Assigning a project to several talented people seems like a winning strategy, since it maximizes on the adage “two heads are better than one.” However, it’s important to consider whether your team is working harder rather than smarter, only to receive marginally better results than a less-talented group with more cohesion. Here are five things to avoid in order to best utilize your group members’ talents for better teamwork and project outcomes.
1. Overemphasizing Abstract Goals
People like transcendent goals: they’re uplifting and make projects feel more meaningful. Yet, these goals can sometimes be too vague and overlook specific group members within the bigger picture. If team members don’t understand their individual roles and value to the project, they might not commit as fully to these more general, overarching ambitions. Aligning big, collective goals with small, personal commitments will help drive performance.
2. Underemphasizing Roles
If you don’t effectively leverage the strengths of individual group members, then the team as a whole won’t function to its full potential, no matter how talented each individual member might be. Well-structured teams generally outperform those with more overall talent, so take time to find the group setup that makes the most sense.
3. Making Too Many Rules
People love making rules, and in a team setting, this often translates to creating guidelines for all potential contingencies. This is both time consuming and ineffective. Instead, focus on the few rules that are likely to have the biggest impact on your team’s culture and performance: information-sharing, decision-making and conflict resolution.
4. Ignoring Reflection
Outcome bias is a popular and misguided phenomenon, causing people to forgo reflection if a project is successful. Reflection is as imperative with success as it is with failure. Remember that check-ins need not always be huge affairs reserved for annual retreats or quarterly reviews; they can be as simple as a weekly stand-up meeting.
5. Failing to Sell the Change
Having a successful idea only comes to fruition if you convince fellow team members of its value. Lloyd Braun, the ABC executive who heavily supported the hit TV show “Lost,” believed in the show so strongly that he rushed through approval of the $12 million budget for the pilot episode, the most expensive TV pilot budget to date. Though Braun was correct about “Lost” being a successful show, he didn’t take the time to get others on board with his vision, and he was fired before the show even premiered. Strength of will and charisma are not enough to push through change; work hard to get buy-in so that people want to come along with you.
In the end, good teamwork is about knowing how best to work together and constantly closing the gaps between your plans, actions and results.
Mario Moussa is president of Moussa Consulting, and Derek Newberry and Madeline Boyer are senior consultants at Percipient Partners. They all teach at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Current Issue - May 2024