How to work in teams

During my 12 years of experience with teams and working in teams I have worked in many teams, good and bad. There are many theories, some are good just on paper some are good in practice, but each team is unique as its members and what works with one team fails with other. Each team member has a different personality, different aims, different views and different traits. If someone tells you that he will teach you how to have a perfect team and no conflicts is like telling you he will sell you a pink unicorn who poops rainbows.




What makes a team work?
First thing and maybe the most important thing to make a team work is that all team members should have the same goal and aim, at least on paper. If part of the team has a different goal then the team will struggle every time to keep on tracks.
The second thing worth to mention is conflict solving, that's right, there is no group without tension, even when is a two people team. Each individual has a different point of view and different level of assertion and alpha traits. Maybe sounds trivial to bring animal instincts into discussion but there is a real problem, each individual tries to make a statement through his attitude and body language and as the alpha trait is bigger so the ego grows. A gamma type will always accept other's people ideas while an alpha will try to impose only his ideas. While sounds easy to have a team with only one type for each it is hard to have it in practice and in any team at some point you will have conflicts which unsolved will make the team work hard together and the results will be also poor.
The third thing is to have a set of rules and to be sure that each of the members agrees with the set of rules. If there are rules but the members don't care about them or don't even agree with them, then are for nothing. The rules should always change with the team, the core rules can remain the same but the engagement and interaction rules should change according to the team members.
Last but not least is to have a diverse team, and I am not talking about gender, race, age and other demographics but I mean types, a diversity of traits. A team full of alphas is a disaster as is one full of gammas.

I will not enter into details and go into the different types of team members since is not the aim of this post, but I will list some of the most basic things to make it to the end of the project without killing each other.

What to do:

• Always keep in mind the aim and the goal of the project, and bring the subject back if one of the members starts to wander.
• Respect the rules, if one member starts to disrespect them and is allowed to do so soon the others will join the party.
• Respect the roles and keep it as a rule for the team to avoid power struggle, it will be some power struggle in any team but must be kept at normal levels.
• Deadlines are good and bad but are that necessary evil since reaching a milestone gives the feeling of going forward in the project and a minor accomplishment.
• Solve a conflict in the early stage before groups are formed and becomes a war between "my army and your army".
• Criticism must always be constructive, not personal. So, mind the feedback rules.
• Keep members interested in the project, if one has a fall in the interest maybe assigning another task for the next phase could be a good motivation.
• Rewards are a great incentive and they must not be only material, of course nothing is better than a bonus, but when you can't afford to give a bonus for each milestone even a tap on the shoulder can be an incentive and a recognition of the hard work, keeps the things rolling during the project. 
• Don't punish failure, is nothing worse than putting someone to the wall. Depending on the type  he or she can work harder to prove that he or she is not a failure or can become passive or even passive aggressive. Even if you smile and say "yeah, will work harder and better" will be a hard work indeed but will be a work to prove something and in the way can create other internal conflicts for affirmation and power.
• Celebrate failure. Sounds counter productive, right? I don't say to offer an exotic vacation for failure, but learn from it, get over it and apply what you have learned. Sometime out of the biggest failure can come the best project.
• Learn what makes the team and each individual tickle and use it.
• Don't take parts, keep it professional.

Now the above "rules" may sound easy and not too much but I can assure you that they are easy to forget or to brake, and then starts the "funky" time in a team. The most disregarded rule is the one about the rules. Sounds funny to break the rule about the rules but is so easy to close your eyes when one member brakes one rule and later is hard to argue with other member who brakes the same rule. And is true, why would it be an exception for X and not for Y? How can you force that rule back? Why X was allowed? There will be a lot of questions when you are at this stage.
Another typical problem is having a different understanding of the goal and aim, and yes is a difference between goal and aim. This problem appears mainly in corporate world when you have a fixed team for whatever project comes and you can't choose your team, you have to live with it.
If the two problems above are relatively easy to deal with the biggest one is the ego of team members and the power struggle, especially when the team leader is challenged by one team member or is a weak leader. I have seen many, some of them are team leaders just because they are good ass kissers or a good door carpet for their bosses, others are just because they want to lead even if they are weak, few are by accident, a decent number of them are self entitled team leaders since no one had the nerves to step up and take the responsibility and very few are because they are true leaders. Now, when you have a weak guy you will have some competition for the leading chair, will be one formal leader and one informal and if they start a war you can kiss goodbye the result. In a team when comes to power struggle and ego you can have struggle for attention, for recognition, for a certain position and so on. This type of conflict is present in almost all teams and is the cause of many failures.

What can be done? There is no magic formula, takes a lot of experience and good communication skills and to know when to back off as well. There are moments when starting a war is not a good option. Remember that the goal of your team is important not your small personal war with X, Y or Z ... or all of them. If you are more busy with the conflict and having an untouched ego then you will have a series of conflicts and no results on the project side. Keep your ego at minimum, that's why is called teamwork, if you can't accept other ideas then you should work alone and not in a team.