How To Turn a Group of Strangers Into a Team

Are there elements of “teaming” that educators might like to consider when working in a school setting? How is “teaming” different from a “teamwork”? What do “teaming” and excellent teamwork have in common?

Teaming is where people come together quickly to solve new, urgent or unusual problems. Teaming is a last-minute form of teamwork and involves a group of people across all kinds of boundaries, coordinating and collaborating simultaneously to accomplish a goal. Teaming is people in real-time getting up to speed to accomplish an objective while figuring it out as they go.

Teaming is different from the idea of a team working on quality teamwork. Teams are usually composed of a small number of members who learn to work together, practice together over time, and perfect their performance to achieve a shared outcome. It is a stable group bonded to accomplish a goal. The concept of “teaming” is slightly different.

Dr. Amy Edmonson, in her TED Salon talk explains the concept of “teaming” using the example of the 2010 Chilean mine rescue. In 2010, 33 miners found themselves trapped underground, at the mercy of a group of strangers quickly coming together to save their lives. Edmonson uses this event as a real-life example of how crucial teaming is in solving unique yet potentially very time sensitive problems. The team of rescuers above ground were not sure where the miners were trapped and lacked the drilling technology necessary to locate and safely rescue the miners. Yet, through the application of “teaming”, all 33 miners were brought to the surface alive after 70 days.

What happened during those ten weeks of “teaming” by hundreds of individuals from different professions and parts of the world in 2010 in Chile? We know the group:

• Experimented with lots of different ideas
• Failed yet persevered
• Took risks to learn quickly what might work
• Moved forward
• Remained humble in the face of a life and death challenge
• Remained curious about each other’s skills
• Made slow, steady progress drilling through the rock
• Had small wins through experimenting with various techniques
• Freed the miners on the 67th day.

Dr. Amy Edmonson believes that the concept of “teaming” may be increasingly important in our ever increasing global, fast-paced operations, where people with narrow and focused expertise are required to meet unexpected and unique challenges when there is no ready team to respond to the crisis.

Why Teaming?

In today’s workplace more and more of the collaborative work takes place between, and even in the absence of, formal and well bonded teams. Many of the innovative and complex services and products that markets are demanding require people to work across disciplines. There is likely no blueprint of how to meet those challenges and needs, making teaming increasingly necessary.

What Are the Elements for Successful Teaming?

• A compelling reason for teaming

• Clarity and passion about the goal

• A sense of psychological safety so that people:

• feel free to speak up regarding concerns and not feel humiliated

• able to admit errors and failures

• may question concerns

• can ask for help when they are over their heads.

• A willingness to be interested in what other people can offer and what they have to say

• Need for collaboration of people from different groups to get the work done

What Can Leaders Do to Create an Environment that Enables Teaming, Innovation, and Growth?

Dr. Amy Edmondson of Harvard University offers three initial steps:

• Frame the project
• Create psychological safety
• Model the right behaviors.

But There Are Obstacles.

What Makes “Teaming” Difficult?

Professional culture clash is a significant hurdle to overcome. Professionals in different fields of expertise think differently, see things differently, have different time frames, different jargons, and perhaps work in different languages. Yet, we are asking a variety of professionals from different parts of the world to work come together, on little notice time, to work together.

How Might Professional Culture Clash Be Overcome?

Leadership should be clear that they do not have the answers, practicing “situational humility”. This, combined with curiosity, creates psychological safety that allows its members to feel safe to take risks, learning quickly, asking for help, remaining curious what others can offer, and eliminating the thinking that there is a competition for the best idea.

As educators, we may be interested in the elements of successful “teaming” and consider how these elements may be applied in our teaching. Look around. How quickly can you find the unique skills and talents of those around you? How quickly can you convey what you can offer?

Contributor: Marcia Banks, based upon the TED Salon: Brightline Initiative October, 2017 talk by Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, studies people and teams seeking to make a positive difference through the work they do. She is known for her work on psychological safety in the workplace.*