- Studies show that groups tend to innovate faster, see mistakes more quickly and find better solutions to problems.
- People working in teams tend to achieve better results and report higher job satisfaction
- The most productive employees tend to build larger networks by rotating dining companions on lunch breaks
- the best managers have good communication skills and avoid micromanaging
Project Aristotle
- Norms are the traditions, behavioral standards and unwritten rules that govern how we function together
- Team members may behave in certain ways as individuals, but when they gather, the groups norms typically override individual proclivities.
- Researchers concluded that understanding and influencing group norms were the key to improving teams
- how teammates treat each other is key
Important factors:
- Equality in distribution of conversational turn taking means as long as everyone gets a chance to talk, the team does well
- High average social sensitivity means being skilled at intuiting how others feel based on their tone of voice, their expressions and other non-verbal cues
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a sense of confidence thatthe team will not embarass, reject or punish someone for speaking up / a climate of interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves
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psychological safety and emotions are related: conversational turn-taking and empathy are part of the unwritten rules we often turn to, as individuals, when we are trying to establish a bond
- no one wants to put on a “work face” or leave part of their personality or inner life at home
- to be “fully present” at work, to feel “psychologically safe” we must know that we can be free enough, sometimes, to share the things that scare us without fear of recriminations: we must be able to talk about what is messy or sad/to have hard conversations with colleagues.