One of the key indicators of team performance is exploration, i.e. how teams communicate with one another. Since competitiveness often receives higher regard than cooperation this exploration typically does not come naturally.
In a recent article in the Strategic Management Journal this is illustrated in the selection stage of bottom-up strategy formulation.
- The probability of an idea being approved for further consideration increases when the idea submitter belongs to the same subunit as the evaluator;
- The bias of evaluators in favour of ideas from their own subunit increases with their tenure within those subunits;
- The bias of evaluators in favour of ideas from their own subunits decreases with the size of their subunits; and
- The bias of evaluators agains ideas from other subunits decreases with the status of those subunits.
We find that when we start measuring exploration in teams – do they learn from other teams – overall team performance goes up and the company as a whole benefits.
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