By Daniel Bobinski
Imagine a workplace in which employees regularly perform at high levels because they feel safe sharing bold ideas and voicing concerns without fear of retribution. Now imagine what happens when such a culture doesn’t exist. In such places, innovative solutions are left unspoken and conflicts linger unresolved. When that happens, it’s easy for teamwork to weaken.
At question: “What conditions are needed for high-performance teams to exist?”
One company decided to crack the code to answer this question. They spared no expense, nor did they rush their work. In 2012, Google launched Project Aristotle, an ambitious $80 million, multi-year study. Their goal? Discover why some teams are successful while others struggle.
Google’s research team analyzed over 180 teams across the company and conducted hundreds of interviews. What did they discover? Traditional metrics such as IQ scores, years of experience, or even resources available to a team mattered far less than one foundational element: psychological safety.
In essence, psychological safety is a shared belief among team members that their environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It’s the freedom to say, “I might be wrong,” or, “I disagree,” without a fear of reprisals or judgment.
The differences were significant. People on teams with high psychological safety were 76% more likely to share ideas, delivered 40% higher performance outcomes, and were 47% more likely to stay with the company. These findings should make CEOs and business leaders in all industries sit up and take notice.
Five Key Dynamics
In addition to psychological safety, Google’s researchers identified four additional dynamics that high-performing teams shared. Together, these five components can serve as a set of operating principles for leaders and organizations striving to create thriving teams. What follows is a brief overview of these five components.
Psychological Safety. As stated, this factor is the cornerstone of success. Team members need to feel safe to express themselves without fear of embarrassment or punishment. What Google also learned is that psychological safety doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built through deliberate actions by team leaders, who play a pivotal role by modeling vulnerability, such as admitting mistakes or acknowledging their own uncertainties.
The researchers found that humility is a key factor, and that small things can have a big impact. A phrase such as, “I might be wrong, but …” or, “My research thus far leads me to believe that …” lets other team members know that the leaders don’t think of themselves as infallible. In other words, effective team leaders let others see it’s OK to be human.
Another factor in creating psychological safety is called “conversational turn-taking.” It means people don’t let their teams be dominated by only a few voices. Instead, team members practice active listening and equal participation in team meetings is encouraged.
Dependability. Project Aristotle also found that teams excel when members reliably complete their tasks on time and meet expectations. That said, dependability isn’t just about meeting deadlines, it means creating a culture of accountability. Clear expectations are established, and team members hold each other accountable for their commitments.
Bringing this component to reality could involve implementing a performance management system or leveraging tools such as work dashboards to keep everyone aligned.
Structure and Clarity. In addition to dependability, teams are more likely to thrive when their members have clearly defined roles, goals and plans. This means leaders must take the time to ensure team members know how their roles and goals support team objectives and how their work helps create a bigger picture. Without these in place, teams risk miscommunication, inefficiency, and reduced engagement, leading to subpar performance.
Interestingly, team members who are confident of their roles and understand their team’s objectives also feel more secure in their psychological safety.
Meaning. We’ve already stated that team members engage more when they know how their work aligns with their organization’s bigger picture, but they also engage more when they understand how their work aligns with their personal values.
This means team leaders need to connect with team members individually to learn what drives each person. It means looking past the paycheck. Some people are driven by helping others. Others are driven by gaining new knowledge. Some are driven by developing systems while others are driven by creating beneficial surroundings. Additional internal motivators exist, so it’s wise for team leaders to become students of the different motivators so they can connect individual employees with the team’s overarching goals.
That said, a straightforward technique is for leaders to ask questions such as “What about this work excites you?” or “How do you see this project contributing to your personal growth?”
Impact. Lastly, Project Aristotle found that teams are much more likely to perform better when members can see tangible results from their work. Leaders can foster this by celebrating milestones, sharing client feedback, or highlighting the broader impact of a team’s efforts.
Additionally, by recognizing individual contributions, leaders reinforce the idea that individual efforts matter.
The joy of Project Aristotle is that the findings resonate far beyond Google. Implementing these five components into your teams can transform how your workplace functions, no matter the industry.
Just know that these five components don’t make teams cohesively warm and fuzzy; they make teams more effective. Project Aristotle found that teams operating strongly with these five principles experienced more conflicts than low-performing teams. The difference was that the high-performing teams had the tools to resolve conflicts quickly and thus move forward productively.
The Ripple Effect of Small Changes
Finally, Google’s data also revealed that small changes lead to significant improvements. For example, implementing simple practices like starting team huddles with personal updates or acknowledging contributions led to a 23% improvement in team effectiveness within weeks.
With this information, perhaps it’s time for some key questions. Are you fostering psychological safety? Are roles and goals clear? Do your team members see meaning and impact in their work? Remember, teams with these five components in place delivered 40% higher performance outcomes than teams in which these components were missing. What can your teams do differently or better?
— Daniel Bobinski, who has a doctorate in theology, is a best-selling author and a popular speaker at conferences and retreats. For more than 30 years he’s been working with teams and individuals (1:1 coaching) to help them achieve excellence. He was also teaching Emotional Intelligence since before it was a thing. Reach him by email at DanielBobinski@protonmail.com or 208-649-6400.
