Sam Aparicio

Last weekend I was driving between DC and Hershey PA. My son and his cousin were in the back playing Nintendo so I had a chance to relax and focus on the story on the radio. It was NPR’s “This American Life”, and the stories had this “bad apples” theme.

During the intro, the most interesting part, the host introduces academic research on team dynamics that shows that the most important predictor of a team’s performance is not a) the skill of the most talented individual or b) the average skill of the team’s individuals, but c) the person in the team with the worst attitude.

In other words, a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch.

Listen for yourself

http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/370.mp3

Start at 2:03 and then listen till 14:00

There are 3 prescribed bad behaviors:

• Being a slacker – Not carrying one’s part of the workload
• Being a depressive pessimist about all team outcomes
• Being a jerk — Abusing others verbally

The academic research

This gave me a lot to think about.

• Who are the bad apples on my team?
• Am I a bad apple in the management team?
• Do I show “bad appl-y” behavior myself sometimes?
• When I see it on others, do I act like the son of the diplomat mentioned in the podcast? (12:40)

The most interesting finding: (13:12)

A group leader can change the dynamics and performance of a group simply by going around and asking questions, soliciting everybody’s opinion, making sure every one is heard.