The more important the project, the less effective the team

Posted by Robert Merrill on September 21, 2009 under Software teams, Software-Intensive Businesses | Be the First to Comment

Think that your software team performs best under pressure?

Not if what a Harvard Business School professor learned about other knowledge workers—auditors and consultants—applies to programmers, too.

In Feeling the Heat: The Effects of Performance Pressure on Teams’ Knowledge Use and Performance, Heidi Gardner explains that the pressure triggers “threat rigidity,” and causes “reduced cognitive processing.” Teams under pressure are also more likely to defer to “high-status” team members, rather than make full use of those with the most relevant, specific expertise.

Prof. Gardner’s research involved 72 teams of management consultants and auditors across twenty regional offices of a Big Four firm.

Leading a software-intensive business means overseeing some high-stakes projects–there’s no way around it. But don’t assume that the people doing the work will respond to the pressure the way you do.