The New Atoms in their natural habitat

Why building great teams is more important than hiring the right people

Hiring the right talent is a top concern for every startup. The best résumés and track records will give rise to some insane salaries with the goal of recruiting for the most productive teams. Yet internal research by Google into what makes great teams has shown that this doesn’t work: the best performing teams were not those made from the brightest individuals.

So what makes the best teams?

Differing perspectives are the key

In our finer moments, we humans try to imagine how others see the world. But these views are warped by our own position, ideas and experiences. We can imagine being a tourist in our city for the first time, unaware of stepping into the bike lane because we are so overwhelmed with new stimuli. Putting ourselves in the shoes of others is a conduit for empathy.

The armless Charles B. Tripp, and legless Eli Bowen, riding a tandem.

Each individual’s worldview consists of countless experiences and perspectives. People easily switch between these views, as can be seen while navigating traffic in the city:

It is human to feel like we are at the center of the universe and that everyone should comply to our rules. When we’re on a bike, everyone participating in the city’s movement is interrupting our trajectory. But when we’re in a car, we feel like both cyclists and pedestrians are hazardous. They are unpredictable projectiles that don’t follow the rules — rules that would make traffic safe, if only everyone would comply to them.

The most effective method for upgrading knowledge is by cooperating with others.

When we are open to different perspectives, we also tend to be pretty good at upgrading our knowledge. This occurs when we are confronted with inconsistencies, get new insights or learn new facts. The best way to encounter such opportunities is by cooperating with others, because it’s the most direct and practical way to experience a different view.

Working together effectively requires us to focus our discussions, use constructive arguments and explain our thought processes. At times we are confronted with unfamiliar or challenging topics. These moments are valuable because they show a gap in our knowledge and let us fill that gap by “stealing” the knowledge of others, as long as we feel safe to do so.

Feeling safe, accelerator of learning

Incredible research done in Project Aristotle by Google gives us great insights into what it is that makes teams perform well. The project, run by Google’s People Analytics Division, analysed what the influence was of individuals on teams.

“We had lots of data, but there was nothing showing that a mix of specific personality types or skills or backgrounds made any difference. The ‘who’ part of the equation didn’t seem to matter,”
— Abeer Dubey, a leader on the project Aristotle.

The best performing teams were those with the most psychological safety. Their research showed that a safe environment enables team members to take risks and explain their doubts.

In making good products you need a confluence of perspectives, from engineering to design to content to marketing.

Telling your teammates they don’t understand something or that you might know a better way to solve something makes you vulnerable.

This vulnerability is key to getting to the core of any problem. If teammates feel too proud to show their weaknesses, this can get in the way of problems that are both avoidable and easily solvable. Besides, how can teammates fill each other’s “knowledge gaps” if there’s no room for mistakes?

Incredibly, the productivity of people working together has little to do with how smart, or cool, or experienced they all are. It has everything to do with feeling safe. And feeling safe has everything to do with knowing we are all understood — that judgements will not be speeding towards us like unpredictable projectiles — which inherently means understanding the perspectives of others. And the most genuine path to understanding, is through collaboration.

Some solid teamwork by the A-Team

So, how do we make the best teams?

We’re betting on a combination of diversity and trust over résumés and star-status. Our founder Boris sees The A-Team as a role model. “They could be locked up in a barn and figure out how to build a tank out of what was in there. I believe that a group of very different, smart people can work their way out of any situation.”

Our teams are made of people that are as different as possible, while still collectively focussed on certain outcomes. This means there is no editorial, marketing or back-end development team. “All of our teams should have access to every important aspect of developing the company, and everyone should be able to contribute whatever they can.”

We hope that, with this knowledge, we can foster teams that can handle any challenge.

If you have any ideas or input on this subject, we’d love to hear from you.