Few Australians will forget July 2023. The nation was united and excited by the fortunes of a single sporting team in a way that we haven’t been for decades. The team, of course, was the national women’s soccer team, the Matildas. Even those who usually ignore all sport found themselves drawn to this group and their progress through the Women’s World Cup tournament of 2023.
There was something magic about this team as a group, a magic that drew them deep into the tournament despite injuries and upsets along the way. The whole country wanted to be part of it.
Have you ever been a part of a team like that? Okay, probably not in the sense of playing football in front of 75,000 people – few of us get that opportunity. But on a smaller scale, have you been a member of a team – in work or in leisure – that was so connected, aligned and effective that you felt carried along by simply being a part of it? A team in which doing the job was as much fun as it was effort.
The magic of the truly effective team is something that has fascinated us in our work for many years. We’ve gradually developed and refined our understanding of what it is that underpins effective teams, and how they can be built.
We believe that building team effectiveness is all about the alignment of purpose, effort, trust and impact. It is also about co-creating work environments and team cultures that balance consistency, diversity, performance and well-being.
While that might sound complicated – especially with the complex challenges so many teams are facing at the moment – the reality is that there are just a few key factors that make all the difference and have the most significant impact on a team’s success.
We’ve worked with hundreds of leaders and teams over the years, and through this work we have been able to identify those factors that have the greatest influence on team effectiveness. We have distilled them into three areas that make up our Ikigai Leading Team Effectiveness Model: Clarity, Trust and Impact.
Let’s have a look at each of these in turn.
Clarity
Effective teams have clarity. A team is more likely to connect and commit to an organisation if they understand and relate to its strategic direction and higher purpose. It is critical that teams can see how their contribution supports this bigger picture.
There’s an excellent documentary series about the Matildas and the two or three years of build up to the World Cup. One thing that stands out in that story is their crystal clear focus on the big one – the World Cup tournament. That clarity helped them deal with setbacks along the way without panic or overreaction.
That’s the power of clarity. Team members who have clarity about both their individual and shared roles, responsibilities and goals tend to be more aligned and perform more effectively as a team. This minimises duplication of effort, gaps and surprises.
Trust
Team effectiveness is always built on mutual trust. However, trust isn’t something that can just be switched on like a light. It takes time to build. Trust is cultivated when a team takes the time to get to know each other, build relationships and establish agreed ways of working together.
Like all national football teams, the Matildas have very few opportunities to train and play together. Building and maintaining trust can often be a challenge, though in the Matildas case, intentional time dedicated within the training camps, coupled with many of the core players having played together since they were teenagers, enabled their trust to be deep and long held.
Higher levels of team trust foster psychological safety and inclusion. This supports people to speak up, to ask questions, to take appropriate risks and to make suggestions without fear of retribution. Trust also creates goodwill and minimises miscommunication, allowing us to view others through a more well-intentioned lens.
Impact
Effective teams have clear and agreed ways of understanding the impact of their work. They measure and monitor their impact through agreed measures of success, regularly engaging, communicating with and seeking feedback from critical stakeholders and partners.
This can be easier for sporting teams – for which the scoreboard provides an obvious measure –than it can in the workplace. However that makes understanding impact even more important in the workplace.
A team that understands the impact of their work can be reassured, energised and engaged by the value they add. Knowing what is most impactful in what and how we operate also helps us prioritise and adapt.
Effective teams draw the very best from each of their members, creating something that is so much greater than the sum of their parts. However, they are surprisingly rare. Building an effective team requires investment of time and energy. The good news is that building awesome teams is very doable.
As you reflect on this month’s Blog on Team Effectiveness , we invite you to consider the following questions relating to your experience working in teams – in the work arena and beyond:
- Think about a time when you worked in a team that lacked clarity? What was the impact on the team’s morale and performance? What was absent that could have increased the level of clarity?
- When have you worked in a team with a high level of trust? How was trust developed and maintained? What impact did trust have on the effectiveness of the team?
- Think about which team you’ve been a part of that made a significant impact? How was the impact measured and made visible? How did the shared understanding of impact influence the team’s morale, behaviours and performance?
Source Image: LittleBlinky at Flickr.com
