Why it is time to forget the pecking order at work

Summary based on Margaret Heffernan’s TEDtalk on YouTube

First off if you have the time watch the video of Margaret Heffernan talk on YouTube

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyn_xLrtZaY

• The presentation is 15 minutes long and will be well worth your time

• However, if you do not have 15 minutes, and want a quick 3 minute review of the highlights keep viewing this presentation

Characteristics of Successful groups

• Heffernan has found that successful groups:• Exhibit a high degree of social sensitivity to

each other• Give each other equal time, no one person is

allowed to dominate discussions• Have more women in their groups

Successful Groups Have Social Connectedness

• Culture of Helpfulness: successful groups have a culture of helpfulness

• Groups that have this routinely outperform groups of highly intelligent individuals

Culture of Helpfulness

• To develop a culture of helpfulness people have to get to know each other

• They have to be given the time necessary to get to know each other

When The Going Gets Tough

• When people are working on difficult problems, what people need is social support

• They need to know who to ask for specific help on these difficult problems

• If people know each other, they know what they are good at and what they know, and this accelerates problem solving

New Ideas

• Companies don’t have ideas, only people do• What motivates people are the social bonds,

loyalty and trust they develop between each other on their teams.

Social Capital

• When you put all these things together, what you get is social capital

• Resources that build trust so that teams that have worked together for longer periods are more productive

Trusted Teams

• In trusted teams, conflict is frequent because candor is safe & that is how good ideas turn into great ideas

Trusted Teams

• Talent, creativity are compounded when we work collaboratively in trusted teams

• We bring out the best in each other, and in doing that we bring out the best in ourselves.

Redefine Leadership

• We need to let people motivate each other• We need to redefine leadership as an activity in

which conditions are created so everyone can do their best thinking together.

• We won’t solve the world’s most difficult problems alone, as individuals, we will only solve them when we accept everyone has value.

• Only then will we solve our most difficult problems.