What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team

Team A is composed of people who are all exceptionally smart and successful

project Aristotle’s researchers began by reviewing a half-century of academic studies looking at how teams worked

As the researchers studied the groups, however, they noticed two behaviors that all the good teams generally shared

First
on the good teams, members spoke in roughly the same proportion, a phenomenon the researchers referred to as ‘‘equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking.’’ On some teams, everyone spoke during each task; on others, leadership shifted among teammates from assignment to assignment
Second
on the good teams, members spoke in roughly the same proportion, a phenomenon the researchers referred to as ‘‘equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking.’’ On some teams, everyone spoke during each task; on others, leadership shifted among teammates from assignment to assignment

is not just one of the fastest growing parts of our economy; it is also increasingly the world’s dominant commercial culture

The paradox, of course, is that Google’s intense data collection and number crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs.
The fact that these insights aren’t wholly original doesn’t mean Google’s contributions aren’t valuable. In fact, in some ways, the ‘‘employee performance optimization’’ movement has given us a method for talking about our insecurities, fears and aspirations in more constructive ways