Despite being apart from our teammates and colleagues for large parts of the Covid-19 crisis, teams remain fundamentally important to the modern workplace.
A study from a few years ago suggests that the key to successful teamwork is what they call ‘information elaboration’ discussions.
These are conversations whereby information is freely exchanged, ideas are shared and people feel confident in giving feedback on the perspectives of others, with the group then building this feedback into future behaviors. The researchers suggest this is the holy grail of teamwork and will allow specialized, cross-functional teams to truly capitalize on the diverse skills and knowledge within the team.
Trusted teams
During Covid, however, we’ve been looking for more than purely well functioning teams and have been striving for much deeper relationships that furnish our wellbeing as well as our productivity. In their latest book Work Better Together, Deloitte’s Jen Fisher and Ahn Phillips argue that we can tell whether our teams have such a strong bedrock by asking ourselves three key questions:
- Is diversity of thought valued in my group? Is groupthink a habit in our team, or are we frequently seeking out new and different ways of solving our problems?
- Can I share my own perspectives? Is it possible for me to share a creative idea or a point of view that differs from the remainder of the group?
- Do I feel those I work with care about my wellbeing? Fisher and Phillips argue that the very best teams truly care for one another and will always have each others backs.
“People who answer an emphatic yes! to these three questions feel like they belong, which is the opposite of alienation and detachment”, they write. “When you feel you belong because of your unique set of skills and temperament, rather than in spite of them, you are in a group with the potential to perform well. People who feel they belong are psychological stakeholders in their shared success.”
How does your own team score on those three questions? Do you feel it helps to underpin or undermine your success as a group?
