No One Works Alone

So if you can’t throw bodies at the problem, what makes a team more productive?

And when you talk about helping to make teams more productive, it gets even more complicated. For instance, if your team is drowning in work, your first instinct might be to hire more people (i.e., an input). But in fact, the more people you have on your team, the less effort each individual puts forth. This is called the Ringelmann Effect. With each additional member, you increase the number of relationships between team members exponentially, thereby increasing the amount of time and energy individuals have to spend managing those relationships. People also have a tendency to be lazy. The bigger the group, the less individuals contribute to the overall project, so more people doesn’t necessarily mean a project will be completed any faster.

Historically, productivity has been defined as a “ratio between the output volume and the volume of inputs.” It’s a useful formula for factories manufacturing widgets, but less helpful in a knowledge economy: what are the inputs? What counts as an output, and should quality impact its score? 

The best way to improve efficiency is to focus as a team.

Download the complete paper

Workspaces built for teams

Our workspaces are ideal for offsites, team workshops, project planning, or team building. Breather can accommodate small to large teams for extended periods of time. We offer flexible meeting room arrangements in all of our spaces.

Book online for an hour, a day, a week or more.

Freely cancel up to 2 hours before.

1123 Broadway, 8th Floor

176 Grand St, 6th Floor

2 West 46th St, 14th Floor

One Penn Plaza, 15th Floor

8 people

46 people

34 people

22 people

We’ll email you a link to the guide so you can get it any time, along with other resources and offers we think you’ll like. You can unsubscribe at any time.