Team Development Is Becoming Increasingly Important, but How Do You Go About It?

  Team performance is becoming increasingly crucial. But how do you ensure that those teams actually perform well? Team development allows you to work on this in a targeted way. It starts with analyzing team performance and the personalities within the team. By taking different team styles into account, everyone can then work on specific action items.  

The Rise of Team Development

Team development has been an important topic for organizations, their teams, and HR professionals for years. In recent years, this topic has rapidly risen on organizations’ priority lists. It has now even become the most important topic, according to an international study on HRM trends conducted by Deloitte in 130 countries, including the Netherlands. This is due to various developments, such as globalization, increasing economic dynamism, and customers (and other stakeholders) who have ever-higher expectations. As a result, collaboration in general has become increasingly important for the success of companies. This applies to collaboration between organizations as well as within organizations. We also see this reflected in the rapid rise of self-managing teams, project teams, “Scrum and Agile” work methods, and the emergence of virtual teams. New technology (online collaboration) naturally plays a key facilitating role in this development.  

It doesn’t happen on its own

Within organizations, a shift is underway from the old hierarchical management models toward more (multifunctional) team-based models. This leads to better performance and is a more effective model for operating successfully in today’s dynamic, less predictable business environment. In that environment, a successful team delivers the desired results; it is more effective and achieves better performance than the mere sum of the contributions made by individual team members. There is, however, a challenge. Effective teams usually do not emerge on their own. Team development is essential for helping a team perform better and excel. Otherwise, it remains simply a group of individuals. It’s striking that fewer than 20 percent of teams consider themselves “high-performing.” That means about 80 percent do not (yet)!  

Analyzing and Improving Team Performance

Most teams can work much more effectively than they often do. And often, even small interventions can lead to significant progress. “Team development” is the key term here. In this context, team training and leadership training have proven to be important (evidence-based) interventions. But at its core, the solution largely lies in how team performance and individual characteristics are analyzed, and in giving the team responsibility for improving its own performance. Paying attention to different team styles and the roles within teams is of great importance in this regard. At hrmforce, we’ve tailored the tools organizations use for their team development analyses to address this. Quite recently, we’ve even added additional components to highlight different team styles. After all, no two teams are alike, and the same applies to the environmental factors they face at different times.  

Different Teams and Environmental Factors

Of course, there are also many theories and conceptual models regarding the most effective composition of teams. Depending on the type of team, its objectives, and environmental factors, these theories and insights can be valuable for your team development. After all, do you want to ensure the success of complex projects? Then, as this research on multinational companies shows, you should ideally assemble a large team of highly educated specialists. The downside, however, is that highly educated specialists are often less willing to learn from one another, to share information (pro)actively, and to help each other distribute the work as effectively as possible. These can be important considerations for such a team, especially if the analysis of personal and team characteristics also points in that direction. Or is this an innovation team? In that case, performance pressure can be a key concern. Research by TNO shows that innovation teams actually become risk-averse under pressure, which makes innovations more likely to fail. Their advice: create a supportive work environment in which resilient innovative behavior can flourish. HRD experts can help the team in this regard and reduce their chances of failure, according to TNO.

Balance and Phases of Team Development

Another key consideration is the relationship between individual and team performance. Through effective collaboration, team members get more out of themselves and bring out the best in one another. Within teams, you naturally have to deal with individuals who strive to get the most out of their own careers. That is perfectly healthy in itself, but the balance must also remain healthy. As soon as individual ambitions come at the expense of the team, group dynamics can actually start to backfire. Team development can address this as well, naturally within the various stages of team development, as we described earlier.  

The Role of Managers

And then, of course, there is the important role of managers. Scientific research on team performance based on “serious gaming” using an escape room (by Friesland Boeit) also provided valuable new insights. This study examined team performance at the competency level, with a strong focus on leadership. “In today’s rapidly changing world and economy, leadership and collaboration are currently crucial areas of focus,” says leadership expert Jelle Dijkstra (lecturer in Personal Leadership & Innovation at NHL University of Applied Sciences), who was involved in the study. “But those are often the weak points right now. Organizations are saying they’ll ‘work differently’ and ‘collaborate differently,’ but how exactly? That question often remains unanswered.” A notable finding from years of research in the escape room is that the most successful teams have two leaders: a dominant leader and a social leader, who can take turns. They must be able to switch flexibly between different leadership styles, depending on their team, the environment, and their assignment.  

Action Items Following the Analysis

Teams are constantly evolving. That’s why regular analysis remains valuable. And after an analysis, concrete action items are, of course, necessary. With hrmforce’s specialized questionnaires focused on teams, it’s possible to map out team development (strengths and weaknesses). Based on talent and personal characteristics, tasks and goals can then be formulated for a development plan and an action plan. The renowned Big Five personality theory (centered on the five major dimensions: extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, conscientiousness, and openness) is valuable for conducting analyses and determining action items for team development. Our analyses are based on this theory.