Tuesday, August 4, 2020

5 attributes of successful teams

At Office.com/setup, we’re on a mission to help every team become a successful team. And so, we partnered with IDEO, a global design company known for its human-centered, interdisciplinary approach. Together, we researched successful workplace teams to find out what they had in common. Then we used what we learned to create The Art of Teamwork—a new digital curriculum built around the five attributes of a successful team.

And that’s not all. We’re also using the findings from the research to refine Office.com/setup Teams, the hub for teamwork in Office.com/setup 365. What’s clear from the data is that the future of workplace collaboration won’t be defined by anyone technology. Instead, successful teams need collaboration tools that combine a wide range of technologies in new and innovative ways. Teams bring together chat, meetings, calling, document collaboration, and workflow into a single app—and this unique combination is catching fire.

The five attributes of successful teams

Partnering with IDEO, we researched diverse workplace teams—including astronauts, chefs, television producers, and nurses—to understand what high-performing collaborators have in common. With a variety of workplace teams as our subjects, we used in-context observation, expert interviews, secondary research, and prototype activities to identify the specific dynamics that high-performing teams had in common. We found that successful teams shared five attributes:

  1. Team purpose—Keeps teams focused, fulfilled, and aligned on achieving their objectives.
  2. Collective identity—Fosters a sense of belonging and helps team members work together as a unit.
  3. Awareness and inclusion—Enables teams to navigate interpersonal dynamics and value everyone’s perspective.
  4. Trust and vulnerability—Encourages interpersonal risk-taking in teams.
  5. Constructive tension—Serves as a generative force for new ideas, driving better outcomes.

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