Teams: The Answer to Uncertainty, Sometimes.
“Teamwork makes the dream work.” - John Maxwell
“Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you’re part of a team.” - Tegan and Sara
“I have no question that a team can generate magic. But don't count on it.” - J. Richard Hackman
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I love teams, but I’m with Hackman on this one. Teams are not, and should not be thought of as, a panacea for all problems. So, where do we go from here?
I was recently asked to facilitate an interactive virtual session titled “Team Leadership in Times of Uncertainty” as part of HEC Paris’ “RESKILL” series. You can watch the replay here and read a recap here. This topic hits near and dear to me because (a) I love watching teams do great things; (b) I’ve spent so much of my professional life studying and writing about teams (e.g., dissertation, book, multiple scholarly articles); and (c) I am increasingly convinced teams are overused and, related, misapplied.
To the latter, I encourage—no, implore—anyone that is thinking about throwing a team at a problem to first ask themselves the following questions:
1. Do I really need a team? We all know teams can do great things thanks in part to synergies, or what I sometimes call “collaboration gains.” For evidence, just look at the annual NCAA basketball tournament—you pick the year. While the favorites sometimes win the whole thing, there’s always cases where a team of individual underdogs comes together to beat a team of great individual players. But what we often fail to think about is that all teams…every. single. one…come at the expense of process losses, or what I refer to as the “coordination tax.” This is the time, frustration, energy, and whatever else that comes from having to coordinate schedules, share resources, work through conflict, and so on. The equation is simple from here: If your coordination tax outweighs your potential collaboration gains, don’t use a team. A group of individuals will do, and there’s no shame in that!
Note that a team’s coordination tax varies across teams, but it does so in some predictable ways. First, the tax is especially burdensome when you have a task that is not easily managed by a team, such as one that is too small or simple. So, make sure you’ve got something meaty enough before putting together a team (we wrote about this in 3D Team Leadership, but I also really like the “axis of frustration” idea discussed here). Likewise, the tax is higher when you’ve got prospective members that don’t have experience working with others or simply don’t want to (side: did you know that the local soccer…er, football…club here in Paris—PSG—has Neymar, Mbappe, and Messi and still can’t get out of the Round of 16 in the Champion’s League?).
2. Am I prepared to spend enough up-front time on design? Great teams are a function of design and coaching. Although most clients/students like to focus on coaching more (this is what all of those airport leadership books focus on!), design should be the first priority. In the case of teams, design is about things like setting a compelling vision, crafting goals that make sense, providing feedback, and, of course, composing a team with people that can get the job done. Classic research by Ruth Wageman suggests that a good design can cover for mediocre coaching, but even the best coaching will struggle to overcome a poor design. The point is not to shirk on the design steps, no matter how urgent the problem seems to be (think also about the proverb “if you want to go fast, go alone…if you want to go far, go together.”)
3. Do I have the patience (and people) to build hard-won trust in a team? Trust is the glue that keeps teams together. It captures, in basic terms, our willingness to be vulnerable to others. As evidence of how important I think trust is, consider this: I said “trust” 38 times (at least!) in my RESKILL class. Moreover, recent surveys indicate that when engaged employees trust their management highly, they are 50% more productive, they devote 106% more energy to their task and they have 13% fewer sick days! Although new teams sometimes look like they’ve got trust built in (a phenomenon called “swift trust”), this is typically a mirage and falls apart at the first sign of stress. When teaching trust to my students, and when designing programs to help leaders build trust, I borrow heavily from Frances Frei’s trust triangle, which argues that people trust people they believe are authentic, well-reasoned (Frei calls this logic), and empathetic. Anytime there’s a breakdown in trust, you can usually trace it back to a deficiency in at least one of these three corners of the triangle.
If you answered yes to all three of these questions, it sounds like you’ve met the prerequisites to build, and then lead, a team! Now, the hard work fun starts…
While there’s certainly no one-sized-fits-all model of team leadership and we could go on for pages about what to do next (and I have co-written a book with hundreds of pages on this if you’re interested!), here are 5 behaviors that I can endorse to anyone trying to lead a team through today’s uncertainty and complexity:
Drive clarity. There’s a great quote by Bob Johansen that says “the future will reward clarity, but punish certainty.” This is gold for team leaders. One of your main jobs is to help your team ruthlessly prioritize and avoid distractions. You don’t have to tell them exactly how to climb the mountain in front of you, but you do need to keep them focused on the right mountain!
Share strategic information. Some leaders view this as a burden or want to protect their power. Nonsense—teams need to know what’s happening if you expect them to operate with intention and not just follow SOPs.
Create a regular check-in process, both at the team and individual level. Want to avoid death by meeting, for sure, but regular communication is key. Research also shows that for complex issues, richer communication modes are better. So, don’t let intermittent emails become a substitute for deeper work exchanges. It’s not just about the work, either. Positive relationships between members are also important!
Make learning a priority. Use after action reviews early and often—and don’t fall into the trap of only learning from failures or shortcomings! We make fundamental attribution errors all the time that prevent us from seeing opportunities to learn from our successes (e.g., we assume we succeeded due to our own skill instead of getting a few lucky breaks, then act surprised when our “skill” isn’t enough for the next challenge). Regular debriefs and even “pre-mortems” can help us avoid these traps.
Role model and enforce what you want to see. Speak up, respectfully challenge others, accept tough feedback, and be kind. We cast long shadow as leaders, so it’s on use to set the tone for how our team functions.
