It’s the mortar, not just the bricks, that makes a building strong. The same thing happens in working teams, where the bricks are the people and the mortar is “Social Capital”: the value of social networks, useful for groups and societies.

According to Margaret Hefferman, entrepreneur, Chief Executive and author, high levels of social capital produce trust of a kind that makes conflict safe and constructive: open climate makes it impossible for people to speak and think openly. Disagreement doesn’t feel dangerous, it is taken as a sign of improvement.

Alex Pentland’s team (MIT’s Media Lab) tracked the patterns of communication of teams in a wide range of organizations (hospitals, banks, call centers). They discovered that those patterns of interaction were as important as everything else: individual intelligence, skill, personality... What happened between people — not just at meetings but in casual conversations (brief exchanges in the hallway, at the water cooler, during coffee breaks) — made a measurable difference in productivity.

According to the Author, in organizations with high degrees of social capital, partners don’t confirm your opinions but build on them. They know that every idea starts out flawed, incomplete or downright bad, accelerating the sharing of knowledge and expertise. Creative conflict, done well, generates social capital that, in turn, makes conflict safe and constructive.

This concept takes on vital importance when applied to organizations that are now routinely beset by change, competition, and ambiguity. Social connectedness plays a critical role in making individuals and companies more resilient, better able to do conflict well.

Helpfulness of a group has a direct impact on profits, costs, productivity and efficiency. Helpful teams of people accelerate the sharing of knowledge and the longer groups work together - the more social capital they accrue - the more these benefits grow.

Exactly what we expect from the best teams taking part of our Business Games Artémat.