Remember the schoolyard and who got picked and who got left standing? If you were doing the picking, why did you select some and not others? Was it because they were your friends? Were your selections the fastest, best catchers, tallest, strongest, prettiest? A pretty safe bet is you did not select based on who would be the best, most effective team member for the team you were trying to create.
It was the schoolyard after all, and we were just kids. We just wanted to be liked, be popular, and maybe win.
In business today, has the method of selection for teams changed? We still select team members more as if we were in the schoolyard than actually trying to understand how to build an effective team.
Google recently completed a study with 200 of its own teams. They were looking for the most effective teams and why they were the most effective. The study came to the conclusion that the makeup of teams is actually more important than who is on the team. So our coach was right, “There is no I in team.”
Why did Google decide this type of study was necessary?
In today’s economy bigger is not the answer, faster is not the answer, quality efficiency doesn’t get the returns they once did. Targets and competition change as fast as the days of the week. What many large and small successful companies have found is the key determinant of success is how effective are the teams within the organization and how effectively can they communicate with each other. See Gen. McCrystal’s book Team of Teams.
Businesses need to communicate internally like never before. Google found that the teams that worked the best were those that had low barriers to communication internally. They coined a phrase called Psychological safety. This refers to the ability to take risks on a team and feel safe. It is easy to view this as a good communication level. Can I present my ideas and be heard? Do I listen and take action on others ideas? If I make a mistake, am I comfortable it will not be held against me?
The lack of Psychological safety naturally builds barriers or information silos for protection. The Google study found five key factors (see below), that influence the effectiveness of teams. They also concluded the most important factor, the one that if not present the others would have little influence, was Psychological safety.
Google study:
The five key dynamics that set successful teams apart from other teams:
- Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed?
- Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high-quality work on time?
- Structure & clarity: Are goals, roles, and execution plans on our team clear?
- Meaning of work: Are we working on something that is personally important for each of us?
- The impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters?
Read the complete Google Study.
The next post in the series: How can you consciously build teams that naturally have Psychological safety as part of their DNA?