What we were expecting to find is that we would have a long list of individual characteristics that would help us determine the composition of an effective team.
You would want a 10-year mix. You want to make sure you have gender diversity, you want extroverts, you want introverts, you want highly conscientious people — you want that whole mix. If we could quantify that mix, we could come up with the ideal recipe for an effective team. What we found instead was that those individual factors did not predict team success. What predicted team success is what the team members themselves were actually doing in their interactions with each other. What kind of environment were they creating? How much could they depend on each other? How clear were their goals? You can absolutely measure those things.
Author: Brian Welle
Source: “Knowledge@Wharton”
Subjects: Organizational Behavior, Teamwork
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