Home > Career > The Biggest Mistake You (probably) Make With Teams

The biggest mistake you (probably) make with teams

Mon 09 April 2012

, LEAP Redactie, LEAP

Which is more important to promoting collaboration: a clearly defined approach toward achieving the goal, or clearly specified roles for individual team members? The common assumption is that spelling out the approach is essential, but that you should leave the roles of individuals within the team open and flexible to encourage people to share ideas and contribute in multiple dimensions.  

Research has shown however that the opposite is true: collaboration improves when the roles of individual team members are clearly defined and well understood — in fact, when individuals feel their role is bounded in ways that allow them to do a significant portion of their work independently.

Without such clarity, team members are likely to waste energy negotiating roles or protecting turf, rather than focusing on the task, explains Tamara J. Erickson , author of Retire Retirement, Plugged In, and What's Next, Gen X?  in an interesting blog for  HBR Blog Network.