Teams and T-Shirts

I’m currently reading The Art of Innovation, in which the author discusses the significance of team shirts (making and/or wearing) to create a sense of belonging to a team. He goes on to explain that the impact of solid teamwork produces better results. After reading that I thought the t-shirt aspect was fun but a bit silly and non-essential. Isn’t it usually just natural group dynamics that drive a successful team?

Not long after reading about this idea, I had a lecture in my Introduction to Sociable Robots class that covered the topic of teamwork between humans and robots. Conducted studies revealed that when a team identity was created for a human-robot team through either wearing the same t-shirts or dressing alike, teammates think more highly of each other, have better co-operation, agree more, and value each other more. With this sense of team unity, teams are also able to complete a task better and faster.

It’s quite interesting then that something as simple as a team t-shirt can create such an impact.

{ Tags: collaboration, HRI, ideas }