What Project Aristotle Tells Us About Teams

What is Project Aristotle?  It's a recent Google initiative to suss out what truly distinguishes successful teams. Some refer to studying "emotional intelligence" (a term I don't find particularly meaningful).

What did they learn? Apparently they confirmed many things we already this of as common knowledge AND they were able to assign importance to five key traits of successful teams:

1. Dependability
2. Structure and Clarity
3. Meaning
4. Impact
5. Psychological Safety

That last one is particularly intriguing. The article notes, "teams with psychologically safe environments had employees who were less likely to leave, more likely to harness the power of diversity, and ultimately, who were more successful."

Apparently when you have these five traits, your team does some interesting things:  

• they talk to each other - and everyone talks about the same amount, meaning the quiet people get their voice heard
• team members have a higher-than-average ability to read each others faces for emotional queues

This makes sense to me. A team that cares about their teammates' reactions and makes space for everyone's contribution is exactly what leads to productivity. 

And I'm glad to see it proven! Even if they call it "emotional intelligence."  😏