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Teamwork can have a multiplier effect, cross-pollinating team members’ skills and knowledge. But before you begin corralling employees into distinct units, remember that collaboration can come at a cost. Teams don’t always work out, according to J. Richard Hackman, the late Harvard organizational psychology professor and leading expert on teams. Hackman’s research demonstrated the surprising ways that teamwork can hurt productivity.
That said, certain strategies have been shown to improve the efficacy of teams. Here are some tips for strategically creating teams that boost organizational productivity and innovation—rather than chip away at it.
Build small, cross-functional teams
Speaking of cross-pollination, bees understand the value of teamwork. In a recent study, Finnish researchers taught bumblebees to push a small brick to clear the way or navigate a tunnel to get a treat. Researchers taught the bees to go it alone or to execute the task with a partner. In both cases, the partnered bees waited for their teammates. The takeaway: teamwork is nature’s way to get things done.
A growing body of research shows that when humans pool their skills, knowledge, and motivation, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Science teams are more productive and make a greater impact when collaborating across organizational and geographic boundaries. In academia, interdisciplinary teams publish more and in more diverse outlets. In controlled studies from the American Psychological Association, groups of three, four, and five people delivered better performance on coding challenges than individuals or groups of two.
The caveat: it’s critical to maintain small team sizes. Hackman told Harvard Business Review that as teams get bigger, the number of links to manage among members increases exponentially, creating extra administrative, people-managing tasks. Adding another wrinkle: many teams don’t have clear boundaries. Hackman’s data on 120 top teams around the world showed that fewer than 10% agreed about who was on their team. Leaders should clearly articulate team members and limit them to single digits.
At my company, Jotform, I realized we needed to create teams when we expanded from five employees to 15. Suddenly, productivity suffered. We were no longer working towards a unified mission. The company vision became hazy. When we broke into cross-disciplinary teams of five to six employees, with self-determined goals and deadlines, we regained momentum. Each team lived and breathed its unique mission. Teams had dedicated designers, who reviewed every design decision, and our products improved. As the numbers showed, users (aka the most important stakeholders) were happier, too.
In short, leaders must deliberately create diverse teams with clear members and roles, and keep a cap on members or run the risk of diluting the team’s efficacy.
Designate a team leader
When each team has a leader, teams can avoid some of the pitfalls of collaboration and capitalize on their strengths. Studies have shown successful teams have a clear purpose, established roles, and a formal communication system. A leader can step in to ensure that these higher-level administrative tasks are taken care of, for example, to make sure communication is working effectively before issues snowball.
Team structures have the unintended positive outcome of creating leadership pipelines throughout the company. Since every team has a lead, employees acquire management skills while working full-time, putting them on a path to advancement. At Jotform, our current VP of Product began 11 years ago as an introverted developer. She became one of our first team leads, then went on to product management before her most recent promotion to VP. She’s progressed on an individual career level while championing teams toward their collective goals.
Create shared workspaces
A 2023 study found that collaboration hurts efficiency when team members can’t observe each other and communication is less efficient than face-to-face interactions. To avoid this pitfall, teams need shared workspaces. Physically shared workspaces are ideal.
At Jotform, we hired an architect to design team rooms for six people maximum. Every room had whiteboards and closed glass doors, giving teams privacy. With three people sitting next to each other on one side and three on the other, even the computers were organized to promote collaboration. Any team member could easily see their colleague’s monitor and observe what they were working on. We opted for team productivity over individual privacy, propelling us toward our larger organizational goals.
Remote teams must take extra measures to build shared workspaces so collaboration feels near-seamless and doesn’t dampen efficiency. Luckily, today there are numerous applications to choose from, like Notion and Google
Google
Teamwork can make the dream work if managed and organized strategically. Hopefully, the above tips can help your team members build off each other’s strengths and make the most of your organization’s talent pool.