New Rules for Teamwork

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New Rules for Teamwork

By Angus Dawson and Katy George | Harvard Business Review Magazine | September–October 2024 Issue

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Traditional thinking around how to innovate teamwork has often been based on intuition and observation, with a dash of psychology. But increasingly we face an environment of constant change and disruption, and new ideas about how to create well-functioning teams are emerging; some are based on experience, some are guided by new practices, and some are being made up on the fly. None of this has yet cohered into a systematic approach to improving how teams work.

In recent years at McKinsey, the authors have devoted themselves to developing a new science of teamwork for their organization.  This approach allows McKinsey to understand how their 4,000-plus teams are performing and to intervene when necessary. It combines the best of established wisdom with new data-driven techniques and insights. It relies on testing, learning, analysis, adaptation, and improvement—in real time and with accountability—to enable continuous learning. And it includes metrics that link practices to outcomes, for both individuals and teams.  Three key principles of this approach that can help teams in any organization perform at their best are:

Develop an Operating System.  We use the term “operating system” to mean the building blocks for the way team members collaborate, create change, and support one another. Effective operating systems vary widely, depending on the needs and norms of the organization. What they all have in common is that they set out a view of how teams create value, what teams are supposed to achieve, the technical skills each team member is expected to contribute, the processes by which the work will be managed, and the cultural norms and mindsets of constructive collaboration that will guide behavior. The best operating systems embed an ethos of continuous improvement throughout the organization, not just in a single team or department. They are structured enough to provide consistent guidance but loose enough to accommodate changing conditions, priorities, data, and needs.  In the authors’ research on high-performing teams, they have found that the best teams consistently do the three things: hold kickoffs, conduct one-on-ones, and take stock of progress using retrospectives. 

Invest in Active, Real-Time Measurement.  To make teamwork scientific, organizations need to be able to measure the outcomes of their actions and determine how changes in the inputs affect results.

Create a System for Continuous Improvement and Innovation.  The idea of continuous improvement is hardly novel. What is fresh, however, is that teams today have new forms of technology and data collection at their disposal to help them self-correct while projects are underway. 

Finally, it may be useful to set up a center of excellence, staffed with full-time employees with experience in analytics and operating system design. The center’s task would be to identify the rituals, data, and continuous learning practices that are most likely to deliver the best outcomes for a given team.

3 key takeaways from the article

1. Traditional thinking around how to innovate teamwork has often been based on intuition and observation, with a dash of psychology. None of this has yet cohered into a systematic approach to improving how teams work.
2. In recent years at McKinsey devoted considerable time and investment to develop a new science of teamwork for its organization.  This approach allows McKinsey to understand how its 4,000-plus teams are performing and to intervene when necessary. It combines the best of established wisdom with new data-driven techniques and insights. It relies on testing, learning, analysis, adaptation, and improvement—in real time and with accountability—to enable continuous learning. And it includes metrics that link practices to outcomes, for both individuals and teams.  
3. Three key principles of this approach that can help teams in any organization perform at their best are:  Develop an Operating System, Invest in Active, Real-Time Measurement, and Create a System for Continuous Improvement and Innovation.

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Topics:  Teams, Collaboration, Communication, Diversification, Innovation, Creativity, Cross-sectional Teams