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In the book, Positivity, by Barbara Fredrickson, she discusses a fascinating research project about what makes businesses successful.
In the mid 1990's, Marcial Losada undertook extensive research into the characteristics of high performance business teams.
Behind a two-way mirror, his research team observed business meetings and tracked whether statements were:
Teams were then classified into high-performing if they had high ratings for: customer satisfaction, profitability and evaluations by peers, subordinates and superiors.
60 business teams were researched and of these, 25% were classified as high performing, while 30% were poor performing.
When he divided the teams into high, low and mixed performance teams striking differences emerged.
What he found was that:
High performance teams really did outperform the other teams in more ways than one. And while other groups crumbled under pressure, these teams carried on, asking questions, thinking through ideas and working together for a successful result. They were more flexible and resilient.
The bottom line is that positivity is linked with business success. And for business teams to be successful, they need 6 positive to 1 negative comments.
In "Candor, Criticism, Teamwork" written by Keith Ferrazzi for Harvard Business Review in January 2012, other research has also found that high performance teams have high levels of candour among team members. High candour workplaces have colleagues speak honestly about the risks involved and other issues, rather than talking behind people's backs. While it is understandable that people prefer to avoid conflict, it's debilitating for organisations. Lack of candour contributes to slow decision making and longer cycle times. The higher the candour, the better the business performance.
But a high candour workplace needs the right organisational culture to allow it to flourish. In fact, low candour workplaces signify a highly politicized workplace where people do what they told and do not question anything.
The seven steps to creating a high performance team and culture is by encouraging team members to:
High performance teams occur when true collaboration and a positive environment is able to flourish. This occurs when people trust one another enough to speak with candour.
Tune in to the next week about why positivity is so important for personal success.
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