Four Aspects of Healthy Teams
I am sitting here grinning to myself. I’ve just spent four hours with a team talking through the Enneagram with a senior leadership team. And, right now I am eavesdropping on their conversations as they talk about how they will use this new learning and knowledge to keep their team growing.
As they talk, there is laughter, understanding, and encouragement. This team is healthy and effective. And they are using this experience to add strength to strength. This makes me reflect on some core aspects of what makes teams healthy. Here are four attributes of healthy teams:
Curiosity.
Teams that are genuinely curious to understand others on their team, why they make the decisions they do, and the differences between them and their teammates. When they are curious, they have their opinions and ideas, and they are open to new and other ideas that might change their opinion. Adam Grant calls this “humble curiosity.” Teams that have this use conflict and differing ideas to learn and find the best solution. They are more focused on learning than being right.
Emotional Safety.
Teams that feel that they are respected and that their ideas, opinions, gifts, and abilities feel valued. When they feel that, it builds emotional safety. They trust that their teammates are willing to listen and hear their ideas and concerns. They can raise differences and engage in healthy and learning conflict because they feel emotionally safe with their teammates.
Willingness to engage in conflict.
Healthy teams don’t hide from or shy away from conflict. Instead, they leverage curiosity and emotional safety to engage in conflict to find the best solution for the team and the organization. Moreover, they can distinguish between task conflict (when we have differing ideas about how to solve a problem) and relational conflict (when we have an issue that is getting in the way of connection/relationship).
100% Responsibility.
A final aspect of a healthy team is that individuals take responsibility for their experience and response. Each person owns the stories they tell themselves, and they are curious about the stories others tell. They seek to take responsibility for their feelings and actions and not be “at the effect of” outside circumstances.
The combination of these four aspects of healthy teams describes teams that are resilient, mission-focused, and creative in the way they do their work. It fosters space for creativity and a place to co-create solutions that move the mission and organization forward.
How do you grow these aspects of teams? In my next blog, I will offer four practices or things you and your team can do to reinforce a healthy team culture.