Do You Know How Your Teams Get Work Done?

How much do managers know about how their teams work? We recently ran a research study involving 14 teams comprising 283 employees in four Fortune 500 companies. When managers were asked about their teams' work, on average they either did not know or could not remember 60% of the work their teams do. In one extreme instance, a manager in our study could describe only 4% of their team's work. The cost of managers not knowing this gap exists can be high, even in teams as small as five members, and is therefore applicable to any company, big or small.