Eight Essential Elements of a Close Knit Team

Our goal for 2022 was to write eight editions of Branches & Roots and share key elements of not only winning teams, but tight teams, the types of teams where everyone shows up to the reunion. We started with the importance of people feeling like they belong which was wonderfully articulated in Owen Eastwood’s book “Belonging.”

Our second edition explored how important verbal communication can be in large groups that are trying to evolve into a team. Recently deceased author Trevor Mowad had some fantastic examples of how the Alabama football team turned its attention to this issue early in Nick Saban’s tenure. With Mowad’s encouragement Saban convinced the players that they didn’t have to be super positive all the time, they just had to stop sharing negative sentiments even while they were going through the dog days of summer training.

Most recently we covered how important it is when turning a group into a team that you have a language created for having hard conversations and how much it matters that the lowest power people are empowered to speak up. A great image that comes to mind here is a worker at a car manufacturer being able to stop the line because she sees something wrong. This is a great sign of a culture that is making it safe to bring up the uncomfortable realities that come with humans working together. Our research shows it’s better to talk it out than wait around for people to act it out.

Looking ahead, here are the eight essential elements for building a close-knit unit that we think improves your chances of winning.

1.      Belonging
2.      Curb negative communication
3.      Create a language for truth
4.      Identify roles and the difference between leadership and management
5.      Use internal conflict properly
6.      Humor, team chemistry, and gelling
7.      Championship adaptability and performance
8.      Ceremony and the fly wheel of doing it right

Our next post will dive into how some of the best teams have created cultures where fair treatment does not mean equal treatment, along with some important distinctions between leadership and management. Nailing these two team disruptors can make a huge difference in building buy in from both those that are on the field and those that want to be on the field.

Now that you know where we are headed for the balance of the year, please share any element you think we are missing and insights about the topics we have identified.

Thank you for your readership and friendship.
​
Drew & Sara