Like many other companies, Google hiring was based on filling their teams with great people.
Great individuals are what make great teams, right?
If that was so, they wouldn’t have had to embark on a two-year, 180-team study of what makes great teams work.
What they found, not surprisingly, is great individuals has nothing to do with synergy; rather, it’s a combination of:
- Dependability. Being able to trust your team members, that they will pull their weight on projects.
2. Structure and clarity. Working towards clear, agreed-upon goals with well-defined tasks.
3. Meaning. Work that is important to each team member.
4. Impact. Working in a way that’s empowering, allowing team members to see how their work shapes progress.
5. Psychological Safety. Feeling safe to express dissent and take risks.
What can we take from this?
Team members have to feel good together. They have to trust each other; they have to be able to communicate, and they have to be aligned on their missions.
They all have to fit into the goal somewhere.
