The team operates as a group of individuals who more often compete with one another and independently contribute to misaligned objectives.

Members focus mostly on achieving their individual objectives and what they can control and directly influence thereby maximising their individual rewards.

The members lack the necessary levels of openness and vulnerability about their strengths, weaknesses, mistakes and need for help.

Team members are not comfortable engaging in unfiltered discussion around important topics and more is unspoken. They avoid engaging with one another about performance and behavioural concerns

Team members feel like they are floundering and collectively, the group operates at less than the sum it’s parts for most of the time.

The team operates as a group and a team, particularly in contexts where complexity is low, and the objectives are straightforward.

However, the team reverts to operating as a group when the environment becomes more complex, and the objectives become more challenging.

To transition to operate more as a team, the members may need to get more comfortable being vulnerable and open with one another about their weaknesses, mistakes and requesting others help.

Because of the team not being comfortable to engage in unfiltered discussion around important topics, they may struggle to secure buy-in to clear decisions.

Team members hesitate to confront one another about performance and behavioural concerns. Members place too much importance on individual or departmental recognition  rather than focusing on the collective goals of the team.

The team operates at more than the sum of its part for sometimes.

The team operates as a collaborative high performing team. The team operates from a unifying purpose – the cause they serve greater than themselves.

They adopt agreed ways-of-working, which they consistently apply whether teaming together and apart. Above all, they hold themselves and each other accountable to collective performance goals they can only achieve by working interdependently.

Collaborative teams flourish as they develop a culture of their own. They visualise a shared future, motivate and learn with and from each other. They translate both their victories and their failures into inputs for learning and continuous improvement. They create an environment where vulnerability and openness are a norm.

Collaborative teams develop a culture based on humility, hard work, excellence, and learning. As each member develops unique, specialised skills, they increase the team’s inventory of competitive advantages. They reinvent themselves and the way they work - adapting to and generating new possibilities.

Collaborative, high performing teams operating at more than the sum of their parts and achieve what no other entity can