How would you describe the best team you've experienced? If team projects are part of your work … you'll be interested to see factors Scientific American Mind just laid out to show the science of team success. Results come from research that shows how groups systematically enhance their performance. Steve W. J. Kozlowski and Daniel R. Ilgen show how research affirms why some teams work so well together.
The authors considered 50 years of research on teams and highlighted factors that characterize the most effective, as a way to help teams perform better. They found that…
1. Teams need sufficient resources to accomplish their goals.
2. Delicate balance between meeting team goals and individual goals keeps members working together.
3. Questions should be addressed… such as… Could an individual do the work as easily? Another question the authors suggest is what type of team structure is required?
4. Teams should focus more on the task … than on interactions among peers and should set minimum requirements for knowledge, skills, abilities, and values of the group.
5. Gather information about what members think, and use their ability to access and apply their own and others' expertise efficiently.
6. Team members benefit from their collective knowledge when they learn together. People in newly formed groups are less likely to have the right mix of skills to complete the task efficiently. They knew less about one another's strengths, and it was discovered that group knowledge was lost when people were replaced.
7. Face-to-face interaction seems to help teams to share and grow knowledge among team members throughout their project.
8. The emergence of an overall objective, mission or strategic imperative of the group—or team climate -- holds a powerful effect on teams. Teams with more frequent informal social interactions showed more consensus on climate.
9. The teams' emotional state affects their performance. Positive attitudes tend to reduce the number of absences in teams and lower the likelihood of people leaving the group. Group-level emotional changes occurred, both from positive and negative attitudes of members.
10. Teams do better when there is evidence of general teamwork skills requiring that contributions to be visible and that members be accountable.
Although these skills can be taught, and while they reliably give teams a heads-up advantage, yet they rarely are. Do you agree? What have you found to make or break a team?
Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://performance-management.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
www.brainbasedbusiness.com
1. Teams need sufficient resources to accomplish their goals.
2. Delicate balance between meeting team goals and individual goals keeps members working together.
3. Questions should be addressed… such as… Could an individual do the work as easily? Another question the authors suggest is what type of team structure is required?
4. Teams should focus more on the task … than on interactions among peers and should set minimum requirements for knowledge, skills, abilities, and values of the group.
5. Gather information about what members think, and use their ability to access and apply their own and others' expertise efficiently.
6. Team members benefit from their collective knowledge when they learn together. People in newly formed groups are less likely to have the right mix of skills to complete the task efficiently. They knew less about one another's strengths, and it was discovered that group knowledge was lost when people were replaced.
7. Face-to-face interaction seems to help teams to share and grow knowledge among team members throughout their project.
8. The emergence of an overall objective, mission or strategic imperative of the group—or team climate -- holds a powerful effect on teams. Teams with more frequent informal social interactions showed more consensus on climate.
9. The teams' emotional state affects their performance. Positive attitudes tend to reduce the number of absences in teams and lower the likelihood of people leaving the group. Group-level emotional changes occurred, both from positive and negative attitudes of members.
10. Teams do better when there is evidence of general teamwork skills requiring that contributions to be visible and that members be accountable.
Although these skills can be taught, and while they reliably give teams a heads-up advantage, yet they rarely are. Do you agree? What have you found to make or break a team?
Article Source:
http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com
http://performance-management.bestmanagementarticles.com
About the Author:
www.brainbasedbusiness.com
1 comment:
Hi Sanket,
Good to see you active in Blogs
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