This study looks at how managers can facilitate their employers to share knowledge with one another. Although this study was done in a physical work environment, it shows that these results can be even more important within a virtual setting-- when communication can have additional barriers.
Key Points/Findings
"Workers who participated in guided meetings with a randomly chosen partner realized a 24% increase in sales productivity, on average, during the four weeks that the meetings took place. Worker pairs who only received explicit incentives saw a 13% lift in performance during these same weeks."
"The increase in productivity for those in guided meetings persisted well after the formal meetings ended. Several months later, workers who participated in these meetings averaged 18% higher sales production than those who had not. By contrast, the group that received incentives alone had no long-term gains."
"The greatest beneficiaries of the meetings were employees who had been paired with high-performing peers. The findings in the study suggest that discussing one’s job-specific problems with high performers, in just a single meeting, can have long-lasting performance implications. The key is for management to create opportunities — and directives — to ensure that such interactions occur in the first place."
"Over the 24 weeks that we tracked sales data, the firm realized a 7-figure increase in revenue among those who participated in the guided meetings. The implementation cost was less than $15,000."
IceBreaker for Bots is a way for workers to schedule times with one another: “The application has ‘made a huge difference in helping teams be more connected, inclusive, energizing, welcoming of new and remote teammates, and ultimately more emphatic and effective”
Research: How Virtual Teams Can Better Share Knowledge
Summary
This study looks at how managers can facilitate their employers to share knowledge with one another. Although this study was done in a physical work environment, it shows that these results can be even more important within a virtual setting-- when communication can have additional barriers.
Key Points/Findings
"Workers who participated in guided meetings with a randomly chosen partner realized a 24% increase in sales productivity, on average, during the four weeks that the meetings took place. Worker pairs who only received explicit incentives saw a 13% lift in performance during these same weeks."
"The increase in productivity for those in guided meetings persisted well after the formal meetings ended. Several months later, workers who participated in these meetings averaged 18% higher sales production than those who had not. By contrast, the group that received incentives alone had no long-term gains."
"The greatest beneficiaries of the meetings were employees who had been paired with high-performing peers. The findings in the study suggest that discussing one’s job-specific problems with high performers, in just a single meeting, can have long-lasting performance implications. The key is for management to create opportunities — and directives — to ensure that such interactions occur in the first place."
"Over the 24 weeks that we tracked sales data, the firm realized a 7-figure increase in revenue among those who participated in the guided meetings. The implementation cost was less than $15,000."
IceBreaker for Bots is a way for workers to schedule times with one another: “The application has ‘made a huge difference in helping teams be more connected, inclusive, energizing, welcoming of new and remote teammates, and ultimately more emphatic and effective”
Citation
Sandvik, J., Saouma, R., Seegert, N., & Stanton, C. (2020, November 02). Research: How Virtual Teams Can Better Share Knowledge. Retrieved November 09, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2020/11/research-how-virtual-teams-can-better-share-knowledge?ab=hero-subleft-2