Posted by It’s been 19 years since the famous article by A. Sobel, who analyzed the success of the Beatles from the side of team management and the products that this team can deliver. In the following weeks, we wanted to remind you of the 4 principles that the author included then in an article titled The Beatles Principles, and which are still of great value to managers of research and project teams.
Principle No. 1: Schedule time for team members to get to know each other and get to know each other during joint trial assignments before they have to work together on really important projects.
When the Beatles debuted on the British charts with the song “Please Please Me,” almost immediately reaching number one, it was an extraordinary event. The band suddenly became extremely popular. They seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. Yet behind the lightness with which they performed on stage was the effort of thousands of hours spent together on the boards of Liverpool and Hamburg clubs. This time spent getting along with each other resulted in a great rapport with the audience. Even Mick Jagger, leader of the Rolling Stones, called the Beatles a “four-headed hydra.”
These days, many entrepreneurs and managers forget that in order for a team to function effectively, it needs time to integrate. Changes in the market, evaluating customer needs and technological advances shorten the life of teams, especially the time needed to get to know each other, divide team roles, establish a common language and solidify shared values.
What’s more, very often companies operate through virtual ties, forming a team only for the duration of a particular project or problem solving. If in the case of teams dealing with cutting-edge technologies or production problems such an idea can bring positive results, so in the case of customer service, relations with external partners or image creation ad hoc convened teams will not solve the problem. Time is needed so that they can operate efficiently and not harm the company with chaotic decisions.
In our next blog post, read about Principle No. 2.