There is a saying that if you want to go quickly, then go alone, but if you want to go far, then go together.
While that saying is mostly true, it is also true that too many people can often cause your output and productivity to drop.
This is called ‘social loafing’ and it refers to the tendency of individuals to put in less effort when working in a group than when working alone.
You must always find that sweet spot in terms of the number and quality of people you wish to involve.
Personally, I have observed that if I try to do everything myself, I often limit the speed or quality of what can be produced. Oddly enough, when I increase the amount of team members involved, there comes a certain point where group cohesiveness and group output begins to fade and decrease.
This is called ‘the Ringelmann effect’, which calculates the systematic reduction of individual effort on a task as the number of people performing the task increases.
Unless you are dealing with people who are intrinsically motivated, most of us will suffer from a diffusion of responsibility and reduced personal accountability, making it easier to slack.
In the workplace, this often leads to colleagues freeloading by contributing only with suggestions yet no action, to virtual meeting silence, or missed deadlines – especially when responsibilities are vaguely defined.
To make matters worse, it also causes disillusionment among highly motivated team members who are left picking up the slack.
The solution is to design your teams based on specific work actions and keeping those teams small enough to remove the luxury of anonymity.
Secondly, be very prescriptive in your instructions. Where possible, do not issue vague e-mails or instructions that refer to the collective.
Rather, give instructions by name and an expected outcome.
