Teamwork is critical to the success of any organization responding quickly to changing circumstances. My research in the U.
S. intelligence community has not only affirmed that idea but also revealed a number of mistaken beliefs about teamwork that can sidetrack productive collaboration. Here are five:
Misperception 1: Harmony helps. Debates about how best to proceed only waste time.
Actually: Quite the opposite, research shows. Conflict, when well managed and focused on a team’s objectives, can generate more creative solutions than conflict-free groups.
Misperception 2: It’s good to mix it up. New members bring fresh energy and ideas. Without them, team members risk becoming complacent and too forgiving of their colleagues’ misbehavior.
Actually: The longer members stay together, the better they do. The research is unambiguous: Whether it`s a basketball team or a string quartet, teams that stay together longer play together better.
Misperception 3: Bigger is better. Larger groups have more resources to apply to their work.
Actually: Excessive size is one of the most common – and serious – impediments to effective collaboration. The larger the group, the higher the likelihood of loafing, and the more effort it takes to keep members’ activities coordinated.
Misperception 4: Face-to-face interaction is passe. Now that there are powerful digital technologies available for communication and coordination, teams can do their work much more efficiently at a distance.
Actually: Teams working remotely are at a considerable disadvantage. A number of organizations that rely heavily on distributed teams have found that it’s well worth the time and expense to bring members together at the beginning, middle and end of a project
Misperception 5: It all depends on the leader. Think of a team you’ve led, or one on which you’ve served, that performed superbly. Now think of another one that did poorly. What accounts for the difference? If you’re like most people, your explanation will have something to do with the leaders of those two teams.
Actually: The hands-on activities of group leaders do make a difference. But the most powerful thing a leader can do to foster effective collaboration is to create conditions that help members competently manage themselves.
The second most powerful thing is to launch the team well. Only then does a leader’s hands-on teaching and coaching come into play.
(J. Richard Hackman is the Edgar Pierce Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and a leading expert on teams. His latest book is “Collaborative Intelligence: Using Teams to Solve Hard Problems.”)
