Best Team Ever: The Surprising Science of High-Performing Teams

We know we need to build the best team we can, but many of us still wonder how.

Consider starting a few public displays of appreciation on your team. This could be a weekly ritual at the end of a meeting where each person says thanks to someone else (and pay attention: you want to make sure everyone receives at least one kudos). It could also be by creating a “Weekly Praise” email or communication channel where members share w

And, while they may use different terms to describe them, all assert that high-performing team cultures share three fundamental elements: Common Understanding, Psychological Safety, and Prosocial Purpose. Common understanding happens when team members understand the team’s expertise, assigned tasks, context, and preferences. Psychological Safety bu

Instead, psychological safety happens when teams develop norms of behavior that allow productive, task-focused conflict without devolving

Kaiser Permanente, and even the Savannah Bananas suggests it isn’t just that individuals want to know they’re working for a firm that makes an impact on others—they want to know how they and their team are making an impact. The best-performing teams don’t ask individuals to join the organizational purpose; they exist in organizations willing to hel

But surprisingly, what drove the majority of employees’ perceptions of purpose wasn’t senior leadership, but rather middle managers discussing and emphasizing purpose. The survey was a 500,000-person, multiple-company replication of what KPMG found internally after implementing their “10,000 Stories Challenge.”72 All of this research, plus examples

If you’d like to make after-action reviews a more frequent, less formal ritual for yourself or your team, consider a short, two-question version that can be done after every meeting or workday: What worked well? What would be even better?

Teams work best when they understand how each individual works best.

It may seem that the more clarity you have, the less your team needs to communicate. It’s assumed collaboration will suffer. But role clarity doesn’t diminish collaboration. In fact, research suggests the opposite.