How Great Teams Can Transform an Organization

Tell us about the most surprising research findings.
This 350,000-person survey was conducted by the Best Companies Group, the organization that puts out many of the Best Places to Work lists. We found 10 characteristics of great teams, including clear goal-setting, brutally honest communication, greater levels of cheering for each other, and so on. When these characteristics were in place, almost 90 percent of the team was highly engaged in its work. When the characteristics weren't present, only four percent of employees were giving their all to their work. It was a startling discovery.

Why did you choose the term "breakthrough" to define the ideal workplace team?
Every organization has these departments or teams that redefine the work world around them. You can probably think of one great team in your association, a place that staff hopes to join, a team that produces exceptional results. These breakthrough teams changed the way business was done for not only their company, but for entire industries. These teams broke through so many hurdles, from people inside telling them they couldn't do it to the press of other responsibilities to a lack of resources. We found there were no great companies, just great teams. The more breakthrough teams you can have, the better your organization will be.

What is the most typical roadblock to breakthrough team performance?
Most teams amble along in mediocrity because they simply don't know how to work together more effectively. The title of "team" has been thrust upon our groups and departments, but in reality most of us are simply individuals working together. The great teams we studied took pains to gather individuals with personal competence, but as we see with athletic dream teams that fail, they knew that is not enough. The great teams then accelerate all they are doing by agreeing on a set of guiding principles and rigorously operating under those canons. We culled the three most common into what we call the Rule of Three: Wow (seeking world-class results); No Surprises (brutal honesty and openness); and Cheer (an atmosphere of rooting for each other and recognition).

Great teams focus on delivering world-class results (wow). This is essential because we are all judged on what we achieve. Breakthrough team members are honest with each other; in fact their communication is candid and frequent, creating much stronger trust levels. Great teams are much more supportive of each other than average or poor teams. In short, they have each others' backs and they recognize each other. When these three rules are lived, powerful results and team camaraderie are created. If you aren't willing to do what it takes to work together effectively, you'll never be great.

Why is this relevant today?
We all hear the phrase "in this economy" so often we could scream, so we won't say it. The point is, we are all seeking a competitive advantage. The advantage you have lies with your people. We speak with dozens of CEOs each year. All of them, when pushed, will admit their strategies, products, and services are actually very similar to their competitors. The only real difference they have is in how their people execute on their strategies. Getting each team in your organization to work at full engagement is our goal, in this economy or even when things are rosy.

For those who are participants in teams as opposed to senior executives, how can they play their role more effectively?
What we found in the research is that in the teams with the best business results, the manager plays a reduced, yet important role, and the leaders we spoke with loved it. Managers of great teams help with people selection, facilitate honest discussions, lead cheering efforts, help resolve disputes, and so on. What they don't do is micromanage. On poorly performing teams, managers were seen as taskmasters and clock watchers.

As for team members in breakthrough teams, almost every person exhibited the characteristics of a leader. Thus, they were more satisfied with their work, more valuable to the organization, and closer to each other. It seems odd for a manager to hear this, but the more you can get your team members to care about each other and quit worrying about you, the more successful your team will be.

The foundation of every successful team effort is a common cause. How do breakthrough teams establish transformational common causes?
People want clear meaning in their jobs. Most of us in leadership think our cause should be obvious: we are in healthcare; our cause should be to make people better. But great causes are specific and inspirational and must be stated over and over. For instance, at Zappos, their cause is to wow customers and each other with every interaction. Simple, yet powerful. At a division of Nash Finch that sells to military commissaries around the world, their cause is "to provide soldiers and their families with every comfort of home," no matter where they are stationed. At Medical City, a great hospital in Dallas, their cause is to make raving fans of each patient and their families. Causes are the driving forces behind great teams. If you were to ask each member of your team for the common cause of your group, and they were to give varying answers, you are missing the mark.

You stress the imperative of creating engaged teams, whose members are fully invested in their work, their team, and their organization. Why is employee engagement largely a matter of getting back to sound business basics?
To get engaged employees (people who care about their work), you must do a few fundamental things well on your team. People must feel they have clear goals and that they are getting honest communication. Next, engaged team members must feel trusted and trust others on the team, and they must be held accountable for hitting their goals. Finally, team members must feel recognized for their work and also feel as if they are allowed and encouraged to appreciate others around them. Such principles are common sense, but are uncommonly practiced.

What did you find out about the role of recognition in improving team performance?
When we analyzed organizations that were selected to be on one of the Best Places to Work lists and those good places that tried to make a list but were not selected, we found one of the biggest gaps in the data. There was a 15 percentage point variance between great companies and good companies in the amount of recognition employees received. In other words, in great organizations, appreciation is frequent and specific. In average companies, recognition is more rare.

How do breakthrough teams excel at and benefit from a rare sense of camaraderie, or even genuine affection and friendship?
This finding makes a lot of leaders uncomfortable. But in studying the best teams, we found teammates exhibited a much higher degree of friendship and, dare we say it, love for each other. This affection drove amazing results: Team members were driven by a powerful desire to not let each other down. It was a much more powerful, longer-lasting motivator than a need to satisfy leaders or customers. The need to be seen as a dependable, contributing teammate is a potent driver when used wisely by leaders. Unfortunately, many leaders break teams up after just a few years, believing mistakenly that loyalty should be with the overall organization and not a team. That's just unrealistic. Very few people bond to a large, unfeeling organization or senior leaders they see a few times a year. We bond to our coworkers and manager; it's that simple.

Why is telling stories a distinctive trait that helps drive exceptional team performance?
As teams innovate, they tell their stories over and over. One of our favorites was the experience Steve Wynn and his family had when on vacation in Paris. They were staying at a Four Seasons, and breakfast was delivered to the room. Wynn's daughter ordered a croissant but only ate half, leaving the rest to nibble on later. The family left the room to explore Paris, but when they entered the room, the pastry was gone, taken by housekeeping. She was disappointed.

But wait. A light was blinking on the room's telephone. It was a message from the front desk. The clerk stated that housekeeping had removed the half croissant from the room, assuming that upon return the owner would prefer a fresh pastry. So the front desk contacted the kitchen to set aside a croissant, and room service was informed that upon request, they would need to deliver the pastry post haste.

What makes this story so powerful is the level of teamwork and communication between teams. All participants understood the end game, which was customer satisfaction. And, everyone accepted their role in making the experience fantastic.

What are the first steps we can start applying tomorrow?
Engage your team in defining your common cause and your own Rule of Three. Start by defining what you want to be world-class at, start arguing and having honest discussions, and start looking out for each other.

But, if you do just one thing, learn to cheer for each other. This alone is the most powerful contributor to creating a team that will be cohesive and productive.