To improve team dynamics, start with the work your team does together. Where do updates get lost? Which decisions are reopened? When do plans stop matching what people are doing?
These ten steps help a manager describe those patterns, build shared understanding, and agree practical changes. Keep the actions small enough to try and review. You can use the checklist in a team meeting, an offsite, or a series of shorter conversations.
Step #1. Measure your team dynamics
Ask people for recent examples across the four dimensions of TeamDynamics:
- Communicating: Is information shared through defined processes and forums (Ordered), or surfaced organically (Informal)?
- Processing: Does the source matter when evaluating information (Relational), or is the information evaluated on its own merits (Logical)?
- Deciding: Are decisions driven by consensus among members (Concordant), or by direction from leadership (Authoritative)?
- Executing: Are plans thorough and closely followed (Deliberate), or lightweight and adaptable (Spontaneous)?
These are working patterns to discuss in context. Ask when each pattern helps and when the task requires a different approach.
In TeamDynamics Pro, participants describe how the team works, and completed responses contribute to the shared result. Personal preferences separately inform private CoDynamics; they do not determine the team profile. An assessment provides a structured starting point alongside the examples your team brings.
Step #2. Build a shared understanding of your team dynamics
Set aside time to discuss the result together. Invite everyone to explain what fits their experience and where they see a different pattern. A useful shared understanding includes the benefits and risks of the team’s habits, plus the situations in which those habits need to change.
Use a recent project to keep the discussion concrete. For example, ask how an informal update reached some people but missed others. Explore a sample Team Profile to see how the framework is presented.
Turn your checklist into a team conversation
The Team Discussion Guide includes interactive discussion slides to help your team work through its results and agree a practical next step.
Step #3. Set clear expectations for your team dynamics
Write a few working agreements that people can follow. “Communicate better” is difficult to act on. “Record each decision, its owner, and the next action in the project channel” tells people what to do.
Choose agreements around a real friction point, check that the team understands them, and keep them somewhere easy to find. Agree how you will notice whether the change helps.
Step #4. Communicate your team dynamics externally
Other teams need to know how to work with yours. Put the useful parts of your agreements in an internal wiki or project kickoff: where requests go, who makes decisions, how to raise a risk, and when people can expect an update.
Ask a cross-functional partner whether those instructions are clear. A short explanation of the work is often more useful than a team-type label by itself.
Step #5. Explain working norms in hiring and onboarding
Describe your team’s working practices when discussing a role, so candidates can ask informed questions. In the first week, show new colleagues where updates are shared, how decisions are made, and how to request support.
Use TeamDynamics to explain collaboration and plan support. Do not use the team result or private CoDynamics as a candidate screen or a prediction of job performance. Hiring decisions need evidence relevant to the work and the person’s skills. The goal here is clear expectations and useful onboarding.
Step #6. Incorporate team dynamics into professional development
During one-to-ones, ask which team habits make it easy or difficult for the person to contribute. Let the participant choose what personal insight to share. Agree a concrete development goal and the support the manager will provide.
For someone who needs more preparation time, that could mean receiving a decision agenda a day before the meeting. Review whether the change helps rather than assuming everyone with a similar preference needs the same support.
Step #7. Hold each other accountable for working agreements
Use your agreements when reviewing everyday work. If an update was missed, ask where the agreed process failed and what would make it easier to follow. Discuss specific behavior and its effect on the work.
Managers should follow the same agreements and invite feedback when they do not. Keep the conversation focused on improvement and clear responsibilities.
Step #8. Know when to flex your team dynamics
A familiar working pattern may not suit every situation. A fast response to an incident may require a named decision maker. A long-term change affecting several teams may require more consultation.
When you choose a different approach, explain why, who is responsible, and when the team will return to its usual process. This helps people adapt without guessing whether the norms have changed permanently.
Step #9. Revisit your team dynamics regularly
Review the agreements when the team changes: new members, a new manager, a different project, or shifting responsibilities. A twice-yearly conversation can be a useful starting cadence; adjust it to the pace of change.
Ask what still describes the team, what has changed, and which agreement needs updating. Review the effect of your experiments. A saved assessment result describes the responses used at that time, so compare it with current examples.
Step #10. Share the work of improving team dynamics
Invite team members to help prepare examples, lead parts of the discussion, and own agreed actions. A facilitator can help structure the conversation when the manager needs to participate fully.
TeamDynamics Pro includes a Team Profile, private CoDynamics for each participant, a Manager Report, and a Team Discussion Guide. Pro costs $39 per participant as a one-time payment. Solo costs $29 once for one person’s view of their team. Choose the format that matches whose perspectives you want to include.
Finish your next session with one action, an owner, and a review date. For example: “We will record decision owners in the project channel for the next two weeks, then check whether fewer decisions need to be reopened.” That gives the team a specific change to try.
