Does the saying “the bigger the better” apply when it comes
to the characteristics of building a successful team? In my own experiences I
do not believe that having more than 5 people in a team/group is a wise choice.
Once you hit over 5 people the group starts to become “crowded”. You cannot
have a successful team if there are 20 people sitting at a table all screaming
out their ideas at the same time, it would be pandemonium. Even if you were to
stop and ask every individual at the table what their idea was it would take
far too long and productivity would dwindle. The best outcomes for teams are
when the 4 or 5 people in that group range in gender, ethnicity and age. This
is because you will be getting much broader opinions and views in certain
subjects, rather than having 5 Caucasian males who are all the same age and
like the same things.
“If you put 5 centers on the basketball court, you’re going to lose the
game. You need, we all need, people of different strengths and talents – and
that means, among other things, people of different backgrounds.” – Paul
Fireman, Founder of Reebok
I feel that Paul quote is very correct when it comes to
organizing a team, do you believe that teams are best set for success if the
members have different backgrounds?
I think that’s a very smart quote. I personally don’t like working with groups of odds. I think it’s very important to have enough roles of equal value to distribute to every group member. The worst is when you have two people doing most the work and one person with a little part, that’s when conflict occurs. Buts it’s defiantly key to have people with different backgrounds so it brings different views and ideas to the table.
ReplyDelete