Guide to Building Data-Driven Organizations in the Public Sector

Building Effective Teams

(Team 1)

Topic Overview

The readings this week spent a great deal of time discussing social learning, idea flow, and happiness and the impact it has on productivity in the workplace, and the role that leaders can play to foster this culture.

Chapter Summaries

Team 1 William Seeley Lauren Zajac

• Social Physics: CH3 idea flow
• SCRUM: CH7 happiness
• Social Physics: CH5 collective intelligence
• Smarter faster better: CH5 managing others
• Social Physics: CH6 shaping organizations

The readings this week spent a great deal of time discussing social learning, idea flow, and happiness and the impact it has on productivity in the workplace, and the role that leaders can play to foster this culture. As managers, it is imperative that we learn how to create, sustain, and encourage these connections and interactions, as they are key to creating high performing, productive teams. Managers also need to ensure that they are creating happiness in their workforce, as happy people are more productive at work at home and in their personal life. Finally, the readings ended with an evaluation of workplace culture, and the research behind the commitment culture. This is a culture where employees know that the organization is committed to them, and they are committed to the success of the organization. We end the discussions this week with an examination of the strategies leaders can use to foster connections and develop teams who excel at collaboration, idea flow and are be happy.

Pentland kicked off the concept of building effective teams through idea flow in Chapter 3. He stresses that managers can increase productivity by the “elimination of barriers to idea flow, and the rate of idea flow” (p. 44). Team communications, engagement and idea flow help to develop a collective intelligence, which far superior to individual intelligence (p. 44). Our behavior as individuals also can be predicted based upon our exposure to the behaviors of other people, known as social learning (p. 45). This social conformity (“everyone else is doing it”) can be positive or negative, and managers need to harness the idea flow to ensure a productive outcome for the company (p. 55). The adoption of habits and preferences is a slow processes that requires repeated exposure (p. 58). Pentland describes a scenario where there is a “rush of new ideas through social exploration, followed by a slower quieter process to determine which are converted into personal habits” (p. 58).

Charles Duhigg further explores the role of the manager to help develop happiness (p. 146). Duhigg argues that happiness is critical for your business, as happy people are more productive and successful (p. 147). Happiness is fostered when employees have the “ability to control their own destiny, the feeling that they are getting better at a task, and knowing that they are serving something bigger than themselves” (p. 153). Management needs to encourage these qualities, and structure the work in such a way to promote happiness. Duhigg also stressed the importance of transparency, so the team is aware of everyone, and can help address individual and group performance issues. One example of this transparency can be achieved through the use of a SCRUM board so all members of the team are aware of what needs to be done and who is doing what, and all information is shared (p. 155). Managers also need to ensure that the team does not “rest on their laurels” and get trapped in a “happiness bubble” and Duhigg recommends that happiness is measured and monitored and that managers are prepared to intervene when necessary (p. 168).

Pentland continued the exploration of building effective and productive teams by exploring collective intelligence in chapter five. He stated that one of the greatest predictors of group intelligence is when the members are equal when taking turns talking, and that no one person dominates (p. 88). High performing groups have a large number of ideas exchanged, have very quick and “dense” interactions, where ideas are “quickly validated or invalidated” and when there is a wide diversity of ideas (p. 89). Group problem solving is also enhanced when groups are more connected (p. 93). When all team members are “in the loop” there is a greater ability for people to learn from each other and to also develop more creativity (p. 96). Creating this environment of engagement and connectedness is critical to increase opportunities for “social learning, sharing of vital resources operational knowledge and developing successful work habits” (p. 104).

Duhigg presents concrete examples of these successful work cultures in Chapter 5. He discusses the concepts of “lean manufacturing” where companies actively “push decisions to the lowest possible level so that those who saw the problems first had the greatest authority to find the solutions” (p. 144). The idea behind lean manufacturing are based upon the premise that if you put people in a situation to succeed, they will. Baron and Hannan were two researchers who set out to determine which workplace culture led to the best longevity and performance in their landmark study of Silicon Valley startup companies. They overwhelmingly discovered that the commitment model culture, where workers are committed to the culture, and the company is equally committed to the employees, far outpaced any other culture (p. 149). This culture fosters a deep trust between the management and employees that leads to success and performance (p. 150). Duhigg explores variations of the lean manufacturing and commitment culture then by examining the diverse industries NUMMI Toyota automotive factory in California and the FBI. The leaders in these diverse industries were all able to achieve success by following the lean manufacturing principles of allowing those closest to a problem to make decisions, and to encourage a culture of commitment built upon trust, collaboration and idea exchange (p. 160). These examples demonstrate that employees work smarter and are more motivated when they have more decision making authority and believe that their managers and colleagues are committed to their success (p. 165).

Finally, Pentland discusses the ways leaders can improve idea flow and thus improve performance in Chapter 6, “Shaping Organizations”. He argues that managers need to move away from managing organizational charts, and become managers who monitor, foster and encourage idea flow by increasing interactions (p. 106). Making group members aware of the patterns of communication between and within groups is very important. Frequent interactions and engagement creates a shared understanding of what needs to be changed, and there is social pressure for the team to adopt these “agreed upon patterns” (p. 106). Innovation is another driver of performance, and managers can help encourage innovation by helping to forge diverse connections between diverse team members to establish a number of connections (p. 107). Cooperation is key with engagement, and everyone needs to share and contribute equally (p. 111). Some managers and teams have even begun to use new tools to visualize group patterns and interactions to ensure team cohesion and cooperation, using sociometric feedback tools (p. 116). These tools allow teams to visualize their cooperation and ensure a good idea flow and improve the social intelligence of the group (p. 113). Finally, Pentland explores the personal influence of leadership, and the practical charisma of effective leaders who are both “energetic and systematically engage with others, to grow the interaction patterns in the right direction” (p. 117). He describes these leaders as “charismatic connectors” who show a genuine interest and curiosity in everyone and everything, and make people feel good (p. 118). This behavior and leadership trait can be learned as people pay attention to new ideas, bounce those ideas off others to see their reaction, and try to expand social networks to gather as many diverse ideas as possible (p. 118).

In conclusion, managers and leaders can play an important role in shaping the cultures of their workplaces to encourage social learning, idea flow, and happiness. As managers, it is imperative that we learn how to create, sustain, and encourage these connections and interactions, as they are key to creating high performing, productive teams.

Key Take-Aways

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Discussion Questions

  1. Duhigg states that happiness is fostered when employees have the “ability to control their own destiny, the feeling that they are getting better at a task, and knowing that they are serving something bigger than themselves” (p. 153). What are some ways that you can structure your team and assignments to encourage happiness?
  2. Pentland explores the personal influence of leadership, and the practical charisma of effective leaders who are both “energetic and systematically engage with others, to grow the interaction patterns in the right direction” (p. 117). He describes these leaders as “charismatic connectors”. Have you ever worked for someone with these characteristics?
  3. Duhigg explores the concept of “lean manufacturing”, where companies actively “push decisions to the lowest possible level so that those who saw the problems first had the greatest authority to find the solutions” (p. 144). Have you encountered these tools in your workplace?

References