How to make a great team ?
Team-work is the central aspect of modern work culture. Some teams thrive where other falter. Google decided to figure what is the recipe for a "perfect team". Their research revealed some counter-intuitive facts for building a great team.
The researchers looked at both successful and un-successful teams internally and tried to find a pattern for success. They could find lot of commonalities like some teams knew each other from the past, some socialized after work hours, some had very active leaders etc. But still it was not exactly prevalent in all of the teams. They dug deeper and then came with two themes:
a) Conversational Turn taking - Good teams or successful teams had almost equal conversation turn taking or everybody was speaking up. They all had a point of view and were ok to put in front of the group.
b) Social Sensitivity - These teams also had a high degree of empathy towards each other. They understood where everybody else was coming from.
Finally, after finding the common themes, researchers landed on the common thread - Psychological Safety. All the good teams had a "shared belief that their team was safe for inter-personal risk taking". All members felt that they were respected, and would not be made fun of if they spoke up. This way they all were open to admitting their mistakes and shared a lot of creative ideas. This meant team was able to course correct faster and deliver results without any issues.
Some practical tips coming from the two themes:
a) Increase your team bonding by encouraging everyone to speak up. Maintain the status quo that everyone is respected and will not be made fun of.
b) Practice empathy by putting yourself in their shoes, understanding the personal situation.
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