Teams That Work

In the modern workplace, teams have become the fundamental unit of organizational success, yet most struggle to reach their potential. Research reveals that while over 90% of employees believe teams are critical to their organization's success, less than 25% consider their own teams highly effective. This disconnect between aspiration and reality creates immense costs in productivity, innovation, and employee satisfaction.

The challenge isn't that people don't want to work in teams or lack individual talent. Rather, it's that most organizations and leaders operate on intuitive but scientifically unsound assumptions about what drives team effectiveness. Common beliefs like "teams just need to get along better" or "more communication is always better" often lead to well-intentioned but misguided interventions that fail to address root causes. This book presents a research-based framework that identifies the seven evidence-based drivers of team effectiveness, moving beyond myths and assumptions to provide actionable insights grounded in decades of psychological research and real-world observation.

Team effectiveness represents far more than short-term performance metrics or momentary success. True effectiveness encompasses three critical dimensions that distinguish high-performing teams from those that merely function. These dimensions work together to create sustainable excellence rather than fleeting achievements that burn out team members or compromise future capabilities.

The first dimension, sustained performance, focuses on generating positive results over extended periods rather than achieving one-time victories. Teams that demonstrate sustained performance maintain consistent quality and productivity while adapting to changing demands. The second dimension, team resilience, captures the ability to work through challenges, bounce back from adversity, and maintain effectiveness under pressure. Resilient teams don't crumble when facing setbacks but instead learn from difficulties and emerge stronger. The third dimension, vitality, ensures teams maintain the energy, enthusiasm, and resources necessary for continued innovation and growth.

These three dimensions interact dynamically to create what we observe as truly effective teams. A sales team might hit quarterly targets consistently while maintaining high morale and continuously improving their processes. A surgical team might handle complex cases successfully while supporting each other through difficult situations and staying engaged in their work. A software development team might deliver products on schedule while learning from each project and maintaining enthusiasm for new challenges.

The framework of seven drivers emerges from extensive research across diverse team contexts, from corporate boardrooms to hospital operating rooms, from military units to space exploration crews. These drivers represent the fundamental elements that must be present and properly balanced for teams to achieve this three-dimensional effectiveness. Each driver contributes unique value while interconnecting with others to create the conditions for sustained, resilient, and vital team performance.

Capability represents the foundation upon which all team effectiveness rests, encompassing both the individual competencies team members bring and the collective skills they develop together. This driver extends beyond technical expertise to include what researchers call "transportable team competencies" - skills that enhance teamwork regardless of the specific task or context. These include communication abilities, conflict resolution skills, feedback capabilities, and what might be called "teamwork savvy" - an understanding of how teams function effectively.

The relationship between individual talent and team performance proves more complex than simply assembling the most skilled individuals. Research reveals the counterintuitive finding that teams can actually have "too much talent," particularly when members must coordinate closely with one another. When teams become overloaded with stars who are accustomed to individual recognition, internal competition can emerge that undermines collaborative effectiveness. The optimal approach involves ensuring sufficient task-related expertise while balancing individual excellence with collective orientation - the tendency to think "team first" rather than "me first."

Consider a renowned surgical team where each member possesses not only exceptional medical skills but also the ability to communicate clearly under pressure, provide constructive feedback, and adapt to unexpected situations. The anesthesiologist doesn't just excel at managing patient consciousness but also understands how to coordinate timing with the surgeon and communicate concerns effectively. The surgical nurse doesn't just know procedure protocols but also anticipates needs and fills gaps when emergencies arise. This combination of technical mastery and collaborative competency creates capability that exceeds the sum of individual talents.

Cooperation represents the attitudinal foundation that determines whether team members are willing to leverage their capabilities for collective benefit. Four specific forms of cooperation prove particularly critical for team effectiveness. Trust enables team members to accept vulnerability and rely on each other's competence and intentions. Psychological safety creates the belief that speaking up, asking questions, admitting mistakes, and offering dissenting views will not result in punishment or embarrassment. Collective efficacy represents the shared belief that the team can succeed in challenging situations. Cohesion reflects the attraction team members feel toward the team and the work they do together.

These cooperative attitudes emerge from experiences with teammates and can change rapidly based on leader actions, team interactions, and organizational conditions. A single incident where a leader punishes someone for speaking up can quickly erode psychological safety across the entire team. Conversely, when team members consistently follow through on commitments and support each other during difficulties, trust and collective efficacy strengthen over time, creating positive spirals that enhance all aspects of team functioning.

Coordination represents teamwork in action - the observable behaviors that distinguish high-performing teams from groups of individuals working in parallel. Effective coordination encompasses four essential behavioral patterns that enable teams to function as integrated units. Monitoring involves maintaining situational awareness of what's happening within the team and in the external environment that might affect performance. Back-up behaviors include providing support, assistance, or filling in for teammates when needed. Adaptation represents the team's ability to learn from experience and make necessary adjustments to improve performance. Managing emotions and conflict involves handling disagreements constructively and maintaining team morale during challenging periods.

The sophistication of coordination often correlates with team interdependence. Teams where members work relatively independently require basic coordination to avoid interference and share resources efficiently. Teams with moderate interdependence need coordination at specific handoff points and during collaborative tasks. Highly interdependent teams require nearly continuous coordination, with members constantly adjusting their actions based on teammates' behaviors and changing circumstances. Consider an elite restaurant kitchen during peak service, where coordination appears effortless despite complex timing requirements, multiple orders, and changing priorities. Each team member monitors others' progress, steps in to help when needed, adapts to unexpected situations, and maintains focus despite pressure.

Communication serves as the mechanism through which coordination becomes possible, but effectiveness depends on quality rather than quantity. Research consistently shows that "more communication" doesn't necessarily improve team performance. Instead, effective communication focuses on sharing unique information - knowledge that others don't possess but need to perform their roles effectively. This might include situational updates, specialized expertise, or awareness of emerging problems or opportunities.

Closed-loop communication represents a particularly powerful technique for ensuring message accuracy and shared understanding. This approach involves three steps: the initial message, a confirmation or clarification from the receiver, and final verification from the sender. While this might seem time-consuming, research demonstrates that closed-loop communication actually increases task efficiency by preventing misunderstandings that would require correction later. Emergency medical teams use closed-loop communication to ensure critical information transfers accurately despite high-stress conditions. Business teams can apply similar principles to prevent the miscommunications that derail projects and damage relationships.

Shared cognitions represent the mental alignment that enables teams to coordinate effectively, particularly in dynamic or unpredictable situations. When team members possess common understanding about priorities, roles, procedures, and contingencies, they can respond to changing circumstances without extensive communication or explicit coordination. This shared understanding encompasses eight critical areas: vision and goals, priorities, role clarity, procedures and norms, underlying rationale, expertise location, contingency plans, and situational awareness.

The development of shared cognitions requires intentional effort, particularly in teams with changing membership or evolving requirements. Teams can build shared understanding through various approaches including visioning exercises, role clarification sessions, scenario-based training, and regular debriefs that help members align their perspectives based on recent experiences. Professional familiarity - knowing teammates' work-related strengths, preferences, and expertise - proves more valuable for team performance than personal familiarity or social relationships.

Consider how an experienced flight crew can handle an emergency with minimal verbal communication because they share deep understanding about roles, procedures, priorities, and decision-making authority. Each crew member knows not only their own responsibilities but also how their actions affect others and what to expect from teammates in various scenarios. This shared cognitive foundation enables rapid, coordinated responses even when facing unprecedented challenges.

Conditions represent the environmental factors that either support or constrain team effectiveness. These operate at multiple levels, from broad organizational policies and practices to team-specific resources and constraints. Organizational conditions include hiring practices that emphasize teamwork competencies, performance management systems that recognize collaborative contributions, and leadership behaviors that model cooperation and psychological safety. Teams also operate within local conditions including resource availability, time pressures, decision-making authority, and mission clarity.

The power of conditions lies in their ability to send signals about what behaviors are truly valued versus what is merely espoused. When organizations promote individualistic stars while overlooking collaborative contributors, team members learn that cooperation may be nice but isn't necessary for advancement. When teams lack adequate resources or decision-making authority, members may become frustrated and disengaged despite good intentions. Conversely, when conditions align to support and reward teamwork, even individuals who aren't naturally collaborative often modify their behavior to meet environmental expectations.

Leadership represents the catalyst that activates and sustains the other drivers of team effectiveness. Effective team leadership involves ensuring that teams possess adequate capabilities, maintain cooperative attitudes, demonstrate coordinated behaviors, communicate effectively, develop shared understanding, and operate within supportive conditions. This comprehensive responsibility extends beyond traditional management activities to encompass what might be called "team coaching" - helping teams develop the capacity to function effectively and adapt continuously.

Seven essential leadership functions must be fulfilled for teams to reach their potential, though these functions needn't all be performed by the formal leader. Task-focused functions include ensuring clarity and alignment around goals and roles, holding team members accountable for both individual and collective responsibilities, and removing obstacles while garnering necessary support and resources. Team-focused functions involve managing emotions and attitudes to maintain morale and motivation, fostering psychological safety that enables open communication and learning, and encouraging participation and empowerment so team members take ownership for collective success.

The seventh function, promoting learning and adaptation, bridges task and team concerns by ensuring both individual development and collective improvement over time. This involves creating opportunities for reflection and feedback, facilitating team debriefs that identify lessons learned, and encouraging experimentation with new approaches. Teams that master this function become self-improving systems that continuously enhance their effectiveness.

Shared leadership emerges as teams mature and develop distributed expertise about leading different aspects of team functioning. Rather than replacing formal leadership, shared leadership supplements it by enabling team members to step up and provide leadership in areas where they have particular expertise or when the formal leader isn't available. This approach proves especially valuable in complex, dynamic environments where no single person can monitor all aspects of team performance and respond to all emerging needs.

The most effective team leaders combine inspirational vision with practical support, challenging team members to achieve ambitious goals while removing barriers to their success. They model the behaviors they expect from the team, admit their own mistakes and limitations, and demonstrate genuine concern for team members' development and success. This combination of transformational inspiration and servant-minded support creates the conditions where teams can achieve sustained high performance while maintaining vitality and resilience.

High-performing teams emerge not from chemistry or luck, but from the systematic presence and interaction of seven research-based drivers that create the conditions for sustained excellence, resilience, and vitality.

The framework reveals that team effectiveness represents a complex system where capabilities provide the foundation, cooperation supplies the motivational fuel, coordination enables action, communication facilitates alignment, shared cognitions allow for seamless integration, supportive conditions create the environment for success, and leadership serves as the catalyst that activates and sustains all other elements. Understanding these drivers empowers leaders and team members to move beyond intuition and popular myths toward evidence-based practices that consistently produce exceptional team performance across diverse contexts and challenges.