The Power of Teams: More Than the Sum of Their Parts
In today’s world of collaborations, cross-functional projects, and shared community goals, the ability to perform as a well-functioning team is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s a “must have.” Top-down, command-and-control leadership styles, or trying to complete a complex project in isolation, simply don’t work in the face of today’s community challenges and multi-generational workplaces.
High-performing teams operate in a sweet spot where task completion, process excellence, and relationship dynamics all align. When those three elements synchronize, progress happens with speed, energy, and resilience. And when one element falters, strong teams adapt in real time to restore balance.
Drawing from Deborah Mackin’s Team Building Tool Kit and Keeping the Team Going, teams are most effective when they are intentionally designed and nurtured. At their core, teams are:
Small groups (7–12 people) who can build strong trust and cohesion.
Diverse in skills, abilities, and experiences – leveraging complementary strengths rather than duplicating effort.
Committed to a common goal and approach, with clear roles and shared accountability.
Able to hold one another accountable, not just to the work, but to behaviors and agreements that sustain trust.
Let’s be clear: a team is not a group and vice versa. A group of workers is a small group of people, led by a leader, who are committed to the leader’s goal and approach and held accountable by the leader. A high performance team is a small group of people with complementary skills and abilities committed to their common goal and approach for which they hold each other accountable.
Being a “team” isn’t the end goal. Instead, teaming is both a mindset and a vehicle for achieving meaningful results (e.g. greater revenue, accomplished KPIs, completion of the mission). It requires a cultural shift in how we interact with one another – often pushing us outside of familiar or comfortable patterns of working alone (especially Americans!).
The real magic of teams lies in synergy. Unlike individual contributions simply added together, a team’s combined energy creates something exponentially greater. As Deb often emphasized, 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2 – it equals much more (1+1>2). She believed that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.
Synergy is that intangible spark where brainstorming leads to innovation, where peer accountability fuels follow-through, and where relationships provide the resilience to overcome obstacles. This is why teams consistently outperform individuals: the whole truly is greater than the sum of its parts.
In my work with communities, nonprofits, and organizations, I see teams as the cornerstone of success. They are your secret sauce (if you can figure them out); they are the vehicles that turn vision into action. As I said recently on our Direct Application podcast interview with Karin Tierney, teaming is the hardest and highest form of working.
Strong teams don’t just “happen.” They are built, coached, and sustained with intention. When teams embrace both the discipline of process and the humanity of relationships, they unlock their greatest strength.
That is where the magic lives. That is where organizations grow.
