Have you ever seen a team that looked flawless?
I have seen teams work so well together that anyone who saw them would have assumed they were best friends or had known each other since childhood.
They are efficient, productive, and highly motivated. They are able to have fun together and focus on their tasks. They are the perfect team.
You might be wondering why your team isn’t able to match them. They are often plagued by poor communication, indifference, and poor performance. You don’t know how you can create a high-functioning team.
This brings us to an interesting question: Can there be a science to building great teams? Is there a secret formula to building a great team? Or is it just luck?
There is no magic formula for fixing a dysfunctional team, as with many things in life. There is solid research that can help you identify the components of a high-functioning group.
Researchers have found certain commonalities in almost all of the successful teams. These teams share certain characteristics. This is not an accident. These characteristics are part of what makes a team successful.
This doesn’t mean that great teams can be created by chance. They aren’t. Your team and the best team in the entire world are very similar. Both have a wide range of people and sometimes experience conflict. Conflict isn’t always a bad thing.
They are able to solve problems and make teams great. They know how to improve their team.
Great teams don’t consist of highly-talented individuals with exceptional teamwork skills. They are made up of everyday people like you and I who have learned to be better team members.
These fundamental qualities will help your team quickly and easily improve if your team members are taught them. Let’s take a closer look at these important factors for team composition.
Factor 1: Great teams are composed of balanced members
What would you answer if someone asked you to name the kind of people you would like to have on your ideal team?
It seems obvious. It seems obvious that you would want the best prodigies possible.
According to a 2014 study in Psychological Science, this is a bad idea. Too many superstars on a team can make it more difficult to work well together and compete with each other.
Too much talent can lead to team disorganization as members of the team scuffle with each other to establish intragroup standing. In many cases, too much talent can be the seed of failure.”Interestingly, an abundance of talent didn’t affect baseball teams too much, because baseball isn’t very interdependent. Too much talent can be detrimental to any type of teamwork. You also need to have a certain number of highly skilled people.
It is important to form teams of people who complement each other’s personality types.
First, avoid falling for the “too many talent” trap. Author Liz Wiseman believes that rookies can be valuable members of your team. Wiseman states that rookies can be valuable additions to your team because they have significant knowledge gaps or skills gaps. “They are alert, move quickly, and work smart,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman observed rookies in action, and discovered that they excel at innovation and networking. They can be an asset, no matter if they are fresh out of college or if they are from another division.
A second tip is to ensure you have a balance between introverts, extroverts, and both. (Ambiverts too.) Many people believe introverts and extroverts are at odds in teams. But that’s often not true.
Harmony is about creating opportunities for introverts. Leaders need to make it easier for introverts to shine in a workplace that is already designed for extroverts.
Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School professor