Team development and dynamics

What is team dynamics?

Team dynamics refers to the interactions and relationships within a team that influence how the team functions. It includes communication, collaboration, conflict management, and role distribution. It determines how effectively a team achieves its goals and how enjoyable the journey is for the team members. Double Healix approaches team dynamics as an exciting story, where each team goes through a unique variation of universal phases and themes.

What is team development?

Team development is the process of guiding and supporting a group of individuals to grow together into an effective and well-functioning team. This includes enhancing communication, psychological safety, collaboration, trust, and problem-solving skills, as well as defining clear roles and goals. The aim is to improve the performance and well-being of the team as a whole. The unique aspect of team development is that it also gives individual members the opportunity to strengthen their own relational skills and their personal leadership.

Why is team development so important?

Team development is crucial because it lays the foundation for a safe, effective, and harmonious work environment. It promotes better communication, increases productivity, and strengthens trust and collaboration among team members. As a result, teams can solve problems more efficiently, be more creative, and achieve better results. Additionally, team development enhances the engagement and satisfaction of team members, leading to lower staff turnover and a more positive work atmosphere.

What are the phases of team development?

There are four overarching stages in team development and the journey of a team: preparation, performance delivery, crisis, and transformative improvement. Double Healix distinguishes three phases within each of these four stages. So, in total, we identify twelve phases.

Which team roles can be distinguished?

Working in a team requires good organisation and collaboration. For optimal productivity, it is important that everyone has a role that fits their strengths. So, what are the main team roles? A well-known team role theory is that of Dr. Meredith Belbin. The 9 Belbin team roles she distinguished can be categorised into action-oriented roles, thinking-oriented roles, and people-oriented roles.

Double Healix focuses on the team roles that are most important in a particular phase. Because in each phase of team development, specific skills are needed. A team role can be performed by the team leader, but also by other team members. Double Healix distinguishes the following 12 phase-specific team roles:

Preparation roles

1. Networker: Has many contacts and can easily make connections, both within and outside the team.
2. Entrepreneur: Initiates new ventures, confronts issues when necessary, and is competitive.
3. Worker bee: Is a persevering individual who promotes harmony and norms within the team, encouraging consistent progress on tasks.

Performance-delivery roles

4. Creative: Brings new ideas, can think outside the box, and has the ability to put things into perspective.
5. Result Achiever: Is practical and rational, sets deadlines and priorities.
6. Star: Expresses the team’s emotions, presents engagingly, and ensures the team is visible and recognized.

Team crisis roles

7. Formalizer: Plans and secures processes, monitors the quality of communication and products, and prepares the team for tough times.
8. Diplomat: Listens to all parties and acts as a mediator during conflicts and difficult times, bringing calm and balance to the team.
9. Analyst: Breaks taboos, maintains urgency, and manages crises effectively. Can sharply analyse what goes wrong and provides directions for painful but necessary decisions.

Transformative improvement roles

10. Visionary: Unites the team around an inspiring vision and renewed ideals, provides direction and hope.
11. Conscience: Upholds justice from the bottom up, encouraging the team to courageously stand for their central principles.
12. Helper: Acts as the senior coach, serving other team members and the team as a whole. Guides new and departing members, promoting forgiveness and gratitude for what the team has achieved.

Of course, these are only the general team role descriptions. Do you want to know more about these team roles and are you curious about your own team role profile? Here you find the Double Healix Team Role Profile for individual team members and the team as a whole.

What does the pyramid of team development refer to?

The pyramid of team development refers to a structured model for building and strengthening teams, where each level of the pyramid represents an essential building block that contributes to the team’s success and effectiveness. A well-known example of this is Lencioni’s pyramid, which includes five levels:

1. Trust: The foundation of the pyramid; team members must trust each other and feel safe to be vulnerable. In the Double Healix model this is also the essential foundation of a team that starts in the first phase: Forming.
2. Constructive conflicts: Teams should be open to discussion and constructive conflicts to solve problems and make better decisions. In the Double Healix model this occurs in the Storming phase.
3. Commitment: Team members should feel involved and committed to the team’s decisions and actions. This process takes place in the Norming phase of the Double Healix model.
4. Accountability: Team members hold each other accountable for their performance and behaviour. This falls under Informing in the Double Healix model.
5. Results: The top of the pyramid; teams focus on the common goal and achieve results together. This is covered by Performing in the Double Healix model.

This pyramid emphasises the need for a strong foundation of trust and collaboration to create successful and effective teams. As described above, Double Healix goes further in the narrative: there will be moments when the team goes through tough times and must reinvent itself (phases 8 to 12).

What is team leadership?

We view leading teams as temporal and situational leadership. Depending on the phase and the situation the team is in, specific skills are needed. Team leadership can be displayed by the formal leader but also by other team members. Formal and informal leadership can complement each other well when needed. After all, team leaders with sufficient confidence in themselves and in their team members can delegate much, including moments of leadership. For example, in our training sessions, we often encourage team leaders to rotate the chairing of meetings. In that way each team member can practise leading and structuring. To effectively delegate tasks, it is important to research the skills and potentials of all team members. This can be done, among other ways, through the Double Healix team role profile.

What tension fields do teams and team leaders face?

In every team, opposing forces need to be balanced. This is not only inevitable but also desired and necessary. There will be tensions between team members (and even within each individual team member). If handled wisely, the tensions can lead to better collaboration. However, if not properly recognized and managed, they can cause dysfunctional polarizations that heavily impact the team. The Double Healix model addresses six fundamental tensions: chaos and order, action and reflection, construction and destruction, diverging and converging, result-orientation and principle-orientation, and self-orientation and environment-orientation. Every team, team leader, and team coach faces the challenge of finding a balance in these tension fields. Ensuring that each of the opposing team members is valued and one-sided solutions are avoided.

What are the different methods for team development?

There are various methods that can be beneficial for team development, each aimed at strengthening specific aspects such as communication, trust, collaboration, and problem-solving skills. Consider the following:

This is just a selection of the many possible methods. Each team can decide which methods best suit their needs and development path. Applying these methods can help teams become stronger, more connected, and more effective in achieving their common goals.

Improving team dynamics with Double Healix and MovieLearning

Double Healix offers a unique and vibrant approach to team development by combining narrative development structures with inspiring examples from films and documentaries (MovieLearning). This method makes it possible to view and discuss all themes and dilemmas in a way that feels psychologically safe. The film clips not only demonstrate that the themes and dilemmas are universal, but they also enhance conceptual and critical thinking. Our narrative structure provides an excellent foundation for the key principles of team development.
We assist teams in various ways, including live workshops and training sessions, customised training, team role profiles, online courses and webinars, educational posters, the team card game, and much more. Do you want to improve the dynamics within your team or entire organisation? Discover our complete range of team development offerings:
– Incompany training Triple-T team development 
– Team role profiles for individual team members and the team as a whole
– Online course: How to build a high-impact team: The Double Healix Triple-T approach

Please contact us to discuss your wishes!