While generative AI (GenAI) has created significant disruption in corporate America, including in the labor market, there are some business necessities AI still can’t address, and teamwork is a big one. While humans aren’t capable of crunching data or churning out blog posts as quickly as GenAI, GenAI isn’t effective at teamwork. Indeed, even many humans are not very effective at teamwork. And yet, working effectively as a team is a key factor in the success of many organizations.
Must Haves for Effective Teamwork
In a recent article for Forbes, Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio discusses strategies for developing a culture of high-performance teams. Here’s a quick breakdown:
- Shared Vision. Teams need to think and act towards a common purpose, and that includes the ability to visualize a shared vision for future success.
- Psychological Safety. Teams are most effective when everyone feels comfortable sharing their input. That can’t happen if there’s a culture that ridicules or puts down people who share their ideas.
- Collaborative Problem Solving. Collaboration is at the heart of any team. A handful of individuals putting their heads together to solve a problem can be an extremely powerful force.
- Continuous Learning. While teams can be greater than the sum of their parts, they can be even greater still when those parts are operating at peak effectiveness. Continuous learning and effective training programs help ensure teams have access to highly skilled team members.
- Celebrating Wins. Recognizing successes, no matter how small, is a great way to maintain high morale and a sense of shared success among teams.
Successful teams are greater than the sum of their individual contributors. Organizations that do really well at building successful teams tend to outperform competitors that fail to do so. Making effective teamwork a priority is a great strategy for any organization to succeed.
Lin Grensing-Pophal is a Contributing Editor at HR Daily Advisor.