Self-Selected Teams: How to Make Your People More Productive and Happy

A team that plays together stays together

A team that plays together stays together.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan

Hiring the right talent is not enough to build a high-performing team. Team dynamics affect overall performance — they are like undercurrents that can carry a boat in a different direction than the one expected.

Teams dynamics are affected by the nature of the work but, most importantly human factors such as personalities, interpersonal relationships, and the culture. How people play together is a consequence of three critical elements: chemistry, a shared ambition, and connectedness.

If the human factor plays a critical, why not let people design their own teams?

That’s the idea behind self-selected teams: no one knows what’s best for the team than the members themselves.

Rather than senior managers structure and define who should play in which team, members are invited to choose. For many executives, this sounds counterintuitive. Decades of rigid management the…