It’s increasingly common for people to work collectively in teams, so it stands to reason that we want teams to work effectively.  In the jargon this is known as team potency, which reflects the belief of each member in the collective potential of their unit.

A recent study explored how such a belief can manifest itself.  It revealed that the central task of managers was to ensure that each member of the team shares a common vision, both of what they want to achieve and how they want to achieve it.

Creating team potency

The researchers analyzed over 100 teams in a large Canadian organization, with members of those teams sharing their experiences of team work.  This included things such as the division of labor, the objectives of the team as well as things such as how priorities were drawn and deadlines respected.

It emerged that the greater the level of perceived shared understanding, the greater the potency of the team, both in perceived and actual terms.  In other words, when we feel unified as a team we’re more likely to put extra effort in because we are more confident that this extra effort will manifest itself in extra output.

The role of hard graft

The researchers also wanted to test the role, and importance, of putting in extra effort.  They predicted that extra effort would be most beneficial in tasks where the work was routine and predictable.  This indeed proved the case, largely because such work doesn’t require working ‘smarter’.

It would seem logical therefore, that greater team potency would be particularly valuable for such routine work, however this didn’t appear to be the case.

Instead, teams with higher potency were found to be more effective in unpredictable work environments, such as that requiring an innovative approach.  The authors suggest this is because the shared belief and potency contribute to greater involvement of traits such as collaboration and inventiveness, which when combined with the encouragement of extra effort were particularly effective.

The study underlines the importance of cultivating a shared understanding of what the team is hoping to achieve, and how it will be achieved, if we want our teams to be effective, especially in the kind of rapidly changing world most teams operate in today.