A Clear Path or Clear Roles? Which is better for teamwork: a clearly defined approach to achieving a goal or clearly specified roles for team members? Roles are the key, according to a study of 15 multinational corporations on effectiveness of their teams and collaborative practices. “Collaboration improves when the roles of individual team members are clearly defined and well understood — when individuals feel that they can do a significant portion of their work independently,” according to “Eight ways to build collaborative teams” in Harvard Business Review. “In addition, team members are more likely to want to collaborate if the path to achieving the team’s goal is left somewhat ambiguous. If a team perceives the task as one that requires creativity, where the approach is