A team working on one of the tasks used in the study. Teams were asked to assemble complicated Lego® structures based on detailed instructions. Teams were randomly assembled by soliciting participation via Craig's List.

Credit: MIT

View a video of Thomas Malone's presentation to the IdeasLab at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 2010.

Credit: World Economic Forum (WEF)

Anita Williams Woolley, Science paper first author and Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business associate professor, describes the study's findings.

Credit: CMU

View a video of Thomas W. Malone, study co-author, MIT's Center for Collective Intelligence founding director, and Sloan business professor, putting the group's research into context.

Credit: MIT

Anita Williams Woolley, the paper's lead author and assistant professor of organizational behavior & theory at the Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University.

Credit: Anita Williams Woolley, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University.

Thomas W. Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. He was also the founding director of the MIT Center for Coordination Science and one of the two founding co-directors of the MIT Initiative on &dquo;Inventing the Organizations of the 21st Century&dquo;. Professor Malone teaches classes on leadership and information technology, and his research focuses on how new organizations can be designed to take advantage of the possibilities provided by information technology.

Credit: Patrick Gillooly, MIT

Christopher F. Chabris, co-author on the paper, is an assistant professor of psychology at Union College and Adjunction Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Albany Medical College.

Credit: Christopher F. Chabris, Union College