Have you ever been part of a great team or a terrible one?
If you have, you already know: the difference in results is astounding.
A great team works like a living system, where each part strengthens the others.They thrive not because of individual brilliance, but because of the magic that happens between people.
Meanwhile, dysfunctional teams collapse into chaos, where not everyone feels valued, protected, or even motivated to stay.
As Ed Catmull, founder of Pixar, once said:
“If you give a mediocre idea to a brilliant team, they will either fix it or throw it away and come up with something better.”
Great teams don’t happen by accident. And the real secret to building them isn’t just planning or hiring a fancy consultant, it’s tapping into something ancient. Something wired deep into us, long before meetings, job titles, or Slack messages.
Humans have collaborated since the very beginning. It’s what set us apart as species. For millions of years, our ancestors learned how to stay close together to face the uncertainty of a cruel nature that knows no good or evil, just survival. Archaeological evidence shows that early hominins (like Homo habilis and Homo erectus, a bit before Homo sapiens) were already showing signs of food-sharing, tool-making, and care for young and injured. The anthropologist Richard Leakey, writer of The Origin of Humankind, states: “We are human because our ancestors learned to share their food and their skills in an honored network of obligation.”
We later created language, which served as a tool to enhance that collaboration even further. Thanks to language, humans were able to plan, teach, coordinate, and even gossip. This gave humans a competitive advantage as a group toward other species, by being able to craft complex strategies for collaboration and keeping each other together, which reduced significantly the uncertainty. But why am I going on a rant now about something that happened so long ago, and what does this even have to do with your team’s issues?
EVERYTHING.
Collaboration and communication both originated in a context of high uncertainty, where humans needed to trust, share, and learn in a highly competitive/high-stakes unforgiving environment: nature.
Human beings, wired for survival in a dangerous world, instinctively assess new encounters by asking two ancient questions: “Are you a threat?” and “Can I trust you?”. As Malcolm Gladwell notes in Talking to Strangers, these snap judgments are rooted deep in our evolutionary past. Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux further explains that our emotional brain evolved long before rational thought, priming us to detect danger instantly.
So no wonder why the first thing a team should have is psychological safety (also known as “you are not in danger”). Without it, it’s almost impossible to bring the best of everyone afloat and create the magic that true collaboration can bring. The second thing would be trust, and this depends on everyone. The group must be confident that they can trust each other for the mission they have to accomplish together. Trust the moral, the skills, the task, that they have the right tools. And last but not least, a good team needs cohesion (also known as fun!). I truly believe that a team that can laugh together, can work together… and this is after the first two are well set. Let’s dive deeper into what it means practically for you and your team.
The road to psychological safety, trust, and cohesion
In the book The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle shares some insights into what makes teams great and how to best create a culture where everyone feels safe, trusts each other, and collaborates like only the pros do. So here are some tips (Daniel’s courtesy):
- Signal belonging cues: Belonging cues could be as simple as eye contact, active listening, validation, small courtesies, and recognizing people’s input. This can make everyone feel like their input is valued, lower anxiety, and increase openness. These cues come naturally when the team has chemistry, but good leaders also make sure to include everyone and make them feel listened to.
- Be vulnerable first: Leaders should take the lead showing vulnerability by admitting to their mistakes and asking for help. Being authentic about it and acknowledging it first (while taking action) helps build trust within the team. On the other hand, hiding information will just increase anxiety among the team, who will usually sense that something is off. This could be counterintuitive to leaders who think that they should be the reflection of perfection, but let’s be honest, we’re humans, so we just have to embrace our nature and deal with it.
- Overcommunicate that you are listening: While this might sound a bit extreme and boring, communication is the pillar of great collaboration. Remember why humans created language? To erase any barrier of misunderstanding and increase the transmission between what’s in my mind to yours. Great communicators know this, and great teams must be experts in communication. Things like acknowledging the message, nodding, rephrasing what someone said, asking questions, giving small acknowledgments like “that’s a good point,” following-up, and ensuring everyone’s voice is heard will work wonders and increase trust, psychological safety, and cohesion.
- Embrace small and consistent interactions: What do safety, trust, and cohesion have in common with wine? That they age well over time. They are not built in one big moment, but in small, tiny interactions that reinforce their existence. Little things like celebrating small wins, encouraging questions, and celebrating each other’s achievements can make your team feel protected and valued.
- Create clarity around purpose: Let’s start with Why because without it, why does the team even exist? The Why is the glue that will bind everything together and provide meaning to their collaboration in the first place. This is as powerful as everyone’s paycheck. Knowing that you are going to work for a shared goal helps everyone channel their energies in the right direction. At the same time, understanding the values of the group or even having a team contract (sort of like the rules of the tribe) will make your team thrive even more, as everyone will know what behaviour is expected from them and what to expect from the rest.
Now ask yourself the following question: Is your team a great team? Do you already know what is missing to make it even better? Whatever the answer is remember that at the core of every thriving team is the same ancient instinct: survive together, or fail alone 😉
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