One of the classic
questions in management is ‘Why do some teams outperform others?’ There are thousands of books on the topic of
teamwork and many people call it an Art rather than a Science because of all
the variables. But some very
sophisticated scientific research is throwing an interesting light on the
subject.
In a recent paper
Professor Alex Pentland, and his team at the Human Dynamic Laboratory at MIT,
mentioned how they conducted a number of fascinating studies that show very
precisely how teams differ and the impact these differences have on
performance. For example, they can
predict the winning team in a Business Plan contest simply from monitoring
individual behaviour at a cocktail reception.
Communication is key
We all know that
communication is key to effective teamwork but Pentland’s research is showing
us that the way people communicate is by far the most important factor. It is in fact more important than individual
intelligence, personality, skill or even the substance of the discussion combined.
The experiments
involved some very high-tech monitoring equipment that is continuously evolving
as each new generation becomes more sophisticated (they are now working with
version 7) and they have already collected data on over 2500 people from across
a wide range of teams and sectors. Team
members are required to wear an electronic badge that monitors and records a
number of factors including tone
of voice, body language, whom they talked to and how often, plus more. Some of the experiments lasted 6 weeks and
the researchers were able to correlate the data they collected with objectively
quantifiable measures of each team’s performance that were already being used
by the business.
The
most successful teams consistently had the following characteristics:
1.
Everyone on the team talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping
contributions short and sweet.
2.
Members face one another, and their conversations and gestures are energetic.
3.
Members connect directly with one another—not just with the team leader.
4.
Members carry on back-channel or side conversations within the team.
5.
Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team and bring information
back.
It
was interesting to note how the researchers discovered that individual
reasoning or talent did not contribute to team success as much as they
expected. They concluded that the best
way to build a great team was not to select members based on how smart they
were but on how well they demonstrated the above characteristics or how quickly
they learned how to use them. The modern 21st century Team Leader or
Manager needs to know how to shape and guide the team so that it follows
successful communication patterns.
So
you may want to consider:
How
effectively are you communicating with your team?
How
effectively are you role modelling and encouraging the patterns mentioned
above?
The 3 key elements of effective communication
After
analysing vast amounts of data the researchers have discovered that there are 3
key elements of communication that have a profound affect on team performance.
Energy: the number and nature of exchanges between members. Not surprisingly they found that face to face
communication is by far the most valuable with the next being phone or video
conferencing, but these technologies become far less effective as more people
participate. They also discovered that
the least valuable forms of communicating are email and texting. Energy is not static and can vary depending
on the type of meeting or issues being discussed but when these were averaged
out the teams with the highest energy levels performed best.
Engagement: This element reflects the distribution of energy amongst the
team members. If all team members have
relatively equal engagement and reasonably high energy, engagement is
strong. If only some clusters of the
team engage well and others don’t participate, the team performs more
poorly. For example, when they observed
teams making investment decisions the partially engaged teams made worse (less
profitable) decisions than the fully engaged ones.
Exploration: This involves communication that team members engage in with
others outside the team. Higher
performing teams seek more connections outside the team and are effective at
balancing their energy between internal and external communication. This is particularly important for creative
teams who need fresh perspectives.
While there may be nothing particularly new in this, another key finding
was that most companies don’t do this in the right way. Many of the companies they studied tended to
seek counsel repeatedly from the same sources at specific times. The most successful teams constantly sought
new perspectives from both inside and outside the organisation.
Asking the right questions
While
the above may seem pretty obvious the researchers are identifying some very
specific trends that successful teams demonstrate. For example, they state that 35% of the
variation in a team’s performance can be attributed to the number of face to
face exchanges and that the ‘right’ number of exchanges is dozens per working
hour, but going above that ideal can decrease performance.
By
analysing the data and ‘Visualising’ it using graphic mapping techniques, the
researchers could identify weaknesses in the communication of underperforming
teams. By raising awareness and training
team members they saw immediate improvements.
For
example, in one team that had low performance they were able to drill down into
individual data and ask some interesting questions like: Are some people trying
to contribute and being ignored or cut off? Do they cut others off and not
listen, thereby discouraging colleagues from seeking their opinions? Do they
communicate only with one other team member? Do they face other people in
meetings or tend to hide from the group physically? Do they speak loudly
enough? Perhaps the leader of a team is too dominant; it may be that she is
doing most of the talking at meetings and needs to work on encouraging others
to participate.
These
are interesting questions to explore in your own team and the teams you
manage. With the insights and tips
gained from this research you can identify your ideal team members. Pentland and his research team call them
“Charismatic Connectors”. They actively
circulate, engaging people in short, high energy conversations. They are democratic with their time because
they communicate with everyone equally and make sure that every team member
gets a chance to speak by listening as much (if not more) than they speak. They are usually very engaged with whomever
they are listening to and the researchers label this as “energised but focussed
listening”. The best team players also
connect their team mates with others and spread ideas around.
Acting on the Answers
While
this research is still in its early days and only within the budgets of big
businesses, there are a lot of key points to consider about the way you
recruit, train and develop your team.
The scientists, and some of my previous
articles, are
beginning to show that it is the people and teams with the best communication
skills who succeed and it is no longer simply the people or teams with the most
knowledge, skill or even intelligence.
To be successful you need to attract more ‘Charismatic Connectors’ into
your business and ensure that you create an environment that nourishes and
keeps them.
How well is your team
performing? What do you need to do to adapt your communication style? Which behaviours do you need to
practice? What feedback do you need to
give to your team? The success of your team or your business may depend on the
answers you give to these critical questions . . . and the actions you take to
address them.
The
mantra for the 21st Century is “Recruit for attitude, Train for
skill, Motivate for retention”. Many
businesses are already using the valuable insights gained from the ‘inventory
of Work Attitude and Motivation’ (iWAM) to ensure that they are attracting, leading, managing and
developing their people in ways that get the very best from them. There is now also additional fine tuning
available to identify the competencies and characteristics you are looking for
in a variety of roles, including interesting and very specific aspects of
Leadership and Team composition.
As
you consider all of the above you may be curious about exploring more about the
very affordable tools and powerful insights that are now available to you. Do let me know if you want to discuss them.
I
am always interested to hear your thoughts and opinions about any of the above
so please drop me a line at David.Klaasen@InspiredWorking.com
Remember . . . Stay Curious!
With best
regards
David Klaasen
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