The Way Forward is Through

Dynamics and mechanics of effective teams

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Dysfunctional team dynamics can be confounding. Otherwise competent leaders can feel deskilled in the face of trying to manage an ineffective team. Some leaders will blame themselves. Others will blame their teams. Still others will avoid the topic altogether and justify mediocrity, either mistaking average performance for excellence or jettisoning excellence as a goal altogether.

The rare leader focuses attention on diagnosing the problem — their roles and the roles of others — and crafts a solution that models accountability. If leaders want their teams to reach their highest potential, they must grapple with the issues in the way. We cannot go around the problem, over it, or under it. The way forward is through — a sentiment echoed in Robert Frost’s poem.

As a “team doctor,” I’m grateful to partner with teams — whether in crisis, transition, or formation — to guide them toward transformative impact, wherever they may be in their journey. The way forward begins with naming the issues, bringing them into the light so they can be examined and eventually addressed. Leaders often reach out in desperation — when things have become untenable, and the problems seem to exceed internal capacity or expertise.

Previewing the Solution

At every juncture, something can go awry — something that undermines trust, collaboration, and performance on a team. There are many formulas for team success. Yet, after years of study and practice, I have arrived at two broad categories that are foundational for team success:

• Dynamics: relational qualities and commitments that foster motivation (e.g., dignity, belonging, trust).
• Mechanics: structures, systems, and processes that support collaboration, communication, and accountability.

A colleague once said, “dynamics before mechanics.” I agree — but both matter. Gaps in one strain the other.

I’ll unpack these ideas more fully later, but if you remember just those two key concepts, you’ll already be on the right path to building — or recalibrating — a team positioned for greater success and impact. Why? Because dynamics and mechanics offer a powerful lens for analyzing a team’s culture and effectiveness. This kind of analysis can illuminate the forces that drive success — as well as the obstacles that may be holding a team back.

Assessing the Problem

My process always begins the same way: first, an expression of gratitude for the opportunity to engage; then, a validation that something isn’t working well and that there is always a way forward; and finally, an explanation that the next step involves discovery — focus groups, anonymous surveys, or individual interviews. What is there to solve unless we first assess the issues? So often, people rush to solutions without fully understanding the problem.

Our knee-jerk assessments — a product of cognitive rush — offer a limited view. Cognitive biases may get in the way. Confirmation bias can prevent us from taking seriously data that contradicts our beliefs. Consensus bias can make us assume our experience is universal. Stress responses can further distort our assessment. Proximity to a situation can offer a useful insider perspective, but it can also obscure as much as it reveals.

Imagine being a leader highly activated by yet another breakdown in communication and cohesion. You might slip into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode — fawning being people-pleasing or what Kim Scott calls. Or you might default to fix-it mode, frantically searching for a solution without a full grasp of the problem’s depth and breadth. An outside perspective can be helpful — enter coaches and consultants. Distance does not mean detachment; third parties must care deeply while remaining open to what the data may reveal.

What We May Hear

Independent assessments are often received better by staff than internal ones. The perceived independence of a consultant carries an aura of objectivity and a greater degree of safety. Staff feel their candor is less likely to result in retaliation. In my discovery work, I often hear the following:

• “They speak to me in condescending ways, constantly reinforcing that I am beneath them.”
• “They don’t think I’m competent. They act as if they can do my job better than me. It’s maddening and exhausting.”
• “I don’t receive consistent or structured feedback — only criticism when I make mistakes.”
• “Who? Me? No, they make decisions all the time without consulting the people who are most impacted. I guess I don’t matter — well, not to them anyways.”
• “There’s no transparency. Unless you’re in leadership’s face daily, you’re in the dark.”
• “There is so much inefficiency and duplication because of a lack of communication and coordination. We’re doing twice the work with half the productivity.”
• “I no longer give 100%. I do my job and check out. I’m done trying.”
• “I don’t raise concerns anymore because no one listens. Or worse, I become a target.”
• “I haven’t given real feedback because I don’t trust they can receive it.”
• “These meetings have no purpose. No agendas. Just a waste of time. And I have real work that I could be doing.”

I’ve heard these sentiments in every region where I’ve worked. Disappointed dreams pile atop disappointed dreams — of what the team could have been, what the organization promised, what the leader said they valued. The result: lasting wounds and disengagement that compound conflict, harm, and pain. Each of these comments reflects a sense of being unseen, unheard, or undervalued, often due to relational or systemic failures. Each expresses a lingering sense of diminished worth. And as argues, a desire to have one’s own dignity honored lies at the heart of human experience and motivation.

Failures to Tend to Culture

Humans are fundamentally social and interdependent. Yet we do not always nurture relationships with care and consistency. While the impulse to team may be natural, teams themselves are not. They must be intentionally created, nurtured, maintained, and realigned.

This reality is what captured in his model of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Though often viewed as linear stages, it’s more accurate to see them as a cycle. Groups may revisit earlier stages due to breakdowns in communication, relationships, or systems, or because of changes in membership or mission.

Many teams overestimate the role of strategy and underestimate the role of culture. I tend to agree with Peter Drucker:. How we relate, communicate, and act on our values determines success. outlines five dysfunctions that are, at root, cultural: absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results, as though one naturally leads to the next.

Culture Matters

In the , Amy C. Edmonson underscores the need for psychological safety, reinforcing why culture matters. For teams to thrive, individual contributors must be able to raise concerns, ask questions, and make mistakes without fear of retaliation or dismissal. “describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.” Google’s studied over 180 teams within the company to determine what makes a team effective. They found that a group’s unarticulated norms or culture was the best predictor of team effectiveness. The top factor? Psychological safety. Other important elements included dependability, clarity, and finding personal meaning in one’s work.

My own experience with teams has confirmed these findings. “We can’t be focused just on efficiency,” puts it pointedly. I agree and would add that we need a compelling and highly practical vision of the kind of culture we want — and not only the kind of culture that we seek to jettison. We suffer less from lack of strategy than we do from lack of imagination. A powerful question to ask is: What’s possible here? It is hard to move toward something better, brighter, healthier, if we can’t even imagine it — not as a theoretical construct but as an embodied possibility. So, what does a healthy team culture look like in practice?

A Practical View

A team is healthy when:

• Team members can be their authentic selves within boundaries that honor the team.
• There is a shared purpose. Leaders articulate vision and strategy clearly and transparently.
• Members have clearly defined roles and responsibilities, understanding their own and others and how they contribute to the whole.
• They bring a mix of technical, emotional, and psychological skills to the table.
• Team members are supported with feedback (both affirmative and constructive), resources, and growth opportunities.
• Relevant information flows freely and appropriately.
• Decision-making is inclusive and consultation-oriented.
• Team members feel empowered to raise concerns, offer new ideas, and ask hard questions without fear of dismissal or harm.
• Trust, respect, and mutual understanding are the norm. Members undertake the risk of trusting in others’ good intentions, competence, and reliability, while working diligently to demonstrate trustworthiness.
• Reflective learning is baked into the work at both the individual and team level — personal reflection combined with team alignment pre- and post-projects help the team optimize for success.
• Mistakes and harm are met with accountability and opportunities for repair.

This is the ideal vision for team functioning: one rooted in dignity, purpose, and effectiveness.

Dynamics and Mechanics — The Nine Characteristics

Through my work, I’ve identified nine common challenges teams face — each of which, when flipped, reveals a corresponding characteristic of effective teams. These qualities span the dimensions of dynamics and mechanics and align with insights from other researchers and practitioners.

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• Trust & Inclusion — Cultivate belief in each other’s competence and value every team member’s input.
• Supportive Environment — Foster psychological safety so that all voices feel encouraged to speak up.
• Clear Vision & Strategy — Define shared goals, actionable steps, and systems for tracking progress, learning from missteps, and adapting as needed.
• Clear Roles & Responsibilities — Clarify each person’s contributions and how they fit together within the team.
• Specific Feedback — Offer both affirming and constructive feedback that is concrete and actionable.
• Open Communication — Promote transparency and consistent sharing of information.
• Recognition — Acknowledge contributions and express appreciation in fair, consistent, and meaningful ways.
• Growth Opportunities — Create room for learning, experimentation, and professional stretch.
• Accountability & Repair — Establish structures for addressing conflict and harm through restorative, dignity-affirming practices.

When teams live out these values, they move with clarity, care, and consistency.

Where Do We Start?

Teams require care and investment. They are our most powerful tool for mission-driven work.

• New teams need guidance to align people, processes, and values.
• Distressed teams need a clear path to realignment.

Bringing in a “team doctor” with a proven track record can help. Here’s a roadmap:

• Share with the consultant your vision and challenges — including your own role.
• Introduce the consultant to your team and explain the goal of the collaboration.
• Allow them to conduct discovery work (e.g. interviews, focus groups, surveys) and to identify findings while preserving the anonymity of staff.
• Meet to process findings privately before sharing with the team. This is a chance to metabolize any defensiveness or shame that you may experience and that if left unaddressed could prevent you from moving forward in a productive way.
• Prepare talking points — to thank the team, acknowledge harm if needed, and set intentions for how you want to show up as a leader and how you want your team to show up moving forward.
• Have the consultant share the findings with the team and facilitate an opportunity for them to reflect.
• Co-create team norms and commitments that are responsive to the findings and team reflections.
• Have everyone affirm and revisit these norms regularly (e.g. in team meetings).
• Critically review and revise these norms annually or as needed.
• Review and revise team structures, informed by these norms and team input (e.g. meeting structure and cadence, roles and responsibilities, strategic goals, feedback systems, etc.).

This is how we reset and realign. Whether you’re building from scratch or rebuilding from rupture, the way forward is through. Let courage and compassion be your guide.

As once said: “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

Jason Craige Harris, Managing Partner at Perception Strategies and a member of Pollyanna’s speakers’ bureau, is a thinker, writer, and speaker who uses the transformative power of storytelling to cultivate cultures of humility, curiosity, and empathy across sectors, contexts, and age groups.

As a conflict mediator, executive coach, and organizational strategist, he integrates insights from a variety of fields to help groups develop trust, achieve ambitious goals, and build structures that work. An expert on dignity-centered leadership, restorative practices, and dialogue across differences, Jason advises leaders and communities how to create environments where everyone can thrive — and what to do when challenges arise.