What Increases Team Productivity?
I have worked in many teams during my undergraduate studies in Computer Science, multiple internships, and previous job experience working in a Data Science team at Putnam Investments. Currently, I am a part of a UC Davis MSBA practicum team composed of eight members, working on customer expansion and retention strategies for a SaaS company.
Working in so many very different teams has helped me shape my understanding of what makes a team successful, and what factors help make working with other people a more enjoyable experience for everyone. In particular, I have learned about team productivity, and what we can do to increase it.
Team Productivity in 3 Steps:
- Understanding that Diversity = Success
- Keeping an eye on the prize(s), together
- Creating trust by getting to know each other better
Let’s dive into each of these points.
Diversity = Success
Having a team with members that come from different backgrounds is a known recipe for success. Diverse backgrounds can refer to ethnicity, gender, age or simply bringing in a different perspective. Multiple studies and publications made by Gartner, MIT, Harvard, 6Q and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have shown how companies with diverse teams have higher revenue and higher productivity levels than those with homogeneous teams.
“Companies that have more diverse management teams have 19% higher revenue due to innovation,” says Anna Powers, award winning scientist and communicator. “This finding is huge for tech companies, start-ups, and industry where innovation is the key to growth.” A great way to create an innovative and productive environment is by forming teams with people that have different ways of thinking. The fresh ideas can help solve work tasks in a quicker, more efficient way.
If you can choose your team members, try to work with new peers that you do not know well and that seem very different than you. The diversity of thought will help your entire team. On the other hand, if you cannot choose your team, make a larger effort into finding the unique strengths in your teammates. Sometimes those unique skills are not too obvious at first sight, but everyone has a unique perspective to bring to the team, and it is worth making an effort to learn them.
Keeping an eye on the prize(s), together
It is crucial to understand why the team is doing what they are doing: what is the common end goal? However, not everyone’s source of motivation is the same. While everyone strives to achieve the team’s success, they also want to grow academically and/or professionally. This is why it is important to have a conversation about what is driving everyone in the team as an individual.
This means that there is not one single prize, but a variety of prizes to achieve as a team. Individual success becomes the team’s success too. Therefore, we should find out what motivates others around us, and make sure we support them in reaching those individual goals.
And support cannot happen without trust…
Creating trust — let’s get to know each other!
Last but definitely not least, let’s talk about trust. Trust is crucial because it creates psychological safety, and is the #1 key dynamic of any team looking to set themselves apart as high-performers, according to this Google study. People who feel psychologically safe are more prone to propose ideas during meetings, offer help to their teammates, and take general risks without feeling insecure. And this is all possible because of team trust.
How can we create more trust?
Two words: team bonding! Team bonding does not have to be a boring activity that the company is enforcing on the employees. It can be as simple as grabbing a bite, getting a beer or taking a zumba class together.
This type of activities will help you get to know each other better. You should try to discover things like: What does your teammate like? What do they dislike? What do they enjoy doing in their free time? What do they find funny? All of these answers can help you bond, create a trusting environment and be more likely to want to work closely with that person. This will, in turn, improve your work effectiveness and increase the team’s productivity levels.
In my experience, having a little bit of bonding time outside of the normal “working” environment helps create stronger team bonds. I have seen this at every job I have worked at, and this concept has helped me work better with people from other teams as well. Team trust is essential to overcoming work challenges, increasing productivity and achieving success.
However, it is important to point out that that this has to be an ongoing effort. You cannot go out with a coworker once, and expect your team to become super productive the next day. In order to increase team productivity, it is necessary to “always be actively creating team culture”, as Atlasian explains. Such culture should “value trust over talent.” By making a constant effort into getting to know your teammates better, and continuing to create an environment of trust, you will be contributing to increasing your team’s productivity and performance levels.
In short, in order to work more efficiently with those around you and become a high-performing team, it is important to understand the value of diversity, seek to achieve collective as well as individual goals, and create an environment of trust by getting to know your teammates better outside of the work environment.
