Why Some Teams Perform. And Others Falter.

Have you ever wondered why some work groups display effective teamwork and other teams are dysfunctional? Why are some teams highly performing, are charged up with energy, and love to go for the impossible? And then there are teams which struggle, are without direction and agenda, and get lost in bureaucratic processes versus flourishing on entrepreneurship? I′ve been thinking about it a lot lately. As a result, I conducted both desk and field research.

The main findings are summarized in this article which looks closer at some progressive ways of how teams could be led and operate in a successful and growth-generating manner; with an additional focus on virtual teams in the final paragraph.

5 Characteristics of Successful Teams

Let′s start with Google′s five-year study which analyzed why some teams excel and others falter, also known as Project Aristotle. The final paper arrived at the conclusion that it′s not enough to bring talented people together. Instead, a successful team features a combination of five intangible characteristics to ensure the team works well together: (i) Psychological Safety; (ii) Dependability; (iii) Structure & Clarity; (iv) Meaning; and (v) Impact. A beautiful and powerful combination. Would you have expected that outcome? 

Shared Leadership rocks

Solansky (2008), from a leadership perspective, argues that teams with shared leadership have multiple advantages over teams that take a more traditional approach by relying on a single leader. The combination of talents and interests of several individuals will likely increase a team’s success, because greater resources are being devoted to the leadership function.

Teaming sizzles

When organizations need to accomplish something that hasn’t been done before, then - in the opinion of Edmondson (2012) - traditional team structures aren’t practical any longer. Instead, she postulates that in such situations it′s not possible to identify the right skills and knowledge in advance and that a leader’s emphasis has to rather shift from composing and managing teams to inspiring and enabling what she calls teaming.

Edmondson defines teaming as flexible teamwork which gathers experts from far-flung divisions and disciplines into temporary groups to tackle unexpected challenges.

I like a lot that she calls out that teaming needs to encompass both hardware and software elements to be successful. Hardware means that leaders need to manage the technical issues of tasks by scoping out the challenge, structuring the boundaries, and sorting tasks for execution. The software of teaming asks people to get comfortable with a new way of working rather than with a new set of colleagues. According to Edmondson, leaders have at their disposal four software tools in order to establish a much needed trust basis among all new team members: emphasizing purpose, building psychological safety, embracing failure, and putting conflict to work.

Psychological Contracts and Effective Ground Rules ignite

Sverdrup and Schei (2015), by following Rousseau′s (1989) concept of the psychological contract, introduce a new form of a horizontal, psychological contract, i.e. a contract between employees. Based on their research, teams have been found to benefit from establishing some ground rules by using team charters in the initial phase of teamwork. Their findings show that team members develop expectations tied to work quality and work effort. And that teams vary with respect to how explicitly expectations were clarified, the level of tolerance that each team developed in terms of psychological contracts, and whether they perceived breaches or fulfillment to these expectations.

They explained that teams that were explicit about their expectations to each other, as well as cutting each other some slack, perceived fewer breaches and functioned better than teams with implicit and rigid psychological contracts.

Working in Virtual Teams stimulates

When it comes to virtual teams, Siebdrat et al (2009) found that virtual teams offer tremendous opportunities despite their greater managerial challenges. In fact, with the appropriate processes in place, they claim that dispersed teams can significantly outperform their colocated counterparts. In their opinion, managers can take advantage of virtual teams by assembling employees from different locations to integrate different pools of expertise to perform a particular task. In addition, organizations can take advantage of higher levels of diversity versus colocated teams. To succeed, however, virtual teams need to be mindful not to underestimate the complexity of virtual team work, to pay special attention to task-related processes (to leverage the specialized knowledge and expertise of our group members), to focus on using and developing social skills of our group members, to stress the relevance of self-sufficiency, and to ensure regular and close communication (e.g. joint weekly video conference).

As Ferrazzi (2014) points out, for example, a set of special rules for video conferencing helps to realize common targets in a productive and at the same time joyful manner. As such, a personal and professional check in at the beginning of meetings will make group members feel part of the team, reminding each other to avoid multi-tasking during the video call assists to ensure that we′re all focused and mentally present, and stressing that all discussed topics remain confidential as well as speaking with candor is not only okay, but highly appreciated in the group.

What are the characteristics of successful team you have been on? Are there any clear attributes in your opinion? Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us by leaving a comment below.

Slideshare Presentation - Characteristics of a Successful Team (by Andreas von der Heydt)

Thanks,

Andreas von der Heydt

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Andreas von der Heydt is Director of Talent Acquisition & Recruiting at Amazon. Before he held various senior management positions at Amazon and L'Oréal. He's a leadership expert and management coach. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Currently he lives with his wife and daughters in Seattle, USA. Andreas enjoys blogging as a private person here on LinkedIn about various exciting topics. His latest book is about what makes a future leader. All statements made, opinions expressed, etc. in his articles only reflect his personal opinion.

Click 'Follow' if you would like to hear more from Andreas in the future. Feel free to also connect via his LinkedIN Group Coaching or Consumer Goods, or via Twitter or Slideshare. Or tune in to his podcast "Leadership XXL" either on Soundcloud or iTunes.

Other recent and popular articles by Andreas:

The Birth and Influence of Organization Theory

Coaching Mind Map – 8 Dimensions of Successful Coaching

11 Theses on the Future of Education and Learning

photo: istockphoto.com

References

Edmondson, A. (2012). Teamwork on the fly. Harvard Business Review, 90(4), 72-80.

Ferrazzi, K. (2014). Getting virtual teams right. Harvard Business Review, 92(12), 120-123.

Duhigg, C. (2016). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html?smid=pl-share 

Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal, 2, 121-139.

Siebdrat, Frank, Hoegl, Martin, & Ernst, Holger. (2009). How to manage virtual teams. MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(4), 63-68.

Solansky, S. (2008). Leadership style and team processes in self-managed teams. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 14(4), 332-341.

Sverdrup, T., & Schei, V. (2015). “Cut me some slack”: The psychological contracts as a foundation for understanding team charters. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 51(4), 451-478.

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