Building Effective Teams



While successful culture can look and feel like magic, the truth is that it’s not. Culture is a set of living relationships working toward a shared goal. It’s not something you are. It’s something you do.” (Daniel Coyle)
Why do some teams seem to get along and work well together while others breed chaos and distrust? And why is having a good, well-functioning team so rare?
In his fascinating book “The Culture Code” Daniel Coyle explores how to create successful teams. He boils it down to three main elements:
  1. Build safety: team members forge bonds of belonging and identity.
  2. Share vulnerability: team members develop habits of mutual risk which drives trusting cooperation.
  3. Establish purpose: team members develop shared goals and values.
Organizations seem to invest time and money trying to bring in the brightest people and yet, once they do, they don’t invest the time and resources to enable them to succeed. Building effective teams doesn’t happen overnight, isn’t automatic nor a product of simply bringing ‘smart’ people together. It takes time because we, humans, need time to build trust with others. It requires concerted effort because each team member has to do something uncomfortable and counterintuitive - be vulnerable, show weakness, swallow his or her ego.
To all the CEOs and C-suite executives out there: if you want your organization to succeed, invest the time and energy to take these seemingly simple steps:
  1. Create psychological safety across the board (and it starts with you).
  2. Share YOUR vulnerability to model for your staff that being vulnerable, acknowledging mistakes, seeking feedback and ideas  is not only okay, but it’s paramount to the organization’s success.
  3. Establish common purpose, but not by directing it from above and expecting everyone to fall in line. Take the time to learn about your people, their motivations and passions and let a shared purpose emerge.
To everyone else out there who is currently stuck on a dysfunctional team: don’t tolerate it, it doesn’t have to be that way. Don’t wait for the ‘team leader’ (or Director or whoever) to address lingering problems. Take initiative - you can be a team leader without being theteam leader. (How? That’ll be the topic of a different blog post.) And if that doesn’t work, then leave! You deserve better.  
What’s ONE thing you can do today to improve your team? Please share in the comments below.
Zarko Palankov is a relator, thinker and builder. He seeks ways to connect ideas, people and organizations, to create platforms for learning, collaboration and growth, and to fundamentally change the leadership paradigm: how we work together toward a common vision. He is currently building a social venture, LeadIN, whose mission is to enable you to become the leader you are. LeadIN brings people together to learn, share, and grow their leadership.
Follow Zarkoon Twitter @zarkopalankov.

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