Groupwork Tips: The Ringelmann effect

Beware of the Ringelmann Effect

On this blog, I often advocate working on something alone whenever possible, but of course there are many instances where that is not possible or simply not practical. Large projects will always require more than one person, and this is a good thing. However, one of the things we have to be aware of is the Ringelmann Effect. According to Wikipedia, "the Ringelmann effect is the tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases." So how do we combat this?

Well first we must understand why this is happening, two important reasons are the loss of motivation and the loss of coordination. Having led teams up to 20 people, I have found it best to break down your project into tasks which people can work on in isolation. When you have each team member solely responsible for something, the Ringelmann effect is much less pronounced because each person feels responsibility, autonomy, and ownership over their work. However, this requires modular coordination on the part of the leadership, and that in itself is another post entirely.