Seamless Teamwork: Overcoming Collaboration Drag and Team Dysfunction

Modern workplaces increasingly rely on collaboration. But when it comes to teamwork, so many things can go wrong when team members and leaders are not trained for the group dynamics involved. 

A reported 50% increase in collaborative activities at work over the past decade hints at the growing interconnectedness of employees and projects. More emails. More meetings. More chatter on our collaboration platforms.

And while collaboration offers many benefits — among them, enabling organizations to tap the in-demand technical skills and experience of employees on a variety of projects and tasks — are we getting it right?

Collaboration drag and team dysfunction

As employees are asked to weigh in on more and more projects, there’s collaboration drag. Bottlenecks, overload and burnout are increasing. You can spot collaboration drag when you hear employees complain about processes “getting in the way of outcomes” or when there are obvious senior stakeholders who “must” weigh in before decisions can be made — creating bottlenecks. 

In addition to the frustrations of collaboration drag, team dysfunction can also damage team effectiveness. Team members don’t trust each other. They fear conflict, have trouble taking responsibility or making decisions. How the team interacts gets in the way of results. 

And these team shortcomings are pervasive. Studies show that 64% of employees say that poor collaboration costs them at least three hours per week in productivity, with 20% putting the wasted time at six hours per week. And it’s not just team members who see the costs. According to Salesforce research, 86% of executives identify ineffective collaboration and communication as a major cause of failure in business.

Creating a more collaborative workforce

Teamwork and collaboration take a unique set of skills — critical thinking and problem solving, influence, interpersonal communication and emotional intelligence.

Every technically skilled team member must know how to cooperate, communicate and coordinate.

Because on any team, you’re juggling a unique cast of personalities who have diverse experience, goals, age and culture. The benefit, of course, is that these various perspectives can result in better team output than any one person could achieve alone. One team member’s experience enables them to see potential solutions or challenges others haven’t considered.

But unique perspectives also bring unique ways of interacting. And they only add value when others on the team remain open to hearing them.

When every team member has strong interpersonal and collaboration skills, they more easily interact and reach the best outcomes. Research on teamwork over the past forty years helps us understand how to improve team effectiveness. Knowing how high-functioning teams feel, think and act gives us the information we need to focus on interventions that help develop the right knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Develop critical teamwork competencies. Schedule your team’s private group workshop.

Consider two common team interventions:

• Teambuilding 

  “Teambuilding is probably the No.1 human resources intervention in the world,” according to Eduardo Salas, Ph.D. But programs come in many forms and results are mixed. Sending a team into the wilderness might cause them to get to know one another better, but will that translate into better teamwork? 

  Research supports a multi-pronged approach to teambuilding, one that incorporates goal setting, interpersonal relations, role clarification or problem solving. For example, teambuilding programs could focus on increasing trust or teaching a team how to set challenging yet specific goals for themselves.

• Team training

  Team training has been shown to have the most significant impact on team processes and performance across a variety of fields, accounting for approximately 12 to 19% of team outcomes. This is formalized learning designed to improve the specific skills known to enhance team effectiveness. Research continues to refine those desired skills.

  Coordination and communication skills are crucial teamwork competencies and the pillars of team training.

  Team coordination training helps a team develop a shared vision of how the team works. For example, when all team members know the process for team self-correction, they understand the topics they should be discussing in debriefings. Having this shared vision helps them anticipate one another’s needs and navigate when a project takes an unexpected turn.

  Team communication training helps team members avoid misunderstandings, confusion and delays. It’s a multi-faceted competency that not only helps team members become more aware of the best ways to ensure the intended information is conveyed, but helps them understand the perspective of the person they’re talking to. Psychological safety is another key component of communication training.

Effective teamwork matters. It helps prevent mistakes, encourages innovation, empowers people, creates inclusion and gives organizations flexibility in tapping employee skillsets. But teamwork is evolving, as we see more hybrid, cross-functional, virtual, self-managed and human-AI teams. Helping employees develop key collaboration skills ensures team effectiveness in the workplace ahead.