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Effective Team Dynamics Insights

The researchers ran over 35 statistical models on hundreds of variables from Google teams to identify factors that impacted team effectiveness. They found that psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact were most important, rather than who was on the team. Psychological safety refers to feeling safe taking risks without punishment. Dependability means reliably completing quality work on time. Structure and clarity involve understanding expectations and goals. Meaning comes from the work's purpose and impact is seeing work contribute to goals. Variables like colocation, consensus decision making, and team size did not significantly impact effectiveness at Google, but can be important elsewhere.

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Tiago Gomes
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111 views3 pages

Effective Team Dynamics Insights

The researchers ran over 35 statistical models on hundreds of variables from Google teams to identify factors that impacted team effectiveness. They found that psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact were most important, rather than who was on the team. Psychological safety refers to feeling safe taking risks without punishment. Dependability means reliably completing quality work on time. Structure and clarity involve understanding expectations and goals. Meaning comes from the work's purpose and impact is seeing work contribute to goals. Variables like colocation, consensus decision making, and team size did not significantly impact effectiveness at Google, but can be important elsewhere.

Uploaded by

Tiago Gomes
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as ODT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Identify dynamics of effective teams

With all of this data, the team ran statistical models to understand which of the many
inputs collected actually impacted team effectiveness. Using over 35 different
statistical models on hundreds of variables, they sought to identify factors that:

 impacted multiple outcome metrics, both qualitative and quantitative

 surfaced for different kinds of teams across the organization

 showed consistent, robust statistical significance

The researchers found that what really mattered was less about who is on the team,
and more about how the team worked together. In order of importance:

 Psychological safety: Psychological safety refers to an individual’s perception


of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is
safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent,
negative, or disruptive. In a team with high psychological safety, teammates
feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no
one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake,
asking a question, or offering a new idea.

 Dependability: On dependable teams, members reliably complete quality work


on time (vs the opposite - shirking responsibilities).

 Structure and clarity: An individual’s understanding of job expectations, the


process for fulfilling these expectations, and the consequences of one’s
performance are important for team effectiveness. Goals can be set at the
individual or group level, and must be specific, challenging, and
attainable. Google often uses Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) to help set
and communicate short and long term goals.

 Meaning: Finding a sense of purpose in either the work itself or the output is


important for team effectiveness. The meaning of work is personal and can
vary: financial security, supporting family, helping the team succeed, or self-
expression for each individual, for example.
 Impact: The results of one’s work, the subjective judgement that your work is
making a difference, is important for teams. Seeing that one’s work is
contributing to the organization’s goals can help reveal impact.

The researchers also discovered which variables were not significantly connected


with team effectiveness at Google:

 Colocation of teammates (sitting together in the same office)


 Consensus-driven decision making

 Extroversion of team members

 Individual performance of team members

 Workload size

 Seniority

 Team size

 Tenure

It’s important to note though that while these variables did not significantly impact
team effectiveness measurements at Google, that doesn’t mean they’re not
important elsewhere. For example, while team size didn’t pop in the Google
analysis, there is a lot of research showing the importance of it. Many researchers
have identified smaller teams - containing less than 10 members - to be more
beneficial for team success than larger teams (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Moreland,
Levine, & Wingert, 1996. Smaller teams also experience better work-life quality
(Campion et al., 1993), work outcomes (Aube et al., 2011), less conflict, stronger
communication, more cohesion (Moreland & Levine, 1992; Mathieu et al., 2008), and
more organizational citizenship behaviors (Pearce and Herbik, 2004).

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