imapMyTeam Blog

Relationships Make You Smarter!

Recently Fast Company ran an article that listed ‘Five Surprising Science-Backed Things That Make You Smarter’. One item on the list caught our eye; it was about how relationships make you smarter. The science behind this is called transactive memory systems.

In short a transactive memory system consists of the knowledge stored in each individual's memory combined with information regarding their different teammate's areas of expertise.

A transactive memory system provides teammates with information regarding the knowledge they have access to within the group. Group members learn who knowledge experts are and how to access their expertise through communicative processes. In this way, a transactive memory system can provide the group members with more (broader) and better knowledge than any individual could access on his own.

The important lesson to be learned and applied? People with diverse connections have better ideas than people with homogenous connections.

In imapMyTeam.com you have the MY TEAMS section to make sure you are leveraging the diverse transactive memory system at your disposal. Your team, as structured in the organizational chart is automatically built into the system. However you can create any number of teams by using the create teams or even the “my meetings” functions to build diverse groups for the purpose of problem solving.

It ought to be a ‘red flag’ to you when any of the four quadrants are empty. In those cases you are missing a critical piece of your transactive system and may be failing to fully leverage the diversity at your disposal.

Get diverse and get smarter today.