High performance teams need effective interpersonal communication and an ability to leverage existing organisational knowledge and specialist software with ease, according to research from Cass Business School and Slack.
For top performance, team members need chemistry, trust and leadership, and a meaningful attachment between members and the work they’re doing, finds the report by Professor Feng Li, chair of information management at Cass.
It’s also important to remember that virtual work is the new ‘normal’, with people working flexibly from dispersed locations, often in multiple teams and interacting through technology. The report highlights how collaboration technologies, and channel-based communication are growing, enabling remote teams to work and build relationships effectively. It highlights the benefits of such technologies, including integration with a growing set of apps, a rich permanent, searchable record of knowledge, and flexibility in evolving, disbanding or updating teams.
The Team to Market report found that despite half of workers’ time being spent on collaboration, with team-based working skyrocketing from 20% in 1980 to almost 100% today, and more than 20,000 academic publications being published per year since 2017, investigating teamwork, little consensus exists on what makes effective teamwork.
“Teams are the fundamental building blocks of modern organisations. Improving team performance and their seamless integration is the new battleground for competitive advantage. There is no shortage of guidelines on how to create the dream team. However, despite over half a century’s research and experimentation on teams and teamwork, building teams that consistently deliver superior performance remains a hit-or-miss affair,” said Li.
The report identifies key factors impacting team performance, including size and structure, cognitive load, responsibilities, chemistry and cohesion, team technologies and smart use of technology and information. The report points to new collaboration technologies that will enable app integration, reduce email use, and provide searchable records.
- To read the report, contact: Slack@marlinpr.com