How to Build High-Performing Teams: 12 Proven Methods

Effective teamwork is essential for organizations that want to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. 

Whether you’re a team leader trying to boost performance or a team member wanting to contribute to teamwork success, mastering the art of collaboration is a critical skill.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover 12 research-backed methods to build high-performing teams, along with practical strategies you can implement immediately. 

Why is Teamwork Important in the Workplace?

Before diving into the specific methods of how to improve teamwork, let’s understand why it matters so much.

Research consistently shows that effective team work delivers significant advantages:

• Increased productivity: Teams that collaborate well complete projects faster^{1https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/374182} and with fewer errors than individuals working alone.
• Enhanced creativity and innovation: Diverse perspectives^{2https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0029159} lead to breakthrough solutions that individual thinking rarely achieves.
• Higher employee satisfaction and retention: People who feel part of a supportive team report greater job satisfaction and are less likely to leave^{3https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244020924694}.
• Better problem-solving capabilities: Complex challenges are tackled more effectively^{4https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29033886/} when approached from multiple angles.
• Improved organizational resilience: Strong teams adapt to changes^{5https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2041386620919476} and crises more successfully.
• Enhanced motivation: Even simple cues of working together can fuel intrinsic motivation^{6https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022103114000420?via%3Dihub}, leading to greater task persistence, enjoyment, and sustained interest in the work.

Put together, the economic impact of effective teamwork at work is undeniable. 

Organizations with strong collaborative cultures significantly outperform their competitors on key metrics like profitability and market share. 

As markets evolve and specialization increases, no single individual can possess all the skills and knowledge needed to solve complex problems—making masterful teamwork building more or less necessary for survival!

12 Proven Methods to Build High-Performing Teams

Start With Self-Assessment

Do you truly know your team? Are you ready for the challenge of transforming your group into a high-performing machine?

Before implementing significant changes, smart leaders ask crucial questions. Based on research by Karlgaard and Malone in their book “Team Genius,” here are five powerful questions to set the groundwork for your teamwork success. Ask your self these questions or do them as a team exercise:

1. Are you in the right team at the right moment?
2. Can your team stay ahead of changes in your industry?
3. Is your team the right size for the job?
4. Do you have the right people in the right positions?
5. Is your team prepared for crises, disruptions, or leadership changes?

These questions provide a foundation for honest assessment before you begin teamwork building. Take time to answer them thoroughly—they’ll reveal crucial insights about your starting point.

Case Study: When Alan Mulally took over as Ford’s CEO, he implemented a color-coded status report system (green, yellow, red) that encouraged honest team assessment. When executives began sharing “red” problems without fear of criticism, Ford’s culture transformed, helping the company navigate the 2008 financial crisis without government bailouts.

Do ABCD Work

This is the single best team building exercise your team can do. It’s called ABCD work. Get your team together, pull out a white board and …describe it in detail.

Watch Vanessa Van Edwards walk through it here.

 Encourage Work Friends 

While we often celebrate individual achievement (especially in Western cultures), humans are fundamentally wired for teams:

“Humans are genetically wired for teams.” – Team Genius

This is backed by biology. We evolved as social creatures who needed to cooperate to survive. This biological foundation explains why effective teamwork at work feels so satisfying.

Research on prosociality^{7https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278262612001443?via%3Dihub} shows that humans are naturally inclined to cooperate. Our brains release reward chemicals when we help others—it’s why volunteering, donating, and community service feel fulfilling.

Fascinating studies^{8https://journals.ala.org/index.php/ltr/article/viewFile/4407/5104} on resource-sharing demonstrate that regardless of gender, race, or ethnicity, people typically choose to share between 40-50% of what they have—even when the recipient is anonymous and there’s no penalty for keeping everything!

Action step: Leverage this natural inclination by creating opportunities for team members to collaborate and help each other. The biological rewards will strengthen your team bonds.

Find the Magic Number

What’s the ideal team size? This question has fascinated researchers for decades.

Anthropologist Robin Dunbar studied group sizes throughout history—from ancient religious communities to African tribes—and discovered that the same human group sizes appear repeatedly. He identified these as “clusters of intimacy”:

• Clique: 5 members
• Sympathy Group: 12-15 members
• Bands: Up to 35 members
• Dunbar’s Number: Approximately 150 members

Dunbar found that when groups expand beyond 150 members, they naturally split apart. The Yanomamo people, for example, have been dividing their tribes in two whenever they approach 200 members—a practice they’ve maintained for centuries.

Why is more than 150 too big? Our brains simply cannot manage more than about 150 connections simultaneously. As groups grow, the number of potential relationships increases exponentially. A pair has one connection, a trio has three connections, a four-member group has six connections, and a five-member group has ten connections.

Implementation tip: For optimal teamwork building, maintain core working teams of 5-7 people whenever possible. For larger projects, organize into sub-teams that maintain this ideal size.

Case Study: Spotify reorganized their engineering department into “squads” of around 6-12 people, allowing them to maintain nimble communication while preserving enough diversity of thought to tackle challenges effectively.

Develop Team Chemistry

Our biology significantly influences how we integrate with teams. Two key elements play crucial roles:

Oxytocin: Often called the “bonding hormone,” oxytocin helps us feel connected to others. It’s essential for empathy and social intelligence. Research shows oxytocin helps us:

• Identify facial expressions more quickly
• Process positive social information faster
• Enhance group trust

In essence, oxytocin is the chemical explanation behind team cohesion.

Mirror Neurons: These specialized brain cells fire both when we perform an action and when we see someone else perform the same action. 

Mirror neurons help us understand and filter what we see in the world; when we consciously or unconsciously detect someone else’s emotions through their actions, our mirror neurons reproduce those emotions—creating an instant sense of shared experience.

Did you know? Mirror neurons play a huge role in emotional contagion—the tendency for people to “catch” and mirror the emotions of those around them, often without realizing! Learn more about emotional contagion and how you can leverage it to improve team spirit: What is Emotional Contagion? How to Harness Your Feelings.

Practical application: Rather than fighting our biology, embrace it. Create conditions that boost oxytocin (like celebrating successes together) and activate mirror neurons (through team visualization exercises and shared experiences).

Case Study: Patagonia’s “Let My People Go Surfing” policy allows employees to pursue outdoor activities when conditions are ideal. This creates shared experiences that build team bonds.

Focus on HOW You Communicate

Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research^{9https://hbr.org/2008/09/social-intelligence-and-the-biology-of-leadership} on social intelligence reveals that how we communicate with teammates is just as important as what we communicate.

In one study, participants who received negative feedback delivered with positive emotional signals (nods and smiles) felt better about their performance than those who received positive feedback delivered critically (with frowns and narrowed eyes).

The delivery significantly outweighed the message itself—and when people feel better, they perform better.

This principle transformed one university-based hospital in Boston. Two doctors, Dr. Burke and Dr. Humboldt, competed for CEO. Both were accomplished physicians with impressive credentials, but they had very different leadership styles.

Burke was intense, task-focused, and impersonal—a perfectionist with a combative tone that kept staff on edge. Humboldt was equally demanding but approachable and even playful with staff, colleagues, and patients. People smiled, teased each other, and spoke their minds more in Humboldt’s department than in Burke’s.

Top talent often left Burke’s department while gravitating toward Humboldt’s warmer climate. Recognizing Humboldt’s socially intelligent leadership style, the board selected him as CEO.

Best practice for teams: Share laughs, show open body language, lean in, and build nonverbal warmth as you verbally connect. This approach creates psychological safety—a critical component of high-performing teams.

Case Study: Pixar’s “Braintrust” meetings provide candid feedback on films in development with strict communication protocols: criticism focuses on projects not people, comments begin positively, and body language remains supportive. 

Encourage Prosocial Behaviors

Building on the importance of communication style, specific prosocial behaviors create nonverbal warmth and happier teams:

• Humor: Research^{10https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11142654/} shows top-rated leaders elicit laughter from their team members significantly more than less successful leaders. Humor builds connection, reduces stress, and fosters creativity. My friend David Nihill is amazing at helping anyone become funnier!
• Happiness: “When leaders display happiness, it improves their followers’ creative performance—and interestingly, when they’re sad, it enhances those same followers’ analytical performance. In other words, when team members think the boss is happy, they feel liberated to try out new ideas; when they think the boss is unhappy, they hunker down into survival mode.” – Team Genius
• Cooperation: Small acts of cooperation encourage bigger ones. When team members witness cooperative behaviors, they experience a greater sense of morality, making them more likely to cooperate themselves.

Implementation strategy: Create opportunities for humor and positive interactions in meetings. Start sessions with something light or funny. Publicly recognize cooperative behaviors to create a virtuous cycle.

Case Study: Southwest Airlines deliberately incorporates humor into their workplace culture, encouraging flight attendants to deliver safety instructions entertainingly. This approach has created a distinctively positive culture, contributing to 47 years of consecutive profitability and consistently high employee satisfaction rankings.

Balance Extroverts and Introverts

How do you balance group over-contributors and under-contributors? Research offers fascinating insights:

Key finding: Research^{11https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24973135/} shows that teams typically assign more weight to contributions from extroverted members, who tend to contribute most often.

To counterbalance this, consider making performance data visible and transparently tracking the accuracy of different members’ contributions. This can help teams value input more objectively, rather than being influenced primarily by who speaks the most or most confidently.

For introverts who feel uncomfortable sharing ideas, establish formal mechanisms for input—like pre-meeting submissions or structured round-robin discussion formats.

Special note: Many people don’t fit neatly into introvert or extrovert categories. These “ambiverts” (such as myself!) adapt their communication style based on the situation and can be valuable bridges between different personality types on your team.

Case Study: Google’s Project Aristotle found that “equality in conversational turn-taking” predicted team success better than individual intelligence.

Learn as a Team

Teams don’t just outperform individuals—individuals learn better as part of a group. Research on “Why Groups Perform Better Than Individuals^{12http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597812000027}” shows that team learning offers significant advantages.

When learning alone, you miss opportunities to brainstorm or have your ideas challenged. Team learning creates powerful benefits through:

• Diverse perspectives
• Immediate feedback
• Social accountability
• Knowledge sharing
• Practical application

Rather than having team members research topics independently and report back, try having teams learn together and teach each other small parts of a larger problem that must be pieced together. This approach strengthens bonds while improving knowledge retention.

Pick a weekly learning exercise. Start a team book club, have team members come and teach a skill they have or watch a TED Talk together every month (try our founder, Vanessa Van Edwards below!)

Warning: Avoid the echo chamber. True learning isn’t about voicing or repeating the same ideas—it’s about challenging, questioning, and probing concepts to discover deeper insights.

Case Study: Pixar University, Pixar Animation Studio’s professional development program, requires employees from all departments to attend classes together regardless of their role. Animators learn alongside accountants, marketers alongside modelers. This innovative cross-functional learning improves technical skills and breaks down departmental silos!

Establish Clear Communication Patterns

Alex Pentland, director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Lab, tracks communication patterns between people using a “sociometer.^{13https://hd.media.mit.edu/tech-reports/TR-620.pdf}” His research reveals distinct patterns in high-performing teams:

High Frequency: The best teams typically exchange communications about a dozen times per working hour.

Talk Ratio: Top-performing teams have members who talk and listen in equal measure—no one dominates discussions, and no one remains silent.

External Connections: Successful teams frequently connect with outside sources when they recognize knowledge gaps in their team.

These findings highlight the importance of not just communication quality but also its rhythm and balance. Many teams are surprised to learn how frequently effective teams communicate—setting explicit expectations about communication frequency can significantly clarify team dynamics.

Case Study: Microsoft’s SPACE framework identified that high-performing teams maintain more frequent and structured communication rhythms compared to struggling teams. By implementing regular check-ins through tools like Microsoft Teams and Viva Goals, they’ve created better alignment and improved collaboration outcomes across development teams.

Understand Your Team’s Neurodynamics

Whether you are already on a team or are working on forming one you need to understand your team’s brain power. Kaarlgard and Malone give an in-depth discussion of how your team’s brain power works, but here are some of the most salient tips:

• Metamemory: One interesting aspect of team knowledge was something that I had never considered–knowledge of our knowledge. Metamemory is when teammates have a common understanding of who knows what, which member has a particular skill set and what the team and each member doesn’t know. When you know what you know and what you don’t know you can assign tasks, solve problems, get help and brainstorm much faster.
• Cognitive Diversity: One of the most provocative discussions in the book was about diversity. The authors argue that teams need skill diversity as much as they need racial, gender and economic diversity. They call these whole-brain teams. The question is: how diverse are your team’s skill levels? Do you have all of the brain power you need?

Implementation tip: Create a visual “Team Knowledge Map” showing each member’s expertise areas, moderate skills, and knowledge gaps. Update quarterly as skills evolve. For cognitive diversity, audit thinking styles (analytical, creative, practical) to ensure you’re building a true whole-brain team.

Create Role Clarity

For optimal teamwork building, every team member must understand exactly what they’re responsible for.

When responsibilities aren’t clear, tension rises and productivity falls. Multiple team members might unknowingly work on the same task, wasting valuable time and effort. Alternatively, important tasks might fall through the cracks because everyone assumes someone else is handling them.

To foster strong teamwork at work:

• Clearly define each person’s role and responsibilities
• Document these definitions in accessible team resources
• Regularly review and update roles as projects evolve
• Ensure everyone understands how their role contributes to team goals
• Create mechanisms for addressing role confusion quickly

Research^{14https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283771337_The_Effect_of_Vision_and_Role_Clarity_on_Team_Performance} shows that teams with clear role definitions significantly outperform those with ambiguous responsibilities. This clarity allows members to focus their energy on execution rather than navigating organizational confusion.

Implementation tip: Create a team responsibility matrix that visually maps who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed (RACI) for each aspect of your team’s work.

Build a Diverse Team

To truly excel at teamwork building, focus on creating diverse teams rather than groups of like-minded people. A team with varied backgrounds brings diverse perspectives and ideas to the table, leading to more thorough decision-making.

We often naturally gravitate toward people who think like us. While this creates harmony, it doesn’t create excellence. Consider:

• Will your team bring fresh ideas to the table?
• Will members challenge each other to tackle projects from multiple angles?
• Or will they be so agreeable that ideas go unquestioned and unexplored?

A team where everyone thinks alike, shares similar backgrounds, and holds the same beliefs will likely produce one-dimensional work. Conversely, a diverse team with unique opinions, beliefs, and backgrounds typically generates more creative, innovative solutions.

Action step: When building your team, intentionally seek members with different educational backgrounds, industry experiences, cultural perspectives, and thinking styles. This diversity becomes your competitive advantage.

How to Measure Team Performance

Building high-performing teams requires tracking progress through specific metrics. Here are key indicators to monitor as you implement teamwork tactics:

Team productivity metrics:

• Project completion time
• Quality of deliverables
• Innovation metrics (new ideas implemented)
• Decision-making speed and effectiveness

Team health metrics:

• Meeting effectiveness scores
• Communication satisfaction
• Conflict resolution speed
• Team member engagement

Business impact metrics:

• Customer satisfaction with team outputs
• Revenue or cost impacts from team activities
• Process improvements implemented
• Knowledge sharing effectiveness

Regular assessment using these metrics provides objective feedback on your teamwork building efforts. Many teams conduct quarterly “team health checks” using standardized assessments to track progress over time.

Remember that measurement should be a tool for improvement, not punishment! Use metrics to identify growth opportunities rather than to criticize performance.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Building High-Performing Teams

Teamwork Success Strategies That Drive Results

Henry Ford once said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

The science behind effective teamwork reveals consistent patterns that any organization can apply. Here’s a recap of our 12 strategies.

1. Start with honest self-assessment of your current team dynamics
2. Leverage the biological foundations of human collaboration
3. Optimize your team size for maximum effectiveness
4. Foster chemistry through understanding team neuroscience
5. Focus on communication style as much as content
6. Encourage prosocial behaviors like humor and cooperation
7. Balance contributions from different personality types
8. Learn collaboratively to maximize knowledge retention
9. Establish clear, frequent communication patterns
10. Define roles precisely to prevent confusion
11. Build diverse teams that challenge conventional thinking
12. Create meaningful team rituals that reinforce identity

Which of these methods will you implement first to improve teamwork in your organization? The most effective approach is to start small, measure results, and build momentum through visible wins.

Need more guidance on building exceptional teams? Check out our list of 40 Fun Team Meeting Ideas Your Team Will Never Forget.