3 Reasons You’re on a Team that Sucks
Skill is not the best predictor of a team’s success.
Teams that suck waste time, drain energy, and squander resources. You’ve been there.
A team of average brains that works well together outperforms a group of big brains on a team that sucks.
Research shows three simple things transform teams.
Hope:
The hope of teams is we are smarter together. Collective intelligence (CI) exceeds individual intelligence (IQ) when conditions are right.
CI is intelligence that emerges from the collaboration, collective efforts, and competition of many individuals and appears in consensus decision making.
3 reasons you’re on a team that sucks:
#1. Blabbermouths.
A blabbermouth at the head of the table makes teams dumb. A few team members who dominate create a team that sucks.
Conversational turn-taking is essential on high performing teams. Turn-taking means each member talks about as much as the other members, over time.
Effective turn-taking includes appreciation of individual expertise. An expert in a given area should contribute more when conversations focus on their area of expertise.
Team leader tips:
- Intentionally monitor and track participation.
- Prepare quiet members to contribute by assigning them a topic to present.
- Ask open questions to quiet members. “Sally, I wonder what’s coming to mind for you on this topic?”
- Encourage verbose team members to make room for others to speak. (In private.)
#2. Low social intelligence.
Great team members are self-aware AND aware of emotional states in others.
Team leader tips:
- Practice perspective taking.
- Notice when people aren’t themselves.
- Discuss difficult topics with kindness.
- Make time to know each other personally.
#3. No women.
A team of men gets smarter when women become part of the mix. Women tend to exhibit higher social sensitivity than men.
Women tend to listen and collaborate better than men.
What makes teams suck?
What factors contribute to high functioning teams?
Still curious:
Rise Above Lousy Teamwork: 7 Competencies of Teams that Work
2 Proven Behaviors That Make Dumb Teams Smart
Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
Dan, you sated, “Encourage verbose team members to make room for others to speak. (In private.)”
Why in private. I used to say in the meeting, “Bob, I appreciate your comments, But I want to hear from all members of the team.”
What makes teams suck? It starts with a bad team leader. They lack the required balance of task skills and people skills. Bad leaders often hold people accountable to living the team values.
What factors contribute to high functioning teams?
–An effective team leader
–Team members who have the expertise and commitment to working together
–Commitment to the team values
–Clearly defined and accepted roles and responsibilities
–Efficient team processes (communicating, planning, decision making etc.
–Team celebrations
It leads to a shared set of goals, plans, and values.
Well isn’t this the truth!
Something that will make a team such is that it isn’t really a team. Everybody is there because they have to be, has no real feel for the outcome and has their own separate priorities. Pulling teams together like this works well in heist movies, but less well in offices.
I like what Mitch says. I am going through this very thing right now. I am the out-member, because I am older and wiser than the other two, 20-30 years my juniors. I am also introverted (and proud of it), and the blabbermouths/partiers on the “team” irritate me to no end, the team leader included. As far as I, an individualist, am concerned, “teams” is just another corporate fad to co-opt employees into mental slavery to the corporate empire.
Phillip, I think there is a bit of a lack of clarity in language. We use the same word, “team” to describe a group of people who have a long-term relationship with a drive towards a common goal, who are joined by purpose and a shared set of ideals and skills ( like a prize winning football team) and a group of people pulled together to fix a problem who have no other level of interaction, or a set of co workers who share an office, a manager and some equipment who otherwise have nothing in common and maybe don’t even like each other.
Phillip,
Times can be tough when you’re trying to contribute within a team, but feel excluded like the odd man out. Often the key to working together better is to connect by getting to know each other a bit. If your team could somehow make time to connect, even if just a little, it would likely help in a big way. There’s such a positive difference that comes from knowing, understanding and appreciating each other better.
It’s not easy for an introvert to initiate teambuilding, but what if you could leverage the fun spirit of “those young whippersnappers” by making it about them? They could take the lead like it was their idea and it would be a WIN-WIN as long as you all got to know each other better on some level. I’ve seen some real magic happen this way, even when some folks were at each other’s throat. Don’t be surprised to hear positive things like “Wow, I had no idea XXX could…” or “Now I understand XXX so much better and we’re really learning how to work together…” and more. Teambuilding can be a magical elixir.
Just some thoughts, but there’s no one right or best answer. Good luck for you and teammates all allowing your best contributions to shine.
– Mary