In our experience, team development in organisations is typically tackled during annual events or quarterly offsites with one-off activities or exercises. At Mindflick we've often discussed how this limited and infrequent approach stands in stark contrast to many of the world’s best teams that we’ve worked with over the years.

Notably, these high-performing teams—from Premier League winners to Olympic gold medalists—dedicate about 95% of their time to proactive improvement. Compare this to the typical corporate model, where businesses spend 95% of their time performing, leaving a mere 5% for development.

While training 95% of the time is unrealistic in any corporate setting, what if there was an alternative strategy for team development, one rooted in behavioural science and a modern approach to performance?

Three Modern Strategies for Effective Team Development

1. Continuous Learning: Team development as an everyday activity

While it might be unattainable to train every day in the corporate world, team development can become an everyday activity if we shift our mindset. The small moments and opportunities to work on team dynamics are there if you look for them.

By transforming regular meetings and daily interactions into micro-learning opportunities, you can create a cycle of continuous improvement, increasing learning and spurring action.

Traditional team development workshops, packed with content and delivered in a short time, often lead to fatigue and decreased retention. Instead, a “little and often” approach helps avoid overload and enhances retention. This method mirrors how sports teams train. They do a little bit every day, with each session having a key developmental focus, building on the last. Regularly recalling and practicing new ways of working can boost memory retention to over 80%.

2. Nudging New Behaviors

A 2017 Deloitte study revealed that only 12% of workplace learning translates into action. This is a dismal return on investment, given the billions spent annually on team development and psychometrics. So, how can we improve this?

Since it can take 66 days for new habits to form, it’s unrealistic to expect behaviour change to result from a one-off workshop. This is where nudge psychology comes in. Using nudges in the workplace to encourage the adoption of new habits and behaviours can be remarkably successful.

Our research on the application of learning from our programs has shown an eight-fold increase in the application of workplace learning when it is followed up with “nudge” reminders. This demonstrates the utility of such thinking in supporting how we develop teams—delivering reminders around desired behaviours when we need them most.

3. Encouraging a Coaching Mindset

In sport, the focus is on constant improvement, with the coach’s role being to facilitate this.

Coaches create an environment that provides regular feedback and allows for conversations about “how we’re working together,” not just “what we’re working on.” This focus on team dynamics and relationships accelerates development.

Applying this idea to the corporate world means a shift in the role of managers and leaders. Moving from ‘manager as boss’ to ‘manager as coach’ involves facilitating regular development conversations with individuals and providing continuous feedback—not just during annual appraisals. This helps make development the norm, with learning happening outside the classroom and in the flow of everyday work.

Embracing a New Approach

These three shifts—creating learning opportunities, applying nudge psychology, and adopting a coaching mindset—help embed traditional learning into daily actions. Supporting conventional methods with these strategies not only keeps learning alive but also transforms it into a rewarding experience, fostering genuine change and performance gains in our people and teams.

You can find out more about how we do this at Mindflick by exploring our different solutions to leadership and team development.