Learning to work as a team

Working in a group is not just about efficiency

Learning to work as a team is very important. We remind some keys to forming a good team, which allows to make decisions and push forward a common project with a shared sense of purpose. They can be applied to a family, the governing council of a youth club, a pastoral council or a multinational company.

We will look at the characteristics of a functional group, and at personal skills

We have published two articles on truth and opinion, which provide fundamental insights into living joyfully in society, working and relating to others.

Although there are high-performing people who prefer to work alone, such as certain writers or researchers, it is common to work in a team to achieve great goals.

The five characteristics of a good team

A Google study defined five pillars of a good team. Over two years, they conducted more than 200 interviews with employees from 180 active teams. They analysed more than 250 specific characteristics, looking at how to build the perfect team.

They are the following. Each of them includes one question:

1. Psychological safety: Can we take risks on this team without feeling insecure or embarrassed? It is about each member putting forward his or her opinions without hesitation, which increases the effectiveness of teamwork.
2. Dependability: Can we count on each other to do high quality work on time? If members depend on each other, effectiveness is more likely to increase. No one will want to leave a colleague behind.
3. Structure & clarity: Are goals, roles, and execution plans on our team clear? Define tasks and even know what will be done in an unexpected situation. Know the objective of the team and clarify the competencies of each person, without leaving loose threads.
4. Meaning of work: Are we working on something that is personally important for each of us? There is a wide variety of noble motives, such as raising money for good purposes, or for altruism, the desire to leave a better world, to grow as people and as professionals, to transform the world and help discover a transcendent meaning, etc.
5. Impact of work: Do we fundamentally believe that the work we’re doing matters? The greater the predictable impact of what you do, the more effectively the group will work. And impact is not just measurable in financial terms.

Personal characteristics for good teamwork

The Google study showed that the most talented people were not the ones who achieved the best results, but those who knew how to be attentive to others, who were more socially sensitive.

Daniel Goleman, quoting Hatch and Gardner, mentions 4 necessary skills to have charisma, kindness and sympathy. Those who achieve them are able to work well with others. This is part of learning to work as a team.

It has been called interpersonal intelligence or social art:

1. Knowing how to organise groups: the basis of a good leader.
2. Negotiating solutions: acting as a mediator.
3. Achieving a good interpersonal connection: having empathy and connecting, seeking to be good players in a team, good friends, partners or collaborators.
4. Capacity of social analysis: grasp the feelings of others, their motives and concerns, ability to advise competently.

Awareness of one’s own affectivity in the group

People with interpersonal intelligence or social art know and manage their emotions more easily. They do not wear false masks and do not want to look good at all costs. They appreciate the truth about themselves and others. When they enter a group, they observe first and do not seek to impose themselves.

Whatever our acquired character or inherited temperament, there is always time to learn to be kind and conciliatory. A good team is made up of people who strive to resolve conflicts, not to start them. In a good team, everyone strives to be who they are and to help others develop individually.

Numerous accidents at work or disasters involving personal factors could be avoided with a more harmonious way of working. If everyone would learn how to work as a team. The same applies to marital conflicts and decision-making problems in any company or group.

How to contribute to group intelligence

• Daring to give one’s own opinion.
• Genuine interest in what others say.
• Accept criticism, especially if you are the leader.
• Identifying specific points for improvement, without generalisations.
• Offer solutions and open doors.
• Encourage good or constructive criticism that generates hope, without anger or sarcasm.
• Empathetically take charge of others’ feelings.
• Forming a we, which avoids battles of ‘I’ against ‘you’.