3.8 Research Spotlight

In 2012, Google started Project Aristotle to examine the difference between successful and non-successful teams. Consisting of statisticians, organizational psychologists, sociologists, and engineers, the research team examined 180 teams over multiple years from across the company (Duhigg, 2016).

The research team did not find any specific personality types, skills, or backgrounds that made a difference to the success of a team. They found psychological safety, linked to group norms, to be important for successful teams. Participating in conversations that establish bonds among members of a team and empathy were behaviors linked to psychological safety (Duhigg, 2016). “High-quality conversational turn-taking” and “ostentatious listening” are behaviors allowing people to feel psychologically safe. Watch a short video by Insider Tech, in which New York Times contributor Charles Duhigg explains these concepts. Psychological safety is understood as the ability of team members to take risks and express how they feel in interactions with others.

In addition, enhanced teams had the following characteristics: clear goals and expectations; a culture of dependability where members complete quality work on time; sense of purpose in the work; and members see how their work impacts the organization’s overall goals (Inc., 2018).