When we form teams, we knowingly bring together people with different personalities, priorities, perspectives, and pressures. Despite these differences, we somehow expect them to collaborate seamlessly right away.
But the reality is…
Teams are not a recipe for harmony. It’s a setup for dysfunction.
And this dysfunction isn’t a bug in team dynamics. It’s a feature.
As we will explore later, recognising that teams are inherently dysfunctional is an important step in proactively harnessing the power of our differences.
But if left unaddressed, these differences pull teams apart faster than they come together. This is why teams are prone to conflicting expectations, misaligned priorities, or personality clashes.
The State of Play
The increasingly fluid, fast-changing and hybrid nature of modern teams might even amplify this team dysfunction. Modern teams are:
More dynamic and short-lived
Today’s teams are assembled around projects, not permanence. Project cycles move fast. Roles change. People rotate in and out.
- 83% of digitally matured businesses are now organised through cross-functional, project-based teams
- 77% of managers worried that their direct reports may not be able to meet performance expectations when working on dynamic teams
More hybrid and engaged in remote work
The shift to hybrid and virtual working has increased flexibility but at a cost. Team cohesion and psychological safety are harder to build without shared physical space.
- As of 2024, 74% of UK companies have adopted or plan to implement hybrid work models
- Hybrid teams reported 52% higher likelihood of being disconnected with their colleagues than fully onsite teams
More demographically and culturally diverse
From multigenerational workplaces to global delivery teams, the diversity within teams has increased, which has created more opportunities for both misunderstanding, and for insight.
- By 2030, 74% of the workforce will comprise Millennials and Gen Z workers
- 66% of multinational projects now rely on cross-border virtual teams
These research trends suggest that stability in teams is rare, and could deepen dysfunction. Misalignment, friction, and inefficiencies have become regular side effects of how work is now structured.
The Mindflick
Now consider this alternative paradox of teams, the very differences that make teams unstable are the same ones that, when channelled effectively, can unlock creativity, resilience, and breakthrough performance.
Dysfunction isn’t a flaw to be fixed, but a force to be harnessed.
To turn dysfunction into a force, we must…
- Recognise team diversity as a performance asset, and use our differences as a source of insight, creativity, and resilience. Mindflick has helped numerous teams ranging from a FTSE 100 bank to a renowned special needs school, to recognise their unique individual and collective strengths and how they can be leveraged to foster better communication, and optimised contextually for performance.
- Don’t wait to build high performance. Reject the idea that team development begins after a team “settles”. It is impossible to ‘time’ team development because teams are constantly in flux. Instead, design it into how teams operate, even while they are still forming, storming, or changing. Mindflick is built to support diverse teams for high performance across all stages of team development or team configurations. Here’s how we work with early-stage, ad-hoc teams in executive education (Hult International Business School), more established senior teams in engineering and manufacturing (Brompton), and multidisciplinary teams in consulting (Mott MacDonald).
- Adopt a systematic, operating rhythm that consistently helps teams to prioritise connection, clarity, and challenge. Mindflick’s technology offering makes consistent team behaviours possible on the web and mobile, and in our latest offering on Microsoft Teams, in the right moment, right where collaboration takes place. Consistency in team collaboration is especially critical in situations of high pressure, when performance is make or break. Find out more about our work with both leaders (Sir Ben Ainslie on the America’s Cup and Sail GP campaigns) and teams (Haas F1) to perform under pressure.