Leadership must support learning and psychological safety for high-performing teams.
Teams benefit from a culture that values differences, new ideas, and open communication.
Deep dives
Characteristics of High-Functioning Teams
High-functioning teams require team-oriented, learning-oriented, and systems-oriented cultures. Team orientation involves overcoming professional silos and hierarchies by establishing clear roles and shared goals. Learning culture fosters adaptation, innovation, and psychological safety, emphasizing time for reflection and learning processes. Systems orientation focuses on addressing problems across conditions and whole systems to integrate care.
Training for New Skills in Team Environments
Introducing new tools and techniques in teams requires understanding agile learning and addressing seniority challenges. A study in a healthcare system showed backlash when junior workers were perceived as trainers. Implementing 'training status mobility' by rotating trainer roles promoted learning from all team members, enhancing skill acquisition and teamwork.
Functional and Cultural Changes in High-Functioning Teams
Successful transformation in healthcare teams involves functional and cultural change. Functional changes focus on operational aspects like role definition and data access, while cultural changes address team hierarchy and openness to experimentation. Pursuing both changes simultaneously creates a positive spiral for effective team transitions.
In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Sara Singer,a professor of organizational behavior (by courtesy) at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a professor of medicine at Stanford School of Medicine, sits down with lecturer Matt Abrahams to discuss the role of open communication in high-performing teams. “Learning requires leadership that reinforces learning, a supportive environment, including especially psychological safety, but also an appreciation for differences when you’re working with people of lots of different backgrounds, and openness to new ideas,” she says.