Why it's so important that team members believe they're on the same page
One of the most important characteristics of successful teams is that team members believe in their collective potential – also known as team potency. But what can be done to foster this shared belief? A new study suggests that teams feel more potent when their members believe they share a common vision of how to work and what to achieve.
一個成功團隊最重要的特徵是，團隊成員相信他們的集體潛力 - 也被稱為團隊潛能。但是，做什麼可以促進這一共享信念？一項新的研究表明，當團隊的感覺更有效能時，他們的成員相信他們分享如何運作以及如何實現共同的願景。
Caroline Aubé and her colleagues surveyed employees at a large Canadian public-sector organisation, including team members and managers. Within 101 teams, members reported their perceptions of whether the team agreed on ways of working – such as how to prioritise, or to respect deadlines – as well as the division of labour and overall team objectives.
卡羅琳奧布和她的同事調查了一家大型的加拿大公共部門的組織裡的員工，包括團隊成員和經理。在101團隊中，成員報告的團隊是否同意工作方式的看法 - 例如如何確定優先次序級或遵守最後期限 - 以及勞動和整個團隊目標的劃分。
Having more "perceived shared understanding" was correlated with the team’s feeling greater potency – members agreed with statements like “This team has confidence in itself” – and with greater team effort (according to managers’ reports). When we feel we’re on the same page, we feel more potent and are more motivated to put in extra effort, likely because it seems more destined to translate into real results. And the more effort produced by shared understanding, the more managers believed their teams were successful in meeting their goals.
有更多“知覺共識”率與球隊感覺更大效力有關 - 成員同意一些聲明如“這個團隊對自己有信心” - 並有更大的團隊效果（根據管理者的報告）。當我們覺得我們是在同一陣線，我們覺得更有效率並更積極地投入額外的努力，可能是因為它似乎更注定要轉化為實際成效。並通過同感共享產生了更多的效力，更多的經理人認為他們的團隊能成功的完成他們的目標。
Aubé and her co-researchers made a second prediction: that extra effort would have a stronger association with success in teams with predictable, routinised work. This proved to be true, likely because when you can’t work smarter by trying out new approaches, working harder is the only way to contribute more to the team.
奧布與她合作的研究人員提出了第二個預測：額外的努力將使團隊可預測性，規律的運作與成功有較強的相關性。這被證明是真實的，很可能是因為當你不能更聰明的嘗試新的工作方法，則更努力工作是促進團隊的唯一途徑。
The researchers expected this to mean that potency would matter more for teams with predictable work, and therefore that shared understanding would be more important for these teams too. But this didn’t pan out: a sense of shared direction mattered to all kinds of team – even those with adapting, unpredictable work environments became more successful when they believed they were on the same page. This is possibly because, as well as increasing effort, shared belief and potency may have contributed to success by other routes such as increasing helping behaviours, inventiveness, or unknown factors: further research will be needed to tell between the alternatives.
研究人員期望此意味著團隊效能會更策重預測的工作，因此該共享共識將對這些團隊更重要。但是，這並沒有發展：共享的方向感顯然將影響到各種團隊 - 即使是那些在適應中，不可預測的工作環境裡，當他們認為他們是在同一陣線上會變得更加成功。這可能是因為，越來越多的努力，與共同的信念和效力可能通過其它途徑如增加幫助行為，創造性，或未知因素促成成功：進一步的研究將需要分辨非此即彼。
Previous studies on teams’ shared understanding have focused on objective measures of this important characteristic – such as whether team members do truly share the same objectives and values. This study is notable because it looks at team features that tend to co-occur with having a sense of shared vision, specifically how perceptions of unity translate into greater belief in the team and willingness to commit to it. If a team is objectively on the same page, but doesn’t believe it or realise it (perhaps its membership is fractured geographically and the chances to engage are scarce), then it’s possible that the team will operate at a lower potency than it deserves.
以往對團隊的共享理解的研究主要集中在這一重要特性目標的權衡 - 如團隊成員是否都真正共享相同的目標和價值。這項研究是值得注意的，因為它著眼於隊伍的特徵，傾向具有共同願景的意識共生，在團隊裡怎麼具體轉化整體感知到更大的信念，願意付諸實行。如果團隊客觀上在同一陣線，但卻不相信它，或意識到問題（可能其成員在地理上是斷裂使其缺乏參與機會），那麼它可能使該小組將在一個比它應有效率較低效力下運行。
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Aubé, C., Rousseau, V., & Tremblay, S. (2015). Perceived shared understanding in teams: The motivational effect of being ‘on the same page’ British Journal of Psychology, 106 (3), 468-486 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12099
Post written by Alex Fradera (@alexfradera) for the BPS Research Digest.
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Posted by Research Digest at 9:37 a.m.
Labels: Occupational, Social, Teams
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