When individuals are melded into effective, problem-solving groups it should lead to empowering individuals to realise and appreciate that they have critical ideas to share, states a new study.
When individuals are melded into effective, problem-solving groups it should lead to empowering individuals to realise and appreciate that they have critical ideas to share, states a new study. Dr. Bryan Bonner, an associate professor at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business, believes the first step to building successful organizations is deceptively simple: self-realization by each participant of his or her unique knowledge and experience.
The study concluded that "for groups to be successful, they must exploit the knowledge of their (individual) members effectively."
"It doesn't take much. All you have to do is have people sit there for a while and think, 'What is it I already know about this, and how can that help find the solution?'" Bonner said.
"People find they often know more than they think they do; they realize that they might not know the whole answer to the problem, but there are a couple things they do know that might help the group come to a solution."
The researchers used 540 University of Utah undergraduate students, assigning half to three-member groups on one hand, with the remaining 270 participants working as individuals.
Their task: arriving at estimates closest to the correct answers to such questions as the elevation of Utah's King's Peak; the weight of the heaviest man in history; the population of Utah; and the minimum driving distance between Salt Lake City and New York City.
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"Research over more than a century has tried, without much success, to figure out how we can do a better job."
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The study has been published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
Source-ANI