Tuesday, October 30, 2012

HBR Stat: Smaller Teams Are Quicker

Two-person teams took an average of just 36 minutes to assemble 50 Lego pieces into a human figure, a task that required 52 minutes for four-person teams, according to an experiment by Bradley R. Staats of the University of North Carolina, Katherine L. Milkman of Wharton, and Craig R. Fox of UCLA. Moreover, people consistently underestimate the additional time needed by larger teams, with the forecasting errors growing larger as teams get bigger. Increasing a team's size can hamper coordination, diminish members' motivation, and increase conflict, the researchers say.

Read the paper here.

Why Women Aren’t C.E.O.s, According to Women Who Almost Were

"It’s not a pipeline problem. It’s about loneliness, competition and deeply rooted barriers." Read more in the NYT .