How healthy is your team? Why does it matter?
I'm not talking about their physical and mental fitness - although anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes with me knows how important I believe that to be. I'm talking about the health of the relationships - the cohesiveness and the effectiveness of their collaboration -- critical elements for a high-performing team.
According to McKinsey, "organisational health refers to how effectively leaders "run the place"—that is, how they make decisions, allocate resources, operate day to day, and lead their teams with the goal of delivering high performance, both near-term and over time." Their research suggests that health is the strongest predictor of value creation for organisations.
If you're a leader who is 'dialled in' to the vibe in your team, at any given time, you'll be able to identify some interactions that inform your view of team health. That's great! But how do you decide the criteria for 'healthy'? And, how do you measure it over time so that you can respond to changes?
Without clear criteria and measurements, you are flying blind. - which creates increased and avoidable risks such as talent haemorrhage and decreased innovation speed.
How can you be more scientific in your approach to team health?
Patrick Lencioni (author of The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team) describes the 5 elements of team health in this short video.
He suggests that healthy teams have:
Minimal politics
Minimal confusion
High morale
High productivity
Low turnover (in best people)
Ok. Those are helpful signposts, but it can be challenging to evaluate 'politics' or 'confusion'. They are 'I'll know it when I see it' problems - which is often too late.
Atlassian's team monitor provides some more practical and identifiable criteria for looking at team health, including:
Team cohesion - trust, respect and connectedness
Balanced team - the right people with the right skills in clearly defined roles
Encouraging difference - diverse viewpoints and time to work through points of difference
Shared understanding - aligned mission, purpose and milestones
Value and metrics - clarity about the way we create value with relevant metrics to guide decisions
Suitable ways of working - fit-for-purpose tools and processes
Engagement and support - clarity on who to engage when and why
Continuous improvement - celebrating success and taking opportunities for self-reflection and iteration.
Atlassian recommends a quarterly team workshop to review the criteria.
Team Health: From Insight to Action
The health of your team isn't just a nice-to-have – it's the foundation of your success. As we've explored, healthy teams drive performance in ways that spreadsheets often fail to capture.
So, what's next? I recommend...
1. Scheduling your first health check to establish a baseline
2. Creating a feedback loop – Establish a regular cadence to measure progress against your baseline.
3. Modelling vulnerability – Acknowledge your role in team health (for better or worse)
4. Investing appropriately – If you discovered a critical infrastructure problem, you'd likely address it immediately. Treat team health with the same urgency.
The question isn't whether you can afford to focus on team health.
The question is: can you afford not to?
What are you going to do differently tomorrow to start measuring and improving the health of your team?