by Tyler Reimschisel, MD
Welcome back to our new academic year! I hope you had time to relax and rejuvenate over the summer.
As we restart the Tips for High-Impact Teamwork series, I want to clarify that the purpose of this series is to discuss teamwork topics that will help individuals, leaders, and teams achieve higher impact through effective teamwork.
What is a high-impact team? Based on the work of my friend and colleague Tony Lingham, high-impact teams have several characteristics (Lingham and Richley 2019):
- At the level of the individual team member, high-impact teams are composed of individuals who are effectively contributing to the task-oriented work of the team.
- They are “pulling their own weight” to complete their roles and responsibilities on the team’s tasks.
- They are also contributing cognitively to the team by being critical thinkers and helping the team solve problems.
It is also helpful to have at least a few members on the team who have a team-oriented mindset (Tannenbaum and Salas 2021). These individuals are team savvy—they sense what drives team effectiveness and can effectively perceive how the team is doing as an entity in and of itself (Morgeson 2005). They also have a collective orientation by putting the well-being of the team ahead of their interests and the interests of any single member of the team (Bell 2018).
Team-oriented individuals also manifest adaptability or a willingness and ability to adjust to change for the benefit of the team and its work (Tannenbaum and Salas 2021). They are conscientious by being dependable and organized. Lastly, they contribute to the team through their agreeableness as they exhibit trusting, helping and cooperative behaviors instead of competitive or suspicious behaviors. How about you?
Are you a team-oriented member of your teams? What specific actions can you take to improve your team savviness, collective orientation, adaptability, conscientiousness and agreeableness?
Next, at the level of the team itself, high-impact teams have both high functionality and high productivity. A high level of functionality means the internal dynamics of how team members interact with one another within the team is of the best quality. Their communication, interpersonal relationships and connections are excellent. In addition, high productivity relates to the team’s outcomes, output and deliverables. In high-impact teams, these services and supports are also of the best quality.
Finally, at the level of the systems within which the team works, high-impact teams have a positive influence on the organizations they represent and engage with. High-impact teams are certainly affected by the systems they work within and, at the same time, high-impact teams act as positive change agents within those same systems. They may not be able to fully alter the work environment or culture, but they definitely move the work ecosystem in a positive direction.
High-impact teamwork requires effectiveness at the individual, team and system levels. As you consider the various teams that you are a member or leader of, I encourage you to use this conceptual framework as a lens to assess the impact of your teams.
- How are you and other individual members of the team contributing to the work of the team?
- Who is team-oriented and what can you do to improve your team-oriented skills?
- How is the team functioning internally as you work on your team’s deliverables?
- How productive is your team?
- And lastly, is your team making a meaningful and beneficial impact on the systems you work within?
I think this framework provides several excellent questions to consider as you reflect on your team, and I encourage you to talk through them as a team to help build a shared mental model and team cohesion.
As I conclude today’s article, I wanted to let you know that this fall I plan to explore a critical aspect of effective teamwork—emotions and emotional regulation. We will begin by reviewing the dimensions of emotional intelligence and then focus specifically on the mindset and skills of emotional regulation. To build on the topics we discussed earlier this spring, we will investigate the research of Lisa Feldman Barrett as we learn:
- How emotions are constructed in our brains instead of being objective, hard-wired realities;
- How emotional realism is an example of naïve realism; and,
- The ways our illusion of insight causes us to misperceive emotions in ourselves and others.
I will introduce Susan David’s concept of emotional agility and how it can help us be better team members. We will review behavioral activation, how the connection between motivation and behavior is a cycle not a unidirectional cause and effect, and how changing our behaviors can lead to a change in our motivation and mood. Along the way, we will consider helpful techniques, strategies and approaches that we can use to regulate our emotions in order to manage them instead of letting them appear to control us. I am excited to learn with you as we explore these topics!
You can access previous articles in this series by visiting the Tips for High-Impact Teamwork page. If there are comments that you have about my articles, topics you would like to read about in this series or questions you have about teamwork, please contact me at tyler.reimschisel@case.edu.
Our office also offers teamwork workshops, retreats and team coaching. You can learn more about these services by visiting our Team Education and Coaching Service page.
References:
Bell ST et al. “Team composition and the ABCs of teamwork”. American Psych 2018;73:349-360.
Lingham T and Richley B. High-Impact Engagement: A Two-Phase Approach for Individual and Team Development. iUniverse, 2018.
Morgeson FP et al. “Selecting individuals in team settings”. Personnel Psych 2005;55:583-611.
Tannenbaum S and Salas E. Teams That Work. Oxford, 2021:52-53.