Consultants are often asked to help boost teamwork and collaboration. Perhaps you are an internal consultant in a human resource business partner, organization development, learning and development, or quality role, or maybe you are an external consultant who supports teams across different organizations. As a consultant, you could be called upon to help a struggling team, to coach a team leader, or to advise a senior leader on how to promote greater collaboration throughout a unit or organization. To address any of these needs, it helps to understand what really drives teamwork.
The following are a set of 10 tips for applying the science of teamwork as a consultant. Depending upon your current role and client needs, some of the tips will be more immediately applicable, but we encourage you to find at least two that you can use in your consulting work over the next few months. Which of these tips could help you be a better consultant and, more important, which would help your clients be more effective?
1. Attempt to uncover the real reasons why a team may be struggling (or what may be inhibiting collaboration in the organization).
a. Begin by trying to uncover what is helping and hindering teamwork. When someone says, “Our team members aren’t getting along,” what does that really mean? You’ll usually need to dig a little deeper than the stated problem. Which of the seven drivers of team effectiveness that we described in this book may be contributing to the problem? Consider using Tool D, the Quick Diagnostic, found at the back of the book.
b. When you uncover the real issues, use that understanding to guide the right course of action. No solution is universally applicable. For example, improving a team’s attitude toward teamwork won’t enable them to overcome a severe talent deficit. Review the Ideas Matrix (see Tool E at the back of the book) for a set of suggestions for addressing a wide range of specific deficiencies.
2. Take action at the right level—individual, dyad, team, or organizational—and in the right setting.
a. Recognize that the “right” solution might involve an intact team—but not always. Sometimes it is best to work with an individual or a couple of people rather than the entire team.
b. Never attempt to resolve an individual performance problem, a team leader issue, or a conflict between two team members in a team setting. Sometimes what is needed is to replace a team member, coach a team leader, or help two team members work through a conflict privately, rather than conducting an intervention that involves the entire team.
c. If you see recurring collaboration and team problems across the business, that’s an indicator that broader organizational conditions may be inhibiting teamwork. It that case, it makes sense to consider more overarching solutions (e.g., to improve the culture, to ensure senior leaders are sending the right signals, to better align human resource practices), rather than continuing to put out fires, one team at time. The diagnostic questions found in Tool C at the back of the book can be helpful when thinking about these broader conditions.
3. Avoid unrealistic expectations about feel-good exercises and experiences such as camping together or learning about each other’s “type.”
a. While it’s okay to arrange a fun event or entertain a team, don’t expect those activities to rectify coordination breakdowns, communication problems, lack of shared cognitions, capability deficiencies, or unfavorable conditions. Similarly, don’t expect an unvalidated personality style exercise to resolve significant team effectiveness challenges.
b. Research shows that it is far more beneficial for team members to become familiar with each other’s work-related competencies, expertise, and knowledge than it is for them to become familiar with each other’s personal lives. Work-related familiarity can boost team performance. Getting people to talk about their personal life is viewed as a fun “go-to” exercise by many facilitators, but it is unlikely to help a team overcome real problems (and it can make some team members feel uncomfortable.)
c. Be careful about finding a “favorite” approach that you end up applying to address most team problems. When all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. One size does not fit all!
4. Build your (and your organization’s) toolkit of evidence-based team interventions.
a. A few of the most effective evidence-based interventions include team debriefing, team training, role clarification, and team chartering. It makes sense to become proficient in those interventions.
b. Be sure you develop your toolkit to include ways to aid individuals (e.g., coaching a team leader), dyads (e.g., resolving a conflict), teams (e.g., leading a debrief), and organizational needs (e.g., reviewing key policies and practices).
5. Teach team leaders how to help their teams adapt and “self-adjust.”
a. The most effective teams adapt over time. You can help them when you’re with them, but you won’t always be there to help. You should prepare team leaders to help their teams self-adjust without you.
b. Look for ways to educate team leaders about the science of teamwork. Be sure they are aware of the seven essential team leadership functions and how to use shared leadership effectively.
c. Teach team leaders about debriefs (including how to run them effectively). Then, facilitate a debrief for them and their team and encourage the leader to conduct the next team debrief on their own. Debriefing is a proven method that enables teams to adapt. The debriefing tool (see Tool B at the back of the book) contains useful tips and an outline for running effective debriefs.
d. When a leader knows what really drives team effectiveness and can lead team debriefs, their team will usually be able to learn and adapt to most challenges without you—and that’s a good thing!
6. Where appropriate, help teams build shared cognitions.
a. Shared cognitions are when team members have a common or complimentary understanding about things like the team’s priorities, team member’s roles, and how to handle certain situations. For example, if you were to ask each team member, “What are your team’s top priorities?” “Who should do what in a particular situation?” or “Who on the team knows the most about X?” would they all provide similar answers? That’s a pretty good diagnostic test you could conduct.
b. You can help teams develop clearer shared cognitions by using direction-setting techniques (e.g., visioning, chartering, premortems), preparation methods (e.g., role clarification exercises, cross-training, scenario-based training), updating approaches (e.g., debriefs and huddles), and assimilation methods (e.g., new member onboarding, new leader assimilation session).
7. Help employees become better team members.
a. Teach them about the behaviors that great team members exhibit (as listed in chapter 13 of this book). Ask them to reflect on those behaviors. Which ones do they currently do well, and which ones could they do better or more often? You can introduce this during employee training or as part of a team development session.
b. Help employees build transportable teamwork skills that they can use throughout their careers, as they move from team to team, including communication, feedback, conflict, interpersonal, and leadership skills (as described in Tool A). Be sure they know it is possible to be both individually excellent and a great team player.
8. Promote the development of psychological safety.
a. Psychological safety is what enables team members to believe they can speak up, seek assistance, provide feedback, ask questions, and share expertise without being judged harshly. A lack of psychological safety is often a root cause of many teamwork problems.
b. Become well-versed in how to build psychological safety and then train/coach team leaders how to develop psychological safety and trust in their teams. This will pay long-term dividends for the leaders and the teams they lead throughout their career.
9. If you work with senior leaders, help them lead the way to better teamwork (or at least not get in the way!).
a. Coach senior leaders on what really drives teamwork and how they can help boost collaboration in the organization (e.g., share the senior leader tips provided in the next chapter!).
b. Encourage them to act and communicate in ways that signal they value teamwork. Consider leading them through an exercise where they identify what they have “done and said” that would indicate they value teamwork and what they have done and said that could be perceived by others as inconsistent with that value.
c. Help senior leadership teams work together more effectively. When they work well together, they make better decisions and produce better results. Equally important, the way the leadership team operates sends a message to others throughout the organization about whether collaboration is the expected norm. Consider leading them through a team debrief.
10. If you’re trying to boost teamwork across the organization, examine relevant organizational policies and practices to ensure the right “conditions” are in place.
a. Examine the organization’s hiring, onboarding, performance management, and rewards practices, as well who tends to get promoted and offered better work assignments. How might these practices and decisions reinforce or inhibit teamwork and collaboration?
b. For example, are job candidates’ teamwork competencies systematically assessed or just their technical expertise? Are the contributions an employee makes to their team evaluated as part of their performance review or just their individual accomplishments? Modify organizational policies and practices, as needed, to better support collaboration and teamwork. Consider using the diagnostic questions found in Tool C at the back of the book.