The Team That ___________ Together, Stays Together

• February 11, 2020

The Essence of a Team

In thinking about team development, I imagined the ideal team and wanted to figure out the one quality that made it ideal.

What is the essential nature of a team? Its fundamental principle?

The words “staying together” came up.

That made sense. A solid team is the one that sticks together.

I’ve experienced working on epic teams, ride or die into the depths of pitchwork, crunch times, breakdowns, layoffs, awards, and changes.

Below is what I believe made them so special.

How they stayed together.

The things they did with intention and constancy.

What’s Keeping Them Together?

Here’s what I believe.

The team that QUESTIONS together, stays together.

The team that THINKS together, stays together.

The team that DECIDES together, stays together.

The team that ACTS together, stays together.

The team that REFLECTS together, stays together.

What You Can Do

As a leader, how do you foster an environment and culture that enables teams to question, think, decide, act, and reflect together?

Think of one thing you can do today to help teams ask more questions, be more thoughtful, be more decisive, act in unison, and reflect on their situation.

Some ideas come to mind:

• Start a meeting with a question
• Build time in schedules or projects for thinking
• Learn and teach how to build consensus or foster healthy dialogue
• Do not launch an initiative until everyone is ready
• Bring every role responsible together for each milestone
• Know when to stop and truly stop
• Discuss together what happened without judgment

If the team that _____ together, stays together, and you develop that – then they’ll stay together, with you.

“Nothing truly valuable can be achieved except by the unselfish cooperation of many individuals.”
― Albert Einstein

For more about Cristina DiGiacomo, her work as an Industrial Philosopher and “Wise Up! At Work”, go to wiseupatwork.com or email her at cristina@moralchemy.com