Much of modern work revolves around teams, so it stands to reason that an enormous amount of time and energy is spent on ensuring that teams work effectively together.  New research from Binghamton University suggests that raising the stakes might be the most effective way of securing team cohesion.

“What drives successful group coordination is important because team coordination is ubiquitous in many work settings, such as in medical professions, in law enforcement, or in finance,” the researchers say. “Therefore, uncovering the key determinants of successful group coordination is paramount.”

The researchers believe that the root of successful team work is the presence of efficient coordination mechanisms, and they believe the gradual increase in the stakes of effective coordination offers arguably the most effective of these.  This process, which they refer to as gradualism, is commonly used in team building and training initiatives, and are also common in the field of microfinance.

“Group lending can result in better loan repayment rates when lenders first approve small loan sizes and then progressively approve a higher loan amount once a group proves to be a reliable borrower with smaller loan amounts,” the researchers say.

Gradual success

The researchers examined the effectiveness of gradualism in group settings by imposing various levels of stakes on hypothetical projects on participating teams.  For instance, one team had a gradual increase in stakes, whereas another had consistently high stakes, with a third then having consisting low stakes for the first half of the project before this was increased to high stakes for the second half.

The results suggest that the team who had gradually higher stakes seemed to outperform the other two groups, and managed to coordinate successfully in 2/3 of the tasks they were set.  This was between two and four times as successful as those in the alternative settings.

“Our findings have broad lessons and implications for how managers can structure team practices where the decision regarding the order of tasks a team tackles is a variable that they have control over,” the researchers say. “If successful group coordination is a manager’s objective, our central finding points to a stylized feature of how managers can structure group assignments optimally: teams need to start small and then progressively and slowly move to high-stake tasks.”