The Surprisingly Simple Reason Teams Fail | Tessa West | TED

Quick Overview

Teams fail because they rely on shared, obvious information and ignore unique, critical information held by individuals, leading to poor decision-making, as demonstrated by the Mars Climate Orbiter failure due to metric vs. imperial unit confusion.

Key Points: The Mars Climate Orbiter failed on September 23, 1999, because one team used the metric system (Newtons) while another used imperial units (pounds) for force calculations. The core issue was Communication Mishap #1: Two sets of teams failed to communicate about basic information that seemed obvious to them (metric vs. imperial units). Communication Mishap #2 involved people with critical information (like the unit discrepancy) being ignored for a 'very dumb reason' (the assumption that everyone knows the standard). Research shows that when teams are given information where some is shared and some is unique, they often focus only on the shared information, ignoring the unique, critical data. In experiments, when Applicant C had unique positive information (winning cake baking awards), 20% of 370 teams unanimously chose Applicant C, but the best decision requires sharing all unique information. The speaker advises that 'level setting' (stating the obvious) is a necessary tool to combat hidden languages and ensure critical information is processed. The key takeaway is to make it comfortable for people to ask, 'What did you mean by that?' to prevent failures stemming from assumptions about shared knowledge.

Context: Tessa West discusses common causes of team failure, using the highly publicized failure of the NASA Mars Climate Orbiter mission in 1999 as a central case study. The failure resulted from a crucial unit conversion error between two engineering teams (one using metric Newtons, the other using imperial pounds). West frames this incident within broader patterns of team communication breakdown observed in social science research, highlighting how teams often overlook unique, critical information in favor of easily shared, common knowledge.