07/23/2017
https://www.inc.com/michael-schneider/google-thought-they-knew-how-to-create-the-perfect.html?cid=cp01002fastco
Our clients and friends at Google endeavored to crack and codify the secrets of team effectiveness. They predicted that bringing the best of the best, the smartest of the smartest – together in a well engineered, well-funded environment would create magic.
They were dead wrong. In the 180+ teams they dissected – they found no clear patterns, no dream team generating algorithm and no guaranteed ways of engineering high-performing teams. One of the things I love about Google is the share what they find, even when their hypothesis initially was wrong!
This is what we’d call using a technical or tried-and-true approach to an adaptive or learning problem. What we miss as leaders is the critical systemic nature of our teams and organizations. What we don’t see, unless we get an aerial view, is the complexity and criticality of the interrelatedness between people, teams and organizations. The DNA we need to crack is in the space between people - the intangibles of how they relate, collaborate, conflict, reward, exchange, request, offer and interact at a humanistic and cultural level.
We call it “Being in the Soup ”.
What will it take to leverage our leadership, relationships and conversations so we become a force multiplier and a championship team? We’ve got to stop trying to engineer teams and instead - lead them.
We start by upgrading our agreements and codifying our norms.
Then it is vital to hold myself and my teammates accountable to two things:
First: The RESULTS I’m generating. Owning my RESULTS.
Second: The IMPACT I’m causing as I’m interacting - the good, the bad, the ugly. For this I am going to need feedback and you’re gonna need it too.
In our experience “Cooking the Soup of Intangibles ” creates the clarity, dependability, safety, meaning and purpose that Google deemed essential. Then we’re all leading - being force multipliers and creating impact we never dreamed of …… and we've done it very successfully with several Alphabet Teams.
Insights from Google's new study could forever change how teams are assembled.