In the prior chapters we shared findings and insights from an ever-growing science of teamwork. We hope you feel smarter and more confident that there are practical, doable, evidence-based ways to boost team effectiveness.
As we stated in the opening pages of this book, it is our belief that anyone who leads a team, works on a team, or supports teams in any way should know what really drives team performance. That knowledge enables us to make informed decisions about how to show up when we’re on a team and how we can support the teams we care about. It keeps us from being unduly influenced by what sounds logical (but is wrong), is easy to understand (but is an oversimplification), or is consistent with what we have been led to believe (but is really a myth). People often “don’t know what they don’t know,” so if you hear a friend or colleague talking about teamwork in a way that clearly conflicts with what you now know about the science of teamwork, perhaps you could lend them your copy of this book!
Knowing the seven drivers of team effectiveness—outlined in this book—is a start. But how can you best use that knowledge? That depends on whether you happen to be in a team leader role, a team member role, a senior leader role, or a consulting role (either inside the organization, such as in a human resources business partner or organizational development professional role or as an external consultant who supports teams). The next four chapters answer the question, “What should I do with my knowledge of how teams work?”
Each short chapter that follows provides 10 actionable recommendations about how to apply the science of teamwork in a specific role. You can choose to read all four chapters or zoom in on one that addresses a role you’re currently filling. But before you go to those chapters, we want to offer you a super quick “refresher” about the science of teamwork that is applicable to everyone—and is essential reading if you skipped the middle section of the book!
Team effectiveness, as we view it, has three components:
• Sustained performance—Generating positive results over time.
• Team resilience—Working through challenges and bouncing back from adversity.
• Vitality—Maintaining energy, vibrancy, and resources needed for future success.
If team members are being burned out while trying to accomplish a milestone, and as a result, the team is no longer ready to handle the next challenge, we wouldn’t consider that team to be highly effective.
We wish we could tell you, “Here are three magical things that will make any team great.” Unfortunately, as the research shows, teams aren’t that simple.
Teams can vary in several important ways. For example, does the team consistently perform the same tasks or do work requirements change more dynamically? Is membership fairly stable or do members come and go? One of the most important ways that teams differ is with regard to reliance—to what extent do team members need to rely on one another to complete their work and accomplish the mission?
These differences can influence what matters most; throughout chapters 4 through 10, we highlighted how some aspects are more critical for certain teams. For example, when team members must consistently rely on one another, collective efficacy and team coordination are more important than in teams in which members work fairly independently (where civility and self-confidence become more important).
It helps to understand the nature of your team. Consider where it falls along the five dimensions in Table 11.1.
Table 11.1. Five Important Team Distinctions: How Would You Describe Your Team?
| Reliance | Most work performed independently (mostly independent) | Split of work done independently and work that relies on others (even split) | Most members must rely on or coordinate with others much of the time (mostly interdependent) | Members consistently rely on or need to coordinate with others (fully interdependent) |
| Membership Stability | Almost all team members remain the same (very stable) | People leave or join the team on occasion (fairly stable) | People tend to leave or join fairly regularly (fairly dynamic) | People constantly leave or join the team (very dynamic) |
| Task Consistency | Work requirements remain constant over time (consistent requirements) | Work requirements change slowly over time (evolving requirements) | Work requirements change fairly regularly (shifting requirements) | Work requirements change rapidly and unpredictably (unpredictable requirements) |
| Proximity | All team members work in the same or a close location (full co-location) | Most of the teamwork in the same or a close location (mostly co-located) | Most of the teamwork in different locations (mostly dispersed) | All team members work in different locations (full dispersion) |
| Similarity | All team members share an overlapping area of expertise (highly similar) | Most team members share an overlapping area of expertise (mostly similar) | Most team members have unique areas of expertise (fairly unique) | All team members have unique areas of expertise (highly unique) |
Capability refers to the individual and collective competencies that a team possesses. Does your team have the knowledge, skills, abilities, personality, and other personal attributes needed to complete assignments, overcome challenges, and adapt as needed to sustain performance? Capability is about having ample horsepower. If your team lacks essential competencies, it will have a tough time succeeding.
It is worth the effort to clarify the specific capabilities that are needed in your organization/team, and to use that information when hiring people and forming teams. As a starting point, consider looking for people with the following team-related capabilities in addition to any required job-specific or technical competencies:
• Fundamental skills: Giving/receiving feedback, communicating, conflict resolution, leadership, and interpersonal skills.
• Teamwork savvy: Understanding team dynamics and how to be a good teammate.
• Personal attributes: Cognitive ability (adequate to accomplish the work), collective orientation (enough team members possess it), adaptability (particularly in dynamic settings), and conscientiousness (but not everyone on the team must be highly conscientious).
• Toxic traits to avoid: Machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy, and very low levels of agreeableness—don’t hire or tolerate toxic people no matter how strong their technical skills.
You can’t miraculously “team away” a serious talent deficiency, so sometimes you may need to add or replace team members, to get the right people on the bus. But the research also revealed that simply adding another “star” won’t always improve the team.
Cooperation refers to the attitudes and beliefs about their team. What do they think about this team and the people on it? Do they think the team can succeed? Do they trust one another? Do they believe they can be “genuine” with other members on the team? Are they committed to the team and the work they do?
These attitudes and beliefs form as a result of experiences with the team (as well from their experiences with previous teams), and they are greatly influenced by the other drivers. They are based on perceptions, and perceptions don’t always match reality. That is why you can’t “make” someone trust you; you can only take actions that increase the likelihood that they will perceive you as trustworthy.
The research shows that four forms of cooperation are particularly important and should be the focus of your attention:
• Trust—Do I expect my teammates to do the right thing? Do I believe they have positive intentions?
• Psychological safety—Do I feel I can be genuine and openly share my perspective? Do I believe my teammates will give me the benefit of the doubt?
• Collective efficacy—Do we believe our team can “get it done”? Are we confident that our team will “win?”
• Cohesion—How do our team members feel about the team and our work? To what extent are we attracted or committed to the team and the task?
Coordination is about teammates demonstrating the right teamwork behaviors at the right time. It is about actions, not attitudes. In highly effective teams, people monitor what’s going on that might affect the team, they keep an eye on one another, and they help out as needs arise. In addition, the best teams become great by making ongoing adjustments. They make “in the moment” adaptations and they allocate time periodically to reflect and make longer term adjustments.
While specific coordination requirements vary by team, research suggests that the following four are among the most important teamwork behaviors:
• Monitoring (maintaining situation awareness): Remaining aware of what is going on within and outside the team. Effective teams tend to monitor fellow team members, how well the team is performing, and the nature of the situation they are facing.
• Providing back up/support: Providing advice, support, or filling in for a team member when needed.
• Adapting: Learning from experience and making adjustments to address needs and improve performance.
• Managing team emotions and conflict: Dealing with conflicting points of view collaboratively (not competitively and not by avoiding disagreement), managing team members’ emotions, and taking actions that maintain morale.
If team members aren’t demonstrating teamwork behaviors, be sure everyone knows what is expected of them (the expected behaviors) and, as needed, provide them with feedback to ensure they live up to those expectations.
Communication refers to the sharing of information and knowledge to accomplish work, maintain awareness, and foster positive relationships both within and outside the team. Of course, communication is essential for effective teamwork, but it isn’t as simple as telling team members “to communicate more.” When it comes to communication, quality is more important than quantity.
• At its most basic level, quality communication means sharing useful information clearly, accurately, and on time to the right people.
• But what drives team effectiveness is communicating unique information and knowledge that others may not possess or fully understand. For example, this might mean sharing a new piece of information or providing a “situation” update. Openly communicating information that others may not have is what builds shared awareness among team members.
• The most effective teams demonstrate closed-loop communications more frequently, where team members restate what they think they heard, allowing others to confirm or correct them. This significantly reduces miscommunications.
Cognitions refers to the extent to which team members possess a shared or at least a complementary understanding about priorities, roles, what’s going on, and how to handle certain situations. All team members do not need to know exactly the same thing, but collectively they need to have a common “enough” understanding, and they should know who on the team possesses relevant knowledge. In other words, team members need to be “on the same page.”
Teams generally perform better when its members can provide similar answers to the following eight questions. If they can’t do that, you’ll want to take actions that help them build a “shared mental model.”
• Where are we headed? (vision, purpose, goals)
• What’s important? (priorities)
• How to? (tasks, norms, interdependencies)
Conditions refers to the context or environment in which a team operates, and they can greatly impact team effectiveness. Conditions, in conjunction with the attributes of the people involved (e.g., capabilities), determine if a team is equipped to work together successfully.
Some conditions can have a broad influence, for example, organizational policies and practices (i.e., hiring, onboarding, promotions and opportunities, performance management, rewards and recognition) and actions taken by senior leadership (e.g., modeling behaviors, communicating, and establishing psychological safety). Collectively, these help define your culture. Employees pick up on what is encouraged as well as what is tolerated (e.g., do you make excuses for toxic employees because they generate revenue?). Because these overarching conditions can facilitate or inhibit teamwork throughout the organization, it makes sense to monitor them centrally and take action to rectify any “gaps” or unintended consequences that surface.
Other conditions are more local or team-specific. Three of these—resources, time, and decision-making authority—can place significant constraints on a team’s effectiveness. It is almost impossible to “team away” a significant lack of resources and unreasonable to expect team members to monitor and support one another if they barely have time to complete their own assignments. Monitor these conditions locally and focus on how to remedy deficiencies. If they can’t be improved, brainstorm ways to work around them creatively.
Coaching is the term we use to describe team leadership, but we aren’t simply referring to the designated leader. More and more frequently we see the need for team members to step up and perform some leadership functions, what researchers refer to as “shared leadership.” Shared leadership doesn’t involve appointing an additional leader; it is more informal in nature.
What leadership is needed to ensure a team is successful? Research suggests that there are seven essential leadership functions that need to be fulfilled on almost any team. Some of these may be completed by the leader alone, but in other instances, various team members can “step up” and help out.
Team-focused:
Team and task-focused:
We also described four leadership approaches, each of which provides a helpful reminder to anyone who is a team leader.
• Transformational leadership reminds us to inspire the team and not simply reward compliance.
• Shared leadership reminds us that if the leader is the only person on the team who is showing leadership behaviors that’s probably a red flag.
• Servant leadership reminds us to put the team first.
• Civil leadership reminds us not to be a jerk—and not tolerate incivility in others.
That concludes the high-level refresher. If you want more details on any of the Cs, you can always revisit the appropriate chapter. But now, let’s turn to how to apply this knowledge. The next four short chapters each focus on a different role (Table 11.2). In each, you’ll find 10 actionable recommendations for applying what’s known about the science of teamwork.
Table 11.2. What to Expect in the Remaining Chapters
| When you are a . . . | Consider how you can . . . |
| Chapter 12: Team leader | Help your team succeed. |
| Chapter 13: Team member | Be a more effective team member (and in so doing help the team and your career). |
| Chapter 14: Consultant (internal or external) | Support a team(s) or organization in need and enable them to improve. |
| Chapter 15: Senior leader | Promote teamwork and collaboration in your organization. |