Did you know that every time a new person joins a tug-of-war, each person holding the rope reduces their effort. In teams, each person needs a clear role, individual responsibility for the team goal and the challenge and support of the team to achieve it.

Effective decision making in teams needs agreed rules, roles and processes; it also needs trust in the team and ourselves that everyone will ask for advice as they need to, listen to varying viewpoints, take the time to think and communicate clearly.

Being part of a team generates a lot of anxiety dating back to our primal need of belonging in order to survive. People can only experiment and innovate in teams if they know it will be safe to fail without being rejected or punished by the team. 

People only do their best for teams where they feel good about belonging, where they have good relationships, are engaged with the work they are doing, where they feel as though they can achieve their goals and where it feels as though it matters how they are feeling. 

Diverse perspectives are critical for teams to be effective, but only if the views are welcomed and integrated as part of the team's reality. Every person joining the team brings a wealth of external thought and experience; listening and remaining curious allows the whole team to benefit and grow.

Often teams feel they need to collaborate on everything, making them painfully slow or they find it hard to collaborate enough. Being clear on when collaboration is vital, and developing the trust to let others get on with it when it isn't, is core for any team to thrive in a fast paced environment.