14. Teamwork

Estimated time to read: 20 minutes

Effective teamwork requires harmony and cooperation. However, various issues can arise within a team that hinder its ability to function smoothly. These challenges can create tension, reduce productivity, and negatively impact team morale. Below are some common problems teams might face:

• Conflicts or Personality Clashes: Differences in personalities among team members can lead to interpersonal conflicts that affect the overall atmosphere of the team.
• Lack of Collaboration and Cliques: When some team members fail to collaborate or form subgroups, it can create division and undermine team cohesion.
• Disruptive Behavior: A team member's disruptive actions—if not addressed—can significantly affect team dynamics and hinder progress.
• Poor Communication and Information Withholding: Failing to communicate important information or withholding updates can lead to misunderstandings and delays in project execution. Ineffective communication can lead to duplicated efforts or overlooked tasks, resulting in decreased efficiency.
• Avoidance of Responsibility: Team members who shirk responsibility or fail to fully engage with their tasks can slow down the team's overall performance.

For teams to be successful, they must have clear objectives and a shared understanding of the project's purpose. When these elements are unclear or misaligned, the team's performance can suffer. Below are some key issues that can arise when team goals and purpose are not well defined:

• Unclear Team Goals and Purpose: When the overall objectives of the team or project are not well-defined, team members can become confused about their priorities, which can lead to inefficiency.
• Differing Expectations Among Team Members: Different ideas about what the team’s main priorities should be can cause confusion and result in a lack of alignment on tasks.
• Poorly Organized Team Meetings: Ineffective or poorly run meetings can waste time and leave everyone feeling frustrated, reducing overall productivity.
• Missing or insufficient key skills: If the team lacks essential expertise or if members have not adequately familiarized themselves with the relevant topics, it can create gaps that impede the project's success.

Clearly defined goals and expectations are essential for any team to work efficiently and effectively. Addressing these challenges proactively helps ensure that the team stays focused, aligned, and productive throughout the project lifecycle -- see retrospectives.

14.1 Dysfunctions of a team

Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team ² is a model that outlines common pitfalls teams face that hinder their effectiveness and success. According to Lencioni, these dysfunctions are hierarchical, meaning that each dysfunction builds upon the one before it. If a team does not overcome a previous dysfunction, it becomes increasingly difficult to address the ones that follow. Here’s a breakdown of the five dysfunctions:

• Absence of Trust
  • Description: This is the foundation of the dysfunctions. If team members don’t trust one another, they won’t feel comfortable being vulnerable or open. Trust is essential for effective teamwork because it encourages transparency and honesty. Without trust, team members are less likely to share their weaknesses, admit mistakes, or ask for help.
  • Impact: It leads to a lack of communication and collaboration. Members may withhold information, avoid giving feedback, or not share their ideas, ultimately stifling the team’s performance.
• Fear of Conflict
  • Description: If trust is absent, team members tend to avoid conflict, even when it’s necessary. Healthy conflict involves the open and honest debate of ideas, which helps teams make better decisions. Fear of conflict, however, means that difficult conversations are avoided, and issues go unaddressed.
  • Impact: Without conflict, teams may make poor decisions, engage in groupthink, or fail to address critical issues that affect performance and growth.
• Lack of Commitment
  • Description: When conflict isn’t addressed and ideas aren’t fully debated, it becomes difficult for team members to commit to decisions. A lack of clarity or buy-in can lead to confusion about goals and priorities.
  • Impact: This results in uncertainty and a lack of direction. Team members may not feel fully invested in the team's objectives, leading to disengagement or a lack of accountability.
• Avoidance of Accountability
  • Description: When there’s no commitment to the team’s goals, it’s hard to hold each other accountable. Team members may avoid holding others responsible for their actions or the outcomes of their work.
  • Impact: This dysfunction fosters mediocrity and complacency. Without accountability, team members may fail to meet deadlines or deliver high-quality work, and performance declines.
• Inattention to Results
  • Description: The final dysfunction occurs when team members focus more on personal goals, individual recognition, or internal team dynamics than on the overall success of the team. This happens when individuals put their own interests or the interests of their department over the team’s collective results.
  • Impact: The team’s performance suffers because members are not prioritizing the team’s success. This can lead to lack of cooperation, inefficiency, and a failure to achieve common goals.

Lencioni also emphasizes that teams can overcome these dysfunctions by focusing on building trust first, encouraging healthy conflict, ensuring clarity and commitment, holding each other accountable, and keeping a strong focus on results.

14.1.1 Key Takeaways

• Trust is the foundation of team success.
• Healthy conflict leads to better decision-making.
• Commitment thrives when teams discuss issues openly.
• Accountability is essential for performance.
• Teams must focus on results over individual interests.

By addressing these dysfunctions systematically, teams can enhance collaboration, improve performance, and achieve greater success.

14.2 Ripple Effect in Teamwork

In the context of teamwork, the Ripple Effect refers to how one action or decision by a team member can trigger a series of reactions throughout the entire team. Just like a pebble thrown into a pond creates ripples that spread outward, a small change—whether positive or negative—can influence the dynamics, attitudes, and behaviors of others in the group.

• Positive Ripple Effect: If one team member consistently demonstrates proactive communication and collaboration, others may be inspired to do the same, leading to an overall more cooperative and efficient team environment.
• Negative Ripple Effect: Conversely, if a conflict arises between two members and is left unresolved, it can lead to tension that spreads to other team members, affecting morale and productivity.

Understanding the Ripple Effect in team dynamics is important for fostering a healthy work environment, as it highlights the importance of each individual’s actions and how they can impact the broader team. By being mindful of how small behaviors or decisions ripple through the group, teams can manage their interactions more effectively and create a more positive atmosphere.

14.3 Tuckman's Stages of Team Development

Bruce Tuckman’s model of team development ⁴ identifies four distinct phases that teams typically go through as they evolve. Each stage reflects the team’s progress in terms of dynamics, cooperation, and effectiveness. Below is an overview of the stages and key characteristics that define each phase:

• Forming (Orientation Phase)
  • Clarifying and Defining Goals: At this early stage, the team focuses on understanding the project goals and their collective purpose.
  • Seeking Acceptance and Roles: Team members often look for acceptance within the group and begin to figure out their individual roles.
  • Uncertainty: There may be a sense of uncertainty as members are just starting to learn how to work together and establish relationships.
• Storming (Differentiation Phase)
  • Role and Task Definition: As the team starts to take on tasks, there may be disputes about roles and responsibilities.
  • Struggle for Status: Conflicts can arise as team members compete for influence or control.
  • Resistance and Conflicts: This stage can be marked by tension, disagreements, and resistance, as individuals assert their own viewpoints and approaches.
• Norming (Integration Phase)
  • Establishing Ground Rules: The team begins to define working protocols, procedures, and behavioral expectations.
  • Role Clarification: Team members now have clearer understandings of their individual roles and responsibilities.
  • Cooperation and Harmony: This phase is characterized by improved cooperation and a stronger sense of unity, as team members align on shared goals.
  • Feedback and Reflection: There is an increased focus on giving and receiving feedback to improve team collaboration.
• Performing (High-Performance Phase)
  • Creativity and Efficiency: The team reaches a stage of high effectiveness, where members contribute ideas freely and efficiently.
  • Shared Responsibility ("We-feeling"): There is a strong sense of collective ownership and responsibility for the team's success.
  • Optimized Collaboration: Team members work seamlessly together, leveraging each other's strengths for optimal results.
  • Continuous Reflection and Improvement: Teams regularly assess their performance, offering constructive feedback to further enhance collaboration.

By recognizing these stages, teams can navigate their development more effectively, understanding that conflicts and struggles in the early phases are a natural part of building a cohesive, high-performing team.

14.4 The Roles of Belbin in Team Dynamics

Meredith Belbin’s Team Role Theory ⁵ identifies nine key roles that individuals play within a team. Each role brings unique strengths and potential challenges to the table. Understanding these roles helps teams leverage their diverse talents and work more cohesively. By ensuring a good mix of these roles, teams can achieve a balance of creativity, productivity, and collaboration.

14.4.1 Key Belbin Team Roles

• Plant: Creative, innovative, and solves complex problems, often thinking outside the box.
• Resource Investigator: Outgoing, enthusiastic, and excels at exploring new opportunities and contacts.
• Coordinator: Confident, good at clarifying goals, and skilled at delegating tasks.
• Shaper: Dynamic, challenging, and thrives under pressure, driving the team towards success.
• Monitor Evaluator: Analytical, logical, and impartial, evaluating options and making balanced decisions.
• Teamworker: Supportive, diplomatic, and focused on building team harmony and cohesion.
• Implementer: Practical, reliable, and efficient, turning ideas into action with clear plans.
• Completer Finisher: Detail-oriented, conscientious, and ensures the final product meets the highest standards.
• Specialist: Highly knowledgeable in specific areas and provides expert input when needed.

14.5 Retrospectives

A retrospective is mandatory meeting in the agile framework Scrum. The goal of the Sprint Retrospective is to identify ways to enhance quality and effectiveness.

During the Retrospective, the Scrum Team reflects on the previous Sprint, examining factors such as team dynamics, processes, tools, and their Definition of Done. The elements evaluated may vary depending on the specific work being done. The team uncovers any assumptions that led to setbacks and explores their origins. The discussion focuses on what worked well, the challenges faced, and how those challenges were addressed (or not).

The Scrum Team then identifies the most valuable changes that could improve its effectiveness. The highest-priority improvements are tackled immediately, and some may even be added to the Sprint Backlog for the upcoming Sprint.

The Sprint Retrospective marks the end of the Sprint. It is time boxed to a maximum of three hours for a one-month Sprint (full time, this project only), with shorter Sprints typically requiring less time.

Regular, well-prepared retrospectives are essential for maintaining good team dynamics and fostering continuous improvement. By creating a space for open dialogue and constructive feedback, teams can address issues before they escalate and adapt their strategies to stay on track. In addition, thoughtful preparation ensures that the meeting is focused, productive, and beneficial to all members.

Use Retromat to design retrospectives that blend fun with valuable insights.

14.5.1 Milestones, Issues, and Issue Boards in GitLab

In project management, milestones represent significant checkpoints or goals within a project. They help teams track progress and ensure that key objectives are met on time. Issues are tasks or problems that need to be addressed in order to move the project forward. These can be anything from bug fixes to feature development and can be assigned to different team members for resolution -- use the templates provided.

In GitLab, the Issue Board is a visual tool that helps teams organize, track, and manage issues across different stages of the project. It allows team members to move issues through columns that represent different phases of work, such as "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done." This helps ensure transparency, streamline collaboration, and keep the team aligned on priorities.

Effective planning in GitLab begins with creating issues and organizing them into milestones. Each issue can be assigned to a team member, given a due date, and categorized according to its complexity or priority. The Issue Board allows you to visually manage and track each issue’s progress, making it easy to see what tasks are pending, in progress, or completed.

14.5.2 Estimations, Time Tracking, and Fair Work Distribution

A key part of project planning is estimating the effort required for each issue and tracking the time spent on them. Providing time estimates for tasks allows for a more accurate assessment of how much work remains and helps balance workloads across the team. Time tracking also ensures that team members aren’t overwhelmed by unrealistic expectations and that tasks are distributed fairly.

By accurately estimating the time and effort required for each task, teams can avoid overloading individuals and ensure a fair distribution of work. This is crucial for preventing burnout and managing stress. Good planning not only helps ensure that tasks are realistic and achievable, but it also allows teams to avoid taking on too much, reducing the risk of rushing through work or missing deadlines.