System Thinking

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team dynamics

A collection of 24 issues

Tiny Groups are the basis for innovations

Nothing happens without people talking with each other. But not all talking will help your team innovate. High-performing teams achieve closure by seeking and drawing on coordination opportunities. This is measured through closed triads.

Does your team feel chaotic meetings lasting hours, and goals not achieved?

Your team's communication patterns impact collaboration and success. In this article, I describe the benefits and drawbacks of different patterns, from fostering cohesion to inviting chaos.

Onboarding: forget about tasks; focus on talks

Onboarding serves two functions: Adding a new person to be part of the workflow and helping them become part of the team. The first aspect is easy, the second one is harder, but more important.

How can we innovate more?

Boundary-spanners are people who have frequent interaction with members of other teams and bridge silos. Thanks to them, teams are more creative.

Two Surefire Ways To Make Your Remote Teams More Creative

Avoid the Not Invented Here syndrome by developing a shared identity and stimulating employees to connect with people from other teams.

Online teams can feel like real teams

Social presence is about beaming yourself into an online space and "be there" for others. It is easier to have a social presence offline, but with intention and effort you can also "feel real" online.

The danger of remote work: Living in your bubble

One common complaint about remote working or working from home is that people miss the social interactions, and innovation will decrease because of a lack of serendipitous chats at the coffee corner or in hallways. How much truth is there in those statements, and where should we lay the blame?

Good leaders are available and humble

Humble leaders' most significant impact is not that they stimulate friendships but that they advert the creation of negative relationships. It's not that team members like each other more; it's that team members dislike each other less.

Bursty interaction is better for performance

The foundational argument is that teams with higher collective intelligence, perform better. Collective intelligence is a form of team intelligence.