Google delivers great products and features faster than almost anyone else. It takes exceptional project teams to deliver these results.

What is the secret sauce to build the perfect team? Google created a team to study hundreds of its teams. Here’s a great NYT article by Charles Duhigg summarizing the results: Quest to build the perfect team

Google’s study turned up unique findings. In our age of performance optimization, the concept of psychological safety has emerged as a new mantra for productivity. The highest performing Google teams allowed for equal contribution of team members in the conversations. Democratic collaboration raised collective intelligence faster than a team driven by one or two outspoken members. Another key attribute was allowance of feelings and empathy into conversations. Teams which had the best team chemistry often outperformed teams loaded with the best subject matter experts.

I’ve been part of hundreds of teams in my career and can relate to these findings based on my experience.

Keep up the great work, Google!