Biggest Mistake You Can Make While Working In A Team


5 days ago, Tammy Erickson posted an interesting article for the Harvard Business Review, titled "
The Biggest Mistake You (Probably) Make with Teams". Curious as to what she has to say, I started reading and the points she made were things that I have never thought of before.

One mistake that teams make when collaborating is the vague assignment of roles. The thought process behind that is if the roles are not specific, team members are less restricted and can jump into any role that they wish, correct?

Wrong. Ms. Erickson states that "collaboration  improves when the roles of individual team members are clearly defined and well understood — in fact, when individuals feel their role is bounded in ways that allow them to do a significant portion of their work independently. Without such clarity, team members are likely to waste energy negotiating roles or protecting turf, rather than focusing on the task.".


To read more about what Ms. Erickson has to say, click here.