A team’s strength shows in the people who can step in.
No team always works with its best lineup. Someone falls ill, the workload fluctuates, a role becomes vacant. That is when it becomes clear what the team can really do: whether someone can take over without everything grinding to a halt.
The team principle in detail
Four steps through the principle: understand, check, connect, apply. Open any topic to read more.
The explanation“Bench” means two things. It means the substitutes behind the starting lineup.
- “Bench” means two things.
- It means the substitutes behind the starting lineup.
- It means the members’ ability to step in for one another.
- Neither comes out of nowhere.
- Only someone who knows the other person’s task and understands how the work fits together can step in.
- That develops beforehand – through shadowing, watching and practice.
Read closelyWhat the principle says – and what it doesn’t
A team’s resilience depends on how well its members can absorb absences and overload. That requires shared knowledge of one another’s tasks.
- Strictly speaking
- More stepping in is not always better. Help has costs: those who help neglect their own task, and those who receive a lot of help put in less effort afterward. What matters is whether the need is legitimate.
- Stepping in does not mean everyone has to be able to do everything. In highly specialized roles, that is expensive or impossible. There, a shared understanding of the workflows helps more than interchangeability.
- A change of personnel is still a disruption. Even a good replacement initially throws coordination off balance, especially in core roles.
The signs3 signs that the principle is at work · 3 that it is missing
- For every critical task there is a second person who knows it.
- When someone is genuinely overloaded, others help without being asked.
- Handoffs are prepared before anyone drops out.
- Work piles up as soon as one person is missing.
- Knowledge sits in individual heads.
- Help always goes to the same people, and they sit back.
The research5 sources: 3 primary studies, 1 theory, 1 critique · 2002–2012 · with research limitations
- low
- moderate
- high
Moderate – well documented for stepping in within the team, barely studied for the bench in the narrower sense.
- 2002Michelle A. Marks et al.
Two experiments (45 and 49 teams): cross-training creates a shared understanding of how the work fits together; better coordination links this understanding to team performance. Findings on how deep cross-training needs to go were mixed.
- 2003Christopher O. L. H. Porter et al.
71 four-person teams in a decision-making simulation: whether people step in depends mainly on whether the need is legitimate (genuine overload) and on how the personalities of helper and recipient fit the situation.
- 2005Eduardo Salas, Dana E. Sims & C. Shawn Burke
Backup behavior is one of five core components of teamwork (alongside team leadership, mutual performance monitoring, adaptability and team orientation), supported by shared mental models, closed-loop communication and trust.
- 2008Christopher M. Barnes et al.
Stepping in has costs: when the workload is evenly distributed, helpers neglect their own task, and those who receive a lot of help then reduce their effort.
- 2012James K. Summers, Stephen E. Humphrey & Gerald R. Ferris
A change of members disrupts coordination and depresses performance; what matters is the role (strategic core), the passing on of information and the ability of the replacement.
- The evidence shows that being able to step in improves coordination and performance.
- It does not support the sweeping claim that a team’s strength shows on its bench – stepping in has costs.
- The depth of the roster, that is, the bench itself, has barely been studied directly in team research.
Read more: what the research shows
Team research speaks of backup behavior: members step in for colleagues who are overloaded. Eduardo Salas, Dana E. Sims and C. Shawn Burke count it among the five core components of teamwork, supported by mutual performance monitoring, trust and a shared mental model of how the work runs. Michelle A. Marks and colleagues studied how this shared understanding comes about: cross-training – learning about other people’s tasks – creates a shared understanding of how the work fits together, and better coordination links this understanding to performance. Christopher O. L. H. Porter and colleagues found that people step in mainly when the need is legitimate. Christopher M. Barnes and colleagues showed the downside: help can do harm when the workload is evenly distributed.
The originJohn C. Maxwell · “The Law of the Bench”
- 2001OriginJohn C. Maxwell
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork
- The Law of the BenchGreat teams have great depth, meaning strong people beyond the starting lineup
- todaySharpened
What is sharpened here is the focus on the ability to step in within the team, which research supports better than the bench.
The related team principles06 Weakest Link · 04 Position · 11 Attunement · 22 Investment
The principle complements “Weakest Link” and “Position” and rests on “Attunement” and “Investment”: stepping in requires knowledge of the others’ tasks, and that costs something up front.
The action steps5 steps: List the tasks that depend on a single person.
- List the tasks that depend on a single person. That is where your bench begins.
- Let members get to know one another’s tasks – through shadowing, role swaps or practicing together. The point is to understand how the work fits together, not full interchangeability.
- Help when someone is genuinely overloaded, not out of habit. First ask whether the need is legitimate.
- Prepare replacements: pass on information before the change comes, and check whether the person fits the role.
- Pay attention to the core roles. That is where a change disrupts most, and where preparation pays off most.
The questions for your team3 questions for your team conversation: Which of our tasks would pile up if one particular person were away for two weeks?
- Which of our tasks would pile up if one particular person were away for two weeks?
- Who knows a colleague’s work well enough to take it over – and how do we make sure that happens?
- Where do we help out of habit, even though no one is genuinely overloaded?
Take time for one question at your next team meeting. Talk about it openly and note down what you take away from it.
The picture to rememberA formation moves forward, and one dot drops out. Someone from the second row moves up, and the formation stays whole.
- A formation moves forward, and one dot drops out.
- Someone from the second row moves up, and the formation stays whole.
What the Team Principle of the Bench looks like in practice
A Final Decided from the Bench
In the 2014 World Cup final, Joachim Löw brings on Mario Götze in the 88th minute, a player who had not played a single minute in the semifinal. In the 113th minute, André Schürrle, another substitute, crosses, and Götze scores the title-winning goal.
On the Carnegie Hall Podium Without a Rehearsal
On November 14, 1943, 25-year-old assistant conductor Leonard Bernstein has to conduct the New York Philharmonic because guest conductor Bruno Walter is in bed with the flu. There is no time for a rehearsal, and the concert is broadcast live on radio nationwide.
From the Backup Crew Into the Capsule
Shortly before the launch of Apollo 13, NASA replaces just one man, because Ken Mattingly is the only one not immune to German measles: Jack Swigert from the backup crew takes his place. Almost 56 hours after liftoff on April 11, 1970, he is the first to report to Houston that something is wrong on board.
