How to run a team dynamics workshop to supercharge your team

The challenge of team dynamics

With 42% of organizations working remotely or hybrid post-pandemic¹, this creates new challenges for developing team dynamics. Even the most productive teams can encounter issues when attempting to work and communicate virtually. Projects can veer off track, and constructive criticism can easily get lost in translation, especially if there's not already sufficient rapport in place.

Another factor that can sabotage team dynamics is turbulent economic conditions. In light of budget cuts and poor staff retention, there can be an attitude of 'just get on with it and do the job’. Taking the time to develop positive team dynamics can seem futile when you've got one person doing the work of three. As well as ensuring your team is properly resourced, it's important to ensure employees have effective communication skills to navigate these leaner times.

It's not all bad news, though. A study conducted at Microsoft found that post-COVID, remote work has led to a decrease in cross-functional team communication, but to an increase in connectedness within one's own group – so, tighter-knit, small teams². It also showed that remote work led to a significant increase in unscheduled calls, emails, and instant messages, but less time spent in meetings overall. This indicates that when managed appropriately, virtual teams can actually be highly productive.

And, just like individual skills, team dynamics can be improved with the right approach. Whether you work virtually or in person, you can build a well-functioning team that can easily withstand the challenges of the current market.

4 essentials for high-performance team dynamics

So, what separates successful and poor team dynamics? This partly depends on your team composition, and the objectives of your department and organization. For example, in a commission-based sales environment, a friendly sense of competition may be beneficial, whereas, this might not be the case in a not-for-profit.

However, there are some clear patterns that contribute to strong team dynamics and effective teamwork. At Fingerprint for Success, we have spent more than 20 years researching the traits these high-performing teams have in common, and use these findings to help supercharge your team.

Below, find the key elements to focus on in your workshop, including plenty of examples of team dynamics to help provide context. If you’re a team leader, you'll also find handy tips and tricks for running an engaging workshop that goes beyond typical team-building activities.

Before you start: workshop preparation

• Prep: Before you schedule your team dynamics workshop, ask them to take the F4S assessment. Once everyone has completed it, set up a group for your team — this will allow you to see motivations and traits across your entire team.

• Gather your materials: You might choose to print out the F4S workshop playbook to have ready on the day, as well as having access to the platform on your laptop or tablet.
• Set everyone’s culture to the same setting in Profile settings: To establish a baseline for your high-performing team, choose the culture where the business is based. Or, if you have multiple locations, choose the location of the head office.

Psychological safety

In order to run an effective team dynamics workshop, it's important that everyone feels safe and willing to share their perspective and opinion. This is psychological safety in action — the belief that you will not be punished or humiliated by speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.

Studies show that a lack of psychological safety in the workplace can have a significant negative impact on employee wellbeing (including stress and burnout), employee performance, and retention³. This fear of punishment can stifle innovation and creativity if employees are unwilling to bring out-of-the-box ideas to the table⁴.

Poor psychological safety can also hinder team performance⁵. It may result in some members feeling they must 'walk on eggshells' to avoid negative consequences, which can lead to significant distress. It can also contribute to 'groupthink', where individuals reach a consensus decision to avoid disrupting team norms, rather than exploring more unconventional solutions.

It's important to establish a sense of trust upfront before your workshop. Fingerprint for Success helps facilitate this process by leveraging powerful data to highlight everyone's diverse strengths. By identifying and embracing each team member’s communication and work style, everyone can feel empowered to bring their authentic self to work.

Workshop tip: set the stage

• Explain F4S' motivational traits up front: This allows team members to understand team dynamics in context. For example, one's action level is not an indicator of laziness (or lack thereof). It's simply reflective of whether they are fast idea initiators or more analytical types who like to review the facts before starting. Or, when it comes to the environment, some work best independently, while others like to be in a group setting. Read about the 48 work style traits.
• Emphasize that there's no such thing as a bad result: All dynamics are helpful in certain settings. Explain that 50 is the norm for the working culture you have selected,100 and above is very high, 0-50 is low and below 0 is very low.

Well-defined team goals and organizational vision

In order to build an efficient and motivated team, it's crucial that everyone understands what they are working towards — and is headed for the same shared goals.

Research shows that strong organizational alignment is an important differentiator between low- and high-performing companies⁶. On average, highly aligned organizations grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable than those that are not well-aligned.

When it comes to setting effective goals, it's wise to take a top-down approach. This means defining the vision behind your wider organization. What is the mission or purpose of the company? What objectives or milestones have they set for the quarter or year ahead?  As a team, try to define this vision in one or two sentences.

Once you're clear on the big picture, this can trickle down to your team goals. What do you want to achieve as a team in the near future, and what mix of skills will you need to achieve that?

For example, perhaps the vision of your organization is to achieve rapid growth and disrupt your industry. In order to achieve this, your team would likely need to be nimble and embrace an experimentation culture. If various members of your team have been identified as having a status quo bias (a preference for keeping things the same), you might work towards aligning on a more pioneering mindset.

This shared sense of ownership toward a common objective will help foster an aligned and highly motivated team.

Workshop tip: set effective goals

• Establish individuals’ goals: Ask each member of the team what they are hoping to get out of the session. This coaching question can help guide you through this process: how would you know that this session was a valuable investment of your time?
• Celebrate the wins: Identify the ways in which the team already works well together. This will help to kickstart the workshop on a positive note.
• Identify team challenges: Encourage each team member to share their biggest sources of friction and frustration in their daily work life (without naming names).
• Take notes: Make sure to write down the exact words the team members use. This will come in handy later in the debrief.

Self-awareness: why it’s important for strong team dynamics

It's impossible to work on team dynamics if you're not aware of them. Even the most emotionally intelligent members of your team have blind spots, which can lead to negative conflict, if left unchecked.

For example, you might have a team leader with an unconscious preference for those with more extroverted communication styles. This can mean that creative solutions from quieter, more introverted members go ignored.

Research shows that diverse perspectives lead to better problem-solving⁷. So, in order to drive team performance and foster successful collaboration, it's important to bring these dynamics to the surface.

Fingerprint for Success uses cognitive and behavioral data to establish a new level of self-awareness within your team. By highlighting both individual and shared patterns, you can optimize team dynamics for performance and harmony. You can use the F4S platform to shed light on the following areas:

Team culture

Culture can be tricky to measure, and even trickier to define. Fingerprint for Success makes the abstract tangible by providing data on the overall feel of your team. The Team Culture report can also highlight shared motivations among your team. For example, perhaps your team is united by a sense of integrity, which you can use to effectively work towards common goals.

Team communications preferences

Do your team members like to receive team updates in person, or do they prefer written communication? How sensitive are they to affective communication — the things people say implicitly through tone of voice and gestures? F4S provides powerful insights into these areas as well as the individual personalities of your team members, so you can achieve more effective and streamlined communication.