Note From President Vineet Bhatnagar

When Two Plus Two Equals Ten Groups, companies, and communities that work in unison, bonded by shared beliefs and trust, are always certain of amplified outcomes. In the last 70-80 years, post-World War II, we have witnessed stellar examples of what great teams can accomplish. Highly successful corporations, thriving families, and the best military units all display similar characteristics. They have all mastered skills that generate trust and a willingness to collaborate, creating the ideal environment for problem-solving and exceeding expectations.

I refer to this phenomenon as “when two plus two equals ten.” So, why do some groups amount to more than the sum of their parts, while others surprisingly fall short? To study the underlying dynamics of successful groups, an experiment was conducted involving business school students (Stanford), high achievers in universities (University of Tokyo) and kindergartners, all tasked with the same challenge. The task was simple, but the focus lay on how their operating styles impacted the final outcome.

I hope you are not betting that the business school students won the challenge. They did not, despite their intelligence, skills, and experience to do a superior job, thus debunking the myth that skilled individuals will combine to produce skilled performances, just as we presume that two plus two equals four.

The kindergartners won the challenge. At face value, we may perceive kindergartners as unsophisticated and inexperienced, finding it hard to believe that such a group could perform successfully. However, it’s crucial to note that individual skills aren’t what matter here, but rather the interaction among group members.

The business school students were engaged in a process psychologists call status management. They were preoccupied with questions like: “Who is in charge?” “Is it OK to criticise someone’s ideas?” “What are the rules here?” Although their interactions seemed smooth on the surface, they were riddled with inefficiencies, hesitation, and
subtle competition due to their focus on personal uncertainties rather than the task at hand.

Conversely, while the kindergartners’ actions might have seemed disorganised, they were, in fact, highly effective. They stood shoulder to shoulder and worked energetically. They moved quickly, spotted problems and offered help.
They experimented, took risks and by noticing outcomes they moved towards effective solutions. THIS GROUP SUCCEEDED NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE SMARTER BUT BECAUSE THEY WORKED TOGETHER IN A SMARTER WAY – KEEPING THE END GOAL IN SIGHT. The experiment demonstrated a simple yet powerful method whereby a group of ordinary individuals can produce a performance far beyond the sum of their parts. They finished the task more than twice as effectively as the business school students.

Group culture is one of the most powerful forces for achieving extraordinary outcomes. We all desire strong culture in our organisations, communities, and families. We know it works but often we just don’t understand how. The reason may be the way we think about culture, as a group trait, like DNA. Quite surprisingly, strong cultures are actually created by a specific set of skills as covered by Daniel Coyle in his book, The Culture Code.

THE UNDERLYING SKILLS TO BUILD STRONG CULTURES INCLUDE COMMON BELIEFS THAT GENERATE BONDS OF BELONGING AND IDENTITY; shared vulnerability when taking mutual risks that drive trusting co-operation and finally expressed narratives that lead to shared goals and values which establish a common purpose.

The machinery of human brain works amazingly different when trust and belonging are established. Many agree that being smart is overrated as group dynamics can overpower IQ levels. It is the living relationships of a group of people working together toward a shared goal that truly matter, rather than individual victories. Most successful groups focus on very few priorities with in-group relationships – how they treat one another – being paramount.
Their largest effort goes into building and sustaining the group itself, understanding that if they get their relationships right, everything else will follow. Successful groups encourage people to seek answers to fundamental questions: “What are we about?” “Why do we do what we do?” “Where are we headed?”

Such questions promote productive dissatisfaction; make people wary of success; encourage the pursuit of better ways of doing things, regularly test the group’s values and purpose, and constantly seek guidance and clarity. This forms their instinctive culture. CULTURE IS NOT MERELY DEFINED BY MISSION AND VISION STATEMENTS. IT’S A NEVER-ENDING PROCESS OF TRYING, FAILING, REFLECTING, RETRYING, AND, ABOVE ALL, LEARNING. High-purpose environments and groups navigate their problems collectively and combine their efforts to move from additive to multiplied results.
They’ve cracked the code of strong cultures. It’s not something you are, it’s something you do.

— President Vineet Bhatnagar