HRchat Podcast

Unlocking High-Performing Teams with Christopher Morrison, TeamDynamics

• The HR Gazette • Season 1 • Episode 724

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The guest today is Christopher Morrison, co-founder of TeamDynamics, a platform that bridges the gap between individual-focused assessments and the collaborative nature of modern workplaces - driving transformative change in how teams function and thrive.

Christopher has a background in leadership at technology startups and management consulting. His experience building a successful Silicon Valley startup from its Series A through to IPO, coupled with his time helping C-suite executives at McKinsey, highlighted the need for a robust analysis of how modern teams actually work, as well as the shortcomings of traditional personality tests that are too frequently administered in a professional environment. These realizations spurred the creation of TeamDynamics.

Questions for Christopher include:

  • Can you share the inspiration behind founding TeamDynamics and how your experience building a successful startup from Series A to IPO, plus your time at McKinsey, influenced the company's mission?
  • TeamDynamics is based on four core dimensions of team interaction: communicating, processing, deciding, and executing. Can you elaborate on these dimensions and how they collectively define how teams work? 
  • How do these dimensions address the gaps left by traditional personality tests?
  • You've worked with companies across industries, stages, and geographies. What are some of the most surprising things you've learned from helping them understand the dynamics of their teams?  
  • How have organizations implemented the TeamDynamics framework in their team management practices? Can you share any use cases? 
  • Follow up: What tangible improvements have your clients seen in terms of collaboration and performance? Can you share any metrics? 
  • With the increasing emphasis on remote and hybrid work, how does TeamDynamics help teams adapt to, and thrive in, these evolving workplace models?
  • What advice would you give to HR leaders and managers looking to enhance team dynamics and foster a culture of c

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Speaker 1:

This call is being recorded. Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Badham, and joining me on this episode is Christopher Morrison, co-founder of Team Dynamics, a platform that bridges the gap between individual performance. Sorry, christopher, I'm going to start that again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show. Hello listeners, this is your host today, bill Bannam, and joining me on this episode is Christopher Morrison, co-founder of Team Dynamics, a platform that bridges the gap between individual focused assessments and the collaborative nature of modern workplaces, driving transformative change in how teams function and thrive. Christopher has a background in leadership at technology startups and management consulting. His experience building a successful Silicon Valley startup from its Series A through to IPO, coupled with his time helping C-suite execs at McKinsey, highlighted the need for robust analysis of how modern teams actually work, as well as the shortcomings of traditional personality tests that are too frequently administered in a professional environment. These realizations spurred the creation of Team Dynamics. I don't want to give it all away, because obviously we've got Christopher here and he's going to tell you more in just a moment. Hey, christopher, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for having me on, bill, knowing I'd be coming on the pod. I've had a chance to listen to a couple of episodes and I've really enjoyed them. You know I've always been a business partner of HR I've never been in the function itself and for me it's been really interesting learning about how your guests are helping HR leaders with new and innovative solutions. So I really appreciate having a chance to speak with you. So I'm Christopher Morrison and I'm the CEO and co-founder of Team Dynamics, which is the personality test for modern teams. My journey to Team Dynamics ties together a number of different threads from my experience, so I'll tell you a bit about my journey and, in doing so, share some of the lessons that led to team dynamics.

Speaker 2:

I started my career at McKinsey, which is the management consultancy, and it's a great leadership training ground. One of the foundational lessons I took from my time there is the power of a simple framework. Mckinsey is legendary for their frameworks, to the point of it being a bit of a running joke, but there's a reason for it. You know, the world is complex and we need a simple way to make sense of it, and a good framework distills something complicated to its essential components, making it actionable. And my time at McKinsey was also my first exposure to the power of culture and just how true it is that culture eats strategy for breakfast. You know we would spend months working with our clients to craft the quote unquote perfect strategy for X, y, z, a new product, an international expansion, et cetera. But when I reflect on my time at McKinsey, what ultimately separated the projects with real impact from the rest was the culture of the place. Could they take an idea and could that team actually turn it into reality? Now, after five years at McKinsey, I had the opportunity to join a pre-revenue real estate technology startup here in San Francisco called Doma as its founding chief operating officer, and over the course of my five-year run there I took that organization from five of us squatting in an investor's office over the sweet green salad shop in downtown San Francisco to $550 million in annual revenue, about 2,000 associates and an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange.

Speaker 2:

And leading through that rapid growth really emphasized to me the truth of the saying you can't manage what you can't measure, and this is such an overused bit of business dogma, but it really is true Figuring out the right things to measure, getting an accurate read on them and staying focused on them is so important for getting an organization aligned and accountable for moving towards the same goal. I also learned just how different it feels to be leading or on a team that's really humming versus one that's just okay. I hope you know everybody has had the experience to be on a team that they feel was really high performing, and if you have, you probably have an inherent sense for what that feels like. But as a leader, you know it's the difference between feeling like just about anything's possible because it really is, and feeling like, on the other hand, you're stuck in neutral, constantly putting out little fires but never really moving the ball forward. And I also gain an appreciation for just how hard it is to get teamwork right. You know you're constantly testing and learning, with different team norms, different routines, different documents. Sometimes it feels like shooting in the dark. You know you're constantly correcting breakdowns within and across different teams. You're always onboarding new team members and, on that last point, you know building a business. You really emphasize to me how important recruiting is when you know you're running a startup or you know really when you're trying to accomplish just about anything.

Speaker 2:

It's a bit of a joke here in Silicon Valley that every startup founder has probably thought about starting a company to tackle some aspect of recruiting. And that's because it's such a big part of building a company. I mean literally every day I'd either be sourcing a candidate or interviewing a candidate. It's one of the most time-consuming. It's also one of the most impactful activities that you can do as a leader. Every single candidate asks what's it like to work on Team X, and you're also trying to evaluate every candidate for their fit with your organization.

Speaker 2:

So after I took my company public, I stepped back from that role. It took about six months to reflect on what I'd learned, the challenges I'd had and what I might do about them, and during this time, for the first time really, I had the space to start spending more time with other founders and executives. Circumstances are unique, you know. This person might be closing a round of funding, this one might be launching a new product, but on the short list of everyone's biggest challenges and opportunities were their people. Who was on their team, for sure, but just as importantly, how they were working. And I realized that one of the glaringly obvious holes in the leader's toolkit is a simple and robust framework to measure and therefore manage teamwork, basically applying the simplicity of a McKinsey style framework to enable leaders to define and manage that fuzzy, but you know it when you see it thing teamwork. And when I say teamwork, by the way, I don't mean the flow of tasks there's tons of project management techniques and software for that but I mean the interactions within and between teams, and that's what team dynamics is.

Speaker 2:

It's an easy to use tool to assess and categorize a team's behaviors along the most important dimensions of teamwork. Individuals submit their responses to a proprietary survey instrument. We analyze those responses along with those of their teammates, and then we deliver back a quantitative assessment of how the team works, how each individual relates to their team's behaviors, and a set of recommendations tailored to both the team and each individual. And leaders find this helpful for a variety of reasons, but just a couple. First, take something that can seem squishy. Quote unquote how we work, and it makes it concrete.

Speaker 2:

Each team falls into one of 16 team types, making it a whole lot easier to describe, discuss and improve how your team works.

Speaker 2:

Second, when you deploy team dynamics across an organization, it establishes a shared language that can serve as a really valuable shorthand when welcoming someone new to a team, when working cross-functionally or when you're resolving inter-team conflicts, for example, if you know that the product marketing team is really organized in how they share information, builds really detailed implementation plans when it comes time to executing a project but let's say the engineering team is more ad hoc in both of those, as a manager you can devise strategies upfront to accommodate both teams' needs and ways of working and you can better adjust if and when there's friction between these teams.

Speaker 2:

And finally, it's really helpful team dynamics is really helpful for coaching and developing individuals. We don't just analyze a team's behaviors, we also analyze how each individual relates to those behaviors. Do they naturally fit with them or are they in tension with their team's ways of working? And knowing where those points of tension and alignment are helps team leaders better coach their teams to both improve individual performance and devise strategies to manage stress and boost satisfaction when working with their teams okay, thank you very much.

Speaker 1:

Uh, regular listeners of this show will know that I'm not afraid of a shameless plug. So, um, uh, christopher did mention mckinsey there. Check out episode 640 with patrick simon, uh senior partner at mckinsey. So that was a little while ago. Back at the end of last year I think he spoke about his experiences of working with CHROs and CEOs and how today's business leaders can tackle the big challenges head on. It's a very good episode.

Speaker 1:

Anyway back to our conversation today, christopher. Team Dynamics is based on four core dimensions of team interaction. Those are communicating, processing, deciding and executing. Can you now take a couple of minutes and walk us through each of those dimensions and point out for our listeners how they collectively define how teams work?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

We started with a meta study on the social sciences research that's been done over the past 50 years on the topic of teamwork, and one of the foundational insights of that research is that teams have behavioral patterns that can't be explained by just aggregating the traits of their team members. That sounds complicated, but it's actually pretty simple. It just means that, like us as individuals, the team that we're on has its own unique personality, and it's also been proven that that personality the team personality is hugely impactful on both team performance and the job satisfaction of team members. So after we did that research, we set out to define the elements of a team's personality, and while every team, of course, has its own unique characteristics, we identify four main dimensions of team interactions, with teams showing one of two opposing behaviors in each dimension. And, by the way, for anyone listening who wants a sneak preview of their team dynamics, that will cost you absolutely nothing. As I go through this, ask yourself two questions One, which of these behaviors sounds more like how my team works? And number two, as an individual, which way of working feels more naturally to me? So keep those in mind as I go through the four core dimensions of team interactions.

Speaker 2:

The first dimension is communicating, and this is how a team shares information, and teams are either ordered or informal. An ordered team has defined processes and forums for sharing information. Think about internal documentation, recurring meetings with defined agendas, slack channels that are organized by topic, etc. Etc. In contrast, an informal team surfaces and shares information much more organically One-off conversations, lightweight, maybe non-existent meeting agendas and information expertise that mostly lives in people's heads, versus in written documentation or internal wikis. The second dimension is processing. This is how teams turn raw information into actionable insights, and teams are either logical or relational. A logical team relies on tons of data, rigorous analysis. When interpreting information On these teams, the argument that carries the day tends to be the one that's most rigorously researched and supported by the facts, and there's a general skepticism on a logical team of intuition or quote unquote gut feel. But on the other end of the spectrum, a relational team relies on specific, trusted individuals to tell them what's going on and what matters. These teams have a habit of socializing analysis ahead of decision points, running it by key people for their input and buy-in, and there's a lot of emphasis on the value of expertise, organizational context and relationship capital. For a relational team, it's better to have the team's respect than it is to always be right.

Speaker 2:

The third dimension is deciding. This is how teams align on what they're going to do, and teams are either authoritative or concordant. An authoritative team looks to its leaders to act decisively and set the team's direction. Decisions are generally made by team leaders, maybe a small group of team members with relatively little input from the broader group, and team leaders provide clear direction and explicit instructions for tasks and projects. Communication on an authoritative team typically flows from the top. The opposite of this is a concordant team, which collects input from everyone on the team and considers many different viewpoints before making a decision. On these sorts of teams, deliberation and debate is the norm, and transparency about a decision-making process is key to getting things done.

Speaker 2:

And the last dimension is executing. This is how teams plan and work toward their goals, and teams are either deliberate or spontaneous. A deliberate team creates detailed implementation plans that they then closely follow and diligently maintain. When something unexpected happens, this team's first instinct is to go back to the original plan and figure out why it wasn't anticipated in the first place. On the other hand, a spontaneous team stays responsive to new information. Lightweight plans quickly toss aside in the face of changing circumstances, and the spontaneous team is one that's more likely to move immediately from making a decision to taking action, oftentimes without even having a detailed plan defined, and the team generally opts to figure it out as they go. And so, taken together, these four dimensions capture the entire lifecycle of modern teamwork Communicating and processing. The first two dimensions are all about how teams gather and interpret information, deciding and executing. The last two dimensions get at the core of how teams turn insights into action, and then that feeds right back into the information gathering and interpretation stage.

Speaker 1:

Now you've worked with companies across industries, stages and geographies, christopher, what are some of the most surprising things that you've learned from helping them understand the dynamics of their teams?

Speaker 2:

You know, we're fortunate to have what I think is a pretty unique cross-sectional perspective of the modern workplace, and we've learned a lot about what teamwork means today. As a result, we actually just wrapped up a research project based on a sample of 12 months of data that we collected from teams across industries, geographies, organizational stages, et cetera, et cetera, and it's pretty interesting what we learned. By the way shameless plug of my own you can download the full state of the team report on our website. But there were a few things that particularly stood out to me.

Speaker 2:

First, almost everyone struggles to get along with their team. Just 9% of individuals naturally fit with all of their team's behaviors, and so that means more than 9 in 10 people go to work every day and either feel stressed or need to develop adaptive behaviors when working with the rest of their team. Now, that doesn't mean those individuals can't succeed, but it does mean that just about everyone can benefit from the right awareness and tools to better work with their teams. Second, nearly two in three managers don't understand their team's behaviors. Only 36% of managers accurately describe every one of their team's dynamics. That means almost two-thirds of managers are leading their teams incorrectly along at least one key dimension of team behavior.

Speaker 2:

You know how much better could teamwork be if every manager knew exactly how their team worked and could adapt their leadership style accordingly. How their team worked and could adapt their leadership style accordingly. And lastly, getting into individual preferences and team behaviors 70% of people want their teams to build and implement detailed plans, but just 27% of teams actually do so. I'm editorializing a little bit here, but I think this reflects the reality that the modern workplace demands ever more agility, and it also emphasizes that our teams either need new planning methods or individuals need to adapt to this new reality. But it needs to start from an acknowledgement of how teams are working and how individuals relate to their teams.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you. Now, how have organizations implemented the Team Dynamics framework in their management practices? Can you maybe share some use cases? Are there some brands out there that you're particularly proud of working with because you're making?

Speaker 2:

a difference.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, one of the most gratifying things is seeing how different organizations use team dynamics, and we've been lucky to work with a wide range of organizations, from technology companies like Meta and Jabra, hospitality and travel companies like Hilton Hawaiian Airlines, as well as with nonprofits, educational institutions, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

Just last week, the digital user research team of a big US retailer used Team Dynamics to prepare for an offsite they were holding.

Speaker 2:

They were defining a new team charter and they wanted to overhaul their working norms, and so Team Dynamics helped them develop a shared language for their behaviors so they could define concrete actions they could take to grow and develop as a group. We're currently working with the finance organization of a global luxury auto company to help them understand the differences between each of their teams as well as how they fit into the broader organization, and the goal here is to help them coordinate better across teams and work more seamlessly cross-functionally. And an employee resource group for women at a major tech company used team dynamics to help their members understand the similarities and differences they were having when working with their respective teams across the organization to help them identify ways they could better support one another, and the common thread here is taking something that can seem vague, this notion of teamwork, and turning it into something specific, tangible and actionable, so that teams can work better together and individuals can better relate to their teams.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we are flying through these questions today, christopher. Quick follow up on that, then. What tangible improvements have your clients seen in terms of collaboration and performance? Have you got any tangible metrics that you can share around that?

Speaker 2:

This is a great question. Measuring tangible benefits is something we're excited to do more of. It's a natural next step in a quantitative framework for teamwork. You know, as a young company we only launched 18 months ago we're early days in defining and measuring the long-term impact of team dynamics on team performance and satisfaction. What I do know is that over 80% of our users would recommend team dynamics to a colleague, and a bunch of leaders have returned to either update their team dynamics or invite others around their organizations.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so the pandemic changed. Everything you may have noticed, christopher, on the back of the pandemic, of course, was an acceptance and a move towards remote and hybrid work, with increasing emphasis on remote and hybrid work formats. How does team dynamics help teams to adapt to and hopefully thrive in, these evolving workplace models?

Speaker 2:

these evolving workplace models. One of the biggest changes of remote or hybrid work is that teams and managers have had to become a lot more diligent about defining and communicating their norms and expectations. You know a lot of this used to come through osmosis, you know, when you joined a team and you sat next to one another every day, you could observe how people around you were interacting, how information was shared, how decisions were made, et cetera, et cetera. You know I was running an organization doing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, with offices all around the country when COVID hit, and I remember being pretty impressed, maybe even a bit surprised, with how seamlessly we were able to transition our company to a remote first model in March of 2020. Our people could still get their work done, whether it was via Slack, zoom, phone, email, what have you.

Speaker 2:

But where we struggled and what took us a lot longer to figure out was in the slightly less tangible things building team culture, onboarding new team members, identifying and resolving sources of stress and conflict within and across teams and so on. And I think that's because when you're working remotely or only occasionally co-locating, you lose the subtle social cues that you'd otherwise pick up on. Naturally, you just don't get that via Slack or Microsoft Teams, and so you have to develop new and different ways of aligning your team, documenting those team behaviors, setting explicit norms and communicating those clearly both within and outside of your team. And that's one of the things that team dynamics really helps with. It takes something that's implicit and therefore a little harder to observe and define in a remote or hybrid context, like how your team works, and it makes it tangible and clear.

Speaker 1:

And then you can use that definition to document and improve your team norms, communicate them clearly to new hires and other teams, coach team members and so on and managers those are the folks that listen to this show, of course, those HR leaders and managers who are looking to perhaps enhance their own dynamics within their own teams and foster a culture of collaboration within their organizations, using insights and tools provided by platforms and tools such as team dynamics, team Dynamics.

Speaker 2:

First I'd say align on a language for what teamwork means to your organization. Maybe it's using Team Dynamics, maybe you come up with your own framework, but a shared definition is a prerequisite for anything you want to do to improve how your teams are working. Second, I'd come back to that phrase if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Use your definition to measure how your organization is performing and use that measurement to build an action plan to improve team communication and collaboration. And finally, emphasize flexibility as a core leadership competency. The reality is there's no single best way for a team to work together. It's a function of who's on the team, what the team is tasked with, the broader organizational context that they're fitting into, and so on. And high-performing teams know how they prefer to work, but also when and how it's time to flex outside their comfort zone. And team leaders play an outsized role in setting this tone of flexibility. So equip those leaders with tools and the knowledge they need to instill that flexibility in their teams.

Speaker 1:

Okay, thank you, and that just takes us to my final question for today, and that's uh, how can our listeners connect with you, christopher? So perhaps that's linkedin, maybe you might want to share your email address, maybe you're all over the social, such as instagram and places. And, of course, how can they learn more about team dynamics?

Speaker 2:

the best place to learn more about Team Dynamics is on our website, which is wwwteamdynamicsio. We have a ton of information there about the Team Dynamics framework. We have a free, rapid result that gives a directional sense for your Team Dynamics in just a couple of minutes, and we have lots of resources you can download and use to build a better team. And you can also email us at hello at teamdynamicsio, and you can find me at Christopher at teamdynamicsio or look me up on LinkedIn. I'd be thrilled to connect.

Speaker 1:

Excellent. Well, that just leaves me to say for today, christopher Morrison, I've enjoyed our conversation. Thank you very much for being my guest. Thank you, bill. This has been a pleasure and listeners as always. Until next time, happy working.

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