How Great Teams Communicate

Teamwork is impossible without communication. Teams have to share information; they have to share ideas. Without communication, teams can’t coordinate tasks. 

They can’t help each other or do anything other than work alone in silence.

Since communication is vital to teamwork, it’s no surprise that the quality of communication strongly affects a team’s performance. Great teams communicate differently than average teams. 

So, it’s worth examining what high-performing teams do differently in terms of communication. Fortunately, researchers have been studying those differences on teams large and small for several decades now.

In this article, we’ll outline four differences in how great teams communicate.

Great Teams Communicate Equally

The first difference in how great teams communicate is that they do so equally. In mediocre teams, one or two people are extroverted and extra loud, dominating the conversation.

However, great teams take care to ensure that everyone on the team speaks equally during meetings and that everyone’s perspective is sought out in email or other text-based discussions. 

They don’t assume that silence means consensus; they actively seek out dissent or check for consensus before moving on from a discussion. 

Sometimes, this is because of a great team leader who is assertive enough to silence the over-talkers and amplify the unheard, but often, it turns into a cultural norm where everyone on the team feels comfortable talking about how much each person is talking.

Equal communication ensures that no perspective is unshared, minimizing the team’s blind spots. But it also helps the team grow in their trust and respect for each other—and hence grow the level of psychological safety on the team that allows them to tap into their team’s true collective intelligence.

Great Teams Communicate Informally

The second difference in the way great teams communicate is they do so informally. 

They’re not always communicating strictly through the organizational chart and keep their chats solely on work-related topics. Great teams get to know each other as people, not just as collaborators on a project. 

To do that, they need to share their whole selves and have nonwork-related conversations. They need to do so as peers, even if there’s a power distance between certain team members in the formal hierarchy. This can often look like wasted time.

Many great teams struggle with starting a meeting exactly on time—because they’re so excited to be together and catch up on each other’s lives. 

Likewise, it’s hard for them to leave a meeting once the agenda is complete because they want to linger and chat. 

But that’s not wasted time; it’s time well spent building personal connections with each other that will help them coordinate work better and keep them motivated when the work is tough.

Disciplined teams may separate out personal from professional communication so that they can better distinguish between strictly business conversations and opportunities to connect. 

But all great teams know that there’s no such thing as “strictly business” as long as business is still done by people.

Great Teams Communicate Externally

The third difference in the way great teams communicate is they do so externally.

They’re not siloed. They’re not engaging in turf wars. They’re not just talking to themselves all the time about how they get the real work done in the organization.

Instead, they regularly send their members out to communicate with other teams. They share information with other teams widely and regularly solicit information and feedback from other teams, even outside the organization. 

This ensures that other teams in the organization, as well as outside organizations like vendors, partners, and clients, trust that team more because of their personal relationships with different members of the team and their ability to see and influence what’s being worked on.

Communicating externally also spreads the definition of “team” to just about everyone working toward the goal of that project, as opposed to just the people who answer to the same boss. 

This insight about the need for external communication is what helped Gen. Stanley McCrystal turned around the military effort in Afghanistan by building a “team of teams” or training teams to communicate externally with other teams.

Great Teams Communicate in Bursts

The final difference in the way great teams communicate is they do so in bursts. 

Great teams know that they need to balance time spent talking about the work with time spent actually doing the work. They’re not in constant communication. They’re not in meetings with each other while replying to emails with other teams when no one’s looking. 

Instead, they’re intentional about finding solo, focused time to allow each other to do the deep work that actually creates progress on a project.

When they are together, it may take a while to get the meeting going since they’re also communicating informally, but then they get right into the process of updating each other on their work, pivoting if needed, and adjusting the timeline if the situation calls for it. 

They use meeting times efficiently to “work out loud” so that they can earn back more time working in solitude to get real work done.

Many average teams communicate in one of these four methods, so some of this may sound familiar. But other methods may seem downright odd. 

Each communication method, however, has been shown to enhance collaboration. When all four combine, you have a team that’s using their best communication to do their best work.

Role of Technology in Team Communication

Today, we have a variety of communication tools to help us stay connected and collaborate timely. There are email and messaging apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams, as well as video conferencing tools like Zoom and project management platforms like Asana and Trello.

All these tools are changing the way we communicate. They are adding convenience and making communication more efficient, but at the same time, there is a downside to technology.

All the shared information also leads to an information overload, which can be quite stressful.  In order to make progress, we must set clear guidelines about when to use which communication channel.

For example, instant messaging should not be used for work memos or collaboration. We have emails for that. Plus, if we send everything via instant communication channels, that would just bombard the team.

How to Overcome Common Communication Barriers

Despite the technology and tools that are readily available today, there are always barriers that can affect communication in the workplace. 

Different Time Zones

Many employees are working remotely or in different time zones. It can be hard to find and set a time to communicate together as a team with such a dispersed team structure. This can lead to a lot of misunderstanding and disengagement.

Unclear Instructions

The most common barrier to communication is unclear Instructions.

Many times, it is assumed that people know the SOPs and how to do the job. So, the instructions aren’t passed on as they should be. Then, at times, the leaders don’t follow up with the team. It may be unintentional or may be due to lack of time. That, too, can lead to unexpected outcomes.

Instructions should be in writing so that nothing is missed. Employees can later refer to the written instructions to check for gaps, reducing the chances of misunderstandings or lack of information.

How Strong Communication Impacts Team Performance

Strong communication has a direct effect on team performance. When teams communicate effectively, they can make quick decisions. They are also more aligned with organizational goals and can better deal with challenges.

They feel they are heard and develop a sense of belonging. 

The team’s success depends on communication. Open communication develops a sense of belonging and trust, which builds unity and harmony among team members.

Wrap Up

Best teams communicate– with purpose.

Instead of keeping it strictly formal, teams develop an informal communication channel.

Those teams that build relationships with other team members and work on shared understanding achieve success. For them, communication is much more than just an exchange of information.

They create a positive culture where ideas flow freely, and challenges are tackled together, making everyone feel valued.