The secret to building effective teams

Most would agree that teams are more effective than individual contributors because of their ability to foster collaboration, increase creativity and productivity. But given that many organizations use teams without understanding their dynamics and potential derailers, many ‘top’ teams fail to deliver to their potential. The rise in global virtual teams (GVT) is also thought to have further eroded the effectiveness of teams because of the challenges of geographic dispersion, technology-mediated conversation, time zone, cultural and language differences compared to face-to-face teams.

Will Schutz, a research psychologist, who studied for over 40 years how teams could be effective, particularly under pressure, found two things to be important: team members having technical competence and their ability to work together. Schutz found the more compatible a team was the higher was their productivity. He determined three primary behaviours that describe compatibility in relationships: Inclusion, Control, and Openness. Schutz says that the majority of people need to feel significant, appear competent and be seen as likeable. Most of us also have fears about being ignored, humiliated, and rejected. These core needs and fears impact our behaviours of inclusion, control and openness, and in turn, impact our relationships and overall team effectiveness.

Team effectiveness is reduced when there is rigidity in each member’s needs and preferences. Our significance and that of other peoples, combined with our fears of being ignored will impact on our ability to be inclusive and accept the invitations of others. Our beliefs about our competency and that of other people combined with our fears about being humiliated will impact our ability to take control, set a direction for others as well as allowing others to lead and set a direction for us. Finally, our need to be seen as likeable combined with our fears of being rejected will impact our willingness to trust and be vulnerable with others.

Success in relationships and face-to-face or virtual teams is about how its flexible we can be in situations and with people that are outside of our core preferences. Leaders need to pay attention to group dynamics and take steps to ensure compatibility or fail to realize promised results.