{"id":5201,"date":"2019-03-12T11:12:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/?page_id=5201"},"modified":"2019-06-03T13:39:52","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T17:39:52","slug":"jesse-shore-teams-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Give me a break"},"content":{"rendered":"

Countless cheesy motivational posters<\/strong> would have you believe that teamwork makes the dream work. But when it comes to particularly tough problems, research has shown that while teams can have a strong average performance, churning out viable idea after idea, individuals are more likely to land on a killer solution\u2014even if they have to slog through more mediocre ones to get there.<\/p>\n

According to new research by Jesse Shore<\/a>, an assistant professor of information systems, and colleagues from Harvard University, there\u2019s a way to get the best of both worlds: the interplay of a team and the latitude for individual inspiration.<\/p>\n

The researchers, who published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em><\/a>, studied participants attempting to solve a complicated mathematical puzzle known as the traveling salesperson problem. Individuals were placed into one of three conditions to figure out the shortest route for a salesperson with 25 different locations to visit. They could either see the attempted solutions of their neighbors all of the time, none of the time, or occasionally throughout the experiment.<\/p>\n

Those who intermittently saw the attempted solutions of others proved to have both the highest average performance and were also most likely to come up with the ideal solution. Shore speculates that people learn from others\u2019 work and also benefit from their own exploration. \u201cIt\u2019s not that people are necessarily doing better work when they\u2019re exploring on their own,\u201d says Shore. \u201cBut they may be more likely to try something new. Then, when they are able to see others\u2019 work, the group draws from a more diverse set of answers. They can pull good ideas from everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shore says the study has implications for the way we use always-on collaboration software, such as Slack and Google Docs. \u201cThe reality is,\u201d says Shore, \u201cthat if you\u2019re getting an alert every time something happens and you\u2019re not taking the time to work separately and have your own independent thoughts, it may hurt the group\u2019s overall ability to solve complex problems.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Countless cheesy motivational posters would have you believe that teamwork makes the dream work. But when it comes to particularly tough problems, research has shown that while teams can have a strong average performance, churning out viable idea after idea, individuals are more likely to land on a killer solution\u2014even if they have to slog […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14430,"featured_media":0,"parent":5191,"menu_order":12,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"story.php","meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nGive me a break - Questrom Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Give me a break - Questrom Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Countless cheesy motivational posters would have you believe that teamwork makes the dream work. But when it comes to particularly tough problems, research has shown that while teams can have a strong average performance, churning out viable idea after idea, individuals are more likely to land on a killer solution\u2014even if they have to slog […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Questrom Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-03T17:39:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/\",\"name\":\"Questrom Magazine\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/\",\"name\":\"Give me a break - Questrom Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-12T15:12:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-03T17:39:52+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spring 2019\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Give me a break\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Give me a break - Questrom Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Give me a break - Questrom Magazine","og_description":"Countless cheesy motivational posters would have you believe that teamwork makes the dream work. But when it comes to particularly tough problems, research has shown that while teams can have a strong average performance, churning out viable idea after idea, individuals are more likely to land on a killer solution\u2014even if they have to slog […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/","og_site_name":"Questrom Magazine","article_modified_time":"2019-06-03T17:39:52+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/","name":"Questrom Magazine","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/","name":"Give me a break - Questrom Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-12T15:12:27+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-03T17:39:52+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/jesse-shore-teams-collaboration\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spring 2019","item":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/spring-2019\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Give me a break"}]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5201"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5201"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5510,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5201\/revisions\/5510"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/questrom-magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}