Teams are made up of individuals and individuals are driven by different motivators. Whether that's serving their organization, supporting their family or simply working on projects they think are cool. You'll need to learn about the people on your team, in order to best determine how to motivate everyone at the same time. A few years ago, researchers here at Google set out to identify the dynamics of effective teams. And through this research, they identified five factors that have an impact on team effectiveness. In order of importance, those five factors are: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact. Let's break these down. Let's start with psychological safety, which is the number one factor that impacts team effectiveness. Here's how our researchers define it. Psychological safety refers to an individual's perception, of the consequences of taking an Interpersonal risks. In other words, they believe it's safe to take risks within their team and they don't risk being labeled as ignorant, incompetent, negative or disruptive. On teams with high psychological safety, teammates feel comfortable taking risks around fellow team members, seeking differing opinions and resolving interpersonal conflict when it comes up. For example, on my team at Google, we like to say be direct and kind. We've worked really hard to build a team culture, in which we can hold one another accountable while maintaining a shared space that is safe, secure, and peaceful. What I found is that, when opportunities to take risks do arise, like pitching an out-of-the-box idea to my directors, for example, this culture of mutual respect, has already laid the groundwork to get direct feedback without frustration or worrying that I might embarrass myself. And that's been invaluable in maintaining a high level of psychological safety for the team. Next, we have dependability. Google's researchers explain it this way. On dependable teams, members are reliable and complete their work on time. Creating a dependable team requires the combination of setting, negotiating and meeting expectations. Yes, your team needs to meet the expectations set for them. At the same time, you as a project manager need to establish a two way relationship with your team. You have to be able to clearly communicate expectations and ensure that the team feels comfortable negotiating with you when needed. For example, it's likely that a person on your team works on two or more projects with competing deadline. If they're afraid to share their own constraints with you, then their work on both projects might suffer. Alternatively, if they come to you with their concerns and open understanding and negotiation around priorities could help ease their burden. Next, we have a structure and clarity. Here's how our researchers define it. Structure and clarity refers to an individual's understanding of job expectations, knowledge of how to meet those expectations and the consequences of their performance. Each team member has a clear sense of their individual role, plans and goals. And they have a sense of how their work affects the group. You as the project manager, can help foster a sense of structure and clarity on the team. For example, if a project structure in tracking are sloppy, unorganized and incohesive, then the team's output is likely to be sloppy, unorganized and incohesive. This can cause tension within the team. Alternatively, if you diligently engage in project tracking, your team will have clarity, feel more united and will be able to effectively collaborate. Meaning, also impacts team effectiveness. Google's researchers defined meaning in this context, as finding a sense of purpose either in the work itself or in the results of that work. For example, your teammates might find meaning in supporting themselves financially, helping the team reach its goals or wanting their products to reach a new community of users. And finally, we have impact. Our researchers define impact as the belief that the results of one's work matters and creates change. It can be challenging for people to notice how their work can shift an entire ecosystem forward. Part of your role as the project manager, is to help individual teammates identify how they drive impact both within the team and beyond it. Project tracking can be a helpful tool for visualizing progress and impact. Meeting milestones for example, demonstrates to the team how their individual tasks contribute to the larger project goals. For example, my team focuses on routing within Google Maps. The big idea is to focus on helping people to get to where they're going on time. So, everything we do should make that experience incrementally better. And that's how we add impact. To recap, Google's researchers identified psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact as the top five factors that have an impact on Team effectiveness. Coming up, we'll discuss how project managers lead teams that reach project goals.