There’s a lot of conversations surrounding teamwork and how companies can improve, grow, develop, or foster a positive team culture. There’s one thing that sometimes gets overlooked in these various lists and think pieces though, and it’s one of the more important aspects of the teamwork discussion: what, exactly, makes a team a team anyways?

Qualities of an Effective Team

If we want to identify the root of teamwork, we need to look at what sort of fruit it produces. We need to pick out what qualities make an effective team: what are the core elements of teamwork? What does it even mean to be a part of a team?

There are a few key things to look for in a successful team. The first thing is to see if a team is fostering relationships and building connections between team members. If a team is more a loose collection of random people vaguely working on the same project, well, that’s not really a team, is it? Successful teams are those where members are encouraged to foster positive relationships, a place where healthy peer relationships at work are the norm, not the exception. 

Secondly, a good team needs a healthy organizational structure. Leadership should actively shape organizational culture and do so in a way that helps their team members work effectively and efficiently with each other. A solid measure to use here is the utilization of transactive memory. If the members of each team know who to talk to when they are looking for specific information, you’ve found a strong collaborative culture.

The last of our positive team behaviors is communication. Does your team demonstrate healthy and effective communication both between each other and within the larger company? If they don’t, you’re going to find yourself on shaky ground sooner rather than later. Instead, a team whose leadership works to incorporate healthy communication habits across the spectrum of their work interactions will see greater productivity.

So Where Does This Point Us?

Now that we’ve identified some of the most obvious signs of a healthy culture of teamwork, we can dig a bit deeper to find out what lies at the heart of a healthy team. This may not be a surprise to most of you, because, like many of the core ideas that underpin our societal frameworks, it’s a very simple concept: trust.

Trust lies at the heart of every team, healthy or otherwise. A team that is firing on all cylinders, who have mastered organization, communication, and relationships, that team will naturally hold a high level of trust between all members of the team. They rely on each other in an almost intuitive or reflexive way. They feel safe within their working group and working environment, and they believe that when they need to, they can find help for whatever issue they’ve run up against. Where trust exists and is respected, a team will flourish.

Where trust doesn’t exist, or is consistently broken, however, things aren’t going to look nearly as bright. The good news, though, is that there’s always a chance to turn things around. Trust can be repaired if people are willing to face the difficult task of doing so. If you’ve found yourself in a place where some repair work needs to be done within your team, trust is an excellent place to start. You’ll often find that many other symptomatic issues are repaired along the way.

If you’re looking for some additional resources to help strengthen the culture of teamwork within your company, or you’re just looking to celebrate how well your team is doing, check out our offerings here at TourGuide Games. Connect with us on LinkedIn for more insight into effective workspaces and teams.