Are you pulling your weight doctor?

Pulling togetherImagine you are given a rope attached to a instrument which measures traction. You are asked to pull for all you are worth and your effort is noted. A number of your colleagues now repeat the test, one after another. The assessors then announce that, on average, each member pulled 80 kg. You are now given the opportunity to see what you can achieve when you and your colleagues pull together as a single team of 6 people. The arithmetic is easy. 6 x 80 = 480 kg right? Then some bright spark mentions that TEAM stands for: Together Everyone Achieves More. You start to wonder what the result could really be.

Imagine your surprise when you are told that the team result was just 360 kg. That’s a 25% drop on the sum of your efforts when performing as individuals! You may be even more confused when you discover that some groups undergoing the same experiment displayed far greater reductions in performance.

Can this be true?

Unfortunately, yes. The phenomena was first identified by agricultural engineer Max Ringelmann in the late 19th/early 20th century. He is now recognised as the founder of Social Psychology. His experiment’s results have been repeated throughout the years. In short: average productivity decreases as the number of participants increases.

The most commonly cited cause of the relative under-performance is related to motivation: individual levels of accountability can often be seen to decline as numbers increase. The second key factor is a lack of co-ordination – issues with direction, process, timing etc.

This ‘Ringelmann Effect’ is worth exploring when realising that the modern world of healthcare is driven by a combination of speciality and multi-disciplinary teams. Could it really be that your individual output has declined as your team has grown in size? You may well be thinking, “But I can’t pull any harder!”

High performing teams don’t happen by chance in any arena. This applies to sport, the arts, manufacturing and, of course, healthcare. Teams require dedicated effort, utilisation of a sound knowledge of group development dynamics and quality communication between all participants.  Its not always about pulling harder. Its equally important to be pulling smarter. Pulling at the right time, in the right way, with everyone else.

The results of the Healthy Team Member Self Assessment Questionnaire which participants of our Healthy Teams In Heathcare online course anonymously complete are highlighting where real improvements can be made. We aim to publish our results in a paper later this year.

In the meantime: are you and your teams trying to pull harder, or smarter?