Making Teams Effective by Using 5 Key Success Factors by Google

Having a team with members brighter than yourself would bring you the success that you’ve been seeking. But just culminating smart members isn’t the answer to having a bright team.

In the couple of years that have passed by, Google has had around 180 of its teams under the microscope, finding ways to achieve success. In the process, more than 200 employees were interviewed in which questions on teamwork attitude were poured in to know all the common attributes of a perfectly operating team.

Post-search results showcase five traits that are adopted by prime teams that help them stand up higher than the others. But these traits aren’t as skill-based as you might think.

A strategic perspective paired up with cultural & psychological factors are very important. So is the feature that talks about the manner in which people work with one another in order to keep a team efficient.

Let us now look at the 5 key factors that propel teams:-

1. Psychological safety

The freedom & ability to take risks without worrying about being mocked or taunted.

2. Being Dependable

Trust is an important asset. Being dependable upon your colleagues to complete high standard tasks.

3. Clear Understanding

Each team member must know what each assigned task is about, and what is expected off them for it.

4. Work, and its purpose

Do you have thorough knowledge of the work that’s been assigned?

5. How would it impact?

Would the effort put in have the boat rowing any faster?

In the 5 points put forth, the psychological safety feature turns out to be the most important one.

“We’re all reluctant to engage in behaviours that could negatively influence how others perceive our competence, awareness, and positivity. Although this kind of self-protection is a natural strategy in the workplace, it is detrimental to effective teamwork.” 

–  As explained by Google’s Julia Rozovsky.

Employees in a workplace who feel psychologically secure are more likely to:

• Stay with the company for a prolonged period
• Adopt & share new ideas from their co-workers
• Increase revenue
• Would receive a good word of mouth more often from the managers’ end

Google has now created a tool called gTeams, which is now planted in its research and is used to improve team effectiveness. At present, Google uses it to monitor 300 of its teams via this ’10 minute pulse check.’

Another teamwork experiment was conducted by Anita Woolley, at the Carnegie Mellon University, with almost 700 people. She then split groups into smaller teams and finally concluded with the fact that stated, intelligence wasn’t the most important factor required for success.

Other factors like social sensitivity, friendship, mutual understanding, and top-quality communication skills are required for a perfectly polished team.

Guidance & feedback along with a sight for success, and skills to assign new team-mates are important qualities. These qualities convene and ignite the incredibly important quality of leadership.

‘Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.’ What do you make of this phrase?

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