newcomers vs. people who had never collaborated before

English translation: outsiders vs insiders

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:newcomers vs. people who had never collaborated before
Selected answer:outsiders vs insiders
Entered by: Yasutomo Kanazawa

06:51 Jul 18, 2016
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Management
English term or phrase: newcomers vs. people who had never collaborated before
Hello everyone,

The study showed that the days of the solitary genius or lone inventor—think Newton or Einstein—are over. Creative and sci-entific work has migrated to teams and, more recently, to large, distributed teams like the hundreds of scientists that worked on the human genome project.

But being part of a team wasn’t enough for high impact, as measured by article and patent citations. The really great ideas were much more likely to come from cross-institutional col-laborations rather than from teams from the same university, lab, or research center. Not only that, but the most successful teams mixed things up. They avoided the trap of always working with the same people, and successful groups ***brought to the team both newcomers and people who had never collaborated before***.

I fail to understand the difference (in this context) between newcomers and people who had never collaborated before. What does this part of the sentence imply?

Does it mean people who are simply new to the team and people who have never collaborated with anyone before (lone wolves, so to speak)?

Thank you.

Thank you.
Mikhail Korolev
Local time: 02:38
outsiders vs insiders
Explanation:
newcomers= people new to the team, for example, students or people fresh out of college or even outsiders, such as science journalists, physicians or people from other industries who have some knowledge of the subject but new to the team

people who had never collaborated before= scientists who have been in other science teams but have never worked with them before, including lone wolves like you say
Selected response from:

Yasutomo Kanazawa
Japan
Local time: 08:38
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Yasutomo-san.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
5 +1novices or professionals who've worked alone before
Charlesp
3 +2outsiders vs insiders
Yasutomo Kanazawa
2 +3fresh blood / first-time collaborators
Jonathan MacKerron
3 +1newcomers = beginners
Lingua 5B
Summary of reference entries provided
Belated reference
Alison MacG

  

Answers


34 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +2
outsiders vs insiders


Explanation:
newcomers= people new to the team, for example, students or people fresh out of college or even outsiders, such as science journalists, physicians or people from other industries who have some knowledge of the subject but new to the team

people who had never collaborated before= scientists who have been in other science teams but have never worked with them before, including lone wolves like you say

Yasutomo Kanazawa
Japan
Local time: 08:38
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in JapaneseJapanese
PRO pts in category: 16
Grading comment
Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Yasutomo-san.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Charlesp
5 hrs
  -> Thank you very much!

agree  philgoddard
10 hrs
  -> Thank you very much!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +1
newcomers = beginners


Explanation:
whereas "people who had never collaborated before" are not beginners, they just did not have an opportunity to collaborate before

this is how I see it in the given context

Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 00:38
Native speaker of: Native in SerbianSerbian, Native in CroatianCroatian

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Charlesp
5 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 2/5Answerer confidence 2/5 peer agreement (net): +3
fresh blood / first-time collaborators


Explanation:
newcomers = persons new to this field now actively taking part for the first time

never collaborated before = people who previously worked alone, now participating in teams



Jonathan MacKerron
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Peter Simon: My idea is, newcomers are new to the team, not necessarily to the field, but basically I agree
1 hr

agree  Charlesp
4 hrs

agree  Lingua 5B
5 hrs
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6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
novices or professionals who've worked alone before


Explanation:
novices or professionals who've worked alone before

Charlesp
Sweden
Local time: 00:38
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 3

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  acetran
4 hrs
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Reference comments


1 day 2 hrs peer agreement (net): +1
Reference: Belated reference

Reference information:
Another article explaining this idea.

newcomers = people new to the field, not yet known in the field, fresh blood
people who had never collaborated before = experienced people who had never collaborated with each other before

True Teamwork
What they found was that the most successful teams did two things right. First, they attracted a mixture of experienced people and those who were newcomers to whichever field they were in. That's not surprising--the need for fresh blood has long been recognized as an important ingredient in success. The second criterion, though, was far less obvious. What successful teams had in common was at least a few experienced members who had never collaborated with each other. "People have a tendency to want to work with their friends--people they've worked with before," says Luis Amaral, a physicist at Northwestern and a coauthor. "That's exactly the wrong thing to do."
http://europe.newsweek.com/true-teamwork-119127

Alison MacG
United Kingdom
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
Note to reference poster
Asker: Thank you, Alison.


Peer comments on this reference comment (and responses from the reference poster)
agree  acetran
33 mins
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