As someone who works every day with teams, some as long-lasting as a consulting practice team and some formed and dissolved as quickly as it takes to create a presentation, I always find it interesting to read research about what makes teams succeed or fail.
In the May, 2009 issue of Harvard Business Review, senior editor Diane Coutu interviewed (note: subscription or purchase required) Richard Hackman, a Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Harvard University and expert on teams.
I found Professor Hackman's insights on team dynamics fascinating, and expect to use them as both a participant and a leader of teams. Some of the key insights I took away follow:
1. Dissent is important. An important role on the team is that of the deviant, defined by Hackman as someone who challenges the status quo, the person willing to incur personal cost to say things that nobody else will, the person who won't hesitate to say, "Why are we doing this at all?" As the summary in another HBR article (from 2007) states, "The absence of conflict is not harmony, it's apathy." Having social norms that encourage healthy dissent and lively debate, and an environment where people can feel comfortable hashing out ideas is critical. Note: Dissent is different from discord, which is divisive and corrosive.
2. Don't underestimate the cost of newness. There is significant research (by NTSB, NASA, and others) about the effects of inexperience in working together on team performance. Plan for the "forming" stage in the group development lifecycle of forming --> norming --> storming --> performing. Leigh Thompson's work, such as her book "Making the Team," is worth reading for more detailed guidance.
3. Teams aren't always the answer. In truly creative endeavors, too many participants may be more of a hindrance than a help. Authoring this blog post would have taken longer to coordinate, and the key themes and message would have been diluted, if I had to develop them with a team. Hackman challenges team leaders to find "the balance between individual autonomy [frequently the reason why people get into the consulting business] and collective action." This is one of the core challenges for any team leader in a creative field such as design, software development, etc.
I completed the article with:
- a renewed commitment to better define my teams' mission, boundaries, and members' roles;
- thoughtfulness about which tasks are best-suited to a team, and which to individual contributors;
- a desire to get the assistance of my partners in committing resources to organizational support, structures, and coaching to help all of our teams perform better; and
- a new book to add to my reading list: Hackman's "Leading Teams."

