How the Sharing of Information is Important For Team Performance

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” ― Helen Keller

M3T like many organizations utilize teams as a basis for structuring work and decision making. A main reason for a multi person format for making decisions is reaching higher quality decisions than possible by a single individual. A main ingredient to successful team-based decision making is the sharing of information among everyone involved. How and what information is shared between team members greatly impacts the team’s decision-making ability.

How each team members unique experience and training is used in providing information to the rest of the team can be a very diverse and positive element. The extent to which team members make use of each other’s distinct sets of knowledge can greatly benefit the team. The more unique the information and knowledge possessed by each team member; the greater amount of information shared among the team resulting in greater team decision making performance.

The more open team members are in sharing information with each other, the greater the opportunity for stronger trust and cohesion amongst the team, which will lead to much more interaction. The more interaction between members, the more familiar they become with each other and in turn will produce even more information sharing. Initiating a structure for team discussion leads to more unique information sharing, as keeping the discussion focused ensures each individual will be able to share their unique information. The more team members cooperate with each other the more cohesive a group they become leading to easier sharing of information with one another. By focusing on how teams are composed and operate will result in the greatest amount of information shared leading to more effective decisions and team performance.

Matt Seymore

M3T Corporation