This article in today's Guardian appears to validate the generally held belief that people perform better in teams. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/sep/16/teams-do-better-research-proves However, in an article in Harvard Business Review called ‘Why Teams Don’t Work, the authors debunk the myth that teams are the answer to every performance issue, and that teams always perform better than individuals working on their own. They question the whole idea of ‘team dynamic’ as an absolute, consistently positive force. Common misconceptions about teams include: Teams that work harmoniously together are better and more productive than teams that don’t: there is more evidence that teams who are more productive, and are recognised as a team for it, get on better together because of their good performance, not the other way around. Teams work better because the work is shared out, and the bigger the team, the more effective: unfortunately this is cancelled out by the difficulty of keeping the right people informed as the team gets bigger, so big teams are not necessarily a good idea. Teams should be renewed constantly to encourage creativity: again, this is not proven by evidence. In fact the more productive teams were those who had been together for a number of years and understood each other deeply. Many teams are never given enough time to settle in and learn to work together. In a research paper called ‘The Romance of Teams’, (Allen and Hecht, 2004), the authors conclude that the reasons people like working in teams are mainly because of the social interaction, because 1.team members feel good being part of a successful team 2.people also feel somewhat ’sheltered’ in a team, and 3.they can blame someone else on the team if something goes wrong! To ask a question or share ideas about team performance and how you can measure it, go to http://tracksurveys.co.uk/AskTrack.aspx For more information, articles and resources on teams and team performance measurement, contact me on [email protected] or go to: www.tracksurveys.co.uk , scroll down and click on Team Performance Dynamics in the right hand