Are you fulfilling your teams’ No. 1 need?

Most of our organizations are made up of teams. And we need these teams to perform as just that – a team. However, conflicting personalities, unclear communication and just plain daily life can get in the way of a collaborative team.

Marcel Schwantes, principal and founder of Leadership From the Core, recently covered Google’s research into what makes a team effective. Among the findings: “[W]hat really mattered had less to do with the people on the team, and more to do with how team members worked together,” Schwantes summarized.

He said the No. 1 need for teams that was discovered out of this research was psychological safety. In the words of the researchers this means that “members are not seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive, and that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.”

 

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