Team Collaboration Techniques

Too often, I’ve been in a meeting where everyone agreed collaboration was essential—yet when it came to execution, things stalled. Silos persisted, friction rose, and progress felt painfully slow. A recent Harvard Business Review article highlights a frustrating truth: even the best-intentioned leaders struggle to work across functions. Why? Because traditional leadership development focuses on vertical leadership (managing teams) rather than lateral leadership (influencing peers across the business). The best cross-functional leaders operate differently. They don’t just lead their teams—they master LATERAL AGILITY: the ability to move side to side, collaborate effectively, and drive results without authority. The article suggests three strategies on how to do this: (1) Think Enterprise-First. Instead of fighting for their department, top leaders prioritize company-wide success. They ask: “What does the business need from our collaboration?” rather than “How does this benefit my team?” (2) Use "Paradoxical Questions" to Avoid Stalemates. Instead of arguing over priorities, they find a way to win together by asking: “How can we achieve my objective AND help you meet yours?” This shifts the conversation from turf battles to solutions. (3) “Make Purple” Instead of Pushing a Plan. One leader in the article put it best: “I bring red, you bring blue, and together we create purple.” The best collaborators don’t show up with a fully baked plan—they co-create with others to build trust and alignment. In my research, I’ve found that curiosity is so helpful in breaking down silos. Leaders who ask more questions—genuinely, not just performatively—build deeper trust, uncover hidden constraints, and unlock creative solutions. - Instead of assuming resistance, ask: “What constraints are you facing?” - Instead of pushing a plan, ask: “How might we build this together?” - Instead of guarding your function’s priorities, ask: “What’s the bigger picture we’re missing?” Great collaboration isn’t about power—it’s about perspective. And the leaders who master it create workplaces where innovation thrives. Which of these strategies resonates with you most? #collaboration #leadership #learning #skills https://lnkd.in/esC4cfjS

Bonuses only matter, right? Think again. When it comes to project success, teams crave: 🌟 Clear Communication 🌟 Trust 🌟 Feedback Groundbreaking insights reveal: 70% of projects fail due to lack of clarity, regardless of the tools in place. Here's the real shocker: 33% of team members feel their expertise isn't utilized. That's a third of your squad feeling underutilized. Ponder on that. Why This Matters ➨ Faster Deliverables Effective feedback speeds up project timelines by 27%. ➨ Elevated Quality Clear objectives can spike the project's quality by 19%. ➨ Team Cohesiveness Teams with trust are 3.5X more likely to meet deadlines. ➨ Resource Optimization Informed teams utilize resources 42% more efficiently. Now, no doubt, tools are pivotal. Everyone needs the right resources. But they aren't the be-all, end-all. Here's the revelation: Clear communication bridges the gaps tools can't. It's the linchpin of a successful project. Your Action Plan 1. Transparent Objectives: Clarify the 'why' behind tasks. Purpose drives passion. 2. Feedback Loops: Encourage open dialogue. Mistakes are growth opportunities. 3. Trust Sessions: Team-building exercises to foster mutual respect and understanding. 4. Skill Spotlights: Hold sessions where team members showcase their expertise. 5. Delegation With Clarity: Ensure tasks align with strengths. No round pegs in square holes. Bringing It Home Don't just assign, engage. A simple "How can I support you?" changes the game. Success isn't about just meeting deadlines. It's about nurturing growth, trust, and collaboration. Kickstart the change. Witness project efficiency, team satisfaction, and quality escalate. Let's transform our project landscapes, one clear communication at a time. P.S. If this struck a chord, share to enlighten others ♻️

Meetings aren’t for updates - they’re where your culture is being built… or broken. In distributed, remote, & hybrid teams, meetings are key moments where team members experience culture together. That makes every meeting a high-stakes opportunity. Yet most teams stay in default mode - using meetings for project updates instead of connection, ideation, debate, and culture-building. Fixing meeting overload isn’t just about having fewer Zooms. It’s about rewiring your communication norms: ✔️ Do we know when to communicate synchronously vs. asynchronously? ✔️ Are we using async tools that give transparency without constant live check-ins? ✔️ Have we aligned on our team values and expected behaviors? 💡 3 ways to reduce meetings and make the remaining ones count: 1️⃣ Co-create a Team Working Agreement. Before you can reinforce values, your team needs to define them. We’ve spent hundreds of hours helping teams do this - and have seen measurable gains in team effectiveness. Key components: ✔️ Shared team goals ✔️ Defining team member roles ✔️ Agreed-upon behaviors ✔️ Communication norms (sync vs. async) 2️⃣ Begin meetings with a connection moment. Relationships fuel trust and collaboration. Kick things off with a check-in like: “What gave you energy this week?” Or tailor it to the topic. In a recent meeting on decision-making norms, we asked: “Speed or certainty - which do you value more when making decisions, and why?” 3️⃣ Make team values part of the agenda. Create a ritual to recognize teammates for living into the team behaviors. Ask the question: “Where did we see our values or team agreements show up this week?” And check in on where could the team have done better. Culture doesn’t happen by accident - especially when your teams are spread across time zones, WFH setups, and multiple office sites. Your meetings can become a powerful tool to build culture with intention. Excerpt from the Work 20XX podcast with Jeff Frick

Over the years, I've discovered the truth: Game-changing products won't succeed unless they have a unified vision across sales, marketing, and product teams. When these key functions pull in different directions, it's a death knell for go-to-market execution. Without alignment on positioning and buyer messaging, we fail to communicate value and create disjointed experiences. So, how do I foster collaboration across these functions? 1) Set shared goals and incentivize unity towards that North Star metric, be it revenue, activations, or retention. 2) Encourage team members to work closely together, building empathy rather than skepticism of other groups' intentions and contributions. 3) Regularly conduct cross-functional roadmapping sessions to cascade priorities across departments and highlight dependencies. 4) Create an environment where teams can constructively debate assumptions and strategies without politics or blame. 5) Provide clarity for sales on target personas and value propositions to equip them for deal conversations. 6) Involve all functions early in establishing positioning and messaging frameworks. Co-create when possible. By rallying together around customers’ needs, we block and tackle as one team towards product-market fit. The magic truly happens when teams unite towards a shared mission to delight users!

If you want to become a better manager overnight,  I would teach you this one skill: Setting Clear Expectations Why?  It is the single highest leverage activity you can do.  And nearly everyone leading a team does it poorly.  Or not at all. 📌 If you're the Manager: Setting expectations is your number 1 job. Your team will never meet your secret expectations.  Despite their effort, they're always falling short. The vicious cycle builds massive frustration. 💡 The Solution: Make Expectations Explicit - Agree on the What & When (SMART goals or OKRs work) - Agree on How (process, tech, budget, culture all matter) - Agree on KPIs or Metrics (how you'll measure results) Have them send you an email summarizing. Two more tips for managers: ✅ Co-author - Give them the pen on the first draft. - They're more likely to stick to the script they wrote. - You'll also learn how they see their role and can coach better. ✅ Consistency - Expectations are imperfect, so give feedback. - Agree upfront on how and when this will happen. - Use your 1:1 check-ins to review expectation monthly. ----- 📌 If you're the Employee: Why try and guess what your boss wants you to do? If the expectations map above makes sense... 💡 Write them down yourself. - If you're right, you have a written contract.  - If you're wrong, you gain clarity when they fix them. Either way, you gain clarity on how to win. Two more tips for employees: ✅ Synthesize - Focus on the big picture, not every detail - You create more value if you can connect the dots ✅ Empathize - Your manager will not have every answer - You can help them by surfacing the right questions ----- I've seen plenty of employees "win the second half."  But to win, you must understand the game's rules. And clear expectations create the scoreboard. Want my template to set clear employee expectations? Join 45,000 leaders getting my free newsletter: https://lnkd.in/eCvpr7RY And before you go... - Please repost ♻️ if you think this is a better way to work - Follow me at Dave Kline for more practical leadership posts

Want more productive workshops? Try stopping them sooner. Workshops often lock people in a room for two or three hours and expect them to do their best thinking on demand. Do we really have to hold people hostage to be productive? Lately, I’ve been using a technique I call "Echo Sessions." Instead of forcing deep work to happen in real time, we kickstart an activity, get clarity, but then stop just as people are getting into it. That pause is intentional. It’s based on the same principle as the Pomodoro technique—when you leave something unfinished while still feeling engaged, you'll find it easy to return to it later and give it space to percolate. Instead of dragging out a long workshop, I schedule an Echo Session later—often in the same day—where everyone brings their independent or small group work back for discussion, iteration, and action. Why does this work? ✅ Encourages Deep Work – People get time to think, research, or create in their own way, rather than being forced into artificial collaboration. ✅ Optimizes Meeting Time – Workshops should be for shared understanding, decision-making, and iteration—not for quiet focus time. ✅ Respects Different Work Styles – Some need time to walk and think. Others need to sketch. Some want to research or tap into AI. Echo Sessions give people time and space to work in the way that’s best for them. ✅ Creates Natural Momentum – Stopping at a high-energy moment makes people want to continue later, giving them space to create, rather than leaving them drained from a marathon session. ✅ Reduces Calendar Lockdowns – Instead of monopolizing hours at a time, work is distributed more effectively and meetings are only used when necessary. Most importantly, this approach treats participants like adults. It gives them flexibility and agency while ensuring that meetings serve a clear, valuable purpose. We don’t need long workshops. We need better workshops. Curious—how do you approach workshop fatigue? Would this work in your team?

“Work from Where You Work Best” Works for Us at Tough Day. This isn’t just a policy. It’s how we actually work, every day. We’ve got teammates in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Spain, and several cities across the US. Different time zones, different cultures, different work styles. Here’s what makes it work: 1. Clear Alignment We use the V2MOM invented by Salesforce's Marc Benioff – which stands for Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures – to help us all stay on the same page about where we’re going, how we’ll get there, and what success looks like when we do. 2. Team Agreements We facilitate dialogue about how we all work best as individuals up front. We negotiate and make these expectations clear from the start on any project team. That includes sharing a whole host of holidays that we can all celebrate! Happy Independence Day, Argentina! 3. Daily Stand-Ups No matter where we are, we make time for short daily check-ins. Each day has a designated theme and leader (Macro-Monday, Tech Tuesday, Waxing Wednesday...). The structure helps us stay in sync, talk through any issues, and help each other. 4. Intentional In-Person Time We don’t have a central office. Instead, we meet up for the kind of collaborative activities that are more productive in person. We time these in-person working sessions around other live events like client meetings or conferences. For us, it’s a much better investment than paying for office space. 5. AI-Native Collaboration AI is a valuable part of our team, and to state the obvious – AI doesn’t physically sit in the office (at least not yet for most of us). AI is our virtual co-worker. If you work with AI, you're already working remotely. But maybe the best part? This way of working requires us to be deeply thoughtful in our interactions. We are curious. We listen better. We learn from and leverage each other — across languages, locations, and backgrounds. And all of these behaviors make us stronger in everything that we do.

Rebuilding a High-Performing Team in an RTO World: A Client’s Success Story When my executive client was tasked with bringing his 650-person department back to the office after four years of remote work, we knew the challenge wasn’t just logistical—it was strategic - and his concern wasn’t just about getting people back to their desks but ensuring he had the right people in the right roles to drive business success. Through our collaboration, we decided to develop a two-phase approach that allowed him to manage change effectively while restructuring his team for optimal performance. Phase 1: Managing the Change of RTO (Months 1-3) Rather than rushing into assessments and restructuring, we agreed that it was best to focus on re-acclimation first. 🔹 Gradual Reintegration: He implemented a structured return—starting with three days in-office before scaling up—giving employees time to adjust. 🔹 Listening Sessions: My client led discussions with teams to understand concerns, workflows, and career aspirations post-remote. 🔹 Cultural Reset: He modeled the company values, reinforced the why behind RTO, and reinforced the culture in every meeting. Phase 2: Assessing & Restructuring the Team (Months 3-6) Once stability was established, the next step was restructuring the team for the future. 🔹 Skills & Contribution Audit: Partnering with HR and others, my client assessed whether each role still aligned with business needs. He found that some functions were now redundant, while others required a new skill set after four years. 🔹 Team Effectiveness Review: He restructured teams to improve efficiency and positioned high performers in roles that leveraged their strengths. 🔹 Strategic Reassignment & Exits: Some employees transitioned into new, more fitting roles. Others, who struggled to adapt or no longer aligned with the business, were respectfully transitioned out. Still others were supported in their current roles with new training to equip them to succeed in the future. Messaging the Changes: Transparency & Stability 🔹 Communicating the Vision: Early on, we knew framing the restructuring as an opportunity was important. 🔹 One-on-One Conversations: My client ensured employees moving into new roles—or out of the company—had clear, respectful conversations about their next steps. 🔹 Rebuilding Trust: By reinforcing that changes were intentional and strategic, employees recognized the thoughtfulness that had been invested in the changes. The Outcome? He's rounding out his six month and says his department is performing at a higher level than pre-pandemic. It's not been easy and there have been a few surprises, but he knows his team is set up for long-term success. What my client learned was that returning to the office wasn't the real challenge - rebuilding the right team was. If you’re navigating RTO and need to reassess your team for long-term success, let’s connect.👇

I learned this one the hard way: leadership starts with clear communication. I remember a project where the problem started with me. I wasn’t clear enough upfront, and it led to confusion, misaligned expectations, and frustration. It didn’t stop there—it spiraled into extra emails, more meetings, and way too much time trying to sort it all out. Worst of all, it damaged relationships within the team. That experience was a wake-up call. I realized my communication needed structure, so I started using the “Why, What, How” framework to turn things around: 1️⃣ Why: Explain the purpose behind the project and why it matters. 2️⃣ What: Be clear about expectations and deliverables. 3️⃣ How: Give actionable steps and clarify roles. The shift was immediate. With clear communication, the team felt aligned, work flowed smoothly, and we rebuilt trust. Leadership communication isn’t just about saying the right things—it’s about giving your team the clarity they need to move forward confidently. How do you keep your communication clear and effective as a leader? #Leadership #Communication #TeamAlignment #IntentionalLeadership

Most teams don’t get better because they don’t take time to debrief. Last year, I had the honor of doing a bunch of leadership development work alongside my dear friend and amigo, Michael French. He’s a multi-time founder with successful exits, a fantastic family, and a heart of gold. One of the most powerful tools we taught together (really he, Michael O'Brien, and Admiral Mike McCabe taught, and I amplified in my sessions) was the concept of a Topgun-style debrief — and then we practiced it ourselves after every single session as a group. It’s a simple but transformative ritual. After every experience, we’d ask each other: What went well? What could have gone better? And what actions will we take to be even better next time? That’s it. Just three questions. But when asked in a space of trust, it opens the door to continuous improvement, honest reflection, and shared learning. The coolest part? Michael started doing it at home with his son — and now his son comes home from school excited to debrief the day with his dad. That’s when you know the tool is working. The origins of this approach go back to the Navy Fighter Weapons School — better known as Topgun. In the 1960s, Navy pilots were underperforming in air combat. So they changed the way they trained. But more importantly, they changed the way they debriefed. They created a culture of constructive, positive, inclusive performance reviews — grounded in trust, openness, and the pursuit of excellence. Led to a 400% improvement in pilot effectiveness. The philosophy was clear: the debrief is not about blame or fault-finding. It’s not about who “won” the debrief. It’s about learning. It’s about getting better — together. The tone is collaborative, supportive, and often informal. The goal is to build a culture of reflection where people feel safe enough to speak, to listen, and to grow. Most organizations only do debriefs when something goes wrong. But if we wait for failure to reflect, we miss all the micro-moments that help us move from good to great. Excellence isn’t a destination. It’s a mindset. It’s the discipline of always being open to improvement — even when things are going well. Especially when things are going well. So here’s my nudge to you: give this a try. Whether it’s with your team, your family, your partner, or just yourself at the end of the day — ask those three simple questions. What went well? What could have gone better? And what actions can we take to be even better next time? Let me know if you do. I’d love to hear how it goes.