Teams are known for stirring up creativity, innovation and even lasting professional bonds. Unfortunately, they can be known for stirring other things up too. When you are asked to be part of a team or project at work, you probably immediately think back to college. We all had to endure working around schedules, picking up the slack and trying to get a word in edge-wise with the self-nominated leader of the group who inevitably took all the credit for your hard work because he was the one with the floppy disk (remember those?)

A study revealed that 95% of people who have ever worked on a team believe that teamwork serves a critical function in the workplace. Although we all realize how powerful the team dynamic can be, most of us have been burnt by a bad team too many times to be favorable to teamwork. More than 75% of employees would rather work on their own, even though the majority sees the benefit. What we need is a move toward more effective team building, and the necessary tools to maintain them.

Teams Are Imperative

Over 14,000 CEOs, executives, employees and educators participated in a study in which they were asked about specific types of collaboration issues that affect their workplace. 97% believe that lack of team alignment directly affects the outcome or project. 96% of respondents said that lack of collaboration or ineffective communication is to blame for most workplace failures. In a separate study, 60% of CIOs from top performing organizations see collaboration as key to driving innovation.

So it’s evident that everyone knows we need effective team building to drive organizational success, the problem lies in our ability to successfully build and maintain those teams. When people are thoughtlessly thrown together and told to produce, the results can get a little ugly.

• Nearly 70% of employees admit to having been part of a dysfunctional unit. (Click to Tweet)
• 40% of those who have worked on a team in the workplace have seen a verbal confrontation among team members. (Click to Tweet)
• 15% have seen an argument turn physical. (Click to Tweet)

Teams Need Help

It doesn’t take an emotional intelligence expert to know that each individual person is going to respond differently to the myriad of situations, work types, management types and issues that arise in teamwork or collaborative situations. It does however take an expert to teach people how to deal with all of that. That’s called effective team building.

When your car is showing signs of an issue, you don’t just keep driving and cross your fingers (unless you’re still in college, then that’s exactly what you do); you take it to a professional mechanic. When you’re having issues with effective team building, collaboration is painful and innovation is suffering, you need an expert as well. These professionals are slightly less well known than mechanics, but just as effective and necessary –they are psychometricians.

Hope I haven’t lost you. Psychometrics is just a fancy word for the objective measurement of skills and knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational achievements. Plainly put, this science is the solution to the problem we’re talking about today – thoughtfully building teams.

That’s right, there is an actual science behind a successful team dynamic. Psychometrics assessment implementation consists of short, simple tests that reveal a whole lot of information about your employees: how they prefer to work, their strengths, weaknesses and even how they are best managed. You can discover their motivators, needs and even whom they are compatible with for professional collaboration.

These assessments are also useful when you’re considering adding someone else to the team. You no longer have to rely on that, very often wrong, gut instinct when bringing new people on. Contingent workers, freelancers and internal teams can all work together optimally with the information that these easy assessments deliver.

Again, we know how powerful and necessary teams are in the workforce, but most employers haven’t exactly mastered the thoughtful construction and maintenance of teams. It truly isn’t as simple as prioritizing talent and tasks. If you want a superior outcome, you have to craft superior teams.

Would you like to know what we’re talking about? Vitru can offer the science of psychometric testing online, anywhere, anytime. Click here to start building better teams.

Bio: Ryan Mead, CEO/Partner

Vitru is an online application that provides tools to evaluate and build better teams. Powered by science yet practical and easy to use for a variety of teams. From students and nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies Vitru works!

Great organizations, regardless of size or mission, understand that powerful team chemistry is impossible to force; but when it happens, it’s magic.

Vitru allows team leaders to create and assess teams virtually and in doing so helps quantify what makes an outstanding team outstanding.

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Photo Credit: Jake Hills via Unsplash