The 5 Characteristics of Effective Work Teams |
Research on productive teams reveals five key characteristics.
The most important factor for team functioning is psychological trust.
Each of the five pillars of effective teams can be facilitated by both leaders and individual team members.
Determining the recipe for successful work teams is big business, as a lot is at stake. Is the key having the right set of members based on their skills or personalities? Is the primary driver of team effectiveness the environment in which teams operate? Is the secret having a dynamic leader?
From 2012 to 2014, Google applied its massive resources to study its own organization to determine the characteristics of strong teams. The results revealed that who is on a team is not nearly as important as the team members’ behaviors, attitudes, and ways of working together.
The results boiled down to five key characteristics for highly effective teams.
1. Psychological Safety
The most important characteristic was that team members felt safe to challenge each other, object, share ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks. This is psychological safety—the perception that you can be yourself, engage in creative conflict, and be vulnerable, all without fear of negative consequences. It also means freedom from ridicule, finger-pointing, or disrespect.
Subsequent and ongoing research on teams confirms that psychological safety is the foundation for successful teams.
On strong teams, the members have reputations for being dependable. People conscientiously complete the work they’re responsible for in a reliable and timely manner. As a result, team members perceive fairness in the sense that all team members are pulling their weight.
3. Structure and Clarity
Understanding job expectations, the process for fulfilling these expectations, and the consequences of one’s performance are important for team effectiveness.
This requires clear communication and useful feedback. Goals can be set at the individual or group level, and must be specific, challenging, and attainable.
On strong teams, members perceive that their work is meaningful. That is, the work is personally significant or fulfilling in some way. It’s not that the work is necessarily enjoyable, but doing the work meets at least some personal needs.
For example, meaning from work could result from feeling valued by the team, taking pride in one’s work, expressing one’s creativity, or supporting one’s family financially.
Members of effective teams can see the positive impact of their work, on other people, the organization, or society generally. It’s not necessary that the teams’ work is viewed as changing the world, but it is important that it’s seen as making a positive difference.
What you can do to improve your team
Regardless of whether you are the team manager or leader, or “just” a team member, consider sharing this post with your team to initiate a conversation. Improving in each of these five domains requires initial and sustained group effort.
For managers and leaders, you have the responsibility of setting the culture. Establishing and maintaining psychological safety and dependability requires holding your team accountable. This doesn’t mean you have to be punitive or critical, but make your expectations clear and then administer appropriate consequences each time an individual violates them.
As team members see that those who treat others in unproductive and uncivil ways will be called out, their sense of psychological safety increases. As people witness that those who don't pull their weight will be addressed directly, everyone feels a greater sense of fairness and accountability.
As a manager or leader, be clear in job descriptions for both ongoing operations and specific projects. Make sure everyone knows the goals, processes, and metrics for evaluation by asking each person to describe their understanding of them. Only then will you have the opportunity to discover gaps and misunderstandings that prevent the entire team from operating from the same playbook.
For meaning and impact, ensure that each team member has a clear line of sight from their specific roles to the goals and eventual outcomes of the organization. Recognize individuals’ strengths and interests and align their roles as much as possible. Express appreciation for the unique contributions of each team member, celebrate successes, and continually remind the team of the “why” behind their work.
If you are not a manager or leader of the team, you can still model dependability and the conditions that are required for psychological safety. Then, to the extent that you feel able, you might gently confront teammates when they behave in ways that violate dependability and psychological safety.
As for clarity of roles, goals, and processes, you can request such information from your manager or leader, doing so in the spirit of self-improvement through understanding (rather than coming across as cynical or critical). Check out your perceptions and understanding of roles, goals, and processes with your teammates and leader, helping to ensure that the team functions at a higher level.
Last, with regard to meaning and impact, consider engaging in job crafting, a process I explain here. If you’re not sure how your work fits into the grander scheme, inquire. Then remind yourself frequently as to why you perform your work—both what you get out of it and how it benefits a larger cause.
Figuring out the factors that result in great teams isn’t rocket science, but achieving each of those five factors requires intentionality and sustained effort. Like any positive outcome, success results from knowledge leading to action. What’s your first step to improve your team?