Putting together the ideal team when you have all the choice in the world? Then of course you choose a team with only the best people. Easy enough and a guarantee for success! But is it really?
Wim Gijselaers is currently Head of Educational Research at the Department of Educational Research and Development, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University in The Netherlands. His research interests include leadership development, organizational learning, team learning and expertise development. Previous research projects include: Understanding the impact of learning culture on professional performance and team decisions, leadership behavior and team learning, and cognitive approaches to leadership development. His education development work has focused on the further development of Problem-Based Learning in Business Education
The best team
If you could pick the best people for your team, would that be the most important criterion for you? "No," Wim says firmly. "To make a long story short, when I hire new people I ask them if they are into music. If the answer to that is no, that they do do top sports, then I already start to have my doubts. It's kind of a naive theory. Once I started this way to put my group together and it has proven its values," said the professor.
It is beginning to bother Wim more and more that success is linked to the cleverness of individuals. He has noticed in his career that working in a team makes people function better. "That is the key to success. Cleverness contributes only limited measures to it."
The role of the manager
"What we have researched is that teams that achieve peak performance, which could be, for example, developing a new product, enter the productive conflict phase. This is a phase where you engage in dialogue with each other. You say something to me and I disagree. But I want to take up your argument and see how far we get. Then we analyze your argument and contrast mine. Slowly we discover that the new idea is a combination of two perspectives. Teams that work this way achieve better performance. The leader can influence this by ensuring at the start of the dialogue that each employee feels safe to disagree.
Listen to the podcast now and discover the whole story of Wim Gijselaers. With passion and pleasure he shares his experiences with you.
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