PlasticJobs - February 2020

Over a career spanning nearly half a century, Harvard University psychology professor J. Richard Hackman garnered widespread esteem and accolades for pioneering the study of team dynamics. Following the events of 9/11, Hackman led a team designed to evaluate what makes intelligence units effective by surveying, interviewing, and observing hundreds of analysts across 64 different intelligence groups.

What they discovered was that the critical factor wasn’t having a tenured team with the right number of people. It wasn’t having a vision that is clear, challenging, and meaningful. Nor was it well-defined roles and responsibilities, or appropriate rewards and recognition, or strong leadership.

Rather, the single strongest predictor of group effectiveness was the amount of help that the analysts gave each other. In the highest-performing teams, analysts invested extensive time and energy in coaching, teaching, and consulting with their colleagues. These interactions helped analysts question their own assumptions, fill gaps in their knowledge, and understand new perspectives. In the lowest-performing units, analysts had little interaction or were relied upon to come up with most of their own answers and solutions in service of a seemingly ‘autonomous’ environment. Simply knowing the amount of help-giving that occurred allowed the Harvard researchers to predict the effectiveness of nearly every unit accurately.

Included in this email is a short list of high-caliber candidates as well as our featured jobs for February. These are only some of the candidates we have recently evaluated who are positioned for growth in their career and open to making a change. We feel these individuals could make a tremendous impact to companies like yours. Also listed are our hottest job openings in case you know someone who might be interested.

PlasticJobs Network is the best executive search firm in our sector. We specialize in finding, evaluating and placing some of the highest caliber talent in the industry. If you want to know more about these candidates, or need other positions filled, please contact us.