The video is led by professor Leigh Thompson. She explains how to get your team back on track when they've been slacking or some team members haven't been pulling their weight. She explains an analogy of pulling rope, where when another individual is added to the pull, each individual will exert less effort. This refers to the concept of "social loafing," which is that people are prone to exerting less effort on a task if they are in a group of people as opposed to when they are working alone. I have felt this way before when working on group projects, but never knew there was an actual concept for it.
Professor Thompson then went on to explain a four pronged intervention plan that she created while working with the senior VP of a transport company in working to re-motivate his slacking safety team. First, they made a team contract that explained the teams' mission statement, focusing on goals, responsibilities, and norms. Second, they switched to short, frequent meetings as opposed to long, drawn out meetings. It has been found that the longer the meeting, the more a team drifts off track. The team also revisited the team contract at each meeting. Third, Professor Thompson suggests that team members stand and deliver. This means members literally stand up each week to report accomplishments. She claims that this is significant because teams that stand up are 34% more productive than teams that sit down. Lastly, Professor Thompson suggests to create a line of sight, showing how the team members will impact the end goal. This allows for team members to be more engaged with their task. I thought that this video was really comprehensive and had some great advice for getting team members on task. These intervention strategies are not only helpful in the workplace, but some steps could be used for group projects as well. Thanks for introducing the video, Shayna and Logan!
Good video. There is a lot of research on social loafing. This idea of a contract is interesting. I've seen it used primarily in formal task forces - but never in a standing organization. Would be something interesting to experiment with.
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