What Makes Team Great

What makes a team great?

Recently, I attempted to arrange all my team development concepts into a few main categories.

During this process, I spent time researching the fundamentals that make teams work well by reading few new books and articles backing on solid research, and doing a bit of retrospective analysis of my own experiences from military and business over past 35 years.

After many iterations, I settled on the model shown in the picture below.

I'm not claiming that this model is superior to all others, but I'm confident that it's not entirely wrong either. Similar ideas have likely been shared by others.

The real key, in my opinion, is breaking down the three main pillars, which are:

Purpose

Beyond making shareholders richer, why do we do what we do? How does our work make a difference to people or the planet?

Trust

Vulnerability-based trust, psychological safety, and experience-based belief that the other person will act as expected and always has the best intentions.

Competence

This covers skills and knowledge, including not only understanding the product or tech side of things but also how the team functions, including its processes, meeting practices, communication practices, etc etc