Why do people perform worse in teams?

The counter-intuitive fact about teams leaders need to be aware of

This may seem counter-intuitive. How can it be that being placed in a team can lower people’s motivation? This may be especially difficult to understand if you thrive on group learning and doing things with others.

The answer lies in a phenomenon called social loafing. In 1890, Max Ringelman, a French professor of agricultural engineering, conducted a study that asked subjects to pull ropes as individuals, and then as members of a group. Ringelman found that subjects exerted less effort in a group situation than when they performed individually. This study was repeated many times, yielding the same results.

Social loafing happens when we think our efforts won’t make much difference when we are in a group environment; therefore, there’s no need to try as hard. We fundamentally have a lowered motivation to perform well when we are in a team versus when we are alone. In a group, there is room to hide and shy away from trying or taking responsibility for tasks. There is a low risk of being found out for “slacking off”, as the group covers diminished effort.

Social Loafing is a real thing - be sure to investigate this in terms of motivation rather than productivity.

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Making matters worse is the fact that in these studies when people were told they were being paired with high performers, they did not do any better. In fact, they tried even less! Think about how this may play out in your team. Not only do you have people who don’t try as hard as they would if they were working alone; you also have people who perform at an even lower level when they work alongside high-performing teammates.

How long is it until the high performer wakes up to this? What will the high performer do when they realise others are not pulling their weight? Their performance may sink to the level of everyone else, or they’ll stop performing altogether. As a leader, you need to wake up to the fact this is likely happening in your team right now.

The realisation that people are less likely to give their all when grouped together is an important one for leaders. By knowing it happens, we can put relevant actions in place to snuff it out completely, or at least keep it to a minimum. Social loafing is a point of friction that halts individual and team rhythm. 

Having one unmotivated person in a team is enough to upset the rhythm of a collective workflow. And if a leader suffers from lowered motivation, it quickly spreads throughout the team. Acknowledging this and taking steps to target it is essential to creating a high-performing team with ongoing rhythm.

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