Leave the experiments to others. Get the best from your teams.
Science of Teams has the goal of helping your teams improve. We use evidence based approaches to understanding teams and teamwork with a focus on the workplace research.
Long reads
Babbling leaders
“Charlie is not just a natural leader but also a great listener.”
This quote is from a flyer for a local election in my area (the name has been changed). I think it’s an interesting insight into what characteristics people think makes a leader. That Charlie can be both a leader and a listener makes me wonder if a leader is someone who doesn’t listen. Or is leading the opposite of listening, and is a leader someone who talks a lot? There may be something to this, that leaders are talkers.
Motivating your team with Goldilocks goal-setting
“How do I motivate my team?”. Goal-setting is one approach. Click here for more.
Short reads
Team reflection
Otte, Kondradt and Oldeweme from Kiel University in Germany have produced some interesting research on team reflection. Reflection being where a team looks back on past experiences. Their most research publication concludes (amongst other conclusions) that the quality of the reflection has a stronger impact on team performance than the quantity of reflection. What does […]
Teams in mid-life crisis
In the previous post we wrote about how a team’s working methods tend to get set implicitly at the start of a project. Connie Gersick found something else about how teams tend to work across their lifespan, though. When the project is around its halfway point, teams are likely to re-evaluate their working methods in […]
Why does your team work that way?
Each team can have its own way of doing things. Team members may have a relaxed attitude, or a get stuff done approach, or be very congenial. This vibe (also called the “climate” of the team) can be fine and effective until someone thinks it needs to change, then it can be a significant challenge to create a […]
Cohesion
A cohesive team is great to be in. There is energy and focus within a cohesive team that makes the team stand out from others. Not only does it feel good, but cohesion has been shown to be related to a bunch of good things: team performance, team efficiency, team members putting in effort out […]