RESEARCH ON TEAMS

 

 

Action: Design teams that are four to six and no more than 10 people. 

 

• Source: Hackman, J. R. (2002). Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances. Harvard Business Press. 

• Main Claim: The ideal team size is 4 - 6 people and no more than 10 people. Performance problems and interpersonal friction increase exponentially as team size increases. 

 

 

Action: Teams with high psychological safety perform better. To foster psychological safety:

1. Frame work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.

2. Acknowledge your own fallibility. 

3. Model curiosity and ask lots of questions.

4. Call attention to your mistakes - share them with your team.

5. Ask for help.

 

• Source: Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative science quarterly, 44(2), 350-383.

• Main Claim: Individuals on teams with high psychological safety perform better. Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.