Leland Teschler, editor of Machine Design, recently asked this heretical question after reading a book with the over-the-top title, “I Hate People” by Johnathan Littman and Marc Hershorn. It might be an interesting read.
He says the problem is, "Development Teams are often an obstacle to creativity rather than a vehicle for truly elegant solutions. Particularly for large efforts, the evidence is that many team members work at cross-purposes. That's why throwing more people at a project frequently slows it down rather than speeds up its completion."
The importance of teamwork has, of course, become an article of faith in the corporate world. According to Teshler, Fortune magazine found that teamwork was tenth on the list of valued employee qualities 40 years ago and had advanced to first place in 2005.
While he doesn't question that cooperation is important, he points out that most of the innovations that really changed our world have come from a few high-performing individuals and claims that a growing body of research is finding that teams often hinder achievers.
One study was a simple experiment with a tug-of-war rope competition. A strain gage was used to measure the effort put out by individuals and by groups. Individuals working as members of groups pulled half as hard as when pulling alone. Even in a small group of three, individuals pulled only 80% as hard as alone. Similar results have been observed with elite women rowers. They don’t row as hard in a group of eight as when alone.
A study at the University of Calgary showed that people working at a computer alone were slower when a partner was in full view. For some reason the sight of someone else working caused the subject to work slower.
At Cornell, a study showed that a group, trained to be communal, was less innovative than a similar group that had been conditioned to be individualistic.
If you want to read Teshler’s entire article, you can find it at: Leland Teshler's Editorial