We Know All There is to Know About Teams and That Might Be Our Problem
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I was originally going to follow up on ‘bad managers’ from my January piece, but February went by in a flash. I spent the entire month focused on teams. And, with this post wanted to review the latest breakthroughs in teamwork, examine recent groundbreaking insights, and unpack all of the profound new research on the science of great teams.
Do not despair if you are wondering what I am talking about and coming up with nothing. There are no breakthroughs, no new research to unpack. I am sure some smart, impressively credentialed person, a guru, or influencer will say otherwise. But, when it comes to teams and teamwork, I believe the groundbreaking insight is this…we know pretty much everything there is to know.
If that is true. If we know everything there is to know about what makes great teams, it begs an obvious question: Why aren’t all of our teams exhibiting great teamwork? The paradox reminds me of an excerpt from the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis. The Oakland A’s GM, Billy Beane, is trying to change the way they select ballplayers. In a meeting, a veteran scout is talking about a potential recruit and cites all of the traditional traits – knows the game, smart, good swing, etc. During the back and forth, Billy asks “can he hit?” The scout says he is a good hitter. But the players batting statistics are not great, so Billy asks, “If he’s that good a hitter why doesn’t he hit better.” (Brad Pitt, playing Billy Beane in the movie Moneyball, also delivers the line perfectly!)
If we already know everything about great teams, why aren’t all of our teams great? I think the answer can be found in Greek philosophy. Specifically, Epictetus who said that “it is impossible to learn that which we think we already know.”
Epictetus was talking about how mindset affects our ability to improve. As I have been working to help clients build better teams, I have noticed a similar theme. Most of the conversations start with the leader telling me they have done teamwork training in the past, we know all the fundamentals, or the teams are good it’s just…, etc. All indicating a mindset of ‘we know all there is to know about teams’ or ‘if there is anything to do on teams, it needs to be a new insight.’
From ancient Stoic philosophy in 100 A.D. fast forward about 1,900 years, and you find a couple modern Team philosophers, Jon Katzenbach and Doug Smith. They wrote the book The Wisdom of Teams. After researching hundreds of teams from different companies and industries, they concluded it was not what the team knew or valued that differentiated performance. Instead, among high-performing teams it was discipline and commitment that set them apart. This is essentially the same insight as Epictetus. When we think our teams already know everything they need to know, we think team performance will follow.
Trust, listening to one another, freely expressing views, responding constructively, putting team goals above personal goals. These are some key teamwork values. I bet you already knew them. That is the point. We might very well know everything there is to know about what makes great teams work. That is the problem. When it comes to team performance, it does not matter what we know. What matters is our discipline and commitment. Discipline in the team’s practice and application of knowledge. Commitment to each other as team members and to key teamwork values.
It may sound simplistic (if not a little self-serving) to say that focusing on and investing in building better teams is the key to unlocking breakthrough performance. But, if you look closely, great teams having been doing exactly that for hundreds of years.