I was directed to a recent TED ideas article that listed and elaborated on 3 things that great teams have in common and it really resonated.  Now I love sport like a lot of people, and I assumed that this may, of course, be linked to recent successes that Liverpool or the LA Lakers may have had.  It turns out that I was wrong, and whilst elements can be applied to any team environment, the article centres around teams in the corporate world.

I thought it might be helpful to summarise the three things that great teams have in common below;

1/ Intellectual Diversity- Ultimately the role of a team is normally to solve a particular problem or achieve a certain task.  If people within the team are all of the same gender, class, sex and have similar experiences in life, then their way of thinking and working together will more or less be the same.  Having the opposite in the team, will result in a wider range of ideas and then a greater chance of solving a task or problem.

2/ Psychological Safety- Psychological safety is the measure of how free people feel in a team.  The idea is that if team members feel safe, then they will contribute more thoughts and opinions and are happier to share them regardless of seniority.  On the other hand, it also allows for mistakes to be made, admitted to and then learnt from.  Psychological safety allows a team to benefit from Intellectual diversity.

3/ A Purpose Worth Fighting For- It's not enough to have a goal that the team is working towards.  They need to fully believe in it and fight to achieve it.  Organizations mission statements can often be too vague and don't resonate with everyone and so two things need to take place for this final part to work.  The first is that core values need to be elevated to sacred values.  The second is that the team members gain a stronger sense of group identity.

All are interlinked and are necessary ingredients for a great team to thrive.