Exploring Team Chemistry | Saturday Morning Muse

Happy Father’s Day!

We’ve all heard these phrases before: “My team just clicks,” “My team is a well-oiled machine,” “My team is really gelling,” “My team has great chemistry,” and the ever-nauseating “Teamwork makes the dream work.” This week, I’d like to explore the concept of team chemistry to determine if it’s as mysterious as it’s often made out to be, or if there are necessary conditions that underlie team chemistry and make it something we can create and extend from one team to another.

To kick off the discussion, let’s visit the world of music for an example. This is an easy source for me to tap into as I’ve been a musician my entire life and am the lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for The Remainders. Formed in 2004, The Remainders is a tight-knit group who’s purpose is to support the community through musical philanthropy and provide its members with a creative outlet to promote mental and physical wellbeing. We help ourselves by helping others. Clear communication, well-defined roles and responsibilities, and strong interpersonal relationships have enabled our longevity and paved the way for a team environment built on trust, mutual respect, and accountability. We are each highly skilled in our respective crafts, but having a group of skilled musicians working together is not enough to produce an excellent product for an audience. The chemistry of the band is equally important.

I’m sure you’ve been witness to a performance in which the notes are played correctly, but the output seems mechanical—like you’re listening to a series of individual performances that just don’t seem to fit together. Yes, music is being made, but it lacks a certain sparkle that can only be achieved by a team that’s working in concert with one another (pun intended). Here, individual artists are muting their egos, anticipating the actions of other band members, shining out front when it’s their turn, and supporting their bandmates when necessary. In a compelling performance, an optimal balance has been struck between mechanical precision and the feeling of flow or chemistry that you know is there, but can’t precisely put your finger on.

But what does chemistry mean? Is this concept completely undefinable and intangible, or can we create chemistry within a group of humans that are working together? To explore this concept in a business environment, let’s transpose our musical example into a professional team setting. Suppose you have two teams operating within the same sector and these two teams perform the same function—we’ll call them Team A and Team B. What’s different between these two teams is that Team A consistently outperforms Team B in output, quality, engagement/belonging, longevity, and customer satisfaction. Some might say that Team A “clicks” or has "chemistry,” but it is much more likely that Team A exhibits a number of differentiating factors that make it look to the casual observer like there’s some mysterious, undefinable force that’s contributing to their relative outperformance across a host of metrics.

So what are the likely differentiating attributes that Team A possesses over Team B?

Well-defined roles and responsibilities. Chaos reigns when goals and roles are unclear. It’s highly likely that Team B suffers from a lack of flow as work product moves along the team’s value streams. If everyone is unsure of how they and their colleagues add value along the value stream, then waste results in the form of longer wait times, extra processing, defects, motion, etc. Well-defined goals promote team flow.

Accountability. If no one knows what their colleagues are doing, holding one another to account constructively after a process failure is extremely difficult. In an environment of poorly defined goals, roles, and responsibilities, it becomes much easier to blame than it is to figure out the root cause and commit to working as a team to fix it. Transparency and clarity are necessary conditions for accountability to flourish.

A continuous improvement and learning mindset. “We’ve always done it this way,” or “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” are likely mantras within Team B. It’s certainly easier to resist change, but seldom does a fixed mindset yield superior results—especially if this mindset is endemic within the team. Team A’s continuous improvement and learning mindset will lead to more creativity and improved processes and standard work. Continually iterating and searching for small, but impactful improvements will yield standard work definitions within Team A that are superior to that of Team B.

Customer-focus. Team B is likely more internally-focused and prone to infighting, which makes it easier to lose sight of the customer’s needs. When the customer is kept front and center, then internal politicking takes a backseat to ensuring that the team gets it right the first time. For the vast majority of teams, delighting the customer should be the team’s North Star.

...