}(-l_2t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_3 = A_5\ \lbrack \text{exp}(-l_1t) - A_2\ \text{exp}(-l_2t)\rbrack\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where l~1~ and l~2~ are constants related to the fractional turnovers, and A~1~ through A~5~ are also constants such that: --------------------- ----- --------------------- $A_1 + A_2 = 1\,\!$ and $A_3 + A_4 = 1\,\!$ --------------------- ----- --------------------- In practice, the renal clearance can be obtained by monitoring the quantity of tracer in the intravascular compartment, e.g. the blood plasma concentration, P, where: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $P = \frac{\text{Quantity of Tracer in Intravascular Space}}{\text{Volume of Intravascular Space}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The time dependence of this plasma concentration will vary in the same way as q~1~, so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $P(t) = C_1\ \text{exp}(-l_1t) + C_2\ \text{exp}(l_2t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where C~1~ and C~2~ are related to A~1~ and A~2~, respectively. The renal clearance, which is related to k~12~, can therefore be determined by characterizing the biexponential fall off in the quantity of tracer in the intravascular compartment. ## Glomerular Filtration Rate The Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) is generally regarded as one of the most important single indicator of renal function. It is particularly important in assessing the presence and severity of kidney failure. There are three major methods of determining a patient\'s GFR: - Inulin clearance, - Creatinine clearance, - Radiotracer clearance. Inulin clearance has been used for many years and is often regarded as the most reliable and accurate of the three methods. Its major disadvantages however include the need for continuous intravenous infusion, timed urine collections via a bladder catheter and protracted chemical analysis. Creatinine clearance has been widely used for routine GFR assessment as a result. However, while this method gives similar results as inulin clearance under normal conditions, the validity of its results is questionable in patients who have moderate to advanced renal failure because of an increasing significance of tubular secretion. The third method, radiotracer clearance has been widely adopted using ^51^Cr-EDTA. This tracer is known to be physiologically inert, not bound to plasma proteins and not metabolized by erythrocytes or organs other than the kidneys. It is normally excreted within 24 hours of injection, 98% via the kidneys. ^51^Cr has a half-life of about 28 days and decays by 100% electron capture into stable vanadium, emitting monoenergetic (320 keV) gamma-rays in about 10% of the transformations. In addition, ^51^Cr-EDTA determination of GFR can be used in conjunction with OIH renal plasma flow assessment for the differential diagnosis of various renal conditions. The typical radioactivity administered for ^51^Cr-EDTA clearance is 1-10 MBq and the radiopharmaceutical is generally administered via intravenous injection. This Single Shot technique assesses the GFR through venous blood sampling, in the simplest case, or by continuous external monitoring of the gamma-rays from ^51^Cr in the more sophisticated approach. When the patient counts are plotted against time on a log/linear axis, a curve is generated which falls off rapidly at first and thereafter decreases at a constant rate, representing the behaviors of q~1~ is our last figure. This initial fall-off arises as a result of the establishment of an equilibrium between the radiotracer and the extravascular, extracellular fluids. The slower second phase reflects renal excretion and contains the information necessary for GFR assessment. !The plasma clearance of ^51^Cr-EDTA predicted using the three compartment model discussed above. A quick and simple technique is to obtain two blood samples from the patient, one at two hours and the other at four hours post injection. The counts per unit volume in the plasma of each sample are determined using a scintillation counter and compared with the counts from a standard solution. The standard solution is made by diluting an injection, identical to the patient\'s, in a known volume of water, e.g. 1 liter. The slope, m, of the second portion of the above curve can be determined from: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $m = \frac{\ln b_1 - \ln b_2}{t_2 - t_1}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where: - t~1~: time from injection for the first blood sample, usually 120 minutes, - b~1~: counts per milliliter (mL) in the plasma from the first sample (corrected for background counts), - t~2~: time from injection for the second blood sample, usually 240 minutes, - b~2~: counts/mL in the plasma from the second sample (also corrected for background). We can now extrapolate this straight line back to the time of injection, t~0~, to determine what the plasma counts would be upon instantaneous mixing of the tracer throughout the patient\'s plasma compartment, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\ln b_0 = \ln b_1 + m(t_1 - t_0)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` as illustrated in the following figure: !Counts for the two plasma samples are fit to a straight line which is back-extrapolated to the time of injection (dashed line) to determine the logarithm of b~0~. The plasma clearance, q~1~, predicted using the three compartment model is shown shaded. to determine the logarithm of b0. The plasma clearance, q1, predicted using the three compartment model is shown shaded."){width="512"} Therefore, we can write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $b_0 = \text{exp}\ \big(\ln b_1 + m(t_1 - t_0)\big)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` The Dilution Principle can now be used to determine the volume of this plasma compartment by comparing the plasma counts with those from the standard solution, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $V = \frac{S \cdot V_s}{b_0}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` which results in ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $V = \frac{S \cdot 1000}{b_0}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` when the standard injection is diluted in 1 liter. The clearance (in ml/min) is then given by the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\text{Clearance} = V \cdot m\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Results for two patients are shown below to illustrate this technique. Patient A Sample Counts/mL -------------------- ----------- Background 477 b~1~ at 119 mins 11,438 b~2~ at 238 mins 6,235 Standard, S 150,020 This patient\'s ^51^Cr-EDTA clearance was determined to be 38.8 mL/min. This result was assessed to be indicative of chronic renal failure, which was later found to be due to lupus nephritis. The patient was then placed on steroid therapy. Two months later the patient was re-tested and the clearance was found to have risen to 52.7 mL/min. For the patient\'s age, this clearance was gauged as within the normal range indicating that the therapy was having a positive effect. The therapy was then ceased. Two months further, the patient was again tested having been without steroid therapy for this period. The result was 54.2 mL/min reflecting successful treatment. Patient B Sample Counts/mL -------------------- ----------- Background 425 b~1~ at 122 mins 3,103 b~2~ at 250 mins 1,390 Standard, S 104,600 This patient had a high blood pressure and a renal involvement required confirmation. The clearance however was 117.3 mL/min, which is well within the normal range. The kidneys were therefore excluded from the investigation of this patient\'s condition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note that the number of blood samples is not limited to two, with some methods requiring three, four or more samples, and other methods using external monitoring of the clearance. Each method is nevertheless based on the form of analysis outlined above where the rate constant of the second phase of the clearance curve is determined along with the volume of distribution of the radiotracer. The timing of blood sampling is therefore after the first phase has finished, i.e. more than about two hours following injection, with the volume of distribution determined using a single-exponential fit to this later phase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It is important to appreciate that the clearance of ^51^Cr-EDTA determined as described does not equate directly with the Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) since the method assumes a single exponential dependence. ^51^Cr-EDTA clearance results are therefore typically corrected by a factor, either empirically- or theoretically-derived, to force them to express the true GFR. Empirically-derived corrections include those of: - Chantler (1969), where the ^51^Cr-EDTA clearance is multiplied by a factor of 0.8; - Brien (1969), where clearances above 50 mL/min are multiplied by 0.82 and added to 6; - Brochner-Mortensen (1972), where a second-order polynomial is applied to obtain the GFR. A correction based on a theoretical consideration of the relationship between true GFR and single-exponential clearance values based on compartmental analysis has been introduced (Fleming, 2007) which gives improved corrections, especially at high GFRs. This correction is of the form: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $GFR = \frac{\text{Clearance}}{(1 + f \cdot \text{Clearance})}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where $f$ = 0.0017 min/mL. As a final step, corrected clearance measurements are generally standardized to the body surface area (BSA) of the Standard Man, i.e. 1.73 m^2^. This is typically done using estimates of the BSA based on the patient\'s height and weight -- as derived from DuBois (1916) or Haycock (1978), for instance. A single-exponential correction technique, based on BSA-scaled clearances has also been introduced (Jodal & Brochner-Mortensen, 2008) which is similar to that of Fleming (2007) but provides improved correction in paediatric studies. ## Renography It should be apparent from the discussion above that the urine compartment (#2) consists of the quantity of the tracer in the urine, without distinguishing whether the urine is in the renal pelvis, the ureters or the bladder. These anatomical spaces can be incorporated by extending the three compartment mamillary model to five compartments: !Compartmental analysis applied to renography. Note that the passage of the tracer through the renal parenchyma can be characterized by a transit time, t~0~, and that k~56~ is related to the rate of urine production. The solutions to the resultant differential equations for the quantity of tracer in the renal parenchyma, the renal pelvis and the bladder incorporate consideration of the time delay, t~0~, so that: - When t \< t~0~: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ${\color{Blue}q_4 = 1 - A_3\ \text{exp}(-l_1t) - A_4\ \text{exp}(-l_2t)}\,\!$ ${\color{Red}q_5 = 0}\,\!$ ${\color{OliveGreen}q_6 = 0}\,\!$ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - When t \> t~0~: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ${\color{Blue}q_4 = A_3[1 - \text{exp}(-l_1t_0)] \text{exp}(-l_1\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace) + A_4 [1-\text{exp}(-l_2t_0)]\text{exp}(-l_2\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace)}\,\!$ ${\color{Red}q_5 = A_7\ \text{exp}(-l_1\lbrace t-t_0 \rbrace) + A_8\ \text{exp}(-l_2\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace) - A_9\ \text{exp}(-l_3\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace)}\,\!$ ${\color{OliveGreen}q_6 = 1 - A_{10}\ \text{exp}(-l_1\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace) - A_{11}\ \text{exp}(-l_2\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace) + A_{12}\ \text{exp}(-l_3\lbrace t-t_0\rbrace)}\,\!$ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- where l~3~ is related to k~56~. The time course of the quantity of tracer in each compartment is shown below: !The parenchymal (q~4~), renal pelvis (q~5~) and bladder (q~6~) curves, generated using t~0~ = 2 minutes and k~56~ = 1 per minute., renal pelvis (q5) and bladder (q6) curves, generated using t0 = 2 minutes and k56 = 1 per minute.") The quantity of tracer in the overall kidney can be obtained by summing the renal parenchyma and renal pelvis curves, so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_{\text{kidney}} = q_4 + q_5\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` as shown below: !The outcome of summing the renal pelvis and parenchyma curves. What is recorded in a renogram in practice is not just this kidney curve, but also the quantity of tracer in: - overlapping and underlying tissues, and in - the intravascular space of the kidney itself. These contributions add a background upon which the true renogram is superimposed. The quantity of tracer in this background varies with time, but not in the same way as the true renal curve. The time course of this background is likely to behave in a manner similar to the sum of the intravascular (q~1~) and extravascular (q~3~) curves derived earlier using this five compartment model. The following equation can be derived on this basis: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_{\text{Bgd}} = b_1 q_1 + b_3 q_3\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where b~1~ and b~3~ represent the contributions to the detected renogram curve from the tracer in the intravascular and extravascular spaces, respectively. For example, the curves below were generated using b~1~ = 0.05 and b~3~ = 0.02 and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $q_{\text{Renogram}} = 0.5\,q_{\text{Kidney}} + q_{\text{Bgd}}\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` !Renogram and background curves typical of those acquired in practice. In practice, this background curve should be subtracted from the raw renogram data to obtain a curve which reflects the true quantity of tracer in the kidney (see the previous figure). This process is sometimes referred to as blood background subtraction -- although you should now be able to appreciate that this is a bit of a misnomer! The uncorrected and corrected curves are shown below to assist with direct comparison: !Renogram curves pre- and post-background correction. and an example from a patient\'s ^99m^Tc-DTPA renogram is shown in the following figure, to assist you in comparing them with the predictions from compartmental analysis: -------------------------------- -------------------------------- ![](NM14_58.jpg "NM14_58.jpg") ![](NM14_59.gif "NM14_59.gif") -------------------------------- -------------------------------- A final figure illustrates a form of analysis that can be used in ^99m^Tc-MAG3 renography in a patient with obstructive uropathy: !Analysis of a MAG3 renogram{width="512"} ## Background Subtraction in Renography In practice, the background activity in a renogram must be taken into account when interpreting a renogram. This is generally achieved by estimating the background activity and subtracting it from the raw renogram data. The question is: how can this background activity be measured? One method has been based on recording the activity at nephrectomy sites in patients whose remaining kidney is being examined. However, it should be noted that removal of a kidney also removes an intravascular source of the background activity. As a result nephrectomy sites commonly appear colder than the extra-renal tissues in renogram images. A potentially better method is to record the activity in the region of a non-functioning kidney. In most patients, however, a non-renal region must be used for background estimation. Ideally, the choice of region should reflect the same intra- and extravascular background as the kidney itself. There appears to be no standardization in this area, with practices including the use of a region between the kidneys, above the kidneys, over the heart and below each kidney. A comparison of such methods is provided in Taylor et al (1997) [^1] and results of a similar, but more basic, analysis are summarised below: ```{=html} <div id="bgdPlacement"> ``` !centre\\|Bgd RoI placement ```{=html} </div> ``` !centre !centre These renographic images were generated using Monte Carlo simulation[^2] and analysed using OsiriX. Split function was calculated using the Integral of counts in the 90-150 second time period. The Mean Absolute % Error was computed from a series of such simulated images where the left kidney to right kidney split function varied from 100%:0%, through 50%:50% to 0%:100% in steps of 5 percent[^3]. It is seen that the Lateral RoIs yielded the lowest % Error and that the Central RoI, which was used in the early days of gamma-camera renography using ^99m^Tc-DTPA, yielded a substantially greater error of \~12%. This is in line with current clinical practice where central RoIs are not longer used and lateral or oblique, or perirenal, RoIs are preferred. In comparison, no background correction generated an error of 20.7%, which highlights the overall importance of background correction. The variation of background activity is illustrated below for a real LK:RK split function ratio of 50%:50% and for the extremes of 100%:0% and 0%:100%. !centre\\|frame\\|567x567px\\|6th degree polynomial fits to the Lateral background data !Monte Carlo simulated AP renogram smoothed in time using a 32-frame average. Raw data courtesy of dynamicrenalstudy.org The first point to note is that the background curves vary with time in a manner which reflects the renal curves themselves, quickly rising during the uptake phase and falling slowly during the excretion phase. Secondly, note that the right kidney (RK) curves decrease more slowly that those of the left kidney (LK) -- possibly as a result of retention of the MAG3 tracer in the liver. This is quite different to the assumption used in the earlier analytical model. The extent of liver involvement can be gauged from the Monte Carlo simulated AP renogram[^4] on the left where a reasonable view of the liver and its dynamics can be observed throughout the study. This is consistent with the pharmacokinetic model which was used to generate the virtual study[^5]. Thirdly, note that the RK curves are of greater magnitude than those of the LK at 50%:50% and 0%:100%, while the opposite is the case at 100%:0%. This highlights the requirement to use separate background RoIs for each kidney. The final point to note is in relation to the 90-150 second time window, where the Integral or Slope method is typically applied. It can be seen that both the sum of background counts (the Integral) and the rate of change in these counts (the Slope) vary during this period, which indicates that both methods will be influenced by these features of the background curves. Once the background region is selected and the activity/time curves are generated, the background curve should be scaled by a factor dependent on the relative areas of the background and renal regions, prior to subtraction from the raw renogram curve. In addition, note that some practices also involve further scaling of the background curve depending on the kidney location. Finally, more sophisticated methods of background correction have been developed and include: - the generation of interpolated background regions from samples of the background around the kidney, - the estimation of background correction factors using extrapolation techniques, and - deconvolution analysis. It should be noted that caution should be used in translating these results directly to real patient studies in that the raw data is derived from a two-dimensional representation of a compartmental model. ## Relative Renal Function The relative function of a patient\'s kidney is generally defined as that kidney\'s renal clearance rate expressed as a percentage of the patient\'s overall renal clearance rate, i.e. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $\text{LK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{LK Clearance}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Clearance}}$ and $\text{RK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{RK Clearance}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Clearance}}$ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- where LK and RK refer to the left and right kidneys, respectively. Suppose that: - N~Kidney~(t): background corrected renal count rate, and ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` - N~Bgd~(t): count rate from an intravascular region of interest. It should be apparent at this stage that: -------------------------------------------- ----- -------------------------------------- $N_{\text{Kidney}}(t)\ \alpha\ q_4(t)\,\!$ and $N_{\text{Bgd}}\ \alpha\ q_1(t)\,\!$ -------------------------------------------- ----- -------------------------------------- We can therefore conclude that in the initial phase of the renogram, i.e. when t \< t~0~: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $N_{\text{Kidney}}(t) = UC \int_0^t N_{\text{Bgd}}(t) \cdot dt$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where UC in the kidney uptake constant. This constant is related to that kidney\'s clearance rate, and we can therefore write: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\text{LK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{LK Update Constant}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Uptake Constant}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\text{RK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{RK Uptake Constant}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Uptake Constant}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` However, we have already seen above that the background corrected renal count rate is directly related to the uptake constant and we can therefore conclude that: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $\text{LK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{LK Counts}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Counts}}$ and $\text{RK Relative Fn.} = \frac{\text{RK Counts}}{\text{LK} + \text{RK Counts}}$ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that this analysis indicates that relative renal function can be determined from measurement of the relative counts in each kidney following the initial vascular spike but prior to the commencement of the excretion phase. ## Kidney Depth Correction Given that two kidneys can be at different depths within a patient, a correction for the difference in photon attenuation is generally applied. The conventional way of doing this is to acquire lateral views following a renogram so as to measure the depth of each kidney and to apply an exponential correction based on an assumed linear attenuation coefficient for the gamma ray energy (e.g. 0.153 cm^-1^ for ^99m^Tc gamma rays). The situation is illustrated by the following study where the right kidney is slightly over 1 cm deeper than the left. The study is actually of images generated by Monte Carlo simulation of a digital phantom (XCAT) which includes the effects of photon attenuation, scattering, limited spatial resolution and noise[^6]. The left kidney is positioned 7.31 cm deep while the right is at a depth of 8.64 cm, and the split function is 50:50. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- \\<File:nm14> 301e.gif\\|thumb\\|center\\|A virtual renogram acquired at 10 seconds per frame for 120 frames. Raw data courtesy of [dynamicrenalstudy.org\\|alt=A virtual renogram. ![ !Regions of interest used for renogram analysis.{width="192"} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that the two curves do not overlap, as would be expected for a 50:50 split function, as a result of the difference in attenuation. The split function estimated by the integral of counts between 90 and 150 seconds is 54:46. When this attenuation difference is corrected, however, the following curves are obtained and the split function estimate is now a more realistic 49:51. !A virtual renogram, attenuation corrected.\\|alt=A virtual renogram, attenuation corrected. Commercial renal analysis software typically provide options for the automatic computation of kidney depth based on empirically derived relationships between the patient\'s height and weight and the depth of each kidney. One such package provides the following options (with weight expressed in kg and height in cm): +--------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+ \| Method \| Left Kidney Depth (cm) \| Right Kidney Depth (cm) \| +==============+==========================+==========================+ \| S \| 1 \| 1 \| \| tandard[^11] \| 3.2\(Weight/Height)+0.7 \| 3.3\(Weight/Height)+0.7 \| +--------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+ \| Emory[^12] \| 16.17\(Weight/Height \| 15.13\(Weight/Height) \| \| \| )+0.027\Age(years)-0.94 \| +0.022\Age(years)+0.077 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| \| `<small>`{=ht \| \| \| \| ml}`<small>`{=html}Note: \| \| \| \| contains a typographical \| \| \| \| error[^13]`</small>` \| \| \| \| {=html}`</small>`{=html} \| +--------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+ \| Itoh[^14] \| 14.0285\ \| 13.6361\ \| \| \| (Weight/Height)^0.7554^ \| (Weight/Height)^0.6996^ \| +--------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+ \| T.Itoh \| 17. \| 16. \| \| \| 05\(Weight/Height)+0.13 \| 55\(Weight/Height)+0.66 \| +--------------+--------------------------+--------------------------+ A graphical representation of the difference in kidney depth generated by these equations for a broad range of weight-to-height ratios is shown in the figure below (note: an age of 50 years was assumed for the Emory formulae): !Difference in kidney depths (left kidney depth minus right kidney depth).\\|alt=Difference in kidney depths..\|alt=Difference in kidney depths."){width="460"} It can be seen that little change in depth is predicted by the Standard formulae and that derived attenuation corrections are likely to have little effect on relative function estimates. It can also be seen that the T.Itoh formulae indicate that the right kidney is always deeper than the left. The final two sets of formulae indicate that the right kidney is deeper for weight-to-height ratios of less than 0.6 to 0.7 and the left kidney is deeper above this ratio range. The overall range of depth differences predicted by these latter three formulae is seen to be no more than ±5 mm. Such differences yield an anticipated attenuation correction factors in the range 0.95 to 1.05. The predictions of these formulae should be contrasted with the results of studies of kidney depth which have shown that differences of greater than 5 mm can be expected in about 60% of patients, and greater than 1 cm in about a third of patients[^15]. It can therefore be inferred that the above formulae will only provide sufficient attenuation correction in less than half of patients, and that attenuation correction factors as low as 0.6 can occasionally be expected. It is therefore apparent that accurate kidney depth measurement is imperative for the proper interpretation of all renograms, and that automatic kidney depth formulae should be applied with caution. ## Semi-Automatic Methods of ^99m^Tc-MAG3 Renogram Analysis Commercial software for renogram analysis generally provides a number of methods for what is called semi-automatic analysis -- where some features of the analysis require user interaction (e.g. kidney identification) and others are performed automatically (e.g. computations) to determine split renal function and Effective Renal Plasma Flow (ERPF). Here the software might request the user to, for instance: - input the height and weight of the patient -- so that body surface area and kidney depths can be computed using empirically-derived formulae, and - define regions of interest (RoIs) around each kidney -- with background regions automatically placed adjacent to these kidney RoIs. Counts/time curves are generated for each of these four RoIs. The counts in the background RoIs are then scaled automatically to those of background areas of the same size as the respective kidney RoI and the scaled background curves are subtracted from the kidney curves to generate a net renogram curve for each kidney. The counts in a pre-defined time interval in the uptake phase of each renogram (e.g. 1 to 2 minutes post-injection) are then used to compute: - the sum of counts (called the Integral) and/or - the rate of increase in counts (called the Slope) for each kidney. A comparison of these two methods was performed using the Lateral RoIs for background subtraction of the renographic series used earlier, and the 90 to 150 second period for analysis. Both methods yielded very similar results: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- ![](IntegralVsSlope1.png "IntegralVsSlope1.png"){width="330" height="330"} !centre\\|337x337px ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- The Integral method, however, generated a mean absolute % error of just 2.6%, while the Slope method generated a substantially greater error of 9.4% - mainly due to inaccuracies at the lower and higher LK/RK ratios. In comparison, no background correction generated an error of 20.7% using the Integral method while with the Slope method the error was just 9.2%. This highlights, once again, the importance of such corrections. The Integral can be corrected for tissue attenuation using the computed depth of each kidney and an assumed linear attenuation coefficient for ^99m^Tc gamma rays. Computation of the Integral in this manner is a major source of error in this form of analysis since the use of the patient's height and weight (along with their age in one method) to determine kidney depth is likely to be inaccurate -- see the previous section. In addition, no standard exists for the value of the linear attenuation coefficient (μ) in the renographic scanning situation, with values such as 0.12[^16], 0.14[^17] and 0.153[^18] per cm in clinical use. For a kidney depth of 6 cm, for instance, these values of μ would result in correction factors of between 2 and 2.5 being applied, i.e. to give a variation of \~20%. Split Function can be determined from the percentage contribution of each kidney's Attenuation-Corrected (AC) Integral to the sum of the two kidneys' AC Integrals. In addition, Kidney Uptake can be determined by expressing the AC Integrals as a percentage of the injected dose. Effective Renal Plasma Flow (ERPF) may then be calculated on the basis of empirically-derived formulae such as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Left Kidney ERPF (mL/min) = -21.579 + (11.621\Left Kidney Uptake) [^19] ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ERPF Value (mL/min) = 14.98 \ (Left Kidney Uptake + Right Kidney Uptake) + 8.28 [^20] ```{=html} </div> ``` Alternatively, a Washout Coefficient can be defined as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` 0.48026\(exp(1.35315\Sum of Kidney Uptakes)/100)-1 ```{=html} </div> ``` to be multiplied by an estimate of the Plasma Volume, such as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Body Surface Area \* 1,000 + 0.608 mL ```{=html} </div> ``` to give the Total MAG3 Clearance. This final factor is used to calculate the Total ERPF (mL/min) using the formula: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` 1.25821\* (Total MAG3 Clearance) + 18.34451 [^21] ```{=html} </div> ``` A figure of 0.53 has also been used as an ERPF Conversion Factor[^22], i.e. to convert from ERPF to MAG3 Clearance. However, it should be noted that values of this Factor between 0.61 and 0.9 have been reported [^23]. As an alternative to these Integral-based methods, the slopes of the curves for each kidney during the uptake phase of the renogram have been used to define a Slope Index for each kidney, based on the Slope of each renogram, attenuation-corrected for kidney depth, and expressed as a percentage of the injected dose multiplied by 10^6^! Split Function can then presumably be obtained by relating the Slope Index for each kidney to the sum of Slope Indices -- and the Total MAG3 Clearance calculated using the formula: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` (12.725 \* Sum of Kidney Slope Indices + 6.24)/Body Surface Area ```{=html} </div> ``` Body Surface Area (BSA) estimation is another source of variation in these computations. It is widely used to reference a patient's ERPF to a standard BSA, e.g. 1.73 m^2^. It is also used within calculations using formulae such as the one above. At least two BSA computation methods are used in this field, as detailed below: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Du Bois Formula: BSA = 0.007184 \* W^0.425^ \* H^0.725^ [^24] ```{=html} </div> ``` and ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` Haycock Formula: BSA = 0.024265 \* W^0.5378^ \* H^0.3964^ [^25] ```{=html} </div> ``` where W is the patient's weight in kg and H is their height is cm, to give the BSA in m^2^. These formulae give reasonably similar BSA estimates for adults, e.g. a difference of \~2%, for a 69 kg, 163 cm patient, and their choice as a result is reasonably inconsequential in this application, irrespective of their accuracy. In summary, commercial semi-automatic renal analysis software is generally based on one of the following two approaches: - determine the absolute uptake of MAG3 for each kidney and relate these uptakes to the ERPF using empirical relationships derived from limited patient studies (36 presumably-Japanese patients in the case of Itoh et al.[^26] for instance); - determine the rate of MAG3 uptake for each kidney and relate these rates to MAG3 clearances empirically-derived from limited patient studies (12 presumbly-Japanese patients in the case of Oriuchi et al.[^27]). An evaluation of the accuracy of these methods is warranted given the strong empirical features which are evident and the very limited number of patients surveyed. Such an evaluation can be conducted using Monte Carlo simulated renograms [^28] and results of such are shown in the following table: !A comparison of estimates of MAG3 Clearance and Split Function using five different analysis methods on two different commercial software packages from six virtual renograms.\\|alt=A comparison of estimates of MAG3 Clearance and Split Function using five different analysis methods on two different commercial software packages from six virtual renograms. For this evaluation, the formulae for the Itoh ERPF (MAG3), Inoue (MAG3 Without Samples) and Oriuchi Clearance (MAG3) methods [^29] were used to calculate the MAG3 Clearance and Split Function for each renogram using spreadsheet software. The values of these parameters for the ERPF Modified Schlegel and ERPF Modified Gates methods were calculated using the manufacturer\'s software package directly[^30] and assumed an ERPF Conversion Factor of 0.76 (i.e. the mean value of Oriuchi's study [^31]) -- as did the Itoh[^32] method. It is apparent that no correlation in any of the results exists except, for instance, that when the MAG3 Clearance is halved from 260 to 130 mL/min, the computed clearances also reduce -- although the results for the Modified Schlegel method are quite reasonable in some situations. A second point is that the variation in split function estimates is likely to result in part from the use of (potentially inaccurate) automatic methods of kidney depth determination. So\.... should these automatic computations be used clinically without, for instance, a confirming set of kidney depth measurements from lateral scans, post-renogram, or from an ultrasound scan? This question was answered in 1985\<ref name=\"gruenewald /\> but unfortunately has not yet seemed to infiltrate the psyche of producers of modern renal analysis software. Another question: should conjugate imaging be considered for renogram analysis in commercial dual-headed gamma camera software packages? ## Conjugate Imaging in Renography The principle of conjugate imaging is based on computing the Geometric Mean of activity measurements from two opposing detectors and is illustrated in the following diagram where a homogeneous medium (yellow rectangle) containing a point source of radioactivity (red dot). The thickness of the medium is d and the point source is a distance t~1~ from Detector #1 and a distance t~2~ from Detector #2. !Conjugate counting.\\|thumb{width="311" height="311"} The activity detected by Detector #1, assuming no scatter is detected, is given by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $A_1 = A \exp(-\mut_1)$ ```{=html} </div> ``` while that detected by Detector #2 is given by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $A_2 = A \exp(-\mut_2)$. ```{=html} </div> ``` The Geometric Mean, GM, of the detected activities is given by: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $GM = \sqrt{A_1A_2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $GM = \sqrt{A\exp(-\mut_1)A\exp(-\mut_2)}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and, therefore: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $GM = \sqrt{A\exp(-\mut_1)A\exp(-\mu(d-t_1))}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and, as a result: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $GM = \sqrt{A \exp(-\mud)}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` This final equation indicates that the Geometric Mean is dependent solely on the thickness of the medium, d, which contains the point source and not on the distance of the source from either detector. Translating this to renography implies that imaging with opposing gamma camera heads (as with a dual camera SPECT system) would provide spilt function measurements which are independent of renal depth. Conjugate imaging in renography is illustrated by the following images [^33] of Monte Carlo simulated renograms acquired simultaneously using anterior-posterior (AP) and posterior-anterior (PA) projections. The simulations had renal depths of 7.31 cm on the left and 8.64 on the right and the real LK/RK split function ratio was 50%:50%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Anterior-posterior (AP), on the left, and posterior-anterior (PA) Monte Carlo simulated renograms. Raw data courtesy of dynamicrenalstudy.org\\|frame, on the left, and posterior-anterior (PA) Monte Carlo simulated renograms. Raw data courtesy of dynamicrenalstudy.org\|frame") !Geometric mean renogram.\\|256x256px `<small>`{=html}Geometric Mean renogram`</small>`{=html} !Curves for the geometric mean renogram.\\|thumb -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These images were used to compute the Geometric Mean using ImageJ and the resultant images were analysed using OsiriX. Image computation involved multiplying the AP and PA renograms and taking the square root of the result, at 32-bit accuracy. Computed images were the converted to 16-bit for DICOM storage. The resultant Geometric Mean renogram (see the centre panel above) provided an LK/RK split function estimate of 51%:49%, while the PA-only data, not corrected for renal depth, provided an inferior estimate of 54%:46%. It is apparent from the above illustration that conjugate imaging may have a role in clinical renography and may not be reliant on renal depth measurements for attenuation correction. However, it should be noted that the method assumes that the activity is located in a homogeneous medium with a spatially-uniform linear attenuation coefficient, μ, which indicates that the method may suffer in real patients from aberrations generated by sources such as digestive gases overlying the kidneys. It should be noted, as a concluding remark, that conjugate counting is well established in quantitative renal analysis using static ^99m^Tc-DMSA images[^34]. ## Blood Pool Compensation for Split Function Determination A recent publication has introduced the technique of Blood Pool Compensation for split function determination in renography[^35]. Here the activity in each kidney and the liver is measured over time. The liver activity is assumed to represent blood pool activity during the uptake phase of the renogram. A linear fit to a plot of liver activity versus kidney activities is then back-extrapolated to zero liver activity to determine the kidney activity with zero blood pool contribution. The split function is then calculated using the relative contributions at this zero activity. This simple method is illustrated in the following figures. Three regions of interest (RoIs) defined for the liver, the left kidney and the right kidney are shown in the top left panel and the three resulting curves are shown in the top right panel of the table for a Monte Carlo-simulated renogram with 50/50 split function. A liver counts versus kidney counts plot for the uptake phase is shown in the bottom left panel, where an intercept of 17,281 counts is found for the left kidney and an intercept of 18,719 counts for the right kidney. Split function is then estimated to be 48% on the left and 52% on the right. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ !BPC RoIs{width="256" height="256"} !BPC Curves{width="256" height="256"} !Liver counts versus kidney counts during the uptake phase of the renograms.{width="256" height="256"} !Blood Pool Compensation: Mean Absolute Error for 50/50 Function{width="256" height="256"} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The bottom right panel shows the Mean Absolute % Error, computed from a series of such simulated images where the left kidney to right kidney split function varied from 100%:0%, through 50%:50% to 0%:100% in steps of 5 percent[^36], to be 7.5%. ## References ```{=html} <references /> ``` [^1]: Taylor A Jr, Thakore K, Folks R, Halkar R & Manatunga A, 1997. Background subtraction in technetium-99m-MAG3 renography. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 38(1):74-9. [^2]: Brolin G, Edenbrandt L, Granerus G, Olsson A, Afzelius D, Gustafsson A, Jonsson C, Hagerman J, Johansson L, Riklund K & Ljungberg M, 2014. The accuracy of quantitative parameters in 99 m Tc-MAG3 dynamic renography: a national audit based on virtual image data. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. Oct 28. doi: 10.1111/cpf.12208. Epub ahead of print. [^3]: Brolin, G, 2015. Personal communication. [^4]: Brolin G, Edenbrandt L, Granerus G, Olsson A, Afzelius D, Gustafsson A, Jonsson C, Hagerman J, Johansson L, Riklund K & Ljungberg M, 2014. The accuracy of quantitative parameters in 99 m Tc-MAG3 dynamic renography: a national audit based on virtual image data. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. Oct 28. doi: 10.1111/cpf.12208. Epub ahead of print. [^5]: Brolin G, Gleaner KS & Ljungberg M, 2013. Dynamic (99 m)Tc-MAG3 renography: images for quality control obtained by combining pharmacokinetic modelling, an anthropomorphic computer phantom and Monte Carlo simulated scintillation camera imaging. Physics in Medicine & Biology, 58(10):3145-61. [^6]: Brolin G, Edenbrandt L, Granerus G, Olsson A, Afzelius D, Gustafsson A, Jonsson C, Hagerman J, Johansson L, Riklund K & Ljungberg M, 2014. The accuracy of quantitative parameters in 99 m Tc-MAG3 dynamic renography: a national audit based on virtual image data. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. Oct 28. doi: 10.1111/cpf.12208. Epub ahead of print. [^7]: Tonnesen KH, Munck O, Hald T, Mogensen P & Wolf H, 1974. Influence of the renogram of variation in skin to kidney distance and the clinical importance hereof. Presented at the Internation Symposium Radionuclides in Nephrology, Berlin. Cited by Schlegel JU & Hamway SA, 1976. Individual renal plasma flow determination in 2 minutes. Journal of Urology, 116, 282-5. [^8]: Taylor A, Lewis C, Giacometti A, Hall EC & Barefield KP, 1993. Improved formulas for the estimation of renal depth in adults. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 34, 1766-9. [^9]: Taylor A, 1994. Formulas to estimate renal depth in adults. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 35, 2054-5. [^10]: Itoh K & Arakawa M, 1987. Re-estimation of renal function with 99mTc-DTPA by the Gates\' method. Kaku Igaku, 24, 389-96. [^11]: Tonnesen KH, Munck O, Hald T, Mogensen P & Wolf H, 1974. Influence of the renogram of variation in skin to kidney distance and the clinical importance hereof. Presented at the Internation Symposium Radionuclides in Nephrology, Berlin. Cited by Schlegel JU & Hamway SA, 1976. Individual renal plasma flow determination in 2 minutes. Journal of Urology, 116, 282-5. [^12]: Taylor A, Lewis C, Giacometti A, Hall EC & Barefield KP, 1993. Improved formulas for the estimation of renal depth in adults. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 34, 1766-9. [^13]: Taylor A, 1994. Formulas to estimate renal depth in adults. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 35, 2054-5. [^14]: Itoh K & Arakawa M, 1987. Re-estimation of renal function with 99mTc-DTPA by the Gates\' method. Kaku Igaku, 24, 389-96. [^15]: Gruenewald SM, Collins LT & Fawdry RM, 1985. Kidney depth measurement and its influence on quantitation of function from gamma camera renography. Clinical Nuclear Medicine 10, 398-401. [^16]: [^17]: [^18]: [^19]: `<small>`{=html}Itoh K, Tsukamoto E, Kato C, Shiga T, Yamashita T & Nonomura K, 1995. Non-invasive quantification of individual renal function by means of gamma camera renography with ^99^Tc^m^-MAG3. Abstract. Nuclear Medicine Communications, 16(5): 413`</small>`{=html} [^20]: GE Healthcare, 2007. Renal Analysis Operator Guide, B-12. [^21]: `<small>`{=html}Oriuchi N, Onishi Y, Kitamura H, Inoue T, Tomaru Y, Higuchi T, Inoue T & Endo K, 1998. Noninvasive measurement of renal function with ^99m^Tc-MAG~3~ gamma-camera renography based on the one-compartment model. Clinical Nephrology, 50(5), 289--94`</small>`{=html} [^22]: Russell CD & Dubovsky EV,1999. Reproducibility of single-sample clearance of 99mTc-mercaptoacetyltriglycine and 131I-orthoiodohippurate. Journal of Nuclear Medicine, 40(7):1122-4. [^23]: [^24]: Du Bois D & Du Bois EF, 1916. A formula to estimate the approximate surface area if height and weight be known. Archives of Internal Medicine 17(6): 863--71 [^25]: Haycock GB, Schwartz GJ & Wisotsky DH, 1978. Geometric method for measuring body surface area: A height-weight formula validated in infants, children and adults. Journal of Pediatrics, 93:62--6. [^26]: [^27]: [^28]: [^29]: Siemens, 2012. Renal Processing Manual. [^30]: [^31]: [^32]: [^33]: Brolin G, Edenbrandt L, Granerus G, Olsson A, Afzelius D, Gustafsson A, Jonsson C, Hagerman J, Johansson L, Riklund K & Ljungberg M, 2014. The accuracy of quantitative parameters in 99 m Tc-MAG3 dynamic renography: a national audit based on virtual image data. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging. Oct 28. doi: 10.1111/cpf.12208. Epub ahead of print. [^34]: Fleming JS, Cosgriff PS, Houston AS, Jarritt PH, Skrypniuk JV & Whalley DR, 1998. UK audit of relative renal function measurement using DMSA scintigraphy. Nuclear Medicine Communications, 19(10):989-97. [^35]: Wesolowski MJ, Conrad GR, Šámal M, Watson G, Wanasundara SN, Babyn P, & Wesolowski CA, 2016. A simple method for determining split renal function from dynamic (99 m)Tc-MAG3 scintigraphic data. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging, 43(3):550-8 [^36]: Brolin, G, 2015. Personal communication.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Deconvolution Analysis ## Introduction The Nuclear Medicine renogram represents the response of the kidney to an injection of radiotracer into a peripheral vein. The arrival of the tracer in the kidney is therefore smeared out in time and its instantaneous response cannot be measured directly. Deconvolution analysis, as you will see below, is a method which allows the instantaneous response to be derived from a renogram, so that the functioning of kidneys in the same patient or between different patients can be more reliably compared. ## Renography In renography, the background-corrected curves indicate how the quantity of tracer in each kidney varies with time. In addition, the shape of the each curve is dependent on the rate at which the tracer: - enters the kidneys via the renal arterial system, and - leaves the kidneys via the ureters. The rate of entry of the tracer into the kidney is called the input rate, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}I(t)`</span>`{=html}, and depends on: - the plasma concentration of the tracer in the renal artery, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}P(t)`</span>`{=html}, - the rate at which the tracer is extracted from the plasma by the kidneys. In the case of a tracer which is extracted rapidly from the plasma (e.g. OIH, MAG3), the rate of extraction is dependent on the effective renal plasma flow (`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}ERPF`</span>`{=html}), so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}I(t) = (ERPF) P(t)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` . In the case of a tracer which is extracted via glomerular filtration (e.g. DTPA), the rate of extraction is dependent on the glomerular filtration rate (`<span style="color:red;">`{=html}GFR`</span>`{=html}), so that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}I(t) = (GFR) P(t)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` . The variation in plasma concentration with time, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}P(t)`</span>`{=html}, consists initially of a spike whose amplitude and duration depend on: - the rate of injection, - the site of injection, as well as - the rate of mixing of the tracer in the blood. Following this initial spike, the plasma concentration, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}P(t)`</span>`{=html}, decreases bi-exponentially with time depending on: - the exchange rates with the extravascular space, and - the uptake of the tracer by the kidneys. The plasma concentration, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}P(t)`</span>`{=html}, is therefore dependent on factors which are not related directly to renal function. As a result, renograms from different patients, or from the same patient at different times, may be difficult to compare directly. ## An Ideal Renogram An ideal renogram could be obtained if an ideal injection of the tracer could be delivered directly into a kidney. Theoretically, such an ideal injection should give an input rate, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}I(t)`</span>`{=html}, which consists of a delta function, and is called an impulse input. The resulting ideal renogram is referred to as the impulse response of the kidney, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}H(t)`</span>`{=html}. In practice, the response of the kidney to a non-ideal input rate is measured. This real response, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}R(t)`</span>`{=html}, can be considered to arise from a convolution of the actual input rate and the impulse response of the kidney: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}R(t) = I(t) \* H(t)`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html}. ```{=html} </div> ``` The process of determining, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}H(t)`</span>`{=html}, on the basis of measuring `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}R(t)`</span>`{=html} and `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}I(t)`</span>`{=html} is called deconvolution. In other words, deconvolution of the renogram curves allows the response of the kidneys to an ideal injection to be determined. As a result, improved inter- and intra-patient comparisons can be obtained -- in theory, at least! ## Convolution Before treating deconvolution analysis, we will first of all consider the convolution process. Consider the model illustrated in the following figure of a grossly oversimplified representation of a kidney. This renal model considers the kidney to consist of four pathways through which the tracer flows equally. Let\'s say that it takes 3 minutes for the tracer to pass through the shortest pathway, 6 minutes for the longest pathway -- and (you guessed it!) 4 and 5 minutes for the other two pathways. !Illustration of a gamma camera imaging a hypothetical kidney. When a delta function, I, is fed as input to this model, the response of the kidney will be given by the impulse response, H, as illustrated above. The form of the impulse response can be understood by considering the time course of the tracer through the model: - The impulse response, H, in the first three minutes following the impulse injection will be equal to 1, because all of the input quantity of the tracer remains in the field of view of the gamma camera. - In the 4th minute, the quantity of tracer will decrease because 25% of it will have passed through the shortest pathway and will have left the field of view, so that H will decrease to 0.75. - Similarly, in the 5th minute, it will decrease to 0.5. - And finally to 0.25 in the 6th minute - and zero in the 7th minute. The important point to notice here is that the fall-off in the impulse response function gives information about the transit time for each pathway. This fall-off can be characterized by the mean transit time and the maximum transit time. Note that this simple model can ideally be extended to include a very large number of pathways and so generate transit times which are more representative of the response of real kidneys. Note also that this form of modelling can be applied separately to the renal parenchyma, to the renal pelvis and to the whole kidney. Unfortunately however, ideal impulse inputs are virtually impossible to generate in practice - except possibly in the case of a bolus injection into a renal artery! Nevertheless, the above thinking can be modified to include the effects of a non-ideal injection, as illustrated below: !Illustration of the response to a non-ideal input. Here, the input to our grossly oversimplified renal model is not an ideal impulse injection but is spread out so that the quantity of tracer decreases exponentially with time. When it is assumed that the response of the whole kidney to a succession of impulse inputs is equal to the sum of the individual responses to each impulse, we can infer that: -------------------------------------------------------- $R_1 = I_1 H_1 Dt\,\!$ $R_2 = (I_1 H_2 + I_2 H_1) Dt\,\!$ $R_3 = (I_1 H_3 + I_2 H_2 + I_3 H_1) Dt\,\!$ $R_4 = (I_1 H_4 + I_2 H_3 + I_3 H_2 + I_4 H_1) Dt\,\!$ etc. etc. -------------------------------------------------------- where Dt is the time interval used for each measurement of the quantity of the tracer. Therefore, in general: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $R_i = \sum_{j=1}^i I_j H_{i-j+1} \Delta t$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where i = 1, 2, 3, 4, \..... Expressing this relationship as a continuous, as opposed to a discrete, function gives us what is called the convolution integral: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $R(t) = \int_{0}^t I(\tau)H(t-\tau)d\tau$ ```{=html} </div> ``` which is usually written in the form: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $R(t) = I (t) \cdot H(t)\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` In other words, the real renogram curve, R(t), can be considered to result from the ideal renogram curve, H(t), being convolved with a real input function, I(t). The model just described is an example of what is often referred to as a linear system, i.e. a system where the response to a train of impulse inputs is given by the sum of the individual responses to each impulse. A linear system also assumes that the flow of tracer is constant through the system during the measurement period, i.e. the system is assumed to be stationary. In other words, for renography, it is assumed that the renal clearance rate and the urine flow rate remain constant during the study. The renal clearance may be assumed to remain constant after the initial phase of the renogram since the small quantity of tracer used (be it O^123^IH, ^99m^Tc-MAG3 or ^99m^Tc-DTPA) does not affect renal function. The same cannot be said for the urine flow rate, however, where excretion from the renal pelvis is frequently observed to occur in bursts, as opposed to a continuous flow. Note that this lack of stationarity can give rise to major problems in the application of deconvolution analysis. ## Deconvolution Deconvolution is the mathematical process used to determine H from measurements of I and R. Deconvolution techniques which have been applied to renography include: - Matrix Inversion - where the convolution integral is expressed in matrix form as: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $R = I \cdot H Dt\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` which can be solved to give: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $H = \frac{1}{\Delta t} I^{-1} \cdot R$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where I^-1^ is the inverse matrix of matrix I. - Fourier Transformation - where the Fourier transform (FT) of the convolution integral is calculated, i.e. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $FT [R(t)] = FT [I(t)] \cdot FT [H(t)]\,\!$ ```{=html} </div> ``` H(t) can be determined from: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $H(t) = IFT \left \lbrack \frac{FT\,[R(t)]}{FT\,[I(t)]} \right \rbrack$ ```{=html} </div> ``` i.e. dividing the Fourier transform of R(t) by the Fourier transform of I(t), and calculating the inverse Fourier transform (IFT) of the result. Both of these techniques are highly sensitive to statistical fluctuations in the measurements, and the measured curves for R(t) and I(t) are therefore generally smoothed prior to Fourier transformation. In clinical practice, a background corrected renogram curve can be used for R(t), and a vascular region of interest (RoI) over, for example, the heart, can be used as a measure of I(t). The impulse response, H(t), obtained following deconvolution has a form similar to that shown in the following figure: !General form of the impulse response obtained using deconvolution renography. H~0~ is the impulse response at time, t = 0, and can be shown to be equal to the kidney uptake constant. Indicators of the time taken for the tracer to pass through the kidneys can include the minimum, mean and maximum transit times, as well as the range of transit times. It is also possible to generate a transit time spectrum by differentiating H(t). Finally, it should be noted that a background subtracted renogram is not strictly required in deconvolution analysis, and the raw renogram curve may be used directly. The reason becomes apparent by considering that the overall response function measured from the raw data arises from the sum of the kidney response function and the tissue response function, as illustrated in the figure below: !Illustration of the addition of kidney and tissue response functions. The renal transit times can still be obtained from the combined response function, and it can be seen that the uptake constant can be determined by extrapolation.
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Sonography & Nuclear Medicine !A sonographic study of valves in a patient\'s heart. This is a developing chapter of a wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Sonography is an application of the SONAR principle in medical imaging where the surfaces of internal organs and their inner structure can be depicted (see the image below). This imaging modality has the advantage of not using ionizing radiation and is frequently used to provide correlative anatomical information for nuclear medicine images. An overview of basic features of sonographic imaging is provided in this chapter. We\'ll start with a consideration of relevant characteristics of sound waves before describing various imaging methods. ## Sound Waves Sound waves travelling through air consist of periodic fluctuations in air pressure, called compressions and rarefactions, as illustrated below: !Illustration of a vibrating tuning fork producing a sequence of compressions and rarefactions in the surrounding air. These longitudinal waves travel with a velocity, v, of about 330 m/s in air at STP, and at higher velocities in denser media, such as water and soft tissue. Indeed a medium is needed for the waves to propagate -- remember that the physics behind the statement \'In space no one can hear you scream\', which was used to promote the movie Alien "wikilink"), is quite correct! A sequence of compressions and rarefactions is referred to as one cycle, as illustrated. The wavelength, λ, is defined as the length of one cycle and the frequency, f, as the number of cycles which pass a fixed point every second. These quantities are related through the famous equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` v = f λ ```{=html} </div> ``` The human ear is sensitive to sound frequencies up to about 20 kHz, and waves of higher frequency are referred to as ultrasound. Much higher frequencies are used in diagnostic sonography, in the range 1-15 MHz. Low frequencies in this range can be used to image large deep structures, while high frequencies can be used for small, superficial objects. Medium Velocity (m/s) --------------------------- ---------------- Air 331 Brain 1,541 Kidney 1,561 Liver 1,549 Muscle 1,585 Fat 1,450 Soft Tissue (average) 1,540 The velocity of ultrasound waves is identical to that of sound waves in the same medium, and is given in the following table for a range of internal organs. Note that a velocity of 1,540 m/s is generally assumed for soft tissue in sonographic imaging and represents an average of that for a number of tissues, muscles and organs. Ultrasound waves are generally produced in pulses for sonographic imaging, with the time interval between pulses used to detect ultrasound echoes produced within the body. This technique exploits what\'s known as the Pulse-Echo Principle, as illustrated in the diagram below. The upper half of the diagram depicts an ultrasound transducer emitting one pulse of ultrasound into a hypothetical body, which is assumed to consist of just two tissues. The lower half of the diagram depicts the situation after the ultrasound pulse has encountered the interface between the two tissues. A reflected pulse is shown travelling back towards the transducer, i.e. the echo, and a transmitted pulse is seen to continue into the second tissue. The length of time taken for the pulse, once produced by the transducer, to travel to the interface and the echoed pulse to return is termed the pulse-echo time, t, and its measurement allows the depth, d, of the interface to be determined using the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $d = \frac{\overline{v}t}{2}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` Note that in this equation: :\the average velocity of ultrasound in the tissue is used, and :\the factor, `<span style="color:red;">`{=html}2`</span>`{=html}, arises because the pulse and its echo must travel the same distance, one from the transducer to the interface and the other from the interface back to the transducer: !Illustration of the pulse-echo principle.{width="256"} Ultrasound transducers exploit the piezoelectric effect to cause a crystal to vibrate at ultrasound frequencies. The resultant vibrations generate pulses of compressions and rarefactions which propagate through the tissues. Echoes produced by tissue interfaces are then detected by the same crystal -- exploiting the piezoelectric effect once again. The ultrasound pulse becomes attenuated as it passes through tissue and four phenomena result when it encounters a tissue interface, as illustrated below: !Illustration of phenomena which result when an ultrasound pulse encounters a tissue interface.{width="256"} Interface Reflection Coefficient (%) ------------------------ ---------------------------- Soft Tissue -- Air 99.9 Fat -- Muscle 1.08 Fat -- Kidney 0.64 Muscle -- Liver 1.5 Some of the energy in the pulse is scattered through a process called non-specular reflection, some of it generates an echo in a specular reflection process, some of it is transmitted through the interface to produce further echoes at other interfaces and a small amount is absorbed. The reflectivity of an interface depends on the acoustic impedance of the two tissues involved, and representative values are shown in the table. Notice in the table that a huge reflection can occur at a soft tissue -- air interface. Its for this reason that a coupling medium is used between the transducer and the patient\'s skin. Internal reflections are seen in the table to be of the order of 1%, yielding a useful transparency for imaging purposes. #top ## Ultrasound Scanner A simplified block diagram of a sonography system is shown in the figure below. The type of scanner shown operates using a linear array transducer, which we\'ll learn more about shortly. We can see the Master Timer in the top right of the figure. This circuit sets the number of ultrasound pulses which the transducer generates every second -- a factor referred to as the Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF). Its also seen that echo pulses picked up by the transducer are amplified by a Receiver Amplifier whose output is demodulated before being fed to a Scan Converter so that the location and amplitude of detected echoes can be displayed. !Simplied block diagram of an ultrasound scanner which uses a linear array transducer.{width="256"} The Time-Gain Compensation (TGC) circuit provides for selective amplification of the echo signals so as to compensate for attenuation of distant ultrasound echoes and suppress more proximal ones. The switch array is used to excite the multiple crystals in the transducer as shown below: !Illustration of a linear array transducer interrogating different lines of tissue.{width="256"} !B-mode image from a patient\'s liver scan. In the simplest arrangement, each crystal generates an ultrasound pulse one after the other so that sequential lines of tissue can be rapidly and continuously insonated. The ultrasound image is referred to as a B-Mode scan and consists of a 2D representation of the echo pattern in a cross-section of tissue with the transducer position at the top of the image. The locations of echo-producing tissue interfaces are generally represented by bright pixels on a dark background, with the amplitude of each echo signal being represented by the pixel value -- see the image on the right. The image shown was actually acquired using a more sophisticated transducer called a phased array, which generates a sector-shaped scan. This type of transducer also uses a linear array of small crystals, but with them excited in complex timing sequences, controlled by delay circuitry -- as shown in the figure below. The ultrasound beam can be steered to scan a region in this manner while being focussed at different depths simultaneously. !Illustration of a phased array transducer. There are numerous other transducer designs, each of which have particular advantages in different clinical applications. Two designs of mechanical transducer are shown below as examples. The left panel illustrates a transducer with a single crystal which is rocked back and forth during the scanning process, while the right panel illustrates a rotating arrangement of single crystals: !Illustration of two designs of mechanical transducer.{width="512"} Components of the scan conversion circuitry are illustrated in the following figure: !Simplified block diagram of the scan converter of an ultrasound scanner. The figure illustrates the process of digitizing the analogue echo signals using an analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) and applying pre-processing to the digital data using an input look-up table (ILUT) prior to storage in random access memory. This memory is filled in the sequence which was used to scan the patient and read out in a manner suitable for the display device, which is typically an LCD monitor. Prior to display, the image data can be post-processed using an output look-up table (OLUT) so that contrast enhancement and other processing functions can be applied. Note that we\'ve encountered this type of digital image processing in a more general form in another chapter of this wikibook. The box labelled `<span style="color:blue;">`{=html}`<b>`{=html}μP`</b>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} represents a microprocessor which is used to control this scan conversion circuitry, as well as many other functions of the scanner, e.g. the timing used for phased array emission and reception. A digital image resolution widely used in sonography is 512 x 512 x 8-bits -- a magnified view of the central region of the liver scan shown earlier is provided below to illustrate the digital nature of the data: !Magnified view of the central region of the liver scan shown earlier. We conclude this section with photos of a sonography system and typical transducers: !`<span style="color:white;">`{=html}.`</span>`{=html} #top ## Doppler Ultrasound The Doppler Effect is widely exploited in the remote measurement of moving objects, and can be used in medical sonography to generate images (and sounds!) of flowing blood. The effect is demonstrated by all wave-like phenomena, be they longitudinal or transverse waves, and has been used with light, for instance, to reveal that we live in an expanding universe! Its also exploited using radio waves in highway speed traps, and can be experienced with sound waves when an ambulance passes by with its siren blaring. Let\'s take the example of a train engine sounding its whistle, as illustrated in the diagram below: !Illustration of the origin of the Doppler Effect. When the train is stationary, and there isn\'t a wind blowing, the sound will emanate equally from the whistle in all directions, as illustrated on the left. When the train is moving, however, sound frequencies will be increased in the forward direction and reduced in the opposite direction, as illustrated on the right, to an extent dependent on the velocity of the train. This apparent change in frequency of the sound waves experienced by a stationary listener is referred to as the Doppler Shift. The situation for exploiting the Doppler Effect for the detection of blood flow is illustrated in the following diagram: !Illustration of blood flow detection using the Doppler Effect with ultrasound waves. The diagram shows a Doppler transducer placed on the skin and aimed at an angle, θ, towards a blood vessel, which contains blood flowing with a velocity of u m/s, at any instant. The transducer emits ultrasound waves of frequency, f~o~, and echoes generated by moving reflectors in the blood, e.g. red blood cells, have a frequency, f~r~. The difference between these two frequencies, Δf, is related to the velocity of the flowing reflectors through the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\Delta f = f_0 - f = \frac{2f_0 u \cos \theta}{v}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` where v is the velocity of sound in the medium. So, for instance, when ultrasound with a frequency in the range 2-10 MHz is applied in medicine to detect blood flowing in arteries (where typical velocities are 0-5 m/s), the equation above reveals that the frequency differences will be in the audible range of sound frequencies, i.e. 0-15 kHz. Their signals can therefore be fed through speakers so that this sound can be heard. Its also possible to examine the frequency content of Doppler shifts to examine subtle details of the distribution of blood velocities during a cardiac cycle by computing their Fourier transforms. Its more common however to produce images of the distribution of frequency shifts within blood vessels using techniques such as Colour-Flow or Colour-Power imaging. These techniques are used to automatically fuse Doppler signals with B-Mode ultrasound images, as illustrated below: !A colour-flow image on the left with a colour-power image on the right. Colour-flow processing is sensitive to the direction of blood flow, i.e. it can detect both positive and negative Doppler shifts, and uses a colour look-up table (CLUT) so that shifts in one direction are displayed in shades of red with those in the other direction in shades of blue -- as illustrated by a patient\'s jugular vein and carotid artery depicted in the left panel of the figure above. A simplified block diagram of a sonography system used for such imaging is shown below: !Block diagram of a colour-flow sonography imaging system. The system uses a beam former circuit to excite the crystals of the phased array transducer for B-Mode imaging and Doppler shift detection in a rapid alternating manner, with the echo signals being fed to B-Mode scanning circuitry and the Doppler signals fed to an autocorrelation detector for analysis. Output data from these circuits are then blended within the scan conversion and formatting circuitry, prior to display of the fused image. As a final point, note that the colour-power image displayed above does not contain any blood-flow direction information, since this technique computes the power of reflected Doppler-shifted pulses instead of their frequency content. #top
# Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/MRI & Nuclear Medicine This is a developing chapter of a wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is widely used to provide colocalization information for correlative applications with nuclear medicine images. An introduction to this imaging method is provided in this chapter. We\'ll consider fundamental features to a depth sufficient to describe the contrast and spatial characteristics of MR image data so that spatial correspondence features with nuclear medicine data can be appreciated. Since MRI is such a vast field, we\'ll limit our treatment to a description of essential features only and you should refer to the Bibliography for more comprehensive accounts. We\'ll start with an overview of the imaging process and then describe magnetic resonance features of the simplest atomic nucleus known, i.e. ^1^H. From there we\'ll describe phenomena which generate contrast in MR images and finish with a description of image formation using spatial encoding techniques. ## MR Imaging Process In principle, MRI is quite a simple imaging technique, as illustrated in the animated graphic below. A patient is first of all placed inside a large magnet -- the poles of which are indicated by the N and S boxes in the figure. Radio waves are then used to excite the nuclei of hydrogen atoms within the patient\'s body using an external coil and these are subsequently re-emitted by the patient in a manner which is characteristic of the NMR properties of the tissues involved. These radio waves are detected using an external coil, digitized, processed by a computer and displayed as tomographic slices revealing the distribution of different tissues. ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ !Illustration of the MR imaging process. !`<small>`{=html}Representation of the water molecule with the oxygen atom in blue and the two hydrogen atoms in red. The human body contains a substantial amount of water and therefore has a large number of hydrogen nuclei distributed throughout its volume to generate NMR signals for imaging purposes.`</small>`{=html} ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ```{=html} </div> ``` The imaging process is a bit more complex in practice, as indicated in the following figure: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- !Flow diagram for the MR imaging process. !Illustration of the principal components of MRI scanner. Tx and Rx refer to RF transmitter and receiver circuitry, respectively. The gradient coils are used to establish gradients in the magnetic field generated by the magnet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ```{=html} </div> ``` The complexity arises from the use of gradient magnetic fields and sophisticated radio wave excitations so as to provide spatial localization information for the subsequent detection phase, and to isolate a particular NMR characteristic of interest. One powerful feature of MRI is that the method can generate images depicting a number of different contrast characteristics. Three such image types are shown as examples below: !Three types of MR image: the T1 weighted image depicts relatively bright grey matter and dark CSF; the T2 weighted image highlights the CSF, while the PD weighted image shows little contrast between tissues. The physics behind the production of these types of images is briefly described in this chapter. We\'ll start with some insights into the nature of nucleons which we have not considered previously in this wikibook. #top ## Nuclear Spin Our earlier consideration of the atomic nucleus concentrated on its composition in terms of the mass, electrical charge and the relative number of its neutrons and protons -- the intention being to introduce the phenomenon of radioactivity. We neglected to mention, for the sake of simplicity, that nucleons can be considered to spin in space around a central axis. We\'ll now concentrate on this spinning characteristic in order to introduce the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and we\'ll see later how images can be formed on this basis. Let\'s take an isolated proton as an example -- see the following figure: !A spinning proton produces a magnetic field similar to a bar magnet. Besides having an electrical charge, the proton also spins on its axis. Since this spinning constitutes a moving electrical charge (i.e. rotating around a central axis), a magnetic field is generated, as illustrated, similar to that generated by a bar magnet -- but on a much smaller scale, of course. This spinning magnet aligns itself with any external magnetic field. There\'s an additional feature to this rotation, however, called `<b>`{=html}precession`</b>`{=html}, which can be seen in many rotating objects, as illustrated by the spinning gyroscope below: !The precession of a gyroscope. The rate of proton precession is what\'s important in NMR and has an angular frequency referred to as the Larmor frequency. Its specified by the gyromagnetic ratio of the nucleus in question and for hydrogen it has a value of 2.68x10^8^ rad/s/T. This ratio implies a rate of 42.58 million precessions per second when a hydrogen nucleus is placed in a magnetic field of strength 1 Tesla "wikilink"), i.e. rather higher than that for the precession shown in the animation above! The following equation is of relevance here: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}f = γ B~o~`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}f`</span>`{=html} is the precessional frequency, `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}γ`</span>`{=html} is the gyromagnetic ratio and `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}B~o~`</span>`{=html} is the strength of the magnetic field. This is a very important relationship in NMR and is exploited in numerous ways in MRI, as you will see below. Clinical MRI scanners typically use field strengths between 0.1 and 3 T depending on the application. The strength of the earth\'s magnetic field in comparison is about 50 μT, i.e. about 2,000 to 60,000 times smaller, while that of a magnetic door lock is about 0.1 T. We\'ve just considered the situation for an isolated proton in a magnetic field. An interesting phenomenon occurs when many billions of protons, in a sample of tissue for example, are placed in a magnet: : : `<span style="color:blue;">`{=html}some of the protons line up in parallel with the field and some line up against it.`</span>`{=html} These two states are referred to as parallel and anti-parallel states, as illustrated in the following figure: !The protons align themselves either parallel or anti-parallel to an external magnetic field, B~o~. The anti-parallel state is slightly lower in energy than the parallel state. Transitions from the lower energy to the higher energy state can occur if an exact amount of energy ΔE is supplied. The above figure also indicates that the two alignments are equivalent to two quantum energy states separated by an energy difference, ΔE. More nuclei occupy the lower energy than the higher energy state, but their excess is incredibly small -- less than 0.001%. Its enough, however, to exploit in NMR! This energy difference is directly related to the precessional frequency through the following equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}ΔE = h f`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` where `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}h`</span>`{=html} is Planck\'s Constant and `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}f`</span>`{=html} is the precessional frequency, related to the Larmor frequency, `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}ω`</span>`{=html}, through: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<span style="color:green;">`{=html}`<big>`{=html}ω = 2 π f`</big>`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` The important point here is that: : : `<span style="color:blue;">`{=html}transitions from the parallel to the anti-parallel state can be induced in the sample when it is excited with electromagnetic radiation of energy, ΔE.`</span>`{=html} This energy is about 1.75x10^-7^ eV for a proton in a 1 T field, i.e. a tiny amount of energy compared with electron binding energies, for instance. Compared to a 140 keV gamma-ray emitted by ^99m^Tc, its energy is over a million, million times smaller. The energy difference is equivalent to the energy of electromagnetic radiation in the radio frequency (RF) region of the electromagnetic spectrum, as illustrated below: !The electromagnetic spectrum indicating regions exploited in nuclear medicine, radiology and MRI. So, if we had a tissue sample placed in a magnetic field of 1 T and we beamed in radio waves at 42.58 MHz, we can expect to excite protons from the parallel to the anti-parallel state. This phenomenon is the `<b>`{=html}resonance`</b>`{=html} feature of NMR. Its what happens following excitation that\'s exploited in MRI: : : `<span style="color:blue;">`{=html}transitions back to the parallel state occur spontaneously over a time period which is characteristic of individual tissues and their various pathological conditions.`</span>`{=html} These transitions cause electromagnetic radiation to be emitted from our tissue sample whose amplitude decreases with time. The detected emissions form what is called a Free Induction Decay, as illustrated below: !A free induction decay characterized by a time constant, T2\. Its the time constant of signal decays such as these which is determined in MRI and which can be encoded into MR images -- once we\'ve figured out where within the patient the signals have originated from. #top ## Magnetic Sum Vector Its useful before proceeding to consider the situation from a magnetic vector perspective, as illustrated in the following figure: !Illustration of the cancelling effect feature of parallel and anti-parallel vectors. The figure shows the situation for a hypothetical tissue sample placed in a magnetic field such that seven hydrogen nuclei are in the parallel state and five are in the anti-parallel state. Five of the parallel vectors cancel the effects of the five anti-parallel vectors and we\'re left with a net condition of two parallel vectors. We can simplify the situation further by considering the summation of these two vectors to give us a magnetic sum vector along the Z-axis, as illustrated in the following diagram: !Illustration of the magnetic sum vector, M~z~. Since the magnetic field direction is generally along the Z-axis in MRI, our magnetic sum vector is referred to as Longitudinal Magnetization. As a result, a longitudinal magnetization becomes established when a patient is placed inside the magnet of an MRI scanner. #top ## RF Excitation Let\'s consider the situation once longitudinal magnetization has become established and when a pulse of RF radiation at the resonant frequency is beamed into our tissue sample, as illustrated in the following diagram: !Illustration of RF excitation. Two processes occur simultaneously during absorption of the radiant energy: :\Reduction in M~z~: Some of the protons resonate and move to the anti-parallel state, resulting in a reduction in the longitudinal magnetization, as illustrated below: !Illustration of the reduction in M~z~ during RF excitation. : : Notice that our initial situation with five protons aligned parallel, which gives rise to a longitudinal magnetization, M~z~, of relatively large magnitude, changes to one where three are left with this alignment and two with the anti-parallel alignment. The magnitude of M~z~ is reduced as a result. :\*Phase Coherence: the vectors align with each other in phase, as illustrated below: !Illustration of the establishment of transverse magnetization. : : The outcome of phase coherence is the establishment of a magnetic sum vector in the X-Y plane, called the Transverse Magnetization. So, once longitudinal magnetization is established by placing a patient in the magnet of an MRI scanner and radio waves at the resonant frequency are generated, we in effect establish a transverse magnetization while reducing the longitudinal magnetization. Its what happens next to these two magnetic sum vectors, M~z~ and M~xy~, that\'s of interest in MRI. #top ## RF Emission We can consider the emission phase of the MR imaging process from both the longitudinal as well as the transverse magnetization perspectives. Since the protons in our tissue sample have been excited by the absorption of RF energy at the resonant frequency, the emission phase corresponds with what is called relaxation as protons return to their lower energy state. - Longitudinal Relaxation : : The situation following excitation is illustrated in the top left panel of the following figure: !Illustration of longitudinal relaxation. : : A hypothetical situation is shown where four protons are aligned parallel to the external magnetic field, and four excited protons are aligned anti-parallel. The magnetic sum vector is zero at this stage. Excited protons then return progressively to their lower energy state, as shown by the other panels in the above figure. The result is a re-establishment of the longitudinal magnetization, M~z~, as illustrated in the following figure: !A T1 curve. : : It is seen in this figure that the longitudinal magnetization becomes re-established in an exponential manner characterized by a time constant, called T1. - Transverse Relaxation : : The situation following excitation is illustrated in the top left panel of the following figure, with phase coherence taken into account. As a result, a transverse magnetization, M~xy~ becomes established: !Illustration of transverse relaxation. : : A hypothetical situation is illustrated where three protons are aligned parallel and three anti-parallel, in phase coherence wih each other. The other panels in the figure illustrate a progressive loss of coherence that is characterized by this form of relaxation, where the transverse magnetization decreases to zero, as shown in the following figure: !A T2\* curve. : : It is seen in this figure that the transverse magnetization decreases in an exponential manner characterized by a time constant, called T2\* -- also called T2 Star. In case you\'re wondering about phase coherence at this stage, a good analogy to think of is that of analogue time clocks in different parts of the world. You may have seen such clocks on international TV news programmes showing the time in different parts of the world or in foreign exchange banks, for instance. Dublin, Sydney, New York and Mumbai, for example, all have clocks which take 60 minutes for one revolution of the big pointer. Their frequencies are identical, in other words. But they each show times separated by several hours because of their geographic location and daylight saving factors. We can conclude that these clocks are out of phase with each other, even though their frequencies are the same. However, all clocks located in Sydney, for example, would have the same phase and we can say that they are in phase coherence. In a similar manner, phase coherence of proton precessions results during RF excitation in NMR and its the loss of this coherence which happens in transverse relaxation. So, what do these two time constants, T1 and T2\, mean in terms of our tissue sample? The protons which generate NMR signals are primarily those in cellular fluids and lipids, i.e. nuclei of hydrogen atoms that are relatively free to move within their environment. Hydrogen protons in tightly-bound environments such as within proteins or DNA, however, usually do not contribute to NMR signals and the same situation exists for those in solid structures such as bone. We can first of all consider a water molecule moving through its environment within our tissue sample as a result of local chemical and physical forces. The magnetic properties of its two hydrogen protons generate a small magnetic field of about 1 mT and the molecule\'s motion is therefore also influenced by the magnetic properties of other water molecules in its vicinity -- and it in turn influences their motion. When excited protons are involved following RF excitation, it is interactions with their local environment which cause them to loose their excess energy and return to the lower energy state with the emission of RF radiation. This can be considered to be the origin of the re-establishment of longitudinal magnetization during relaxation. Chemistry calls this phenomenon spin-lattice relaxation* -- spin referring to the spinning proton and lattice to its local environment. The rate at which molecules can move within their environment is related to their size and hence small molecules have a low probability for interaction. This is why fluids such as CSF have long T1 values, for instance -- see the table below. Medium-sized molecules (e.g. lipids), in contrast, move more slowly, have a greater probability for interaction as a result, and exhibit relatively short T1 values. The T2\* phenomenon results from the compounding effect of imperfections in the external magnetic field and from so-called spin-spin interactions. These latter are interactions where two nearby protons can cause each other to flip so that one changes from anti-parallel to parallel alignment, while the other changes from parallel to anti-parallel, i.e. one gains the excitation energy from the other. Phase coherence with other excited protons is lost during this exchange and the end result is a relaxation of the transverse magnetization. This spin-spin interaction is also called T2 relaxation. It tends to happen much more rapidly than T1 relaxation and T2 values are therefore generally less than T1 values, as shown in the following table: +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Tissue \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| T1 (ms) \| T2 (ms) \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +==============+======================+======================+ \| Muscle \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 870 \| 47 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Liver \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 490 \| 43 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Kidney \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 650 \| 58 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Grey Matter \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 920 \| 100 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| White Matter \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 790 \| 92 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Lung \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 830 \| 80 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| CSF \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 2,400 \| 160 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +--------------+----------------------+----------------------+ : `<small>`{=html}T1 and T2 values at 1.5 Tesla.`</small>`{=html} Since T2 arises mainly from neighbouring protons, a higher interaction probability exists with larger than with smaller molecules. Macromolecular environments will therefore display shorter T2 values than water-based fluids, e.g. CSF. A final point to note is that both T1 and T2 measurements from a small volume of tissue result from the integrated motional effects of all molecular species which contain hydrogen protons in that volume, be they those of small molecules, lipids or macromolecules. #top ## Inversion Recovery A practical problem arises when we try to measure T1 because M~z~ exists within the Z-axis of the patient. If we could flip the longitudinal magnetization vector into the XY plane, then T1 could be measured using external coils. This is what the Inversion Recovery imaging technique is designed to do. It involves a two stage excitation process, where an RF pulse of sufficient duration to excite all the lower energy protons is applied initially and this is followed by a second RF pulse after a time interval of duration sufficient for similar numbers of protons to exist in the two alignments. The first stage is illustrated in the following figure: !Illustration of the application of a 180^o^ RF pulse. The RF pulse in this case is referred to as a 180^o^ pulse since the longitudinal magnetization, M~z~, has been inverted during the excitation process. Then a short time interval is used to allow some longitudinal relaxation to occur, as illustrated in the following figure: !Recovery of M~z~ following a 180^o^ RF pulse in cases where T1 is long (left panel) and short (right panel). and short (right panel).") Notice that M~z~ recovers relatively slowly when the T1 of the tissue in question is relatively long, and that it recovers quite quickly when T1 is short. We can conclude that the extent of the recovery is related to T1. A 90^o^ RF pulse is then used to move M~z~ into the XY plane so that its amplitude can be measured, as shown in the next figure: !The recovered M~z~ is moved onto the XY plane using a 90^o^ RF pulse. The sequence of RF pulses is shown in the left panel of the figure below, separated by the time interval, TI, and the resultant Free Induction Decay (FID) is shown below it. The amplitude of the FID is dependent on the relative values of T1 and the time interval, TI. For instance, when the time interval is less than T1, the longitudinal magnetization can still be negative when the 90^o^ is applied -- as we saw in an earlier figure. At the other extreme, when the time interval is much greater than T1, the longitudinal magnetization has sufficient time to fully recover and the amplitude of the FID is dependent primarily on the proton density. The figure in the right panel below shows the dependence of the longitudinal magnetization measured from the FIDs of grey matter and CSF against the time interval, TI. It is seen that both substances generate a negative value of M~z~ when the time interval is short, as we might expect. It is also seen that M~z~ increases in each case when the time interval is increased and a region is reached where the values are strongly dependent on T1. It is further seen that a large difference can exist between the measured values for our two substances in this region. This feature gives rise to the generation of contrast between these two substances in T1-weighted images. Typically a time interval of 400 ms is used for such tissue discrimination. !The inversion recovery pulse sequence and resultant FID (left) and the dependence of M~z~ on the time interval, TI (right). and the dependence of Mz on the time interval, TI (right).") A final point to note is the proton density-weighting that results when long time intervals are used, with little tissue discrimination. Typically an interval of 700 ms is used for such studies. There are numerous other pulse sequences used besides Inversion Recovery in MRI. These include: :\Spin Echo :\Saturation Recovery :\Short TI IR (STIR) :\Echo Planar Imaging :\Small Angle Gradient Echo (SAGE). The Spin Echo sequence, for instance, can be used to generate a T2-weighting in images. You\'ll remember from earlier that an FID decays exponentially with a time constant, T2\. This parameter results from the combined effect of two phenomena: :\static and oscillating magnetic fields induced by neighbouring protons (and unpaired electrons!) which we\'ve discussed earlier and which generate the T2 information; :\small imperfections in the primary magnetic field, B~o~, which are referred to as field inhomogeneities, and generate a time constant, T~inh~. These two time constants can be considered to add, such that: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` $\frac{1}{T2^} = \frac{1}{T2} + \frac{1}{T_{inh}}$ ```{=html} </div> ``` and the function of the Spin Echo pulse sequence is to disentangle this relationship to extract the T2 information. Note that this pulse sequence can also be used to generate images with a T1 or a proton density weighting depending on various time intervals used in its pulse sequence. The further treatment of Spin Echo and other pulse sequences is beyond the introductory level of this chapter and you are referred to the Bibliography for additional learning resources. However, you\'re likely to find that the treatment above will provide a sufficient foundation for developing your understanding of these other pulse sequences. You might also like to check out the superb e-MRI online learning resource #top ## Spatial Localization of NMR Signals Since we\'ve seen above how contrast between tissues can be generated in MRI we\'re now in a position to consider how images are formed. In other words, we\'ll consider how to localize the origin of the FIDs generated within the patient following RF excitation. Its helpful to consider an analogy at this stage because this imaging situation is distinctly different to that encountered in nuclear medicine, radiography or sonography where the radiation travels in straight lines and imaging techniques based on emission, transmission and reflection can be readily conceptualized. Its a little bit more difficult in MRI because the radiation is emitted in all directions simultaneously, so that there\'s little or no chance in knowing its origin from an FID measurement. In other words, the FID only allows the amplitude, frequency and phase of the radio waves to be measured. !A grand piano with a keyboard and scales overlaid.{width="128"} The analogy we\'ll use is that of a piano keyboard and the playing thereof. Let\'s imagine a concert pianist, for instance, on stage and playing the keyboard of a grand piano. Notice that the pianist\'s fingers hit keys to the left of the keyboard in order to produce a relatively low frequency (i.e. low pitch) sound, keys on the right for high frequency notes and keys in the middle for intermediate frequencies. So, besides hearing the music produced while the pianist plays, we also receive information about where in space the pianist\'s fingers were located at any individual moment. In technical jargon we can say that we are using a method of spatial localization through frequency discrimination of audio signals to determine locations along the piano\'s keyboard. This same approach can be applied in MRI using frequency discrimination techniques for the spatial localization of radio signals. The 3D situation is of course a bit more complex than the 1D piano keyboard, but the principle is basically the same. Frequency discrimination can be achieved by arranging for RF emissions from the patient to have slightly different frequencies depending on their origin. Furthermore, phase discrimination can also be applied so that the phase of the RF emissions can be related to locations within the patient. The fidelity of the frequency and phase discrimination should of course be sufficient so that the corresponding voxels within the patient are sufficiently small enough for clinically-useful views of the anatomy to be generated. Afterall, the fidelity of our frequency discrimination in the case of a piano keyboard is limited at an extreme by the width of the keys! The magnetic field of the magnet in an MRI scanner is therefore supplemented by small fields introduced using gradient coils so that a linear gradient, for instance, in the field can be established. With such a gradient applied along the patient\'s Z-axis, we can expect the resonant frequency of hydrogen protons to be different for planes along this axis, as illustrated in the following figure: !Illustration of the application of a linear gradient (in blue) in the magnetic field along a patient\'s Z-axis so that the resonant frequency can be related to planes along this axis. in the magnetic field along a patient's Z-axis so that the resonant frequency can be related to planes along this axis.") Should we wish to excite a single slice along this axis, for instance, all we need to do is generate radio waves of the relevant frequency, as dictated by our earlier equation: ```{=html} <div class="center"> ``` `<big>`{=html}`<span style="color:green;">`{=html}f = γ B~o~`</span>`{=html}.`</big>`{=html} ```{=html} </div> ``` This approach is called slice selective excitation. Both the strength of the gradient field and the bandwidth of the RF pulse produced by the transmitter can influence the thickness of the selected slice as indicated in the following figure: !Effect of gradient field (left) and bandwidth (right) on slice thickness. and bandwidth (right) on slice thickness.") We can see in the left panel above that increasing the gradient in the magnetic field from G~a~ to G~b~, for instance, decreases the slice thickness, ΔZ, when the bandwidth, Δf, is kept constant. In comparison, we can see in the right panel that increasing the bandwidth of the RF pulse generated by the transmitter circuitry, from Δf~a~ to Δf~b~ for instance, increases the slice thickness. It is important to note that the slice selection gradient is applied during the application of the RF excitation pulses. The protons in any given plane can then be made to resonate by changing the RF pulse centre frequency, f~o~, during the scan. The G~z~ gradient and the RF bandwidth control the slice thickness and position in this manner. Note that although the slice selection gradient has been described here in terms of the Z-axis, there is no reason in principle why any other directions cannot be chosen for the application of the gradient. The slice selection is therefore not governed by mechanical considerations, as is the case in X-ray CT, SPECT and PET. One method of tomographic imaging based on this approach is considered next. Let\'s assume for simplicity that our patient can be represented by an elongated cube, as shown in the following figure: !Illustration of slice selection during the RF excitation phase using a longitudinal magnetic field gradient. Notice that our patient is placed in a magnet with a longitudinal gradient in the field, as illustrated by the blue line. The field strength is relatively low, as a result, towards the left of our cube and relatively high towards the right. A central slice of the cube can be excited when an RF pulse of the appropriate frequency is applied. Suppose the selected slice contains two features which generate FIDs, as indicated by the red and green objects. The RF pulse is used to excite protons in this slice so that they all precess at the same frequency. A transverse gradient in the magnetic field is then applied during the emission phase, as illustrated in our next figure, so that the field strength is low, for instance, to the left of the selected slice and higher to the right of the slice. Precessional frequencies will therefore increase, decrease or remain the same depending on their horizontal location across the slice. The emitted FIDs will therefore contain a range of frequencies which represent this horizontal location. !Illustration of the application of a transverse gradient during the RF emission phase. The frequency content of the FIDs can be unscrambled by computing the one-dimensional Fourier transform, as illustrated in the figure above, to derive the horizontal spatial locations of the emitters. The resultant Fourier spectrum constitutes one projection, somewhat similar to that acquired in X-ray computed tomography. The subsequent steps are to generate projections at different angles around the slice by repeating steps 1 and 2 in the above figure using different transverse gradients. A series of projections can then result which can be processed using Filtered Back Projection to form an image of the axial slice. This method is rather slow for clinical application and numerous other methods have been devised. We\'ve considered it here simply because its a good exercise in integrating many of the features that you\'ve learnt about in this chapter and because of its relative simplicity. Faster image acquisition times can be generated using the so-called Spin Warp method, for example. Here, a two-dimensional Fourier transform is applied using repeated slice selective excitations along with frequency-encoding gradients (as we\'ve just described) as well as phase-encoding gradients during the emission phases. #top ## Back to the Nucleus There are many other features of MRI that are beyond the scope of this chapter. Issues such as safety in magnetic environments are of vital importance and features such as magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), functional MRI (fMRI), contrast media, image artefacts as well as magnet design, shielding and siting are fascinating to consider from a nuclear medicine perspective. We\'ll conclude this chapter with an important basic feature which we didn\'t consider earlier in the interests of clarity. This brings us back to the nucleus and the topic of nuclear spin. You\'ll appreciate that its not just the hydrogen proton that demonstrates the NMR phenomenon and that it can occur, at the least, in situations where the nucleus has an odd number of protons. In other words, situations where there\'s an isolated proton which does not have a partner to pair with magnetically in its nucleus. There\'s actually three types of nucleus where nuclear spin is concerned -- those with: ::\Odd Mass Number, i.e. nuclei with one unpaired nucleon; ::\*Even Mass Number & Even Atomic Number, i.e. nuclei with no unpaired nucleons; ::\*Even Mass Number & Odd Atomic Number, i.e. nuclei with two or more unpaired nucleons. Examples of nuclei with a net nuclear spin are given in the following table: +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| Nucleus \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| Gyromagnetic \| f~o~ at 1 Telsa \| \| \| Ratio, γ \| (MHz) \| \| \| (10^6^rad/s/T) \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| \| \| ```{=html} \| </div> \| \| \| </div> \| ``` \| \| \| ``` \| \| +======================+======================+======================+ \| ^1^H \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 268 \| 42.58 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^2^H \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 41 \| 6.53 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^13^C \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 67 \| 10.66 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^14^N \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 19 \| 3.02 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^19^F \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 253 \| 40.27 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^23^Na \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 71 \| 11.3 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ \| ^31^P \| <div class="center"> \| <div class="center"> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| \| \| 108 \| 17.19 \| \| \| \| \| \| \| ```{=html} \| ```{=html} \| \| \| </div> \| </div> \| \| \| ``` \| ``` \| +----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+ Only ^1^H has found application in routine medical imaging because of the vast quantity of water in the human body. #top
# Knowing Knoppix/Introducing Knoppix ## Introducing Knoppix "Knoppix is... so astoundingly useful it\'s nearly impossible to overpraise" \-- slashdot.org ### What is Knoppix? #### Linux that runs from CD Knoppix is an astonishingly clever product. It is a single CD that runs Linux on your PC or laptop. It gives you a full graphical desktop with networking, sound, the lot (subject to suitable hardware). No installation is necessary. Knoppix is excellent for demonstrations, system recovery, or just testing how well the hardware in a given PC is supported. The Knoppix CD is compressed. On-the-fly transparent decompression gives a remarkable 1,600 Mb of software on a single 700 Mb CD. #### Can be installed on a Hard Disk or a USB key You can optionally install Knoppix on your hard drive from the Knoppix LiveCD. Type knoppix-installer in a root console when using Knoppix. For installation on a USB key see <http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/USB_Based_FAQ> #### How it works Start the computer using the Knoppix CD. The existing software on the hard disk will be bypassed. The hard disk may still be accessed read-only. When you have finished using Knoppix, restart and take the CD out. The regular operating system will run as normal. #### Safe to run Knoppix leaves your existing software untouched. In fact, Knoppix can run on a computer with no hard disk at all! After running Knoppix, simply take the CD out of the drive. The computer will behave as if nothing has happened. The general philosophy of Knoppix is to access disks in read-only mode as much as possible. This is ideal for beginners, because it protects against accidents. #### Personal Settings and personal files can be saved to a disk, such as a removable USB hard drive stick. This lets you store a personalised Knoppix setup and take it with you everywhere. #### Free Most amazing of all, Knoppix is free. The latest version is always available from the Knoppix download page. Not only is Knoppix free as in no charge, it is also free as in freedom. Subject to certain conditions, you are entitled: - To make unlimited copies. - To use one copy on as many computers as you like. - To give unlimited copies to your friends. - To sell unlimited copies. - To customise it to suit yourself. - To redistribute your customised versions. `Web link`\ `The Knoppix download page:`\ `http://knopper.net` ### What you can do with Knoppix #### Learn Linux This book is designed to help you run Linux for the very first time. Knoppix is perfect for newcomers. Linux isn\'t going away any time soon. That is why learning it is an investment in your time that will pay off for years to come. This book is meant for people who are at least reasonably familiar with computers. For example, I assume you know your way around your computer\'s mouse, keyboard, CD drive, and so on. #### Rescue and test Knoppix is a wonderful tool for rescuing and testing PCs. I will provide enough information to be useful, without going into mind-bending detail. With Knoppix it is possible to: - Read files from Windows formatted hard disks, even when the operating system installed on the hard disk cannot be started (unless the hard disk has an unrecoverable data error, or if it is physically damaged). - Copy files onto other disks, such as removable USB drives, Zip drives, CD-RW blanks and network drives (given suitable hardware). - Identify hardware, even when Windows cannot identify it (subject to certain limitations). #### Use and explore Knoppix is a complete desktop system. Use it: - To print. - To play music. - To use a scanner or a digital camera. - To connect to the Internet. - To browse the Internet\'s World Wide Web. - To send and receive Internet email. - To try out the built-in office applications, graphics tools, sound playing, video playing, Internet applications and games. #### Network Knoppix is a child of the Internet. Knoppix does networking with its eyes closed. For security reasons, Knoppix does not automatically run any servers that could be accessed from the outside. ### Where Knoppix comes from Knoppix was created in Germany by Klaus Knopper. Knoppix is a volunteer, co-operative, community effort. It exists entirely on the Internet. At the moment Knopper is the man who does most of the work on the disk. He does get patches and some scripts from the community, but he is still the most important person. The Knoppix project is hosted by LinuxTag, which is based in Germany at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern. The LinuxTag team runs conferences, workshops and exhibitions for everyone interested in Linux and Free Software. `Web links`\ `The home page of Klaus Knopper(in German):`\ `http://www.knopper.net/`\ `The home page of LinuxTag (in German):`\ `http://www.linuxtag.org/` ### Knoppix is Free Software Knoppix is Free Software. It is licensed under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL). Free Software is not freeware, and not shareware. Free Software means "free as in freedom", not necessarily price. This means you are allowed to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve Knoppix at no charge. The catch is that when you give (or sell) copies to other people, you must give them the same freedoms under which you received it. This limitation ensures that Knoppix is free now and will remain free forever. For more details, see the license text at the end of this book. `Web link`\ `The Free Software Definition: `\ `http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html` ### Limitations #### No warranty First and most important of all, Knoppix is experimental software. There is no warranty. Use it at your own risk. #### CD means slow Compact Disc Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drives are much slower than hard disk drives. This means that some applications on the Knoppix CD may take a long time to start; much longer than they would do on a full permanent Linux system. However, Knoppix has some clever (optional) tricks that can spectacularly speed things up. Knoppix does not get very far on unreliable CD-ROM drives. Since everything has to be loaded from CD, it falls over pretty quickly if CD-ROM errors occur, or if the Knoppix CD itself is damaged. Knoppix has built-in tools for testing its own media. #### Not everything works Knoppix supports a huge range of common PC hardware, but not everything. Internal dial-up modems and external USB broadband modems tend not to work. AOL and Compuserve are completely incompatible. Certain cheap printers may be useless. Many cheap colour laser printers do not work. Support for wireless (802.11b) network adapters is limited at best. Certain types of multimedia audio and video files are unplayable. Most commercial DVD movie discs cannot be played. In general, Knoppix does not run Windows software. #### RAM intensive Knoppix works by loading everything into Random Access Memory (RAM). The more RAM you have, the better. For typical performance, you need 128 Mb of RAM. If you are lucky enough to have 828 Mb of RAM or more, Knoppix has clever tricks to make good use of all the RAM in your computer. This can deliver blazingly fast performance. If you have less than 128 Mb of RAM, Knoppix has the ability to use part of the hard disk as if it were RAM. This is called creating a swap file. However, this technique does not work on all hard disks, and performance is much slower than real RAM. `Web link`\ `LiveDistro Knoppix Resource` ### What is included in Knoppix? Knoppix is a compilation of a huge number of works from around the Internet. Some of the projects mentioned in this book are: Project Home page ----------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ AbiWord word processor <http://www.abisource.com/> Audacity sound recorder <http://audacity.sourceforge.net/> Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) <http://www.cups.org/> Debian distribution <http://www.debian.org/> Gnumeric spreadsheet <http://www.gnumeric.org/> The GNU Image Manipulation Program (The Gimp) <http://www.gimp.org/> GNU utilities <http://www.gnu.org/> The K Desktop Environment (KDE) <http://www.kde.org/> Linux kernel <http://www.kernel.org/> Mozilla web browser <http://www.mozilla.org/> OpenOffice.org office suite <http://www.openoffice.org/> Samba file sharing server for Windows PCs <http://www.samba.org/> Scanner Access Is Now Easy (SANE) <http://www.sane-project.org/> Xine Media Player <http://xinehq.de/> X Multimedia System <http://www.xmms.org/> X Window System <http://www.xfree86.org/> Putting it all together is the work of the Debian project. The result is called the Debian distribution. This means that Knoppix is Debian modified to run on a self-contained CD. ### What is Linux? Linux (pronounced \"lin-ucks\") is a free operating system. An \"operating system\" is the base software that makes a computer useful. Strictly speaking, Linux is the kernel. The kernel is the core component of the operating system. Think of an operating system as a nut. The shell is the part that you use. The kernel is the core that talks to the computer\'s hardware. `Note`\ `There are many different Linux ``distributions``.`\ `But there is only one current version of the ``Linux kernel``.`\ `Therefore, every distribution contains Linux.` #### A little history In the 1970s, computer programs were free. A program is a sequence of instructions that makes a "calculating machine" do something useful. The engineers who worked on these instructions became known as programmers. They shared their know-how with each other. They found that it made their work more pleasant. Unfortunately, this co-operative spirit died under commercial pressures. Restrictive practices in the fast-growing "software industry" meant that sharing the most useful programs and some of the most vital technical information became largely impossible. A man named Richard Stallman was greatly frustrated by this change. He wanted to bring back the spirit of the early days that he had known at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). He knew that he had the perfect skills to build a free operating system. He knew that if he didn\'t do it, no-one would. So he decided to do it, or "die trying". By the 1990s, Stallman\'s Free Software Foundation had found or created nearly all the components of a free operating system. He called his creation "GNU\'s Not UNIX". The name is a joke designed to poke fun at the alphabet soup of computer acronyms. Some acronyms have other acronyms as part of their definition. The GNU acronym takes this one stage further - it has its own acronym as part of its definition. "Is Not" is a way of saying "is like" or "is compatible with". UNIX refers to a family of operating systems that were used mainly in science, engineering and finance. Stallman chose to base his efforts on UNIX because it was tried and tested. It would also be convenient for other people to switch from UNIX to GNU. ##### How GNU grew !Linux creator Linus Torvalds. In 1991, the GNU project still lacked a kernel, the vital core component of an operating system. Luckily, a student in Finland called Linus Torvalds created one "as a hobby". In 1991, Torvalds produced a simple, basic system called "Freax". He called it "Linux" privately but never meant it to be called that in public, because he didn\'t want to be too egotistical. He made it free because he wanted feedback. It was posted on the Internet by a friend. Pretty soon, Torvalds began receiving email from places he\'d dreamed of visiting, like Australia and the United States. Instead of cash, Linus preferred postcards. His sister Sara was suddenly impressed that her brother was somehow hearing from new friends far away. Torvalds had used the Free Software Foundation\'s tools, so he decided to make it free likewise. This was a way to say "thank you". He decided to put Linux under the Free Software Foundation\'s General Public Licence. This meant that anyone could use, improve or sell Linux, but no-one could take overall control. ##### It\'s a GNU world! From there, it snowballed in the most extraordinary way. It has catapulted Torvalds to accidental super-stardom. He has appeared on the cover of Time magazine. We should remember that Stallman started it all. That is why the full title of Linux is GNU/Linux. In other words, Knoppix is a Linux-based GNU system. `Web link`\ `Overview and history of the GNU project: `\ `http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html`
# Knowing Knoppix/Knoppix for the first time ## Knoppix for the first time "The most important design issue\... is that Linux is supposed to be fun." \-- Linus Torvalds ### Overview The purpose of this section is to get you started into Knoppix for the very first time. This section skips nearly all of the options for starting Knoppix. The options for starting Knoppix are explained later. ### Hardware requirements The recommended hardware is as follows: - Pentium I 350 MHz processor (recommended minimum). - 128 Mb RAM. - Either: IDE or SCSI bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive - Or: 3.5\" floppy drive plus non-bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive. - SVGA compatible graphics card (most cards supported). - Monitor capable of 800x600 pixel resolution. - Serial mouse, or PS/2 mouse, or USB mouse. ### Starting Knoppix There are two stages to starting Knoppix: #### The first stage The first stage is to get to the boot prompt. The boot prompt lets you customise the Knoppix startup process. For example, you can specify at the boot prompt what screen resolution you want Knoppix to use. To reach the boot prompt, you use either the CD/DVD or the floppy disk. What about some instructions for use with USB??? #### The second stage The second stage is to run Knoppix itself. This requires the CD/DVD. Knoppix follows the instructions given at the boot prompt to complete the startup process. ### The first stage #### Getting to the boot prompt To get to the boot prompt, follow these steps: 1. If the computer is already on, insert the Knoppix CD/DVD. If the CD/DVD drive is set to auto-run, information explaining about Knoppix will appear. Restart the computer. 2. If the computer is off, turn it on, then immediately insert the Knoppix CD/DVD. To play for time, press the Pause/Break key immediately after turning your computer on. On many PCs and laptops, this will pause the BIOS, giving you more time to insert the CD/DVD. Then press the Pause/Break key again to resume startup. 3. Most newer computers will automatically check for a bootable CD/DVD in the first drive. The Knoppix boot prompt should then appear. The boot prompt is the last three lines at the bottom of the screen. If your computer can\'t display the white and blue Knoppix logo, you will get a blue background instead.\ 4. On some computers, you must press a key for the "boot device menu". The boot device menu is used to tell the computer which drive to boot from. A prompt saying which key will display the boot menu will appear on the screen just after you turn the computer on. For example, on some Dell desktop PCs, press F12 when prompted, press the Down Arrow key until "Boot from IDE-CDROM" is highlighted, then press Enter. 5. At the boot prompt, press Enter to boot Knoppix accepting all the defaults (including the German keyboard/language.) If you do nothing for 60 seconds, Knoppix boots automatically. To boot Knoppix with another keyboard/language, see the section "Which language?" below. `Tip`\ `If you have two CD/DVD drives, and one of them is a CD/DVD Re-Writable drive, `\ `put the Knoppix CD/DVD in the other drive.`\ `Keep your writable drive empty if you can.`\ `This will let you try out the CD/DVD writing features in Knoppix easily at a later time.` #### Help at the boot prompt Press F2 for the help screen. The help screen is a summary of the boot prompt options. Pressing F2 or any other key cancels the timer, so Knoppix will not automatically boot. ##### Quick help Question: How do I get out of the boot prompt?\ Take the disc out of the drive, then restart your computer. Question: How do I use the boot floppy?\ Turn off the computer. Insert the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Turn the computer back on. The computer should boot from the floppy drive. Then the Knoppix boot prompt should appear. If that doesn\'t work, enter your computer\'s Basic In/Out System (BIOS) setup. The key to press that takes you into the BIOS setup is usually shown on the screen just after you turn the computer on. Visit the boot priority screen (it may have another name such as boot device menu). Set the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD or floppy drive before the hard disk drive. If unsure, check with your motherboard or computer manufacturer. Question: The computer has two CD-ROM drives. Why does the Knoppix disc boot in one drive but not the other?\ Some BIOSes can only boot the first CD-ROM/DVD drive. To work around the problem, start up from the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Then you can put the Knoppix CD/DVD in either CD-ROM/DVD drive. If you are really determined, switch the CD-ROM/DVD drive order so the drive you want to boot from is the first drive. ### The second stage #### Starting Knoppix proper To start Knoppix with the United Kingdom keyboard/language: 1. Type this at the boot prompt:\ `knoppix lang=uk` 2. Press the Enter key on the keyboard. 3. Knoppix will begin loading with the UK keyboard/language. #### Which keyboard/language? The most important option at the boot prompt is the keyboard/language. More correctly, the keyboard/language option sets the locale. A locale is a collection of regional settings including keyboard layout, language, time format, date format, currency format and paper size. Some language translations may be incomplete. The locale options are named using the International Standards Organisation two-letter country codes (ISO 3166 and ISO 639). The locale options are: Code Keyboard/language ------------ ---------------------- de German (default) be Belgian bg Bulgarian ch Swiss cn Simplified Chinese cs or cz Czech dk or da Dansk es Spanish fi Finnish (incomplete) fr French he or il Hebrew it Italian jp Japanese (limited) nl Dutch pl Polish ru Russian sl Slovenian tr Turkish tw Traditional Chinese uk United Kingdom us United States #### Automatic hardware detection Knoppix will then try to detect the various items of hardware in your computer. How long it takes depends upon the speed of your machine. Here are some examples to give you an idea of what to expect: Processor RAM CD-ROM speed Time needed --------------------------- -------- -------------- ------------------ Intel Pentium 4 (2.6 GHz) 512 Mb 48x 40 seconds AMD Duron (1 GHz) 256 Mb 32x 45 seconds AMD Athlon (600 MHz) 128 Mb 24x 1 min 30 seconds #### The X Window System Next, it will briefly say "INIT: Entering runlevel 5" and then Knoppix will try to start the X Window System. The X Window System is the graphics display. If you have a supported graphics card, you will see a black cross on a grey stippled background. This means the X Window System started successfully. #### The K Desktop Environment Knoppix will begin loading the K Desktop Environment. KDE runs on top of the X Window System. The progress of loading KDE will be shown in the middle of the screen. When KDE has finished loading, the welcome page will be loaded. When the welcome page appears, congratulations! You have started Linux, the X Window System, and the K Desktop Environment successfully. #### Quick help Question: Why does KDE come up in German?\ You need to specify the keyboard/language at the boot prompt. For example, for the UK locale, enter `knoppix lang=uk` at the boot prompt. Question: It says \'cloop: read error\', what does that mean?\ There is a problem reading the Knoppix CD. You either have a faulty CD-ROM drive or a damaged CD. To test the Knoppix CD, enter at the boot prompt: `knoppix testcd` This will make Knoppix check the media for errors. If you know that the Knoppix CD is good, this error usually means a faulty CD-ROM drive. Question: I get a blank screen when the X Window System comes up, why?\ Knoppix is trying to use a screen resolution that your monitor doesn\'t support. For example, Knoppix may have detected your graphics card is capable of 1024x768 pixel resolution, but your monitor can\'t cope with that. Try setting a lower resolution at the boot prompt. For example, enter: `knoppix lang=uk screen=800x600` This will make Knoppix use a screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels when it starts the X Window System. Question: Why does the screen go blank when the kernel boots?\ This problem usually occurs with low cost TFT (flat screen) monitors. The kernel is using a framebuffer console, but the monitor is incompatible with it. Turn off the framebuffer console. At the boot prompt, use the option "vga=normal". For example, type: `knoppix lang=uk vga=normal` This will turn off the framebuffer console and the penguin logo. Question: Why doesn\'t the mouse work?\ This could mean you are trying to use a PS/2 mouse in a 9-pin serial port through a PS/2-to-serial adapter. Some PS/2 mice do not work when plugged into a 9-pin serial port. Try a real serial mouse. Question: It says "Initrd extends beyond end of memory".\ Your motherboard is reporting the RAM size incorrectly. Specify the amount of physical RAM in your computer at the boot prompt. For example, if you have 128 Mb of RAM, enter at the boot prompt: `knoppix lang=uk mem=128M` Question: It says "Could not find the KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell."\ Try booting with: `knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia` If that doesn\'t work, it means your PCMCIA CD-ROM drive is not supported. There is a workaround. In Windows, copy the directory called "KNOPPIX" from the Knoppix CD to the root of a local FAT formatted hard drive partition (e.g.: drive "C:"). The copy will take some time to complete. Then start Knoppix and specify the partition that you copied the KNOPPIX directory to, using the "fromhd=" boot parameter. For example, boot with: `knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1` If Windows is not available, use a single-floppy Linux such as "tomsrtbt" to do the copy, however that is beyond the scope of this book. ### Getting out Now that you\'ve got Knoppix up and running, feel free to have a poke around. Everything is read-only, so you\'re unlikely to do any harm to your computer. To exit Knoppix: 1. Click the "K" menu in the bottom left corner. 2. Click "Logout".\ 3. Knoppix will begin shutting down. 4. The Knoppix CD will be ejected. 5. Remove the CD and close the tray. 6. Press Enter on the keyboard. 7. Knoppix will attempt to turn off the computer automatically. If it doesn\'t turn off automatically, it is now safe to turn off the computer yourself using the power button. `Tip`\ `For a quick exit, press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. This “three finger salute” kills the ``X Window System``.`\ `Killing the X Window System takes down KDE and all its open applications.`\ `Knoppix will then shut down automatically.`
# Knowing Knoppix/The K Desktop Environment !KDE 3.4 running in Slax, another Live Linux distro{width="370"} ## The K Desktop Environment !Konqi: the KDE mascot The K Desktop Environment is a modern, powerful and free graphical user interface environment for UNIX compatible systems. Its name is a play on the Common Desktop Environment created by Sun Microsystems in the 1980s. This section explains what KDE has to offer. `Web link`\ `The home page of the K Desktop Environment:`\ `http://www.kde.org/` ### Single click, not double-click KDE looks familiar to Windows and Macintosh users because it takes some of the best elements from each. There is an important difference: everything is single click. Nothing needs a double-click to make it work. If you double-click, you\'ll end up with a program running twice, or something else you don\'t need. Just single click. To revert this to what you may be used to, there is an appropriate setting under Peripherals -\> Mouse in the Control Center. `Tip`\ `To ``select a file`` instead of opening it, hold down the Ctrl key and click the left mouse button.`\ `The icon will be selected, rather than opened.`\ `It is then safe to let go of the Ctrl key.` ### Context menus everywhere Most icons have a context menu. To get the context menu for an icon, right-click on the icon. You\'ll get a little pop-up menu of common actions for that icon. This also works on window edges, toolbars, and just about everything else. `Tip`\ `Right-click to see the context menu for an item.` ### Hover the mouse for help Like Macintosh and Windows, most icons have a tooltip. Hover the mouse pointer over an icon. A little yellow label will tell you what that icon does. Tooltips only work in the current active window. This means that if you have two windows open, you will only get tooltips in the window that is at the front. To get tooltips in the other window, you must click it to bring it to the front. `Tip`\ `Not sure what an icon does? Hover the mouse pointer over it.` ### The Desktop The main part of the screen is called the Desktop. This is where the application windows appear. There are also icons for each disk device in the system. Here are device icons for two CD-ROM drives, a 1.44 Mb floppy drive, and a hard disk partition. Notice that the "hard disk partition" icon has the name "hda1". Knoppix has its own way of naming disks and partitions. For details, see the section "Knoppix essentials". These icons are actually hyperlinks. In other words, they are just pointers to the place in the system where the files appear. You can\'t drag and drop files and folders onto Desktop device icons, as you can on the Apple Macintosh. `Note`\ `Desktop icons are shortcuts. There are no files inside Desktop icons.`\ `Instead, Desktop icons are just pointers to the places where the files actually appear.` If you plug in a hot-pluggable disk device, such as a USB external hard drive, a new icon for it will appear on the Desktop. This behaviour will be familiar to Apple Macintosh users. ### The Panel At the bottom of the screen is the Panel. The Panel is always visible. It contains various utilities and status information. #### K Menu In the far left corner of the Panel is the K Menu which is just like the Windows "Start" menu. Click for a list of programs that are available on the system. #### Quick launch Next to the K Menu are Quick Launch icons. These icons represent frequently used programs. Hover the mouse pointer over the program icon for a description of what it does. Single-click on the icon to start that program. Be aware that the OpenOffice program may take several minutes to start, especially if you have a slower computer. #### Desktop Guide The Desktop Guide consists of four squares. Each square represents one desktop. You start off in the first desktop. Click in the Desktop Guide to switch between the four available desktops. To move open windows between Desktops, click the Window Control Box at the top left corner of the window. Point at "To desktop", then choose the Desktop that you would like to send the window to. #### Taskbar A button is shown in the Taskbar for each open window. This example shows three open windows; Konsole, the Konqueror web browser, and the GIMP graphics editor. #### System Tray The System Tray contains an icon for the current keyboard layout. To view the available keyboard layouts, right-click on the keyboard layout icon. #### Clock The clock shows the time and date. #### Hide Panel At each end of the Panel is a Hide Panel button. Click the Hide Panel button to make the Panel shrink to that side of the screen. Click the button again to unhide the Panel. Drag the Hide Panel button to move the entire Panel from one side of the screen to another. ### Left mouse button selects text, middle button pastes To copy and paste text using a three button mouse: 1. Select the text that you want to copy and paste with the left mouse button, so that the text is highlighted. 2. Point to the place where you want the text to go. 3. Click the middle mouse button. The last selected text will be pasted from the X Window System\'s copy buffer into the place where you clicked. This also works in other window managers that run in X. If this method doesn\'t work, you can use the Ctrl+C \> Ctrl+V or the Ctrl+Insert \> Shift+Insert combination. The latter key combination is slightly older, but is supported in apps that don\'t support the former combinations. ## Alternatives to KDE : See also: Alternatives to KDE For whatever reason, you may you might want to try something other than KDE. Several alternatives exist, such as GNOME, Xfce, and WindowMaker. GNOME, being an entirely separate desktop environment rather than a window manager, is distributed within Gnoppix. For more info, see Alternatives to KDE. Once knoppix has loaded you can switch between the various alternatives. In newer versions of Knoppix, Beryl "wikilink") may be supported (this depends on your hardware). Although using Beryl is almost identical to using KDE it must be specified at boot time with: `knoppix desktop=beryl`
# Knowing Knoppix/Knoppix essentials ## Knoppix essentials "If I ever met Bill Gates, there wouldn\'t be much of a meeting point. I couldn\'t tell him about business, and he couldn\'t tell me about technology." \-- Linus Torvalds This section contains important background information that will help you understand the rest of this book. If you are in a hurry, skip over this section. The terms explained in this section will be used often, so you may need to refer back to this page later. ### File names The following rules apply to file names in Knoppix. - Case sensitive. This causes the most problems for beginners. For example, "myfile.txt", "MyFile.txt" and "MYFILE.TXT" are all different names. - Long file names are allowed. File names can be up to 255 characters long. - There is no "C:" drive. Instead, all files are arranged in a tree beginning with "/", which is called the root directory. The "root directory" is like "My Computer". It is the starting point for everything stored inside in the computer. - Forward slashes. For example, in Windows, part of the location of an image file might be:\ `My Documents\My Pictures\duck.jpg`\ In Knoppix, the backslashes that represent the path to the file are written as forward slashes instead, like this:\ `My Documents/My Pictures/duck.jpg` `Note`\ `What's the difference between a directory and a folder? Not much.`\ `A folder is just the icon that is usually used to represent a directory.`\ `The words “directory” and “folder” are ``interchangeable``.`\ `Remember, a hard disk is like a filing cabinet.`\ `Partitions are like drawers, directories are like folders, and files are like individual documents.` ### Drive names You may be used to Microsoft Windows\' naming scheme for disk drives. For example, you may be used to "drive A:" for the first floppy drive; "drive C:" for the first visible hard drive partition, and so on. Knoppix has its own drive naming scheme. This section explains how the naming scheme works. #### Disk types The naming scheme starts with a two-letter code for the type of disk. Name Drive type ------ ---------------------------------------------- fd Conventional floppy drive hd Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) drive sd Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) drive #### IDE drives IDE drives are the most common in desktop PCs and laptops. A single letter indicates how the drive is connected. Most PCs and laptops have two IDE channels: primary and secondary. Each channel can have up to two devices: master and slave. Name IDE drive ------ ------------------ hda Primary Master hdb Primary Slave hdc Secondary Master hdd Secondary Slave #### SCSI drives For SCSI drives, a single letter indicates its location. This is called its position in the SCSI chain. Zip, USB and Firewire drives are also treated as SCSI drives. Name SCSI drive location ------ --------------------- sda First SCSI drive sdb Second SCSI drive sdc Third SCSI drive #### Disk partitions IDE and SCSI hard drives are divided into partitions. Zip, USB and Firewire drives also contain partitions. A partition is like a compartment within a disk. There may be a single partition that covers the entire disk. There may be more than one partition. Each partition is indicated by a number. Name Drive Partition ------ -------------------------- ------------------ hda1 Primary master IDE drive First partition hda2 Primary master IDE drive Second partition hda3 Primary master IDE drive Third partition #### SCSI emulation for IDE CD-ROM drives IDE CD-ROM drives are treated as SCSI drives. This is called SCSI emulation. SCSI emulation is there so that CD burning applications can use the same language to talk to SCSI and IDE drives. Name CD-ROM drive ------ --------------------- scd0 First CD-ROM drive scd1 Second CD-ROM drive scd2 Third CD-ROM drive #### Conventional 1.44 Mb floppy drives For ordinary floppy disk drives, a number shows the drive number. Name Floppy drive number ------ --------------------- fd0 First floppy drive fd1 Second floppy drive ### Drive detection Knoppix automatically detects all IDE and SCSI devices. The names of the devices are printed in the startup messages (Ctrl+Alt+F1). Here is an example: `hda: [FUJITSU MPA3026AT]`\ `hdb: [LS-120 VER5 00 UHD FLOPPY]`\ `hdc: [HITACHI DVD-ROM GD-2500]`\ `hdd: [MATSHITA CD-RW CD-7586]` This example shows that the primary master is a Fujitsu hard drive. The primary slave is an Imation LS-120 SuperDisk drive. The secondary master is a Hitachi DVD-ROM drive. The secondary slave is a Matshita CD-RW drive. ### Partition detection Knoppix automatically detects all partitions on all IDE and SCSI devices. For example, given a single Windows partition on the primary master IDE hard drive, the following device name will be created: `/dev/hda1` This means the partition will be called /dev/hda1 in Knoppix. `Note`\ `Some removable disks also have partitions, notably Iomega Zip disks.`\ `For the partitions on an Iomega Zip disk to be detected properly, you must insert the disk into the drive before you start Knoppix.` ### Mount points Each device name has a mount point. This is a special place where the files on a device appear. A mount point is created automatically for each device name. For example, given the Fujitsu drive above, the following mount point will be created: `/mnt/hda1` This means the partition /dev/hda1 will be mounted to /mnt/hda1. #### Auto-mounting of floppy and CD-ROM drives Conventional floppy and CD-ROM drives are auto-mounted. This means Knoppix takes care of mounting and unmounting them automatically. The auto-mount locations are: - First floppy drive: /mnt/floppy - Second floppy drive: /mnt/floppy1 - First CD-ROM drive: /mnt/cdrom - Second CD-ROM drive: /mnt/cdrom1 ### Login accounts When you start Knoppix, you are logged in automatically. No passwords are needed. All passwords are locked by default. Knoppix bypasses all the usernames and passwords of the operating system installed on the hard disk. Keyboard shortcut Virtual terminal Logged in as user account ------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------- Ctrl+Alt+F1 Console number 1 root Ctrl+Alt+F2 Console number 2 root Ctrl+Alt+F3 Console number 3 root Ctrl+Alt+F4 Console number 4 root Ctrl+Alt+F5 X Window System (KDE) knoppix You can switch between the virtual terminals at any time. For example, to switch to the first console, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. The Knoppix startup messages will be displayed. To switch to the second console, press Ctrl+Alt+F2. To get back to the X Window System, press Ctrl+Alt+F5. `Note`\ `The X Window System is on virtual terminal number 5.` ### User accounts #### The user account The Knoppix user account is called "knoppix". This account is for all productivity tasks, including CD burning and printing. When the X Window System starts, you are logged in to that user account automatically, without a password. #### The superuser account The superuser account is for system administration tasks. The superuser account is called the root account. When Knoppix starts, you are logged in as root to all four consoles automatically with no password. It is also possible to use the root account within the X Window System. `Important`\ `As with other Linux distributions, use the ``user`` account for all your everyday tasks.`\ `Only use the ``root`` account when you need it.`\ ` For example, when you are logged on as ``root``, you have the power to instantly delete every file on every disk with one simple command.`\ `When you are logged on as a ``user``, the system will not let you do that. This helps you to protect yourself against accidents.`\ `Get into the habit now and it will save you later!`
# Knowing Knoppix/Identifying hardware # Common hardware Knoppix has built-in hardware identification. This means Knoppix can identify the make and model of a huge range of common PC components, such as processors, graphics cards, network cards, and so on. To use the hardware identification: 1. Click K Menu. 2. Click System. 3. Click Info Center.\ 4. The Info Center application will come up. On the left side are the various categories. Click a category to view the details.\ The most useful categories are: - Processor (Central Processing Unit). - Memory (Random Access Memory, or RAM). - Partitions (partitions on hard disks and other drives). - PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect cards). - PCMCIA (credit-card sized cards for laptops. PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Manufacturer Interface Adapter). - Storage Devices (hard disks and other drives). - USB Devices (Universal Serial Bus peripherals). Note :If you plug in a new USB device, and you are already on the USB Devices page, choose any other category and then select USB Devices again to refresh the list. # Listing hard disks To get a listing of the hard disk drives in the computer, including the make and model of each one: 1. Click the Konsole (bottom row, 6th from the left). 2. Enter the following command, then press Enter.\ `dmesg` 3. The `dmesg` command shows the "kernel messages". You will get quite a lot of output. Scroll up about two-thirds of the way until you see lines like this:\ `hda: ST320410A, ATA DISK drive`\ `hdc: JLMS XJ-HD165H, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive`\ `hdd: LITE-ON LTR-52327S, ATAPI CD/RW drive`\ The example above is from a computer with IDE drives. It has one hard disk drive and two CD drives. The primary master (hda) is a "Seagate Technology 320410A" hard disk drive. "ATA" stands for "AT Attachment". The secondary master (hdc) is a DVD drive and the secondary slave (hdd) is a CD writer. Tip : To see only the lines from `dmesg` that contain the letters "hd", enter: : `dmesg \| grep hd` : The "\\|" character is a vertical bar, not a capital "i". : On a UK keyboard layout, the vertical bar is on the key between "Z" and the left "Shift". # Limitations The ability to identify hardware is tremendously useful. However, there are limitations you should know about. ## Hardware newer than Knoppix The most important limitation is that Knoppix cannot accurately identify PCI and PCMCIA hardware that is newer than Knoppix is. USB and Firewire devices work differently and are not subject to this limitation. This book comes with Knoppix version 3.3, which is dated September 2003. Knoppix should be able to identify most hardware made before that date (except the very old or very rare). However, Knoppix version 3.3 may only be able to identify PCI and PCMCIA hardware made after September 2003 as an "Unknown device". A newer version of Knoppix may help. A newer version can be obtained from the Knoppix web site and from other vendors. ## Winmodems The vast majority of modems made these days are winmodems. A winmodem is a modem that relies on the CPU for some of it\'s communication routines. This is done to save a few components and reduce manufacturing costs. Winmodems tend not to work well with Linux. A common example is the Intel 537 series of PCI internal modem cards. Knoppix can only tell you what a winmodem identifies itself as, in its hardware. Knoppix cannot tell you about the Windows-specific software needed to get it working in Windows. For example, in the case of Intel 537 based winmodems, there are many different vendor-specific Windows drivers, which may be incompatible with each other. However, these cards will all be reported the same in Knoppix. That is more a limitation of the hardware, rather than a limitation of Knoppix. ## Identified does not mean supported Knoppix may not have driver support for all the hardware it can identify. In other words, just because Knoppix tells you the make and model of a device does not mean it actually works in Knoppix. For example, the Intel 536EP internal modem PCI card is accurately identified; but it is not usable because it requires proprietary software that cannot be distributed with Knoppix. ## Not guaranteed The identification provided by Knoppix may be wrong. This is because Knoppix is not perfect (sorry). However, it is pretty reliable. For example, in two years of using Knoppix every day, I have had only one instance of wrongly identified hardware (a fairly obscure sound card). The hardware identification strings are mostly provided by Linux users, rather than the hardware vendors themselves. However, the hardware vendors are not perfect either. Sometimes the Linux users\' identification corrects mistakes made by hardware vendors!
# Knowing Knoppix/Reading the hard disk Knoppix supports all IDE and most SCSI hard disk drives. It reads files from the full range of Microsoft operating systems -- from MS-DOS through to Windows XP. This is useful because if you cannot start Windows, often all the data files are still there happily on the hard disk. On many occasions, it is a simple matter to locate the files using Knoppix. It is usually then equally trivial to rescue the files by copying them somewhere safe (explained in the later sections). To browse the files on the internal hard disk, look on the Desktop. You should see an icon for each hard disk partition. To access the files on that partition: 1. Click the icon for the hard disk partition. 2. Wait for a moment while the partition is mounted. A green triangle will appear, indicating that the partition is in use. 3. Wait while the Konqueror file manager starts up. 4. The files on the partition should be displayed, read only. This example shows a typical "drive C:" from a computer that usually runs Windows 98. # Selecting files and folders To create data CDs and copy files and folders onto other disks, you need to know how to select. There are several ways to select files and folders: - Lasso. Click and hold the left mouse button on a blank area in the Konqueror window. Drag across to the opposite corner. The files and folders in the marked area will be selected. To deselect, click any blank area within the window. - Ctrl + click. Hold down the Ctrl key on the keyboard, and click a file or folder. It will be selected. To deselect, Ctrl + click the file or folder icon again, or click any blank area within the window. - Shift + click. Ctrl + click the first file or folder. Let go of the Ctrl Key. Hold down the Shift key, and select the last file or folder. The range will be selected. To deselect, click any blank area within the window. - Right-click. Click the right hand mouse button on a file or folder. A "context menu" will appear, showing the most common actions for that item. The file or folder will also be selected. To deselect, click any blank area within the window. # Enabling write access Knoppix has the optional ability to write to hard disk drives. Write mode lets you copy files to the drive, and change existing files. Knoppix supports writing to MS-DOS and Windows 95/98/Me formatted partitions. Writing to native Windows NT/2000/XP partitions is not supported. To enable write access: 1. Click the icon of the hard disk partition you want to write to. 2. Wait for a moment while the partition is mounted. 3. Wait while the Konqueror file manager starts up. 4. The files on the partition will be displayed. 5. Right-click the icon of the hard disk partition. 6. Click "Change read/write mode". 7. You will be prompted to make the partition writeable. Click "Yes". 8. You should now be able to write files to the partition. # Quick help Question: There are no icons for the hard disk on the Desktop.\ If you have an IDE hard disk, this usually means the BIOS did not detect the hard disk drive. Go into your motherboard\'s BIOS and make sure the hard disk is detected by the BIOS properly. If you have one of the recent "Serial ATA" hard drives, they are not supported in this version of Knoppix. Try a newer version of Knoppix. Question: I still can\'t access the hard disk.\ The partition may be encrypted, which means it may have been specially set up on purpose to make it inaccessible to outside tools like Knoppix. The partition table may be incorrect, or there may be data errors. In the worst case, the drive may be physically damaged; listen for ping-pong ball bouncing or loud rattling noises. Question: How can I check or test my hard disk?\ Knoppix has many built-in tools, but they are beyond the scope of this book. You will need a more advanced book, a knowledgeable friend or help online to use these tools. Having said that, here is a hint. To list the commands that have the words "dos", "ntfs" or "partition" anywhere in their short description, enter: `man -k dos ntfs partition`
# Knowing Knoppix/CD reading and writing # Reading CD-ROMs Knoppix has built-in support for reading Compact Disc Digital Data discs. It is best to have two CD drives -- one for the Knoppix CD, and one for the data CD that you want to read. If not, see "If you have only one CD drive" in the "Advanced startup options" section. To read a data CD: 1. Insert the data CD into an empty CD-ROM drive. 2. Click the icon on the Desktop on that represents the drive. The "CDROM" icon represents the first CD drive, and "CDROM1" represents the second drive. In Windows, the first drive is given a lower drive letter (eg "D:"). The second drive is given a higher drive letter (eg "E:"). 3. A green triangle will appear on the CD drive icon to indicate that the drive is in use. 4. Wait while the Konqueror file manager starts up. 5. The files on the CD will be displayed. ## Ejecting the CD 1. Close all windows and files opened from the CD. 2. Press the Eject button on the front of the drive. 3. The CD tray will be ejected. ## Quick help Question: When trying to access a CD for the first time, it says "The file or directory <file:/mnt/cdrom> does not exist". What does this mean?\ Usually this means the drive is still preparing itself, or the Knoppix auto-mounter has not finished working yet. Wait a few moments, then try again. If it still doesn\'t work, click the Home icon in the Panel, then type <file:/mnt/auto/cdrom> or <file:/mnt/auto/cdrom1>. If it still doesn\'t work, click the Knoppix icon in the Panel, click Root Shell, then enter this command: `/etc/init.d/autofs restart` Question: Why is the CD stuck in the drive?\ Knoppix uses the locking mechanism of the drive to prevent you from taking out a CD that is still in use. Close all windows and documents opened from the CD, then try again. Question: When I right-click on the CD drive\'s icon and then click "Eject", it says "Eject failed!" What does that mean?\ It means the drive doesn\'t like the Knoppix "eject" program. Just press the eject button on the front of the drive instead. # CD writing Knoppix has built-in support for CD writing. To create your own CDs using Knoppix, it is best to have two CD drives. You need one drive for the Knoppix CD, and a Compact Disc Re-Writeable drive for the blank media. Normally, the Knoppix CD occupies the first drive, and it cannot be removed while Knoppix is running. However, if you have a suitable hard disk, it is possible to start Knoppix from a single CD-ROM drive and then use it for other CDs. See the later section, "Advanced startup options". The following CD-RW drives are compatible with Knoppix: - All SCSI CD-RW drives. - Nearly all IDE CD-RW drives produced after 1999. - Some IDE CD-RW drives produced before 1999. - Most external (USB) CD-RW drives. Knoppix uses SCSI commands to create CDs. When working with IDE CD-RW drives, Knoppix uses SCSI emulation. This means that Knoppix works with IDE CD-RW drives while actually using the SCSI language to talk to the drive. For this reason, SCSI CD-RW drives are ideal, while most IDE CD-RW drives should work. To copy files onto a data CD: 1. Select the files or folders to be written onto CD. 2. Right-click on the selection. 3. Click "Create CD with K3b". 4. Wait for a moment while the K3b program starts. 5. The K3b window will be displayed. In the "Current Projects" pane, you will see the folder that you chose. To add additional files and folders, drag and drop them into the Project pane. 6. The disk usage is in shown in the green bar at the bottom of the Projects pane. It shows the amount of space that will be used on the writeable CD. This example shows 90.3 MB will be used, out of a possible 650 MB. 7. Click the "Burn" button (fourth from the left in the toolbar). The disk writing window will be appear. The make and model of your CD-RW drive will be shown. 8. Select the writing speed to be used from the "Speed" box. The correct writing speed to choose depends upon the speed of your CD-RW drive and the media. For example, if you have an 8x CD-RW drive and 4-10x compatible media, choose 8x. 9. Click the "Filesystem" tab. 10. Click "Generate Joliet extensions" to put a tick in the box. This step is needed to make the CD fully readable in Windows. If you are only going to use the CD in another Linux or UNIX computer, you do not need this. 11. Click "Write". 12. The CD will be created. When the writing process has finished, the CD will be ejected. 13. Click "Close" to return to K3b. ## Quick help Question: Why does it eject the CD and do nothing? Or, why do I get an error while CD writing?\ You may be trying to use incompatible media. For example, if you try to write onto CD-RW media labelled "4-10x compatible" at 32x then the drive will just eject the blank CD. Question: When I put the written CD in a computer running Windows, some of the file names come out in capitals and some spaces or dots are turned into underscores. Why?\ You need step 10, "Generate Joliet extensions". The original specification for data CDs allows each file name only 8 characters plus a 3 character extension. For example: "hello.txt" fits, but "long file name of your dreams.txt" does not. "Joliet" is the Microsoft way of putting long file names on a data CD. Question: The setup works fine, but when it gets ready to burn, there are no devices to be selected. How come?\ You need to run K3B as root. Go to a terminal (the image of a monitor with a shell on it), then type \'su\', hit return, then type \'k3b\' and hit return. This runs K3B as root and fixes some issues. \'\'\'Question: how to read the data from cd and DVD
# Knowing Knoppix/Using an external USB drive Knoppix supports two types of external USB hard drive: - USB hard drive stick (flash drive or pen drive). - Conventional external USB hard disk drive. Knoppix uses its built-in USB Mass Storage driver to support these drives. Both USB 1.1 and the faster USB 2.0 drives are supported. USB 1.1 drives work at 12 Mbits per second (about 1.5 megabytes per second). USB 2.0 drives work at up to 480 Mbits per second (about 60 megabytes per second) when plugged into a USB 2.0 capable socket. A USB hard drive stick is a small device like a key fob. Many digital cameras also work as an external USB hard drive. Any digital camera will work provided it supports USB Mass Storage. Some digital cameras have to be put in "DSC Mode" to enable USB Mass Storage. To copy files onto an external USB hard disk drive: 1. Insert the USB drive into any USB socket. 2. After a short pause, an icon for each partition on the new drive should appear. In most cases there will be a single partition on the USB drive that covers the entire disk, so one new icon will appear.\ If the icon doesn\'t appear, take the USB drive out and insert it again more slowly. There are four pins on the USB drive\'s connector. Two of the four pins are longer because they must make contact first.\ To see if Knoppix accepts the USB drive when you put it in, refer to the "Identifying Hardware" section. Look at the Info Center\'s "USB Devices" and "Storage Devices" categories. 3. When USB drive icon appears, click it with the left mouse button. 4. Wait for a moment while it is mounted. 5. The files on the USB drive will be displayed. 6. Right-click the icon of the USB drive. 7. Click "Change read-write mode". 8. Click "Yes". 9. Drag and drop the files or folders that you want to copy into the window of the USB drive. 10. Click "Copy Here". 11. The files or folders will be copied. 12. When copying has finished, close all open windows for the USB drive. 13. Right-click on the icon of the USB drive. 14. Click "Unmount". 15. The green triangle on the USB drive\'s icon will go away. 16. It is now safe to take the USB drive out of its socket. `NOTE:`\ `Knoppix version 3.3 does not support USB 2.0, as claimed.`\ `USB 2.0 devices such as external hard disks do work with Knoppix version 3.3, but only at the USB 1.1 speed (ie: much slower).`\ `If you need full USB 2.0 speed, try Knoppix version 3.6 and start with "knoppix usb2" at the boot prompt.` ## Quick help Question: I still can\'t get my USB drive to appear.\ Click Konsole, then type `dmesg`. If the drive is connected successfully, you will see lines like this at or near the end of the output: `scsi2 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices`\ ` Vendor: USB2.0 Model: Flash Disk Rev: 2.00`\ ` Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02`\ `Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi2`\ `SCSI device sda: 512000 512-byte hdwr sectors (262 MB)`\ `sda: Write Protect is off`\ ` sda: sda1` This shows that a "USB2.0 Flash Disk" has appeared as the first SCSI drive (sda). It is 262 Mb in size. It contains one partition (sda1). If you insert a USB drive too quickly, it will say "unable to read partition table" instead of "SCSI device". This means try again, more slowly. If it still won\'t work, try using another USB socket. Or you may try mounting the drive by hand: `sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/usbdisk` Note:If the \'usbdisk\' mount point doesn\'t exist, use an unused existing mount or create the mount point yourself `sudo mkdir /media/usbdisk` If that doesn\'t help, try starting Knoppix with the USB drive already connected. If it really won\'t work, buy or borrow a USB hub PCI expansion card. Put it into the computer and try connecting the USB drive to the expansion card, rather than to the computer\'s built-in USB ports. Question: Why did it say "out of disk space" when copying to the flash drive, even though the total size of the files to be copied is less than the free space on the drive?\ Some flash drives are formatted with the FAT12 or FAT16 filesystem. This is inefficient when storing small files. If there are a lot of small files, the flash drive may fill up much more quickly that you might expect. There are two ways round the problem. The first way is to archive the files onto the flash drive. To archive means to create one big file instead of lots of small ones. To create an archive, click K menu, Utilities, Ark (Archiving Tool). The second way is to reformat the drive to a more efficient filesystem, such as FAT32.
# Knowing Knoppix/Using floppy disks # Using a floppy disk Knoppix supports all standard 1.44 Mb floppy drives. If you have an Imation LS120 SuperDisk drive, see the later section. The SuperDisk drive is not a standard 1.44 Mb floppy drive; it works quite differently. To copy files onto a 3.5" floppy drive: 1. Check the write-protect tab on the floppy disk. Make sure the tab is in the closed (write enabled) position. 2. Insert the floppy disk into the drive. 3. Click once on the "Floppy Disk" icon on the Desktop. 4. The files on the floppy will be displayed. 5. Drag and drop files and folders to be copied into the floppy disk window. 6. Click "Copy Here". 7. The files will be copied. 8. Wait until the floppy drive\'s "busy" light goes out. 9. Close the floppy disk window. 10. It is now safe to remove the floppy disk from the drive. `Note`\ `Unmounting a 3.5" floppy disk is done for you automatically.`\ `There is no need to “Change read-write mode”, because the read-write tab on the`\ `floppy disk itself controls whether it is ``writable`` or not.` ## Quick help Question: How do I format a 3.5\" floppy?\ Right-click the "Floppy disk" icon on the Desktop, then click "Format Floppy disk". Question: I have an Imation SuperDisk floppy drive. Why does clicking on the Floppy icon not do anything?\ The Imation SuperDisk is not an ordinary floppy drive. It is treated as a hard disk drive. Follow the instructions in the Imation LS-120 SuperDisk section. # Using an Iomega Zip disk The Iomega Zip disk drive was very popular in the 1990s. It has been somewhat superseded by the CD-RW and the USB flash drive. However, Iomega Zip drives, and their media, are still easy to find and often useful. The usual capacity of Iomega Zip media is 100 or 250 Mb. There are three varieties of Iomega Zip drive: internal, parallel, and USB. The internal and parallel varieties are older and are no longer made. The USB variety is newer and is still being made today. `Note`\ `Iomega measures its disk capacities in megabytes where 1 megabyte = one million bytes.`\ `This is less than the conventional definition where 1 megabyte = 1,048,576 bytes.`\ `Knoppix uses the conventional definition.`\ `Therefore a “Zip 100” disk has an actual capacity of 98,078 kilobytes according to Knoppix.` ## Using an external USB Iomega Zip drive The external USB Iomega Zip drive is available in 100 Mb, 250 Mb and 750 Mb versions. The 750 Mb version also supports USB 2.0 for higher transfer speeds. Knoppix uses its built-in USB Mass Storage driver to support the external USB Iomega Zip drive. To copy files onto an external USB Iomega Zip drive: 1. With the computer turned off, plug the Zip drive into a USB socket. 2. Insert a valid PC formatted Zip disk into the drive. 3. Start Knoppix, but specify text mode at the command prompt. For example, enter:\ `knoppix lang=uk dma 2` 4. Knoppix will start up, but then stop before loading KDE. 5. Press Enter on the keyboard to wake up the command prompt. Type this command, then press Enter:\ `rebuildfstab -u knoppix -g knoppix` 6. You should see the activity light on the front of the drive come on, and you should hear the drive work. 7. Switch to graphics mode with this command:\ `init 5` 8. After KDE loads, you will see an icon for the Zip drive on the Desktop. Assuming you have no other SCSI drives, the icon will be labelled "Hard disk partition \[sda4\]". 9. Click the icon for the Zip drive. 10. Wait while the device is mounted. 11. Wait while the "Konqueror" file manager starts up. 12. The files on the Zip disk will be displayed. 13. Right-click the Zip drive\'s icon. 14. Click "Change read/write mode". 15. Click "Yes". 16. Drag and drop the files and folders to be copied into the Zip disk\'s window. 17. Click "Copy Here". 18. The files and folders will be copied. 19. Close all the Zip disk\'s open windows. 20. Right-click on the Zip drive\'s icon. 21. Click "Unmount". 22. The green triangle will go away. 23. It is now possible to take the Zip disk out of the drive. `Note`\ `Hot-plugging the external USB Iomega Zip drive is not supported.`\ `This means you need to have the drive connected before you start Knoppix.`\ `You can't plug the Zip drive into the computer when it is already running`\ `and expect an icon for it to appear, as you can with USB flash drives and`\ `other USB external hard drives.` ## Using an internal IDE Iomega Zip drive The internal IDE Iomega Zip disk drive is like an internal hard drive, but with removable writeable media. Knoppix uses its built-in ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) driver to support the internal Iomega Zip drive. Typically the maximum disk capacity is 100 Mb. To copy files onto an internal Iomega Zip drive: 1. With the computer turned off, insert a PC formatted Zip disk into the Zip drive. 2. Start Knoppix in the usual way. 3. You will see an icon for the Zip drive on the Desktop. Assuming there are no other SCSI drives in your computer, the icon will be labelled "Hard disk partition \[sda4\]". 4. Click the icon for the Iomega Zip drive. 5. Wait for a moment while the Zip disk is mounted. A green triangle will appear indicating that the drive is in use. 6. Wait while the "Konqueror" file manager starts up. 7. The files on the disk will be displayed. 8. Right-click on the icon of the Zip drive. 9. Click "Change read/write mode". 10. Click "Yes". 11. Drag and drop the files you want to copy into the Zip drive window. 12. Click "Copy Here". 13. The files will be copied. 14. Close the Zip drive\'s windows. 15. Right click on the Zip drive icon. 16. Click "Unmount". 17. The green triangle will go away. 18. It is now safe to take the Zip disk out of the drive. ## Using a parallel port Iomega Zip drive The external parallel port Iomega Zip disk drive is the oldest kind of Zip drive. It was marketed for its high capacity, speed and portability. It is fully supported in Knoppix. Everything needed to use it is included in Knoppix, however, a "helping hand" is needed. To copy files onto an external parallel Zip drive: 1. With the computer turned off, connect the Zip drive to the computer\'s parallel (printer) port. Connect the Zip drive to the mains and turn the Zip drive on. 2. Insert a valid PC formatted Zip disk into the drive. 3. Start Knoppix, but at the boot prompt, specify text mode. For example, enter:\ `knoppix lang=uk 2` 4. Knoppix will start up and then stop before loading KDE. 5. Press Enter on the keyboard to wake up the command prompt. 6. The next step is to enable the Iomega parallel Zip drive support. Look at the underside of the drive. The date of manufacture should be printed there. If your drive was made before 31 August 1998, enter this command and press Enter.\ `modprobe ppa`\ If your drive was made after 31 August 1998, type this and press Enter:\ `modprobe imm` 7. If successful you will be rewarded with lines like this:\ `imm: Version 2.05 (for Linux 2.4.0)`\ `imm: Found device at ID 6, Attempting to use EPP 16 bit`\ `imm: Found device at ID 6, Attempting to use PS/2`\ `imm: Communication established at 0x378 with ID 6 using PS/2`\ `scsi3 : Iomega VPI2 (imm) interface`\ `Vendor: IOMEGA Model: ZIP 250 Rev: K.47`\ `Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02`\ `Attached scsi removable disk sda at scsi3, channel 0, id 6, lun 0`\ `SCSI device sdb: 196608 512-byte hdwr sectors (101 MB)`\ `sda: Write Protect is off`\ `sda: sdb4`\ This means that the Linux kernel has found the Iomega external drive on the parallel port. In this example, the drive is called "sda", which means it is the first SCSI drive. 8. Type the following command and press Enter:\ `rebuildfstab -r -u knoppix -g knoppix` 9. Finally type this and press Enter:\ `init 5` 10. KDE will start up. You will see an icon for the Iomega Zip drive on the Desktop. Assuming you have no other SCSI drives, it will be labelled "Hard disk partition \[sda4\]". 11. Click the Zip drive icon. 12. Wait for a moment while the Zip drive is mounted. 13. Wait while the Konqueror file manager starts up. 14. The files on the Zip drive will be displayed. 15. Right-click on the Zip drive\'s icon. 16. Click "Change read/write mode". 17. Click "Yes". 18. Drag and drop the files and folders you wish to copy into the Zip drive\'s window. 19. Click "Copy Here". 20. The dropped items will be copied. 21. When you have finished copying, close the Zip drive\'s windows. 22. Right-click the Zip drive icon. 23. Click "Unmount". 24. The green triangle on the Zip drive icon will go away. 25. It is now safe to take the Zip disk out of the drive. # Using an Imation LS-120 SuperDisk The Imation LS-120 SuperDisk drive crosses laser technology with the floppy disk. "LS" stands for "Laser Servo". Imation SuperDisk media has a capacity of 120 Mb. The Imation LS-120 SuperDisk was quite popular in the 1990s. For example, many computers made by Gateway came with a SuperDisk drive fitted as standard. Today, the SuperDisk drive is no longer made, but the 120 Mb media is still available. The SuperDisk drive is an IDE device, like a CD-ROM drive. It does not use the conventional floppy drive interface. However, the SuperDisk drive is backwards compatible with 1.44 Mb floppy disk media. Knoppix uses its built-in AT Attachment Packet Interface driver to support the SuperDisk drive. Knoppix uses SCSI emulation to treat the SuperDisk drive as a SCSI device. However, because of the way the drive works, it is not automatically detected so a little "helping hand" is needed. To copy files onto an Imation LS-120 SuperDisk drive: 1. Insert an LS-120 disk or conventional floppy disk into the SuperDisk drive. 2. Start Knoppix in the usual way. 3. Right-click anywhere on the Desktop. 4. Point to "Create New". 5. Click "Hard Disk". 6. A window for the new device will appear. 7. On the "General" tab, replace the words "Hard Disk" with a suitable name. For example, enter "LS-120". 8. Click the "Device" tab. 9. In the "Device" drop-down box, choose /dev/sda, assuming there are no other SCSI devices in the system. Knoppix treats the SuperDisk drive as a SCSI device. 10. Click "OK". 11. The new device will appear on the Desktop. 12. Click the icon for the SuperDisk drive. 13. Wait while the device is mounted. 14. Wait while the Konqueror file manager starts up. 15. The files on the disk will be displayed. 16. Right-click on the icon of the LS-120 drive. 17. Click "Change read-write mode". 18. Click "Yes". 19. Drag and drop the files and folders you want to copy into the SuperDrive\'s window. 20. Click "Copy Here". 21. The items will be copied. 22. Close the SuperDisk\'s windows. 23. Right-click on the SuperDisk\'s icon. 24. Click "Unmount". 25. The green triangle on the drive\'s icon will go away. 26. It is now safe to take the disk out of the drive. ## Quick help Question: Why does it say "Do not format" on the LS-120 disk?\ All LS-120 disks are factory formatted. Simply deleting all the files on the disk will put it back to factory fresh condition.
# Knowing Knoppix/Networking # Connecting to a network Knoppix has built-in support for many Ethernet network cards. As a rule, if the computer has a network card, Knoppix will be able to support it (except the very old, or the very new). Well supported cards include 3Com, Realtek, NE2000 compatible, Intel and many others. However, some Broadcom cards, found in certain Dell PCs made after the year 2000, do not work with this version of Knoppix. ## Automatic setup If you have a supported network card, Knoppix will attempt to configure it automatically during startup. This is for you if you have a server which manages your local area network. To check to see if it worked: 1. Click the Konsole icon in the Panel (bottom row, 6th from the left). 2. Type this command and press Enter at the end of the line:\ `ifconfig` 3. This says the first Ethernet interface (eth0) has been given the Internetworking Protocol (IP) address "192.168.1.18". If the Ethernet card has been given an IP address, it means the card is working.\ To double-check the connection, find out the IP address of another computer on your network. For example, suppose another computer has the address 192.168.1.1. Type this command and press Enter, replacing 192.168.1.1 appropriately:\ `ping 192.168.1.1` Press Ctrl + C on the keyboard to cancel pinging. ## Manual setup If there is no server on your network, you will need to configure your network card manually. 1. Click the Knoppix menu in the bottom left corner. 2. Point to Network/Internet. 3. Click Network Card Configuration. 4. You will be asked if you want to use DHCP broadcast. 5. Click "No". 6. You will be asked to enter the IP address that you want to give to the first Ethernet interface. You need to know an IP address that is free on your network. You can\'t use an IP address that is already in use, or both computers will not be able to communicate. 7. Enter the IP address that you want to give to the card. 8. Click OK. Follow the prompts to complete the setup process. ## Quick help Question: There is no "eth0", why not?\ Check the network cables. If there is a DHCP server on your local area network, make sure it is running. Click the "Knoppix" menu, choose "Root Shell" and enter: `/etc/init.d/network restart`\ `pump -i eth0` Try configuring your network card manually. If it still won\'t work, it may mean your network card is not supported. # Using a network server Knoppix can copy files to the following types of network file servers: - File Transfer Protocol (FTP) servers. - Windows Server Message Block (SMB) servers. - UNIX Network File System (NFS) servers. ## Copying to an FTP server To copy files onto a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server_server "wikilink"): 1. Click the Konqueror icon in the Panel. 2. The Konqueror file manager will come up. 3. To log in to the FTP server anonymously, type the following on the address line. Replace "server" with the IP address of the server you want to connect to.\ `ftp://server`\ Example:\ `ftp://192.168.1.1` 4. If you need a username and password to log in to the FTP server, type the following on the address line. Replace "username" and "password" with your username and password. Replace "server" with the address of the FTP server you want to connect to.\ `ftp://username:password@server`\ Example:\ `ftp://phil:mypass@192.168.1.1`\ This will connect to the FTP server at 192.168.1.1 with the username "phil" and password "mypass". 5. The files on the FTP server will appear. 6. Drag and drop the files you want to copy to that window. 7. Click "Copy Here". 8. The files will be uploaded, as long as you have permission to write files to the server. ## Copying to a Windows file server To copy files onto a Microsoft Windows file server: 1. Click the Konqueror icon in the Panel. 2. Wait while Konqueror starts up. 3. Type the following on the address line. Replace "server" with the hostname or IP address of the Windows file server.\ `smb://server/` 4. Example:\ `smb://192.168.1.1/` 5. The public shares on the server with the IP address 192.168.1.1 will be displayed. The workgroup name is detected automatically. If a username and password is required, replace "username" and "password" below with your username and password. Replace "server" with the IP address of the server you want to connect to.\ `smb://username:password@server/`\ Example:\ `smb://phil:mypass@192.168.1.1/` 6. This will connect to the Windows file server at the IP address 192.168.1.1 with the username "phil" and password "mypass". 7. Drag and drop the files you want to copy into the server\'s Konqueror window. 8. Click "Copy Here". 9. The files will be copied, provided you have access permission to the Windows file server. ## Copying to an NFS server To copy files onto a Network File System (NFS) server_server "wikilink"): 1. Click the Knoppix menu in the bottom left corner. 2. Click "Root Shell". 3. Type the following command and press Enter:\ `/etc/init.d/portmap start` 4. The port mapping service will be started. The portmapper is needed to access NFS servers. 5. Enter the following command, again pressing Enter at the end of the line. Replace "server" with the IP address or hostname of your NFS server. Replace "/export" with the name of the shared directory on the NFS server.\ `mount server:/export /home/knoppix/tmp`\ For example, to mount the shared directory "/home" to the local directory "/home/knoppix/tmp":\ `mount 192.168.1.1/home /home/knoppix/tmp` 6. The NFS export should be mounted. 7. Click the "Home" icon in the Panel. 8. The files in the Knoppix home directory will be displayed. 9. Click the "tmp" folder. 10. The shared directory on the NFS server should appear. 11. Drag and drop the files you wish to copy into this window. 12. Click "Copy Here". 13. Given that you have the appropriate file permissions on the NFS server, the files will be copied. # Connecting to the Internet The main ways to get connected to the Internet are: - Through an Ethernet gateway, router or local area network. - Through an external serial modem. - Through a PCMCIA serial cardbus modem. Knoppix is designed first and foremost for wired Ethernet networking. This gives you the best chance of success. Meanwhile, the following connection methods may not be so easy with Knoppix: - Most internal PCI dial-up modems. - Most external USB broadband modems. - Most wireless (802.11) PCI and PCMCIA cards. - Some PCMCIA modem/network combination cards. - AOL and Compuserve. The above methods tend to rely on proprietary software that requires Microsoft Windows. Even if the proprietary software were available for Linux (which it sometimes is these days) it cannot be distributed with Knoppix due to licence constraints. ## Broadband A broadband Internet connection lets you download at up to ten times the speed of a conventional modem. It also lets you make and receive voice calls on the same line at the same time. The technical name is Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL). To use ADSL broadband Internet over a conventional phone line with Knoppix, you need: - A telephone line which has been "activated" for ADSL. - An account with an ADSL-enabled Internet Service Provider. This means any ISP that offers a standard broadband service. - A microfilter for each standard analogue device (such as telephones, fax machines, and dialup modems). - A supported Ethernet adapter in your PC or laptop (see the section "Connecting to a local area network"). - An ADSL router. These popular, inexpensive devices combine a broadband modem with an Ethernet router/gateway, giving "instant Internet". The single-port variety is for one computer. Multi-port versions let several computers share the same broadband Internet connection.\ To make the connection: 1. Make sure the Ethernet cable from the ADSL router is connected to the computer\'s Ethernet adapter. 2. Start Knoppix. It should detect the network card, and then obtain an IP address automatically from the ADSL router. 3. If you have not already done so, use a web browser to visit the ADSL router\'s configuration page. To learn about the web browsers included in Knoppix, see the later section, "Browsing the World Wide Web". Enter the necessary information on the configuration page to make the connection to your ISP. 4. You\'re done! As long as the "upstream" connection to the Internet is working, you will be connected to the Internet. `Note`\ `The diagram above shows a typical setup for the UK.`\ `It may vary from country to country depending on regulatory requirements.`\ `What is most important is that filtering must be done correctly.`\ `The ADSL modem must never be subject to filtering, while every other device on the telephone line must be filtered.`\ ` The term “broadband” can also mean Internet provided by cable and other high speed Internet connections (including wireless options).`\ `These connections may or may not be usable in Knoppix.` ## Dial-up Dial-up Internet is the older, slower way to access the Internet. To connect this way, you need an account with any standard Internet Service Provider (not AOL or Compuserve) and one of the following: - An external serial modem. This type of modem connects to the computer\'s serial port (called COM1 or COM2 under DOS). No special driver is needed to operate this type of modem, so compatibility with Knoppix is excellent. For example, the "Sitecom External V92 Serial Modem" works perfectly. - A PCMCIA Cardbus modem. A PCMCIA Cardbus modem is effectively an external serial modem. In general, the cheaper the card, the better. For example, the "Sitecom 56Kbps Fax Modem PC Card" works perfectly with Knoppix. - An internal ISA modem. Like the external modem, this type of modem needs no special driver to make it work. That is why old ISA modems are useful. There are two main ways to make a dial-up connection. The recommended way is to use "K Point to Point Protocol" (KPPP). The alternative, in case KPPP doesn\'t work, is the "Worldvisions Dialer" (WVDial). ### Connecting using KPPP 1. Click the Knoppix menu in the lower left corner. 2. Point to "Network/Internet". 3. Click "Modem Dialer". 4. The "KDE Point-To-Point Protocol" (KPPP) program will start. 5. Click "Setup". 6. Click the "Device" tab. 7. If your modem is plugged into the serial port called "COM1" in Windows, set "Modem device" to /dev/ttyS0. If it is plugged into the port called "COM2" in Windows, select /dev/ttyS1. If you have a PCMCIA Cardbus modem, select /dev/modem. If you have an internal ISA modem, select /dev/ttyS0 first; if that doesn\'t work, try up to /dev/ttyS3. 8. Click the "Modem" tab. 9. Click "Query modem". 10. You should see a response from the modem. If not, go back to step 7 and try another modem device setting. 11. Click the "Accounts" tab. 12. Click "New". 13. Click "Dialog setup". 14. In "Connection name" enter a name for the connection e.g. "test". 15. Beside "Phone number", click "Add". 16. Enter your Internet Service Provider\'s dial-up access number. If you don\'t know, ask your Internet Service Provider. Click OK. 17. Click OK. This will take you back to the accounts screen. 18. Click OK again. 19. Enter your login ID and password. Again, if you don\'t know what they are, ask your Internet Service Provider. 20. Click Connect. 21. You should hear the modem work. 22. In a few moments, the KPPP window should shrink down to the Taskbar. It should then read "00:00" on the Taskbar. This indicates your time online in hours and minutes. Congratulations, you have connected to the Internet successfully. 23. To disconnect, click the KPPP button in the Taskbar. 24. The KPPP window will come back up. 25. Click Disconnect. 26. The phone call will be ended. #### Quick help Question: It says "The PPP daemon died unexpectedly!"\ Check your username and password. Question: I know my username and password is correct but it still says "The PPP daemon died unexpectedly".\ Go to /etc/ppp/peers/kppp options.txt and change #noauth to noauth (ie Delete the #). If that still doesn\'t help, try another modem. Question: I tried another modem and I still can\'t connect.\ Sorry, it seems that KPPP doesn\'t work with all ISPs. Luckily, there is an alternative. The "Worldvisions Dialer" is included with Knoppix. For an example of how to use "wvdial", see: `http://support.real-time.com/linux/dialup/wvdial.html` Question: Can I use an internal PCI modem?\ Not usually. As noted in the "Identifying hardware" section, most internal PCI modem cards need special software not in Knoppix. Question: I have a PCMCIA combo Ethernet modem card, but the modem function doesn\'t work.\ Sorry, with some combo Ethernet and modem PCMCIA cards, only one part works. Usually the Ethernet works and the modem does not.
# Knowing Knoppix/Internet # Common web browsers Once you have an Internet connection, Knoppix has several different web browsers built in. A web browser is a program for using the World Wide Web, one of the Internet\'s most popular services. ## Konqueror Konqueror is a web browser and file manager, which uses the KHTML layout engine to render content. The WebKit layout engine used in Safari and Chrome browsers is based on KHTML. When starting Knoppix for the first time or with default settings into the K Desktop Environment (KDE), Konqueror will start automatically and will display a local HTML page introducing Knoppix. To invoke Konqueror later on in KDE, click Konqueror Web Browser on the Panel. ## Gecko-based browsers The Mozilla Application Suite, then just known as Mozilla, has been a mainstay in earlier versions of the Knoppix CD until Knoppix 3.8. Mozilla has not been included since that version in favor of Mozilla Firefox. Mozilla and Firefox are both available on the Knoppix 4.0 DVD. ### Mozilla Application Suite Mozilla is a whole, integrated, configurable, sophisticated and extensible Internet application suite. To invoke it in KDE, click the "Mozilla Browser" button on the Panel. On modern hardware, the Mozilla Web Browser may take longer to start than Konqueror in K Desktop Environment (KDE), because Konqueror and KDE share the same toolkit and other technologies. On slower computers with limited RAM memory, Mozilla may be more responsive when run from a simple window manager and not from a desktop envrionment. ### Mozilla Firefox/IceWeasel Mozilla Firefox, a fast, light browser, replaced Mozilla proper. Firefox 1.0.3 was included in Knoppix 3.8.2 and has remained the primary browser ever since. Unlike Mozilla, which is a whole application suite, Firefox 1.0 had an advantage with speed and responsiveness. Mozilla Firefox 2.0 later turned out to be comparably less responsive than SeaMonkey 1.x --- a fork and descendant of Mozilla, that was still based on original Mozilla technologies, which had matured in 2001/2002. Firefox 2.0 also requires more in-depth customization than SeaMonkey to make it more responsive and less resource-hungry. The Mozilla Firefox package was later changed to IceWeasel, a version- and source-compatible fork of Mozilla Firefox. The change was borne out of a naming and trademark dispute with Mozilla.org and developers of Debian (on which Knoppix is based). Since at least Knoppix 6.0.1, IceWeasel has by default included the NoScript extension, which protects against web attacks. ## Small browsers - For a minimal web browser, click K menu -\> Internet -\> Dillo. - For text-only web browsing (yes, really), click K menu -\> Internet -\> Lynx. Then hit the letter G (for Go). You will be prompted to enter the web address that you want to visit. Type the web address that you want, then press Enter. The web page will be loaded. # Email Knoppix has several different email clients. An email client is a program that lets you send and receive Internet email. Here is how to set up the KMail email client in Knoppix: 1. Click the K menu in the bottom left corner. 2. Point to "Internet". 3. Click "KMail (Mail Client)". 4. The KMail mail program will be loaded. 5. Click the "Settings" menu. 6. Click "Configure KMail". 7. The KMail configuration screen will appear. On the left side, ensure that "Identities" is selected. Click "Modify". 8. Enter your real name, organisation and email address, then click OK. 9. Click "Network". 10. Click "Remove". 11. Click "Add". 12. Make sure "SMTP" is selected, then click OK. 13. In the "Host" box, enter the hostname of your Internet Service Provider\'s outgoing SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. If the SMTP server requires authentication, check the "Server requires authentication" box and enter your username and password for sending mail. 14. Click OK. 15. Click the "Receiving" tab. 16. Click "Add". 17. Select the type of incoming mail server you have. Most Internet Service Providers use POP (Post Office Protocol). Some provide IMAP (Internet Message Application Protocol). 18. Click OK. 19. Enter your login and password for receiving your email. Enter the server which provides your incoming email in the "Host" box. 20. Click OK. This takes you back to the "Configure KMail" screen. 21. Click OK again. 22. To see if you have new mail, click the "File" menu, then "Check Mail". Or click the "Check Mail In" button on the toolbar. KMail will look for your new messages. 23. To write email, click the "Message" menu, then "New Message". Or click the "New Message" button on the Toolbar. 24. When you have finished writing, click the "Message" menu, then "Send". Or click the "Send" button in the Toolbar. `Important`\ `Knoppix will not let you accidentally run Linux programs received by email.`\ `Program files must be given ``execute permission`` before they can be run by double-clicking on them.`\ `This gives excellent protection against would-be “email viruses”, while still letting you open ordinary document attachments easily.`
# Knowing Knoppix/Peripheral devices # Printing Knoppix has built-in support for hundreds of popular printers. Parallel and USB connections are supported. The best supported inkjet printers are HP and Epson. Many Canon and a few Lexmark printers are also supported. On the laser front, all greyscale Postscript and most greyscale Printer Control Language (PCL) laser printers work. However, some printers do not work with Knoppix. The printers that do not work tend to be cheap Lexmark inkjet printers, and very low cost colour laser printers. Colour laser printers work if they are fully Postscript or PCL compatible. Unfortunately, very low cost colour laser printers tend not to be compatible with either. They are therefore completely incompatible with Knoppix. To set up a printer connected by a USB or parallel cable: 1. Click the Knoppix icon in the Panel. 2. Point to "Configure". 3. Click "Configure printer(s)".\ 4. Wait for a moment while the KDE "Printing Manager" starts. 5. Click "Add".\ 6. Click "Add Printer/Class...". 7. The welcome screen of the "Add Printer" wizard will appear. 8. Click Next. 9. Select "Local printer", then click Next.\ 10. Select the port that your printer is on. If your printer is connected to the computer\'s parallel port, select `Parallel Port #1 (/dev/lp0)`. If you have a USB printer, select `USB Printer #1 (/dev/usb/lp0)`. Click Next.\ 11. Select the manufacturer and model of your printer. If you cannot find your exact printer model in the list, try the nearest available. For example the HP PSC 1200 driver works with the HP PSC 1350, even though the HP PSC 1350 is not in the list. Click Next.\ 12. This screen appears if Knoppix knows of more than one driver that can operate your printer. Usually the first or the recommended option will be fine. Click Next.\ 13. Click the "Test" button to print a test page on your printer. After a short pause, your printer should start working. 14. When the test page has finished, click Next four times until you get to the "General Information" screen. Enter a short name for your printer, then click Next.\ 15. Click Finish.\ ```{=html} <center> ``` 16. The Printing Manager will be displayed again. You may now print from all the applications included in Knoppix. When you exit Knoppix, the printer setup will be lost. However, there is a way to save the setup. See the later section, "Finding permanence". The test page paper size is US Letter by default. If you are using A4 paper, the test page won\'t print all the way to the bottom of the page. This is normal. `Web link`\ `The Linux printing home page:`\ `http://www.linuxprinting.org/` # Scanning Knoppix has built-in support for some scanners. Scanning in Knoppix is simple, if you are lucky enough to have a fully compatible scanner. Scanner support is provided by a program called "Scanner Access Is Now Easy". If your scanner is fully supported, you don\'t have to do any setup at all. To test a scanner using Knoppix: 1. Click K menu. 2. Click Multimedia. 3. Click XScanImage. 4. If the scanner is detected, the device name will be shown at the top of the window. For example, if you have an Epson Perfection 1260 USB, it will say `Plustek:/dev/usbscanner`. 5. Assuming your scanner is detected, click "Preview Window". 6. Click Acquire Preview. 7. The image that the scanner sees will be shown. 8. Lasso the area to be scanned using the mouse. 9. Click "Scan". 10. The marked area will be scanned to an image file. `Web link`\ `The Scanner Access Is Now Easy home page:`\ `http://www.sane-project.org/`
# Knowing Knoppix/Sound Knoppix has built-in support for many sound cards. Well supported cards include Soundblaster compatibles, Creative Soundblaster Live, C-Media 8738, Intel i810, Ensoniq, Crystal Soundfusion and the Via 82c series of sound cards. # Testing sound in KDE 1. Click K Menu. 2. Point to Settings. 3. Click Control Center. 4. Wait for a moment while the "KDE Control Center" starts. 5. On the left side, click Sound & Multimedia. 6. Under Sound & Multimedia, click Sound System. 7. On the right side, click "Start aRTs server on KDE startup". 8. Click Apply. 9. Click Test Sound. 10. You should hear the KDE startup sound. # Testing sound in XMMS To play the built-in demonstration music file: 1. Click the CD-ROM icon for your Knoppix CD. 2. Click the "Demos" folder. 3. Click the "Audio" folder. 4. Click the "opensource.ogg" file. 5. Wait while the "X Multimedia System" application starts. 6. The demonstration song will play.\ If the demonstration song does not start automatically, click the "Play" button (bottom row, second from the left, in the XMMS window). # Volume controls To adjust the sound volume levels: 1. Click K Menu -\> Multimedia -\> Sound -\> KMix (Sound Mixer). 2. The main volume control is on the far left. Move the slider up for louder and down for quieter.\ To learn what each slider does, hover the mouse pointer over the icon at the top. A little yellow label will appear, such as "Microphone". ## Muting The green spots are called the "mute buttons". The mute button turns on and off output from the corresponding channel. Light green means on, dark means off (muted). All the channels are on by default. `Note`\ `The microphone channel has no output, since it's only used for recording (input).`\ `KMix gives the microphone channel a mute button anyway.`\ `The mute button on the microphone channel has no effect.` ## Closing KMix When you close KMix, it goes into the System Tray which is in the bottom right corner of the screen. To get KMix back again, right-click its icon in the System Tray, then click "Show Mixer Window". ## Quick help Question: I can\'t get KMix to start by clicking in the K menu.\ KMix is already started. Right-click its icon in the System Tray (bottom right corner of the screen), then click "Show Mixer Window". # Sound recording This explains how to test sound recording through your sound card. You need a microphone plugged in to the "Mic" socket on your sound card. 1. Bring up the KMix window. If KMix is already running, right-click its icon in the System Tray, then click "Show Mixer Window". If KMix is not already running, click K Menu -\> Multimedia -\> Sound -\> KMix (Sound Mixer). 2. Click the red button at the bottom of the Microphone channel. This sets KMix to record from the Microphone channel. You can only record from one channel at a time. 3. Click K menu -\> Multimedia -\> Sound -\> Audacity. 4. Wait for a moment while the "Audacity" application starts up. 5. To start recording, click the large red circle (record) button. 6. The waveform of the sound from the microphone will appear while it is recorded. 7. To stop recording, click the yellow square (stop) button. 8. To hear the result, click the green triangle (play) button. Audacity is a multi-track sound recorder. Each new recording that you make is stored in a new track. This lets you overlay sounds on top of each other. To get rid of a recorded track, click the small X on the left side next to the words "Audio Track". `Web links`\ `X Multimedia System:`\ `http://www.xmms.org/`\ `Audacity sound recorder:`\ `http://audacity.sourceforge.net/`
# Knowing Knoppix/Multimedia # Playing Audio CDs Knoppix has a built-in player for Compact Disc Digital Audio music CDs. Unlike data CDs, audio CDs don\'t need to be mounted in order to be played. The ideal is to have two CD drives in your computer -- one for the Knoppix CD, and one for the audio CD that you want to play. If you only have one CD drive, refer to "If you have only one CD drive" in the "Advanced startup options" section. 1. Click K Menu. 2. Point to Multimedia. 3. Point to Sound. 4. Click KsCD (CD Player). 5. The CD player application will appear. 6. Put the audio CD in the drive that is not occupied by Knoppix. 7. Click the big "Play" button in the KsCD window to begin.\ 8. The audio CD will be played. If your CD-ROM drive is wired to the sound card, you will hear the music through the speakers attached to the sound card. If you can\'t hear anything, plug your speakers or headphones into the audio out socket on the front of the CD drive. Then adjust the volume level using the volume control on the front of the CD drive. When you close KsCD, it will "dock" into the System Tray in the bottom right corner of the screen. To get it back again, click its icon in the System Tray. `Note`\ `Some audio CDs are designed not to work on a computer CD-ROM drive. They should be clearly marked.`\ `They may also not work on some non-computer CD players such as in-car players.`\ ` If you are not satisfied with your audio CD, return it to the shop and ask for a refund.`\ `It is simply cheaper and easier for the seller to give you your money back than argue.` # Playing DVD movies Knoppix has a built-in player for DVD movies. This section will help you test a DVD-ROM drive for DVD movie playing. It is best to have two CD drives -- one CD drive for the Knoppix disc, and one DVD capable drive for the movie disc you want to play. If you have just a single DVD drive, refer to "If you have only one CD drive" in the "Advanced startup options" section. You also need a reasonable graphic cards with hardware acceleration that is supported by Knoppix. For example, the ATI Rage 128 AGP card works perfectly. ## What is DVD? DVD stands for Digital Versatile Disc. It was originally called Digital Video Disc. A DVD disc can contain data, audio or video. DVD Read Only Memory (ROM) drives are backwards compatible, so they can read the older Compact Disc media. ## DVD movies in Knoppix Knoppix 3.3 has a limited DVD player application. It can play \"unencrypted\" DVD movie discs, such as home videos, but it can\'t play most commercial DVD movie discs. Knoppix 5.1 has a full DVD player which can play commercial DVD movie discs, given extra software that has to be downloaded separately. It is best to have two CD drives: one drive for Knoppix, and one DVD capable drive for the movie disc. ## Playing DVDs in Knoppix 3.3 1. Click K Menu. 2. Point to Multimedia. 3. Point to Video. 4. Click Xine Media Player. 5. Wait for a moment while "Xine" starts up. 6. The Xine player application will appear. 7. Put the disc in the DVD drive that is not occupied by Knoppix. 8. Click the "DVD" button in Xine. 9. If the DVD is unencrypted, and the region check is passed, the movie should begin playing. 10. If it says "Error reading NAV packet", most likely this means the DVD is encrypted and so it cannot be played. Try another disc. 11. If you need to change the region, click the Xine Setup button. When you hover the mouse pointer over the "Setup" button, a blue spanner icon will appear in the Xine display, and a "Setup window" tooltip will appear. Click the "Input" tab. Under "Region that DVD player claims to be", choose the region number that you want. For example, choose "2" for United Kingdom (Europe). Click Apply, then Close. This change affects only the Xine software. It will not alter your DVD drive, and it will not affect any other DVD movie playing software that you may have. ## Playing DVDs in Knoppix 5.1 Knoppix 5.1 has the magical ability to add extra software on the fly. This is handy, because playing most commercial DVD movie discs requires installing an extra package. 1. Click \"Knoppix\" menu in the Panel (bottom row, 2nd from the left). 2. Click \"Set password for root\". 3. Enter a password of your choice. This is only a temporary password. It will be forgotten when you exit Knoppix. 4. Click OK, re-enter the password, click OK again. 5. Start the Konqueror web browser. 6. Visit <http://download.videolan.org/pub/videolan/libdvdcss/1.2.9/deb/> 7. Click \"libdvdcss2_1.2.9-1_i386.deb\" 8. Click \"Open with KPackage\". 9. Click \"Install\". It will ask to confirm to install package \"libdvdcss2\", click \"Install\". 10. When KPackage has finished installing, click \"Done\", then close KPackage. 11. Insert the DVD movie disc. 12. The disc will be auto-detected. Choose \"Play DVD with Kaffeine\". 13. Follow the steps and the DVD movie will be played. Notice that you can skip freely. Where many DVD players annoyingly refuse to fast forward and skip to the film, here you can. Much better. :-) 14. When you exit Knoppix, the temporary installation of \"libdvdcss2\" will be discarded. Question: Why is libdvdcss not just included in Knoppix?\ "Xine Media Player" and \"Kaffeine\" have not been authorised by the "DVD Copy Control Association". Getting authorisation is expensive and would introduce licencing constraints. To get around that, the necessary third-party component \"libdvdcss\" is a separate download. Question: It says "Error reading NAV packet".\ The movie is probably encrypted. Knoppix cannot play it without libdvdcss. Question: How do I know if a DVD is encrypted or not?\ You don\'t. There is no official label. The presence (or not) of a \"region code\" is a guide but not definitive. The only way to find out is to try it and see if it works.
# Knowing Knoppix/Other applications Knoppix includes many other useful and fun applications. There isn\'t space to describe them all fully here. In this section are some of the highlights to look out for. # Graphics ## The Gimp !Gimp 2.2.8 in twm (Knoppix 4.0.2)") The GNU Image Manipulation Program^Wikipedia\ article^ (The Gimp) is a wonderful graphics editor. It is for painting, image editing and photo retouching. Many people think The Gimp is the greatest thing after Linux itself. - To start using it in KDE, click K menu -\> Multimedia -\> Graphics -\> The Gimp. - In twm, click on the desktop, hold down the mouse button for the Main Menu and follow through Debian \> Apps \> Graphics \> The GIMP. The screenshot thumbnail shows Wilber, the Gimp\'s mascot. Wilber was created by Tuomas Kuosmanen, also known as "Tiger T". Underneath is the Gimp Toolbox, and a Brushes dialog.\ ## ImageMagick !ImageMagick 6.0.6 in twm (Knoppix 4.0.2)") ImageMagick is the mainstay of classic Knoppix versions (those older than 6.0) and typically takes less resources than The GIMP, so resource usage depends on actual image size. ImageMagick contains many image editing features, which for an advanced user manifest in the number of command-line utilities; For common users, it uses an X GUI for showing and changing images called IMDisplay. ### Invoking - KDE: K menu \> Multimedia \> Viewers \> ImageMagick - twm: Main Menu \> Debian \> Apps \> Viewers \> ImageMagick - From the console ImageMagick is invoked with either the `display` or `display &` command. The latter command sequence with an ampersand `&` is preferable, as it separates the ImageMagick window from the console. ### Characteristics In Knoppix, ImageMagick typically starts up with a default image and a file open dialog. To access functions outside opening a file right away, the user must close the filepicker and click once on the default image, which will open the Commands window. Thus clicking on an image (not just the default image) opens or closes the Commands window. ImageMagick uses a very basic graphical user interface (GUI), much of which consists of the Commands window, function menus and manipulation dialogs, all of which must be operated with a mouse. Clicking a function button opens a command menu, but moving the mouse cursor away or clicking on other windows does not close menus (at least in twm). A user can have one menu be closed by clicking on another menu button to access functions there; to close a menu until further use, the user must click on the \"Image Magick\" logo in the Commands window. Closing an image window from a window manager also closes ImageMagick. ### Caveats In Knoppix 4.0.2 it is impossible to make screenshots with ImageMagick (or through a command line with `display`) because of a bug. Typically, screenshots can be made through File \> Open \> Grab, but that won\'t work; editing the File Open textarea\'s content from `/ramdisk/knoppix/x:` to something else won\'t help and the program will yield this error text: `` unable to open image `/ramdisk/knoppix/x:': No such file or directory : ``\ `[empty space for text]` The solution is to use either of the following alternatives in order of resource usage (the list is slightly subjective): - KSnapshot, which uses underlying libraries of KDE and its framework. Invoked through :\* KDE: K Menu \> Graphics \> Screen Capture Program :\* twm: Main Menu \> Debian \> Apps \> Graphics \> KSnapshot :\* Command line: `ksnapshot &` - The GIMP; - and --- ## X Window Dump X Window Dump, or xwd for short, is a command-line app for making screenshots. Being the least resource-intensive of all, it dumps an image of either a targeted window or the whole screen. The simplest way to invoke the program: `xwd -out imagename.xwd &` This changes the mouse cursor to a crosshair pixmap for targeting a window or a free area (the desktop) for the whole screen. The dumped screenshot can then be converted to PNG with ImageMagick. For more on xwd and making PNG screendumps from the outset, see Starting Sessions#Making screenshots from the Guide to X11 wikibook or the xwd man page. In twm, one can write the command in the rxvt console whilst not yet executing it, then iconify the rxvt window and move its icon to an accessible area. The user can then bring up a desired visual setup for the screenshot, move the mouse over the rxvt icon (and not de-iconify it) and then press enter. This works by way of an rxvt window being able to receive input even when iconified, with the mouse cursor hovering above the icon either on the desktop or in the TWM Icon Manager. --- Such behaviour in Knoppix has been observed to be specific to rxvt only. Caveat In Knoppix 4.0.2, xwd is unable to capture the main OpenOffice.org window or the root window showing the main OO.o window, if screen color depth for Knoppix has been set to 16 bits (65,536 colours) with the `depth=16` startup parameter. Attempting to make a screenshot at that color depth will yield an error. This may be because of OO.o\'s use of gradients in its user interface. The solution is to try to make a screenshot with GIMP or to run Knoppix with color depth of at least 24 bits; monitor and video adapter combinations not supporting such a set-up are few and far between. # Office applications ## OpenOffice.org office suite !OpenOffice.org 1.1.3 in a setup similar to Knoppix 3.7 (Mandriva Linux 10.1^Mandrakelinux\ at\ the\ time^)") OpenOffice.org is the slowest but most powerful office application in Knoppix. OpenOffice.org combines word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, drawing, and databases in one huge package. On older computers, OpenOffice.org versions 2.x and earlier may take several minutes to start, because the application takes its time loading language aids (dictionaries and thesauri). Every successive version of the package has more language aids with it. For instructions on how to disable writing aids and other optimization tips, see the Performance Tips chapter from the OpenOffice.org book. As part of framework changes, language aids are integrated in the form of separate extension modules with OO.o 3.0 and later and language modules\' default amount reduced as a result (as usual, every language-specific installation of OO.o still includes the modules specific to its respective package). Starting with Knoppix 6.4.3, the distribution has switched to LibreOffice, a functionally equivalent fork of OpenOffice.org.[^1] ### Invoking To begin using OpenOffice.org: In KDE: Click K menu -\> Office -\> OpenOffice.org -\> OpenOffice. In twm: In Knoppix 4.0.2, OpenOffice.org is absent from the default menu; This means that other window managers in Knoppix lack the relevant menu hooks, too. A user can start OO.o from the command line, or rectify this situation by adding the following preformatted text to the local .twmrc file: • Add text (boldfaced here for emphasis) into the section (within curly brackets) of the Debian submenu: `menu "/Debian"`\ `{`\ ` "Apps" f.menu "/Debian/Apps"`\ ` ``"OpenOffice.org" f.menu "/Debian/OOo"`\ ` "Games" f.menu "/Debian/Games"`\ ` "Help" f.menu "/Debian/Help"`\ ` "Screen" f.menu "/Debian/Screen"`\ ` "System" f.menu "/Debian/System"`\ ` "XShells" f.menu "/Debian/XShells"`\ `}` • Then add the following (avoid pasting inside other menu sections): menu "/Debian/OOo" { "Writer" f.exec "soffice -writer -nocrashreport &" "Web" f.exec "soffice -web -nocrashreport &" "Calc" f.exec "soffice -calc -nocrashreport &" "Impress" f.exec "soffice -impress -nocrashreport &" "Math" f.exec "soffice -math -nocrashreport &" "Global" f.exec "soffice &" } : `<span style="font-size:88%">`{=html}\^ Using the `-nocrashreport` flag for `soffice` alone causes OO.o to launch with Writer; `-global` or `-nodefault` command-line flags are thus not necessary.`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : `<span style="font-size:88%">`{=html}In a computer environment with a limited amount of useful (RAM) memory, using the `-nocrashreport` command-line option disables invoking the crash reporter, if it happens that OO.o crashes and OO.o\'s document recovery mechanism and crash reporter are invoked at next program start.`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` : `<span style="font-size:88%">`{=html}The crash reporter would ask for confirmation to send crash data to Sun Microsystems (acquired by Oracle in 2010). If the crash reporter does appear, then it\'s best not to send crash data, because Knoppix has moved away from OpenOffice.org to LibreOffice and it\'s pointless to send crash data about earlier OO.o versions.`</span>`{=html} • Save `.twmrc` and restart twm. Command line: ```{=html} <!-- --> ``` soffice [-writer\|-web\|-calc\|-impress\|-math] [-nocrashreport] & \^ Flags in square brackets to start different OO.o apps are optional. ## KOffice KOffice is a simple office suite, for word-processing, spreadsheet, drawing, presentations and other tasks. Unlike OpenOffice, KOffice is quick to start. To begin, click K menu -\> Office -\> KOffice, then click the program you would like to use. KOffice is present in Knoppix versions of up to 3.1--3.3 and 4.0.2--5.3.1. CD variants of these versions of the distribution might not contain it. ## Gnumeric !Gnumeric 1.6.3 Gnumeric is a powerful standalone spreadsheet application. Like KOffice, Gnumeric is quick to start. To begin, click K menu -\> Office -\> Gnumeric. Gnumeric is present in Knoppix versions up to 3.1--3.3; 4.0.2--5.3.1 and 6.2.1--6.4.4 (the latest version). Modern CD variants might not contain it. ## AbiWord AbiWord is a simple word standalone processor. To get started, click K menu -\> Office -\> AbiWord word processor. Compared to OpenOffice Writer and KOffice, abiword is lighter with less bloat. # Wine Wine "wikilink") is an application compatibility layer that allows programs written for Windows to run in Linux. Its self-explanatory meaning has become a recursive backronym, which is *Wine Is Not an Emulator. Knoppix has typically included a contemporary snapshot of the program\'s releases, which are more outdated with every older version of the distribution. While Wine can run a large variety of Windows applications, then there are some that won\'t run with it, and some apps that may run with varying degrees of success. ## Invoking One way to invoke a Windows program though Wine is through the command line: `$ wine /path/to/application.exe &` Assuming an existing Windows installation on a hard drive, programs can be run from there by mounting the hard drive: `$ mount /mnt/hda1` and then invoking Wine to run an application originally made for Windows: `$ wine "/mnt/hda1/Program Files/K-Meleon/k-meleon.exe" &` !Wine Launch Window.\ Wine v.20050725 at Knoppix 4.0.2 : `<SMALL STYLE="font-size:90%">`{=html}\^* Because the `Program Files` folder contains a space, the whole path must be surrounded with double quotes.`</SMALL>`{=html} In either case, the Wine Launch Window will start, to notify the user of the activity. The launch window can be set not to be shown in the future when invoking Wine. If Wine hasn\'t been run before, the Wine launch processes create necessary configuration folders and support files and then launch the requested application (the K-Meleon browser in this case). After exiting a Window program, Wine will show either a status message that the program closed with success or an error message. A number of seconds may pass between the apparent program exit and the status message. ## Caveats present in Knoppix 4.0.2 Depending on a version of Knoppix, Wine might or might not be included in the default menu file. The following are caveats specific to Knoppix 4.0.2. Wine version 20050725 is a pre-beta release and running Windows software with that may not be easy: - The Wine menuitem is not in the default menu file in Knoppix 4.0.2; - Shortcut menus of programs that use the native Windows widget toolkit are inaccessible; Commands from the menu bar can only be accessed classic Mac-style: by clicking on a menu item and holding the mouse button down the menu to reach and invoke a command. (This has been observed in the twm window manager.) - Standard text find functionality does not work, while alternative implementations do (examples are various find bars); - Some newer applications\' functionality is hampered: For example, the URL bar in K-Meleon 1.5.4 is not functional --- URLs can be entered by editing bookmarks and then accessing those. ### Non-permanence After using a Windows program through Wine, saving the configuration and restarting the computer with said configuration, launching Windows programs becomes impossible because of very slightly corrupted file paths. A workaround is to delete the `.wine` configuration directory in the local user folder: ``` bash knoppix@[knoppix]$ rm -r -f .wine ``` : `<SMALL STYLE="font-size:90%">`{=html}\^ Where: `rm` (remove) is the delete command, `-r` stands for recursive (deletes the folder), `-f` stands for force \[delete\], which does not ask for confirmation before deletion (therefore no verbosity).`</SMALL>`{=html} --- After that, it\'s possible to run the programs again but any Wine settings are then also deleted. ### Font issues By default, Windows programs\' UI texts are displayed in a font called Adventure, which is shown in small type, and is ugly and unsuitable for use in user interfaces. This is because of a bug in Wine, which has been fixed in later versions, but software on a Live-CD distribution is static and therefore requires a workaround described below. Upon starting a Windows program for the first time, Wine creates Windows-like support directories and files, along with the Windows fonts directory in the virtual \"C\" hard drive, the path of which in Knoppix is: `<SPAN STYLE="color:gray">`{=html}`/home/knoppix/``</SPAN>`{=html}`.wine/drive_c/windows/fonts` The above `windows/fonts` directory is empty and Wine defers to a fallback font, which for some reason is Adventure. A usual way to solve this issue on permanent Linux installations is to populate the directory with standard fonts, either those made specifically for Windows or with substitutes. Because of a Live CD\'s typically non-permanent nature and above caveats, the workaround for a normal user interface font is to create a symbolic link for `windows/fonts` to a specific font directory created in Linux, but all this is effective only after `.wine` configuration and support folders and files have been created by running a Windows executable for the first time. Symlinking to a font directory goes like this: ``` bash $ ln -s /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera .wine/drive_c/windows/fonts ``` : `<SMALL STYLE="font-size:90%">`{=html}\^ The dollar `$` sign is traditionally the command-line marker; `ln` is the linking command, `-s` stands for *symbolic, the first path is the target path, the second path is the one from which the target is linked to. The symbolic link can be removed in the `fonts` directory with a simple `rm` command.`</SMALL>`{=html} !The result of setting the default Wine font right, where a Windows program\'s user interface font looks normal If a user is consistently* using Knoppix 4.0.2 with the configuration saving method, then they can add a command sequence with the above command into their window manager menu file, especially because of the non-permanent nature of Wine configuration data. The following complex, yet handy, example set of commands for the twm window manager assume the presence of an existing hard drive and a Windows installation on it. The sequence of commands first mounts the hard drive, then starts Wine, which will create support folders and files to launch a screen saver, and then links the actual font folders. The Blank Screen screensaver is one of the smallest possible native Windows apps to close with the least amount of user input (moving a mouse cursor in the screen saver window), which means that the program will close almost by itself. The highlighted part of configuration text is to be added: ```{=html} <div style="height:auto; min-height:10.6em; overflow:auto;"> ``` ``` c menu "/Debian/System" { "Security" f.menu "/Debian/System/Security" "" f.nop "Set Wine font" f.exec "mount /dev/hda1; wine \"/mnt/hda1/windows/system/Blank Screen.scr\" \/s && ln -s /usr/share/fonts/truetype/ttf-bitstream-vera .wine/drive_c/windows/fonts &" } ``` ```{=html} </div> ``` : `<SMALL STYLE="font-size:90%">`{=html}\^ The `f.nop` line following `Security` inserts a line break. `mount /dev/hda1` mounts the hard drive. The colon `;` ensures that the next command is started only after the previous command has been completed. Because `Blank Screen.scr` contains a space, the whole path to it must be wrapped in double quotes; these, in turn, must be escaped with a backslash `\` so as not to break the command sequence. The `/s` option starts the screensaver and not its configuration applet; As the option\'s trigger character is a forward-slash, which serves to separate directory names in Unix and like systems, then it\'s also escaped with a backslash `\` just to be on the safe side. Double ampersands `&&` serve to execute one and another command, and the last ampersand ensures the command or command sequence separates from its originator.`</SMALL>`{=html} ### Settings specific to TWM Twm is a window manager, which by the standards of today and at least 21 years back^(as\ of\ 2011)^ exhibits non-standard behaviour for a windowing environment, where a program window is rendered only after the user has specified its location by moving the window\'s skeleton crosshairs to a desired place on the screen and then clicking the main mouse/pointer button. The following instructions are meant to reduce the amount of user input when running Wine and setting up fonts for it First off, after launching Wine to run a Windows program, Wine will invoke the Wine Launch Window and then the Windows program itself. This is two instances of moving a pointer and clicking the primary button, which makes four movements. And setting the font right in Knoppix 4.0.2 beforehand will total eight movements. One workaround is to click the \"Never display this message again\" button in the Wine Launch Window. The button is self-explanatory. Nevertheless, the Wine Launch Window also serves the purpose of showing launch status of Wine and some users might want to keep seeing it appear. Avoiding window skeleton crosshairs by specifying window geometry won\'t work with Wine, because Wine launches more than one window, and at least one of them is not native to X. The workaround is in twm\'s `.twmrc` config file to have the Wine Launch Window start in iconified form: ``` c StartIconified { "Wine Launch Window"; } ``` This will remove the need for the user to place the launch window somewhere. (More windows can be in each following line added by specifying the exact window title or app command with the same syntax.) Secondly, when setting user interface fonts right for Wine-run apps, a screen saver program is used to invoke Wine itself (See Font issues above). Because it\'s a screen saver, it requires the least amount of user input to quit the app, which is why it won\'t require a title bar (for some reason, attached to the screen saver by default), so as to have the least distance between the cursor and the screensaver proper to dismiss it in nearly a click. The `NoTitle` setting for the screen saver window in the .twmrc file applies here: ``` c NoTitle { "Screen Saver"; } ``` The user then clicks to render the screen saver to just move the mouse cursor southeast to close the applet. This should take only a second or two. # Toys and amusements ## KStars planetarium KStars shows the position of the stars and planets in the sky in real time. KStars can show the view of the sky from hundreds of locations around the world. It also has a catalogue of planets, stars and other objects. To start using KStars, click K menu -\> Entertainment -\> Science -\> KStars. ## Frozen Bubble !Frozen Bubble screenshot Frozen Bubble is an arcade style bubble bursting game for one or two players. The idea is to hit two or more other bubbles of the same colour to make them disappear. To start, click K menu -\> Games -\> Tetris-like -\> Frozen-Bubble. ## KSokoban KSokoban is a gemstone-pushing puzzle game. The object of the game is to move the red diamonds onto the green squares, only by pushing the red diamonds. Move the man using the cursor keys. To begin, click K menu -\> Games -\> Tactics & Strategy -\> KSokoban. ## GTans GTans is a shape-building puzzle game. Move, rotate and flip the shapes to make the larger shape shown on the right hand side. To start, click K menu -\> Games -\> Puzzles -\> GTans. # Installing Applications not included on the CD ## About UnionFS Starting with Knoppix 3.8 and higher, there is a new feature included and enabled by default called UnionFS. This enables ANY file on the filesystem to be changed, and when it is the new file is stored on the RAMdisk, and the system knows not to refer to the \"old\" version of the file on the CD. This feature is important to allow you to add software that is not included with the Knoppix distribution easily while running the system from any Internet connected computer (high speed connection recommended). ## Installing Packages You will be using the standard debian packaging tool, apt-get. Don\'t worry, apt-get is really easy to use. 1. First, go to a command prompt with konsole and type in: `sudo apt-get update` 1. What this does is update the listing of available packages. \"sudo\" runs the command as the super-user, which must be done when working with apt-get. 2. Next, find the package you want. You can find a searchable listing of all packages available for debian at: `http://packages.debian.org` 1. After finding your package, type in at the konsole prompt: `sudo apt-get install packagename` where \"packagename\" is replaced with the name of the package you want to install. As an example, say you want to work with the kdegames package (which includes all the games included by default with the K Desktop Environment). FYI, this package includes a wide range of games, from remakes of classic arcade games, board games, as well as card games. All you have to do is type at the prompt: `sudo apt-get install kdegames` ## Miscellaneous Notes You are limited in the amount of packages you can install by the amount of your physical RAM. When you run apt-get, it will tell you the amount of space the packages take up. Watch how many packages you install, if you have 256 MB of RAM it\'s probably not wise (but may be possible) to install about 230 MB of packages. If the lack of packages on the CD concerns you, don\'t worry. There is now a Knoppix Live DVD, which includes over 9 gigs of software (uncompressed) on the DVD\... All your favorite packages are likely included on this DVD! To install more than one package, simply put a space between each package you want to install, like this: `apt-get install kdegames planetpenguin-racer gnome-games bsdgames` Note to all debian users. Anyone who has used debian before will probably be itching to issue `apt-get upgrade` You are urged not to do this as knoppix has many custom scripts that apt-get upgrade seems to break. ## References ```{=html} <references/> ``` [^1]:
# Knowing Knoppix/Recovering from freezes It is possible for the X Window System, the K Desktop Environment, or an individual application to \"freeze up\". This section explains what to do if that happens. ## Getting rid of an individual application The most common situation is to have a program that just doesn\'t seem to want to go away. Even when you click the close button on its window, it still won\'t disappear. To get rid of it: 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Esc on the keyboard. 2. The pointer will change into a skull and crossbones. 3. Point anywhere inside the window that you want to get rid of. 4. Click the left mouse button. 5. The errant program will be killed. ## Restarting the X Window System If many programs or your entire graphical environment seems stuck, you can try to restart the X server entirely. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace kills X. The display manager should bring it back up again. An alternate way to restart X in Knoppix is to: 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2. 2. Type this command, then press Enter:\ `init 2` 3. You will see the message \"X Window System shut down\". This will also end the K Desktop Environment and all its open applications. 4. Then enter:\ `init 5` 5. The X Window System will be restarted. The KDE desktop will appear again as it did when you first started Knoppix.
# Knowing Knoppix/Getting help "Where\'s the \'Any\' key?" \-- Homer Simpson # How to get help ## On the CD The Knoppix CD carries the official list of frequently asked questions and answers. It is provided in several languages. To read the English version: 1. Click the CD-ROM icon for your Knoppix CD 2. Click the "KNOPPIX" folder. 3. Click the "KNOPPIX-FAQ-EN.txt" file. 4. Wait for a moment while the "KWrite" application starts. 5. The English version of the "Frequently Asked Questions" file will appear. ## From the Web See the "unofficial" Knoppix web site for further FAQs, user forums, and how to get the latest version of Knoppix. `Web link`\ `The site for users, developers, and testers of Knoppix`\ `http://www.knoppix.net/` ## By email There is a mailing list, which is for development of Knoppix. The discussions are in German and English. The mailing list homepage is: `http://mailman.linuxtag.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-knoppix` The archives are at: `http://mailman.linuxtag.org/pipermail/debian-knoppix/` ## With Internet Relay Chat ### Links - Simplified: <irc://freenode/knoppix> - Full: <irc://chat.freenode.net/#knoppix> ### How to If you are looking for somewhat instant answers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is the place to be. To talk to other Knoppix users using IRC: 1. Make sure you are connected to the Internet. 2. Click K Menu. 3. Point to Internet. 4. Click X Chat. 5. Wait for a moment while the "X Chat" application starts. 6. In the Nick Names boxes, enter up to three nicknames which you would like to be known as. You must enter at least two nicknames, in case your preferred nickname happens to be in use when you join the chat server. 7. In the Username box, enter the username or login which you use to connect to your Internet Service Provider. 8. In the Real Name box, type your real name. 9. Under "Networks", scroll down to "Freenode". 10. Click "FreeNode". 11. Click "Connect". 12. The message of the day from the IRC server will be shown. 13. Type the following command and press Enter:\ `/join #knoppix` 14. You will be joined to the "#knoppix" IRC channel. The messages in the channel will appear on the left. The nicknames of the people who are in the channel will be shown on the right. 15. Ask your question, remembering to spell and punctuate correctly. The other IRC users will do their best to help you. Enjoy the chat!\ `Tip`\ `Before using IRC, check to see if your question is already answered in the Frequently Asked Questions.`\ `Knoppix users would love to see more people using IRC.`\ `However, if you ask a question that is already answered in the Frequently Asked Questions, you may be told to look there - or maybe something ruder!` ## Making X Chat fonts larger If you find the writing too small in X Chat: 1. Click the "Settings" menu at the top of the X Chat window. 2. Click "Preferences". 3. Next to "Font", click "Browse". 4. Choose the font size you would like to use. 5. Click OK. 6. Click OK. 7. The fonts will change to the size you chose.
# Knowing Knoppix/Finding permanence # Finding permanence "The box said that I needed to have Windows 98 or better... so I installed Linux." \-- LinuxNewbie.org ## Overview Knoppix lets you store personalised settings, document files and system settings on a disk. This saves you from having to set up Knoppix from scratch every time you run it. Important: The functionality described in this article is available only until and including Knoppix 5.1.1 (CD release) and 5.3.1 (DVD release), as all versions of Knoppix since 6.0 don\'t have it anymore. Knoppix 6.x releases require saving all of the CD or DVD contents to non-optical media (hard disk, flash drive, memory card), from which to boot the system up. Note that some computers are not configured or able to run operating systems off USB-connected drives or memory cards; some other systems won\'t boot from very large external storage items. The boot order is configured from the BIOS, access to which may be restricted in some situations (typically computers at and supplied by workplaces). ## Creating a persistent Home directory Personalisation is what makes your computer yours. Personalised settings include application preferences, for example, your favourite KDE background wallpaper. Documents are the files that you create using Knoppix applications, such as graphics and word processed document files. Personalised settings and documents are stored in a special place called your Home directory. Knoppix lets you keep your Home directory on another disk. This is called creating a persistent Knoppix home directory. It allows you to use a personalised Knoppix account everywhere you go. For example, you can sit down at one computer, do some work, go to another computer, and carry on working. This works best with a USB hard drive stick, also known as a USB flash drive. These marvellous little gadgets give you hundreds of megabytes of storage, in a space no bigger than a key fob. A USB flash drive is the ideal companion to a Knoppix CD. To create a persistent Home directory on a USB flash drive: 1. Insert your USB flash drive. 2. Wait for a moment while the drive is detected. 3. A new hard disk partition icon will appear on the Desktop. 4. Note the name of the new icon. For example, if there are no other SCSI drives in the computer, it will be labelled "Hard disk partition \[sda1\]". 5. Right-click on the USB flash drive icon. 6. Click "Mount". 7. Right-click on the USB flash drive icon again. 8. Click "Change read/write mode". 9. It will ask if you want to make the partition writeable. 10. Click "Yes". 11. Click the Knoppix menu in the Panel. 12. Point to "Configure". 13. Click "Create persistent KNOPPIX home directory". 14. Click "Yes". 15. Choose the partition that corresponds to your flash drive. In this example, /dev/sda1 represents the flash drive. 16. You will be asked if you want to encrypt the file that will be created on the flash drive. This is optional, so click "No". 17. Enter how big in megabytes you would like your Knoppix home directory to be. For example, enter "100" for 100 megabytes. Imagine you have a 256 Mb flash drive. This will create a 100 megabyte file on the flash drive, leaving 156 Mb free for other files. 18. Click OK. 19. Wait while Knoppix prepares the flash drive. If the flash drive has an activity light, you will see it working for a few moments. 20. You will be asked if you want to use the entire partition. Click "No". This will leave existing files on the flash drive alone. 21. Wait while Knoppix completes the setup process. 22. Knoppix will tell you what you need to type at the boot prompt to use the persistent Knoppix home directory on your flash drive. Make a note of what it says, then click OK. You must reboot for the change to take effect. Shut down Knoppix and restart. At the boot prompt, type the following command, replacing "sda1" as appropriate: `knoppix home=/mnt/sda1` During startup you should see a message like this: `Mounting /mnt/sda1/knoppix.img as /home/knoppix...`\ `/home/knoppix mounted OK.` This means it worked. The USB flash drive will now be used for the home directory of the "knoppix" user. `Important`\ `With a persistent home directory on a flash drive, the flash drive will be in use all the time.`\ `Do not take the flash drive out until you have shut down Knoppix.` ## Saving system settings Saving system settings is called making a Knoppix configuration archive. This stores settings that are saved in the system-wide configuration directory, not in the home directory. For example, it allows you to save your printer setup, so you don\'t have to do it again next time. To save the system settings: 1. Click the Knoppix menu on the Panel. 2. Point to "Configure". 3. Click "Save KNOPPIX configuration".\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_1).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_1).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 4. Select the system settings that you would like to store.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_1-2).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_1-2).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` Personal configuration. If you have a persistent Knoppix home directory, you do not need this. If you do not have a persistent Knoppix home directory, this option covers the personalised settings you have made in programs like the KDE Control Center, and your personalised settings in applications such as AbiWord. It does not include document files, such as saved word processor files. It also does not include cache files from web browsing.\ \ All files on the Desktop. If you have a persistent Knoppix home directory, you do not need this. If you do not have a persistent Knoppix home directory, select this option to save the new disk icons or program icons that you may have created on the Desktop.\ \ Network settings. If you have a persistent Knoppix home directory, and all you are doing is using the KPPP dialler to connect to the Internet via a modem, you do not need this. KPPP configuration is saved as part of your Knoppix home directory.\ \ The network settings saved by this option include Local Area Network (LAN), manually configured dial-up networking (modem), Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) settings. For example, if you have set up your network card manually, select this option to save the configuration for next time.\ \ Graphics subsystem settings. This saves settings for the "X Window System" (the graphics display). For example, if you specified a certain screen resolution when you started Knoppix, this option will save that setting.\ \ Other system configuration. This option saves the printer setup and all other system-wide settings. 1. Click OK. 2. Select the device that you would like to save onto. For example, assuming you have a USB flash drive, and there are no other SCSI drives in the system, choose /mnt/sda1.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_2).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_2).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 3. Click OK. 4. Wait while the archive is created.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_3).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_3).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 5. If it worked, it will say, "Creation of the KNOPPIX configuration archive was successful". It will tell you the command to use at the boot prompt to load the saved settings.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_4).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Saving_system_settings_4).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 6. Click OK to exit. To load the saved settings next time you start Knoppix, use the "myconfig" parameter at the boot prompt. For example, assuming you saved the archive to "/mnt/sda1", at the boot prompt enter: `knoppix myconfig=/mnt/sda1` If it works you will see something like this near the end of the startup messages (Ctrl+Alt+F1): `Checking /mnt/sda1 for KNOPPIX configuration file...`\ `Found, now executing /mnt/sda1/knoppix.sh`
# Knowing Knoppix/Advanced startup options : "There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer." \-- J. H. Goldfuss ## Overview This section explains the bootup options for Knoppix. Use these options to fine-tune Knoppix for your hardware and speed it up. ## Enabling DMA The first and foremost way to make Knoppix run faster that almost everyone can use is to enable DMA. It stands for Direct Memory Access. It improves the speed of hard disk drives and it can also help CD-ROM drives. DMA is not supported on all computers, so Knoppix turns it off by default. To enable DMA, add \'dma\' to your boot command, for example: `knoppix lang=uk dma` To test the speed of the hard disk drive, click the Knoppix menu, choose "Root Shell" and enter: `hdparm -t /dev/hda` Replace "hda" with the device name of your hard drive appropriately. After a pause of about 3 seconds, you will get a little report that will tell you how fast your hard drive reads data. DMA makes a pretty big difference. For example, look at these sample test results: Drive Without DMA With DMA -------------------------------- ------------- ------------- Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM IDE 8.5 MB/sec 26.8 Mb/sec ## If you only have a single CD drive Knoppix takes over your CD drive and you can\'t eject it during your session. What if you want to use the CD drive for something else? For example, you may want to create CDs using a CD-ReWritable drive. If you only have one CD drive, this will be a problem. Luckily, there is a solution. It is possible to run Knoppix from a hard drive or RAM, freeing up the CD drive for other tasks. ### Transferring to a hard disk partition Transferring to a hard disk partition means copying the CD contents onto a hard disk. This is called "copying the CD image". Once this is done, Knoppix starts in the normal way but from the hard drive instead the CD-ROM drive. This gives improved performance, because hard disk drives are generally much faster than CD-ROM drives. It also frees up your CD-ROM drive for other tasks. It does not affect the existing files on the hard drive. All it does is use up hard drive space, which can be reclaimed later. To transfer to a hard disk partition, you need: - An MS-DOS-, FAT-, or Linux-formatted hard disk partition.\ NTFS (native Windows NT/2000/XP) partitions cannot be used. - At least 700 Mb free space on the partition. At the boot prompt, enter this command. Replace "device" with the device name of the hard disk partition that you want to use. `knoppix tohd=device` For example, suppose you have Windows 98. You probably have Windows installed on the first partition of the primary master IDE drive. In this case, use: `knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1` Knoppix will start from CD, copy itself to the specified device and then continue loading from there. You can then take the Knoppix CD out of the drive. ### Re-using an existing image You only need to copy the CD image to the hard disk once. Next time, you can read back from the hard disk, without having to copy the CD image again. At the boot prompt, enter this command. Replace "device" with the device name of the hard disk partition where the Knoppix CD image is located. `knoppix fromhd=device` For example: `knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1` Knoppix will start from CD, pick up the CD image from the specified device and continue loading. You can then take the Knoppix CD out of the drive. ### Deleting the image In Windows, remove the "KNOPPIX" directory from the hard drive using Windows Explorer. This will give back the hard drive space occupied by the CD image. ## Transferring to RAM If you have 828 Mb or more of RAM, you can copy the Knoppix CD image to RAM. After an initial wait, transferring to RAM gives dramatically improved performance, and the Knoppix CD is not needed. You need 828 Mb of RAM because the first 700 Mb is used for the CD image. The remaining 128 Mb is used for the system and applications. At the boot prompt, enter this command: `knoppix toram` Knoppix will start from CD, transfer the CD image to RAM, and continue loading. Once transfer to RAM has completed, you can take the Knoppix CD out of the drive. ## More hardware options These options let you fine-tune Knoppix for your particular hardware. They can be combined in any order. For example, to start Knoppix with the US language/keyboard, a wheel mouse, a screen resolution of 800x600 and Direct Memory Access (DMA) enabled for hard drives, type this at the boot prompt: `knoppix lang=uk wheelmouse screen=800x600 dma` Knoppix assumes you have a laptop. It starts up with PCMCIA (credit card adapter) interface support enabled by default. If you have a desktop computer, rather than a laptop, you can improve performance slightly by typing the "nopcmcia" option at the boot prompt. For example, to start the computer with the US locale, a wheel mouse, a screen resolution of 1024x768, and no PCMCIA: `knoppix lang=us wheelmouse screen=1024x768 nopcmcia` ### Other options - `noswap` --- The system won\'t use the hard disk for swapping. This is useful for when the hard disk is out of order, or if a user wishes to prevent an existing hard drive from a potentially heavy workload. This move would then make Knoppix only use RAM memory. With Knoppix 6 and 7, the minimum required RAM with the CD version to run graphical apps is 1 gigabyte. This allows to simultaneously run X, up to five tabs in Iceweasel, and one module of LibreOffice. 2 Gb of RAM is recommended, and should be the minimum amount with DVD versions of Knoppix 7 and greater. - `no3d` --- Switches off fancy graphics. - `psmouse.proto=imps` --- This reports the pointer device as an `imps` mouse. It can be used, if work with certain Synaptics touchpads is erratic, but does not solve the issue. ## If you have less than 128 Mb RAM After loading the kernel and the base system, Knoppix looks to see how much RAM is left. The kernel and the base system takes about 20 Mb of RAM. The remainder is called free RAM, or available RAM. Knoppix checks to see if there is a Linux swap partition available. You may have a swap partition if you have previously installed Linux on the hard disk. If so, Knoppix will use the existing swap partition automatically. If there is less than 80,000 Kb free RAM, Knoppix will prompt you to create a swap file. A swap file lets you use part of the hard disk as if it were RAM. This trick lets you run Knoppix in full, even when you have less than 128 Mb RAM. For example, it is possible to run Knoppix successfully on a computer with only 64 Mb of RAM. However, you pay a performance penalty, because swap is much slower than physical RAM. To create a swap file, you need a hard disk with at least one partition that is formatted with the FAT filesystem. NTFS formatted partitions cannot be used. 1. Start Knoppix in the usual way.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_1).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_1).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 2. You will get a message that says, "There are only X Kb of RAM available in your computer". 3. Press Enter. 4. Knoppix will search for an available FAT formatted partition. If there is more than one, Knoppix will choose the last available partition. You will be asked if you want to create a swap file on the partition that Knoppix has selected.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_2).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_2).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 5. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, choose "Yes", then press Enter. 6. You will be asked how big a swap file you want to create. You need a swap file that is large enough to take the free RAM + swap file total to at least 80,000 Kb. 7. Type the size of the swap file you wish to create. In this example, it says there is 49,152 Kb of physical RAM free. The suggested swap file size of 60 Mb will bring the free total to 108 Mb.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_3).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_3).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 8. Press Enter. 9. Wait for a moment while Knoppix creates the swap file.\ ```{=html} <div align="center"> ``` ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_4).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(If_you_have_less_than_128_Mb_RAM_4).png") ```{=html} </div> ``` 10. Press Enter to continue loading Knoppix. : Tip : Next time you start Knoppix, it will detect and use the swap file automatically. : To remove the swap file and reclaim the disk space it occupies, exit Knoppix, start Windows, then delete the file called "knoppix.swp" using Windows Explorer.
# Knowing Knoppix/Alternatives to KDE # Alternatives to KDE Knoppix has six alternative desktop managers. These let you run the X Window System on a computer that doesn\'t have enough RAM for KDE. They also save loading time, because they load much more quickly. ## Ice Window Manager A small and fast window manager in the Microsoft Windows style. ```{=html} <div align="left"> ``` !Ice Window Manager screenshot.png "Ice Window Manager screenshot"){width="524"} ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Window Maker A simple and elegant window manager with a very solid feel. ```{=html} <div align="left"> ``` !Window Maker Window Manager screenshot.png "Window Maker Window Manager screenshot"){width="524"} ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Fluxbox Similar in style to Window Maker. ```{=html} <div align="left"> ``` !Fluxbox Window Manager screenshot.png "Fluxbox Window Manager screenshot"){width="524"} ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Xfce Xfce stands for "The Cholesterol Free Desktop Environment". ```{=html} <div align="left"> ``` !Xfce Desktop Environment screenshot.png "Xfce Desktop Environment screenshot"){width="524"} ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Lars Window Manager An alternative window manager. In Lars Window Manager, almost everything is done with the keyboard instead of the mouse. Lars Window Manager is designed for programmers that spend most of their time working with text. ```{=html} <div align="left"> ``` !Lars Window Manager screenshot.png "Lars Window Manager screenshot"){width="524"} ```{=html} </div> ``` ## Tab Window Manager !Tab Window Manager screenshot.png "Tab Window Manager screenshot"){width="524"} : See also: Guide to X11/Window Managers/twm TWM is designed to use as little RAM as possible. If you start Knoppix on a computer without enough RAM to run KDE, it will run Tab Window Manager instead. In Knoppix 5.0.1, the twm menu is missing, but a command line (console) window does start. With a capable computer (at least 256 Mb RAM), the easiest shortcut to an app launcher is KDE\'s Kicker. Invoke it like this: `$ ``kicker &` \^ The dollar sign `$` is the default sign of the command line; the ampersand `&` serves to separate Kicker from the console to free it up for other uses. The screenshot to the right shows the same method with The GIMP. TWM does not appear to be included in CD versions of Knoppix 6.0 or later, as these have solely defaulted to LXDE. That won\'t run with any efficiency in computers that have less than 256 Mb of RAM memory. # Starting an alternative window manager once knoppix has loaded you can go through the configuration options, to switch between various window manager(except beryl). Use one of these commands at the boot prompt. `knoppix desktop=icewm # IceWM`\ `knoppix desktop=wmaker # Window Maker`\ `knoppix desktop=fluxbox # Fluxbox`\ `knoppix desktop=xfce # Xfce`\ `knoppix desktop=larswm # Lars Window Manager`\ `knoppix desktop=twm # Tab Window Manager`\ `knoppix desktop=beryl # Beryl with kde` For example, to start Window Maker in the UK locale: `knoppix desktop=wmaker lang=uk ` ## Accessing disks and partitions while outside KDE You may have noticed there are no desktop disk icons when you are using an alternative to KDE. Luckily, you can still use KDE\'s disk management tools, even when you are outside KDE. For example: 1. Start Knoppix into Window Maker. 2. Click the "XTerm" icon, which is on the right hand side, second from the top. Enter this command:\ `kdf` 3. Wait while "KDiskFree" starts. 4. Right-click the icon of the disk or partition you want. Click "Mount". Right-click the icon again, then "Open in file manager".\ ![](Knowing_Knoppix_(Accessing_disks_and_partitions_while_outside_of_KDE_1).png "Knowing_Knoppix_(Accessing_disks_and_partitions_while_outside_of_KDE_1).png"){width="691"} 5. The files on the disk or partition will be displayed. `Important:`` KDiskFree mounts in ``read-write`` mode, not read-only.` ## Text mode Text mode is the fastest way to start Knoppix. Text mode is meant for those who are familiar with the UNIX command line interface. There are many excellent books on the subject, such as "Sams Teach Yourself UNIX in 24 Hours". ### Starting To start Knoppix in text mode, enter this at the boot prompt. `knoppix 2` For example, to start with UK keyboard/language, with DMA for faster hard disk access, and without PCMCIA because you\'re not working on a laptop computer, enter: `knoppix lang=uk dma nopcmcia 2` ### Leaving Enter this command to exit Knoppix: `halt` ### Localisation Text mode is called "runlevel 2". When started in text mode, Knoppix uses the "C" locale. The C locale is defined as the "default" locale for applications, meaning that their strings are displayed as written in the initial code, without passing through a translation lookup. Just plain old ASCII. Literally, the "C" locale turns off localisation. To enable localisation, specify the locale that you want to use with the "lang=" option. For example, enter this at the boot prompt to load Knoppix in text mode with the UK regional settings: `knoppix 2 lang=uk` ### Adjusting the keyboard layout To switch to a UK keyboard layout, type this and press Enter: `loadkeys`` uk` The keyboard map will be changed to UK layout. ### Accessing disks and partitions Use the "mount" command. For example, to mount the first partition on the primary master IDE hard drive: `cd /mnt`\ `mount` "wikilink")` hda1` The files on the device `/dev/hda1` will be mounted to `/mnt/hda1`. To view the files on the partition: `cd hda1`\ `ls` The files will be displayed. To learn more about navigating and copying files in text mode, refer to a UNIX manual or text book. `Important`\ `Disks and partitions are mounted ``read-write`` by the mount command.` ### Identifying hardware Use these commands to get hardware information: Command Shows ----------------------------- ------------------------------ lspci PCI devices lsusb USB devices `cat /proc/cpuinfo` Processor information `cat /proc/meminfo` Random Access Memory details `cat /proc/scsi/scsi` SCSI device information dmesg Kernel messages `Tip`\ `Press Shift + Page Up to see the lines that have scrolled off the top of the screen.`\ `Press Shift + Page Down to go back down again.`
# Knowing Knoppix/Knoppix boot options `knoppix lang=cn Specify language/keyboard (cn,de,da,es,fr,it,nl,pl,ru,sk,tr,tw or us)`\ `knoppix alsa (or alsa=es1938) Use ALSA sound driver (at your own risk)`\ `knoppix desktop=fluxbox Specify Window Manager (fluxbox,icewm,kde,larswm,twm,wmaker or xfce)`\ `knoppix screen=1280x1024 Use specified Screen resolution for X`\ `knoppix xvrefresh=60 (or vsync=60) Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X`\ `knoppix xhrefresh=80 (or hsync=80) Use 80 kHz horizontal refresh rate for X`\ `knoppix xserver=XFree86 Use specified X-Server ( XFree86 or XF86_SVGA )`\ `knoppix xmodule=ati Use specified XFree4-Module (ati,fbdev,i810,mga,nv,radeon,savage,s3 or svga)`\ `knoppix 2 Boot in runlevel 2 (Textmode)`\ `knoppix floppyconfig Run "knoppix.sh" from a floppy`\ `knoppix myconf=/dev/sda1 Run "knoppix.sh" from a partition`\ `knoppix myconf=scan (or config=scan) Try to find "knoppix.sh" automatically`\ `knoppix home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img Mount loopback file as /home/knoppix`\ `knoppix home=scan Automatic search for knoppix homedir`\ `knoppix no{apic,agp,apm,audio,ddc} Skip parts of HW-detection (1)`\ `knoppix no{firewire,pcmcia,scsi} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)`\ `knoppix no{swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (3)`\ `failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection`\ `knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)`\ `knoppix pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers`\ `knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD-Rom (some notebooks)`\ `knoppix mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte`\ `knoppix dma Enable DMA for ALL IDE-Drives`\ `knoppix noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt`\ `knoppix noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD`\ `knoppix vga=normal No-framebuffer mode, but X`\ `knoppix blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X)`\ `knoppix brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device`\ `knoppix wheelmouse Enable IMPS/2 protocol for wheelmice`\ `knoppix nowheelmouse Force plain PS/2 protocol for PS/2-mouse`\ `fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)`\ `fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2)`\ `fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)`\ `knoppix keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard (text/X)`\ `knoppix splash Boot with fancy background splashscreen`\ `knoppix toram Copy CD to RAM and run from there`\ `knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1 Copy CD to HD partition and run there`\ `knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image`\ `knoppix fromhd=/dev/sr0 Force booting from CD for fresh install in case of present Flash-installation on HD`\ `knoppix testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums`\ `expert Interactive setup for experts`
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Development Process The WikiText Development Process in ECI301 at Old Dominion University Darden College of Education, Fall 2006/Spring 2007/Summer 2007/Fall 2007 This WikiText, The Social and Cultural Foundations of Education, is the combined effort of a dedicated group of professional collaborators, faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students. The course was planned over the summer of 2006 by Dr. Patrick O'Shea, Adjunct Faculty Member, who had the original idea for a WikiText, Dwight W. Allen, Eminent Scholar of Educational Reform, Peter Baker, Coordinating Graduate Assistant for ECI301 where the WikiText has been developed and used, and Douglas Allen, Associate Professor of Human Resources Development at the University of Denver. In the fall they were joined by two other senior researchers, Kevin DePew, Assistant Professor of English, and Danny Curry-Corcoran, Director of Evaluation for the Newport News Public Schools. The senior research team also offered an applied research course in the fall semester, paralleling the development of the WikiText. The major objective of this course was to plan a series of research initiatives to study the outcomes of this unprecedented, innovative approach to the introduction of students to the profession of teaching. Preparation of the WikiText and the evaluation of learning associated with that text comprised about one half of the total introductory course which also includes traditional lectures, both online and in a face to face format. The course materials and syllabus can be found at: <http://www.odu.edu/educ/dwallen/classallen.htm>. Though the idea of WikiTexts is new, others have developed texts with the cooperation of students, often though not always graduate students. (See, for example, the developing student-written text about educational psychology, as well as the online Wikibooks version called Contemporary Educational Psychology). We decided to take a very different approach taking advantage of the large numbers of students enrolled (about 225) in this introductory class. First of all students were asked to produce a relatively brief (1,000 words) and very narrowly focused article on one of about 75 topics selected by the professional staff as representing a "typical" mix of topics for comparable courses. With about 225 students in the class, we created a "sign up page" in the WikiText which allowed as many as three students to sign up for each topic. In most cases we had two or three student-authored versions of each article. It was not expected that they would "cover" the topic, but rather would select two to five major concepts they felt would be of value to them as teachers in training. Students were also required to write five multiple choice questions, applying the concepts their article to real life situations, and one essay question. In addition they were asked to find a "sidebar" something that would make the article more interesting -- a quote, a video clip, an illustration or cartoon, a chart or graph. The "book" was written during the first four weeks of class, and the balance of the semester was spent reading the text they had written. Each student was assigned to read and rate only one version of each article, about ten topics each week. Typically we received about 50 ratings of each article. The highest rated article by students was selected as the "official text." The other articles, some of which were also highly rated are shown as supplementary materials.
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Philosophy and Ethics \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Introduction{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Dynamic Learning Environment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Dynamic Learning Environment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What are the philosophies of education? : What is the purpose of schooling? : What is the philosophy of Wikipedia and Wikibooks? : What does it mean to be an ethical teacher? : What does equality mean in American education? : How should teachers teach ethics?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Dynamic Learning Environment \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Philosophy and Ethics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !History{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !History{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : Why is engagement important? : How can we motivate students? : What roles do fun and joy play in the learning environment? : What is the role of edutainment? : What are various strategies that can be employed for meaningful learning? : How can we teach students to evaluate resources for learning? : How can teachers continue to educate themselves? : How can we promote learning from peers?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/History \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Dynamic Learning Environment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Educational Change{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Educational Change{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What are the markers of the 17th Century? : What are the markers of the 18th Century? : What are the markers of the 19th Century? : What are the markers of the 20th Century? : What are the markers of the 21st Century?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Educational Change \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !History{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Barriers{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Barriers{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the Allen/Cosby theory of change? : How has the NCLB act formed visions of change? : What are the goals for educational change? : What are the desired outcomes of educational change? : What is the role of standards? : How can we train Americans to compete in a constantly changing world work force? : Why are all subjects are essential to be taught? : Why do we need health and physical education in our schools? : How should foreign languages be taught? : How can we improve early childhood education (3- and 4-year-olds) for all? : How can we find other ways to finance American schools? : How can we educate students for creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Barriers \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Educational Change{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Classroom Issues{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Classroom Issues{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How is obsolescence a barrier? : How is mobility a barrier? : How is equity a barrier? : How is accountability a barrier? : How can class size act as a barrier?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Classroom Issues \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Barriers{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Forgotten Half{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Forgotten Half{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How do we discipline? : What are reward systems, and do they work? : Are teachers isolated? : How do student dynamics impact learning? : What is the role of motivation? : Can discipline be done positively? : How can resistance to working with others be overcome?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Forgotten Half \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Classroom Issues{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Staffing Practices{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Staffing Practices{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : Who is the curriculum designed for, and why? : What are the alternatives? : What is the Hope Factor? : How do we combat learned helplessness? : How do differences in perception and reality affect learning?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Staffing Practices \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Forgotten Half{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Administration{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Administration{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : Are teachers interchangeable? : What are the positives and negatives of class size? : Credentialism---how has this impacted education? : What are the roles of paraprofessionals? : How can we recruit, select, and train new teachers? : Should teachers be allowed to unionize?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Administration \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Staffing Practices{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Curriculum Development{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Curriculum Development{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the role of the principal? : How should personnel be evaluated? : What does it mean for leadership to be ethical? : What are the legal issues? : How are schools financed?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Curriculum Development \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Administration{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Technology{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Technology{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the standards movement? : Can schools integrate vocational and academic learning? : Why is special education an issue for all teachers? : How do we plan lessons, and why is it important? : How has technology impacted instructional design? : What constitutes an effective instructional method? : Is a national curriculum needed? : What factors influence curriculum design? : What is the importance of early intervention in reading performance?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Technology \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Curriculum Development{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Relationships{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Relationships{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What role does technology play? : How might technology revolutionize education in the future? : What are the pros and cons of technology in the classroom? : How should the Internet be integrated into the classroom? : Can teachers be replaced by computers? : Should students have the ability to use computers in the classroom? : Should students write their own textbooks? : What technology should a teacher use in the classroom? : How can PowerPoint presentations be used effectively? : What is the role of social media in instruction?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Relationships \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Technology{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Multiculturalism{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Multiculturalism{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : Where is the school/community disconnect? : What are the mutual responsibilities of teachers, parents, and the community for effective schools? : Is there unity in diversity? : How can families and schools better communicate?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Multiculturalism \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Relationships{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Knowing{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Knowing{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the global context for education? : How has our multicultural world changed the responsibilities of teachers? : How have gender issues changed our views? : How should we think about minorities? : Is being different bad?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Knowing \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Multiculturalism{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Assessment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Assessment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What do we know about brain research? : How do people learn? : What role does action research play? : Why is feedback important? : How can we be encouraging? : Why is applied and abstract reasoning so important to the learning process?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Assessment \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Knowing{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Acknowledgment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Acknowledgment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What roles do assessment of performance and performance appraisal play in schools and administrations? : How can we develop new testing systems emphasizing such areas as creativity and knowing how to work with ideas and abstractions, and functioning on teams? : How can we create and monitor high performance schools? : What is the role of Advanced Placement and the International Baccalaureate in creating national standards?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Acknowledgment \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Assessment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Accountability{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Accountability{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How can we encourage students and teachers to consider multiple perspectives? : What are the different concepts of intelligence? : What is lifelong learning? : What is service-learning?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Accountability \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Acknowledgment{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Choice{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Choice{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How should teachers be held accountable? : How should parents be held accountable? : How should students be held accountable? : How can we meet NCLB quality standards? : How should society respond to under-performing schools? : How should society reward outstanding schools and teachers? : How can teachers be flexible in an era of accountability? : What makes NCLB an enemy of quality education? : What makes NCLB the savior of quality education?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Choice \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Accountability{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Feedback{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Feedback{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the case for home schooling? : What is the case against home schooling? : What is the case against vouchers? : What role do charter schools play in education?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Feedback \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Choice{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Special Needs{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Special Needs{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How can we construct effective measurements, including exams? : What are the principles of effective assessment? : What are feedback skills? : How should group work be assessed? : What role should peer evaluation play in grading and course work? : When should qualitative or quantitative assessments be used?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Special Needs \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Feedback{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Hot Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Hot Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : How can we best teach children with disabilities? : How can we best teach children with autism? : How can we learn to understand children with ADD? : How can we best accommodate children with hearing impairments?
# Social and Cultural Foundations of American Education/Hot Topics \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<font size=1 color=dimgray>`{=html}Presentation`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Special Needs{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<font size=6 color=teal>`{=html}`</font>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` : What is the ideal amount of homework to assign? : What are the effects of the home environment on learning? : Should school be held year-round? : Should school districts implement school uniform policies? : What can be done about the issue of bullying? : What effects do inequities in school funding have on teaching and learning? : What teaching styles can educators employ?
# Zine Making/Writing the pages \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<span style="font-size:x-small; color:dimgray;">`{=html}Presentation`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Introduction{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<span style="font-size:xx-large; color:teal;">`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Putting pages together{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Putting pages together{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` To some extent the way you write your pages depends on what you\'re doing. If it\'s a zine of your hand-drawn cartoons then your best option is to hand-draw some cartoons. If it\'s an art zine then the appearance is going to be defined by what you\'re trying to achieve artistically. And so on. But here are some things to bear in mind: ## General considerations - For most copying purposes, colour is much more expensive than black-and-white (for photocopying, printing, etc). That\'s why most zines are in black and white. There are lots of things you can do to add a bit of colour, such as using coloured paper/card for the cover, or including one or two full-colour sheets in your zine (rather than the whole lot; it depends on your production method whether you can do this), or adding some colour after the zines have been produced. - If you\'re going to use a photocopier or a computer printer to print the pages, you\'ll probably find they don\'t print all the way to the edges of the paper, so you should probably experiment a little bit and make sure you don\'t go all the way to the edge on your \"master copy\". - Especially if photocopying, you\'ll probably find that subtleties of lightness and darkness won\'t come out very well. Stark black-and-white will photocopy most clearly. - If you have access to a scanner, try scanning the master copy to a computer instead of photocopying. Benefits include the ability to see exactly how the printouts will look, and the ability to make adjustments, without having to use paper and ink. ## Materials ### Pen/pencil etc ![](Pencil.jpg "Pencil.jpg") Hand-written / hand-drawn things can be brilliant. - Remember the point above about being able to copy it - if you photocopy something done with pencil on paper, often it comes out really faint. Biro (disposable ballpoint pen) can come out faint too. You can fiddle with the photocopier\'s brightness settings to make it clearer, or if you can scan it into a computer you can make it come out much clearer and have a lot more control over it. Alternatively, just trace over the pencil lines with a dark pen. You might not like the way the lines can look doubled-up, but often the photocopier pretty much loses the pencil lines altogether and the end result looks pretty good. ### Typewriters ![](Smith_Premier_Typewriter.jpg "Smith_Premier_Typewriter.jpg") Typewriters are great and can make good-looking text that\'s not as boring as printed-out text from a computer, yet more legible than handwriting\... but typewriters are becoming rarer and rarer these days so for many people they might not be available. However you can get a typewriter on eBay for pretty cheap, also check garage sales and thrift stores or even ask friends or relatives who have updated to computers. ### Computers ![](Toughbook-cf-m34_4.jpg "Toughbook-cf-m34_4.jpg") OK, so computers are capable of quite a lot, and we can\'t possibly cover all of it here. You can type/draw things directly using your computer, you can add photos from your camera/phone/etc, you can scan drawings/writings/etc in. - If your zine is really quite text-based then a full word-processor like Apple iWork Pages, LibreOffice Writer, Google Docs, Microsoft Word or AbiWord can be fine. - If you want to make your zine look pretty and have things laid out interestingly then a word-processor gets a bit limiting and it\'s difficult to stop things looking a bit samey, so you might find it better to just use a graphics program. Alternatively you can write your text, then print it out and then use cut-and-paste or whatever to organise/decorate the text more interestingly. - In most word processors you can use the columns feature to help arrange things. For example, use the page setup to set the pages as landscape, then use the \"columns\" options to specify that there should be two columns on each page. Hey presto, you now have a layout that can easily be typed and then folded to make the standard codex (book-like) folded zine. - If you\'re going to be scanning and printing a lot, then a good graphics program is helpful. (The \"paint\" software that comes with your computer can be a bit frustrating!) Commercial programs like Photoshop and Paintshop Pro are well-known and they\'re very good. If you can\'t afford those, or even if you can, you should definitely check out the free and open-source equivalent, which is a piece of software called GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). Despite the weird name, it\'s a full-featured and very good piece of software, and you\'re very likely to be able to do everything you want to do with it. Inkscape is also good, especially for vector graphics. - For desktop publishing software Scribus is free too. - LaTeX, a piece of Free software used for professional type setting, particularly in the maths and sciences, is another possibility. ### Cut and paste A lot of zine-making involves cutting and pasting, to compile your images and/or words. People also use it to incorporate things from other sources. We\'re not going to consider anything about the legal/moral/political dimensions of making cut-and-paste works out of other people\'s stuff here. It can look brilliant; but at the same time if you\'re just taking someone else\'s work and dropping it into your own zine then you haven\'t really done anything. Practically, remember the thing about contrast if you\'re going to be making copies. Also remember that if you\'re cutting-and-pasting from glossy paper (such as magazines) then it can sometimes photocopy really badly because the gloss on the paper just shines when it gets in the photocopier, and you end up with a bright white thing instead of your desired image (at least partially). If you\'ve cut and pasted your stuff all together then it can be very helpful to photocopy it to get a kind of \"master copy\" that doesn\'t have bits everywhere. ### Photos Photos rarely photocopy nicely. Choose ones with lots of contrasts, not too much detail (e.g. a face rather than a crowd of people) and that aren\'t too dark. If you can, you can probably improve results by scanning a photo, adjusting it (fiddle with the brightness, increase the contrast), and printing it back out again. ### Sewing I\'ve seen some really good zines that make use of sewing, cross-stitch, and crafty things like that. If you\'re going to be photocopying or something like that, then you can still do crafty things like this, as they can often come out quite well when copied (you\'ll need to have good colour contrasts though). If you\'re going to hand-make the crafty bits on each copy then of course you have more freedom and can make perhaps more exciting items, but of course you need dedication\...
# Zine Making/Putting pages together \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<span style="font-size:x-small; color:dimgray;">`{=html}Presentation`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Writing the pages{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<span style="font-size:xx-large; color:teal;">`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Making copies{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Making copies{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ## Page Layout on software In Microsoft Word, go to Page Layout, Page Setup, Pages, Multiple Pages and choose \'Book fold\' then print (save to PDF won\'t combine multiple pages to one sheet or in book fold order). For distribution online but for others to download and print themselves, save (or print to PDF) from your word processor, then open in Adobe Reader then print \'booklet\' settings to PDF printer. - Scribus1 - LibreOffice Write, Return to Print dialog, and click the Page Layout tab page. Select Brochure.2 ## Different ways to fold a sheet of paper These are just suggestions of course but they cover some of the main ways people fold sheets into ziney shapes. We\'ll start off by showing how to fold a single sheet to make multiple pages, but most people need more pages than that so they use multiple sheets of paper\... ### Folio (folding in half) ![](Zinemaking-folding-folio1.png "Zinemaking-folding-folio1.png") ![](Zinemaking-folding-folio4.png "Zinemaking-folding-folio4.png") This is easy to do, and if you\'re using a word-processor it\'s quite straightforward to get the software to do two columns and print out very appropriately. The page numbering in the diagram to the left is for a one-sheet zine. You\'ll probably want more than four sides to write on so you\'ll probably need to attach multiple sheets together. Note that the order of pages is not what your word-processor or your brain is likely to expect, especially if you haven\'t done this before. It can get even more confusing when you put multiple pages together. The example to the right shows how to fold 4 separate sheets folio-style, to produce a 16-page zine: {{-}} ### Quarto (folding in quarter) ![](Zinemaking-folding-quarto.png "Zinemaking-folding-quarto.png") Note that some of the pages are upside-down relative to each other, so you probably can\'t do this very straightforwardly on a word-processor. But you like cut-and-pasting, yes? If you want this to become a booklet-style paged thing (a \"codex\") you\'ll need to make a couple of cuts after you\'ve attached the pages together. {{-}} ### Folding into six ![](Zinemaking-folding-sixo.png "Zinemaking-folding-sixo.png") One nice thing about folding into six is that with standard paper sizes like A4, you get a roughly square zine at the end of it, which is quite nice. First fold the sheet into a Z-like shape (i.e. fold it 1/3 and 2/3 of the way along, in a zigzag). Then fold it once the other way. This gives 12 approximately square sides. ![](Howtofold.png "Howtofold.png") ## Cutting the pages If you\'re making a big batch of zines then you\'re probably going to be doing a lot of cutting, either to separate the pages or to trim things or whatever. It can get a bit tedious and slow to do it all with scissors, but if you go to a largeish stationer\'s you can buy a cheap guillotine which will make things easier. ## Different ways to compile multiple sheets into a zine ### Not attaching pages together I\'ve seen a lot of multi-page zines where the pages are not attached to each other, and generally that can work OK. It\'s certainly easier, but of course the zine is in danger of falling apart. It\'s up to you, of course. ### Stapling ![](Stapler-swingline-red.jpg "Stapler-swingline-red.jpg") Stapling it yourself is easy to do and nice and cheap. You might find that a normal stapler only-just-doesn\'t-quite-reach to the middle of your page\... argh! If you go to a largeish stationery shop you can easily find a long-arm stapler which can make life a lot easier. A library or university nearby might also have one you can use if you ask (try bringing your own staples). Or if you don\'t have the money you can use a normal stapler folded out flat to push the staples though the paper into a soft surface, like carpet or dense foam. Once you have done that you can then fold the staple down with something flat like a ruler or blunt knife - a sharp knife can mark or cut the pages by accident, or you! ![](SaddleStapler.jpg "SaddleStapler.jpg"){width="300"} If you\'re doing really big fat zines (more than about 20 pages to attach together, at a guess) then sometimes you can knacker (create technical problems) the stapler by trying to do too much. You can buy heavy-duty staplers if you want to do lots of really big fat zines. One nice thing about some fancy photocopiers is that they can do automatic stapling, so if you have access to one of those then this can be a nice easy option. You might have to pay more for this of course. ### Stitching/binding You can make holes (often 3 or 5 holes is good) down the spine of the page and use ordinary needle and thread to bind the pages together. For example, if you make three holes, you would create a kind of tight figure-of-eight loop through the holes. This can bind things very nicely. This is the basis of making a nicely-bound book, so it\'s useful to know how to do this if you want to self-publish your epic novel. There\'s at least one reference on DIY book-binding in the other resources section of this book. ### String You can use a hole-punch to make one, or two, holes through the pages, and then tie a loop of string through to connect the pages. Don\'t make the loop too tight or no-one will be able to turn the pages properly. ## Single-page options If you\'re printing onto a single page you can use clever folding and/or cutting to make a nice zine layout without needing to bind things. ### Almost-cutting-through If you take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then fold it in half again, you have 8 sides. You\'d need to make a cut (along the line of the first fold) to make them into a booklet-like codex, but this gives you two separate pieces. One nice trick you can manage is to not make the cut all the way through - leave a small amount of un-cut paper in the middle, and this lets people turn the pages without completely separating the pieces. ### No cutting, just folding This doesn\'t give a booklet-like result (more of a thing to be folded out) unless you do some cutting. But it\'s easy to do and who knows, maybe it suits your purposes. ### An 8-sided zine from 1 sheet with 1 cut I\'ve seen quite a few zines made using this trick. It\'s a really neat way of making a proper little zine out of one sheet - all 8 sides are on one side of your piece of paper, which is convenient for photocopying etc, although you can also put stuff on the reverse side for people to see when they unfold your zine. Here are the steps: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Design your zine all on one sheet, with the pages in this order (and the same way up as the numbers shown): ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-plan.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-plan.png") Then crease the sheet along the two main directions (by folding it in half then opening it, once for each direction): ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-1.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-1.png") Now make another pair of creases, with the effect of dividing the long direction into quarters: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-2.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-2.png") Then unfold again, fold in half, and make a cut with scissors as shown - you should be cutting through two thicknesses of paper, but only as far as those quarter-folds you just made: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-3.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-3.png") Open it out again. The resulting page should have a cut in its centre, a bit like this: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-4.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-4.png") Fold it in half along the long direction, such that all your pages are still on the outside: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-5.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-5.png") Now push it inwards from each end, so that the inner bit pushes out in both directions to make a kind of cross-shape. Fold the resulting pages together so that your front page is outmost: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-6.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-6.png") And there you have it, a little zine of 8 pages that needs no stapling or gluing: ![](Zinemaking-folding-8cut-7.png "Zinemaking-folding-8cut-7.png") --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Zine Making/Making copies \_\_NOEDITSECTION\_\_ \_\_NOTOC\_\_ ### `<span style="font-size:x-small; color:dimgray;">`{=html}Presentation`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} <table height=1 border=1 style="border-collapse:collapse; border-color:LightSkyBlue; background-color:AliceBlue;" width="100%"> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td align=left> ``` ```{=html} <table width="100%" align=left> ``` ```{=html} <tr> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Putting pages together{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ![](Gohome.png "Gohome.png"){width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td nowrap> ``` `<span style="font-size:xx-large; color:teal;">`{=html}`</span>`{=html} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Selling or giving copies to people{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !List of Topics{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td width="99%"> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` ```{=html} <td> ``` !Selling or giving copies to people{width="" height="40"} ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ```{=html} </td> ``` ```{=html} </tr> ``` ```{=html} </table> ``` ## Hand-making Hand-making is a good option if you\'re making very few indeed, or if it\'s based on crafty stuff, or a series of one-off things. Otherwise, remember that you\'ve got every right to combine hand-making techniques with other techniques, such as photocopying the whole zine then sewing a front cover (or whatever). ## Photocopiers ![](Canon_ir2270.jpg "Canon_ir2270.jpg") Photocopiers are a big thing in zine-making, whether it\'s subtle use of the photocopier at work (or so I\'ve heard) or the photocopier in the library. Some photocopiers will even do your stapling for you, which is very kind. Many photocopiers do not copy all the way to the edge of the page, and some have quirks about the way they photocopy different shades/colours, so it\'s a good idea to try a print-run out once or twice and see if you can get it looking good, before you dial in \"500\" and press Go. It\'s a good idea to get used to a specific photocopier\'s quirks and then stick with that one, to avoid giving yourself a new set of headaches. ## Computer printers If you have a computer and a printer at home then it can be easy to print things out yourself, especially if you\'re not doing many. But after a while it gets: 1. Expensive. Printer ink is really quite expensive, and (especially if you have any pages with large amounts of black on them) you\'ll be using up printer ink faster than you can possibly imagine\... 2. Frustrating. This is particularly true if you\'re doing double-sided things but your printer doesn\'t do double-sided, because you need to do a lot of sitting there feeding printed sheets back into the printer in the correct order/orientation/etc, and it can go wrong quite a lot too. It can also go a bit wrong because the printed sheets might be a bit damp or crinkly, so the printer goes a bit wrong in feeding the paper back in. Then there\'s also the stuff about getting it all to print out so all the folds line up nicely. Anyway. If you are using your own printer then here are some tips: - Remember to make sure it\'ll fit on the page. Most printers don\'t print right to the edge of the paper, which means that either the edges of what you\'ve designed will be chopped off, or it\'ll be printed out slightly smaller than maybe you expected. You might find you need to leave an empty border around your work so that nothing gets chopped off. - Do a bit of experimenting then make a template. Draw some lines (or try and set appropriate borders) in your software, print them out, fiddle about and repeat until you\'ve got it about right, and save that file. You can use this as a basis for your pages then delete/hide any guiding lines before you print the pages out. This webpage has a couple of examples of templates: <http://www.footprinters.co.uk/layout.htm> - A quick rule of thumb: if your zine doesn\'t fit in the page, resize it (in the print preferences or whatever) to about 97%. ## Getting them printed !You can get your zine printed for you at businesses all over the world If you\'re strongly into DIY or anarchist things you might not want to use a company to print the things for you, and that\'s fine. But if not: If you\'re getting to the point where you\'re making a lot of copies (more than a few dozen) then it\'s probably cheaper and easier to get the zines printed on your behalf, and will get you more uniform results. Of course there are various limitations with this: the printing companies are not likely to be willing to print every fourth page using tracing paper, for example. But you could easily get a printing company to make the zines and then do some \"post-processing\" on the zines to add your preferred cross-stitch/hole-punch/felt-tip customizations, which is quite a nice way of combining interestingness with painless production. Printing companies typically vary a lot when it comes to pricing, so make sure you ask around for different prices. They can also vary in helpfulness, and this can be quite important. Does the company look small and friendly? A small friendly company may be more inclined to spend time talking to you and making sure they get it right. Double points if the website gives the name, photo and direct phone number of the person who gives quotes. Check: are they happy to do small print runs? Check that \"small print run\" means 50 rather than 50,000. You don\'t particularly need to pick a nearby printers, because delivery is often included or inexpensive. ### What info to tell the print shop - What the finished zine will look like (e.g. 12-page A6 booklet) - How many copies you want printed - What weight of paper you want (e.g. 80gsm is normal printer paper, 120gsm is thick paper\... ask them for advice if you\'re not sure) - The color and shininess of the paper (e.g. white, glossy) - What colors of ink you need (e.g. black, black and red, or full colour) - If you want it delivered and how soon you need it done - How you\'ll provide the original copy - either electronically (PDF, Word, jpg, by CD, email, etc) or \'camera ready\' (on paper)