Successful Teams

Originally published on my other blog.

One of the lessons I've taken away from the last few years of my life is that I can't – and I don't want to – do everything. Success comes as collaboration for me, because I have some weaknesses: I tend towards shy and awkward. I'm not as direct as I sometimes need to be. I'm a sharp thinker and problem solver, but then, people don't necessarily open up to me about their problems because of my natural disposition towards, um, both shyness and sharpness. Some things I can change and sway a bit, somethings I can get better at...but I can't be good at everything. In fact, I am always going to suck at some things. Small talk comes to mind.

Recently, I've been a little preoccupied with the idea of teams and collaboration and the question of: What makes a great team? I've seen and been part of some really crappy teams in the past year. For much of my life, I guess, I was fortunate to be on good teams. Or maybe I was so absorbed with myself and my own self-improvement that I didn't spend much time thinking about the connections around me. So when the tables turned, and I either found myself on really bad teams (or started noticing people besides myself), I started thinking A LOT about group dynamics.

This book: The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, by Daniel Coyle, is amazing. The name is slightly off from the topic of the book. This is NOT a book about culture, this is a book about groupsand teams. Subsequently, I forget the title ALL THE TIME. I finally took a photo of the cover. And now, when I start talking about the book, I grab my phone and show the person I am talking to the cover of the book and say, "Read this! It's great."

The secret of successful groups or teams, per the The Culture Code, are feeling connected, sharing a future, and feeling safe. These seem like no-brainers, and yet, at the same time, given the speed of turnover in the corporate world in the last 20 years, one can see how it would be really difficult for many employees to feel affirmative about sharing a future and their safety in their current work situation. Those negative feelings undermine their ability to be part of a really successful team.

The book is a great resource for thinking about how to correct course. I plan to purchase my own copy: highlight it, dog-ear it, and keep it next to my desk at work – it was that good.