300+

Teams Transformed

65%

Average Performance Improvement

4.8/5

Team Satisfaction Rating

90%

Sustained Improvement (12mo+)



Why Most Teams Underperform

The hidden cost of team dysfunction

Organizations spend millions building great products, systems, and strategies—but often neglect the most critical element: the teams that execute everything. A mediocre team will underdeliver on a great strategy. A great team will overdeliver on a mediocre strategy.

Yet most teams are nowhere near their potential. They're stuck in dysfunction—wasting time in unproductive meetings, avoiding difficult conversations, duplicating work, and burning out talented people.

THE IMPACT OF TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

5x

Higher performance in high-trust teams

50%

More innovation in psychologically safe teams

40%

Lower turnover in high-performing teams

65%

Faster decision-making with aligned teams

Source: Google Project Aristotle, Harvard Business Review, Gallup

Signs Your Team Needs Help

Meetings Are Painful

Meetings feel like a waste of time. Real issues aren't discussed. People multitask or check out mentally.

Lack of Trust

People are guarded and political. There's no vulnerability or authentic connection. CYA behavior is common.

Conflict Avoidance

Disagreements happen in hallways, not in meetings. "Artificial harmony" dominates. Real issues go unaddressed.

Unclear Roles

Confusion about who's responsible for what. Duplication of effort or critical tasks falling through cracks.

Low Accountability

Commitments aren't kept. Deadlines slip without consequence. Team members don't hold each other accountable.

Mediocre Results

The team consistently underperforms. Goals are missed. There's a sense of "we could be so much better."

High-performing teams aren't born—they're built through intentional development.



The Five Behaviors of High-Performing Teams

Based on Patrick Lencioni's research and adapted through our work with hundreds of teams

Team effectiveness is built on five interdependent behaviors. Like a pyramid, each level requires the foundation below it. You can't skip levels or build a great team by focusing on just one area.

THE TEAM EFFECTIVENESS PYRAMID

▼ 5. RESULTS

▼ 4. ACCOUNTABILITY

▼ 3. COMMITMENT

▼ 2. CONFLICT

▼ 1. TRUST

1. Trust: The Foundation

What It Means:

Vulnerability-based trust. Team members are comfortable being completely open with one another about mistakes, weaknesses, fears, and asking for help.

What It's NOT:

Predictability ("I trust you'll do your job"). That's reliability, not trust.

Why It Matters:

Without trust, teams waste energy managing impressions and protecting themselves. With trust, teams can focus 100% on the work.

How We Build It:
  • Personal histories exercise

  • Strengths and weaknesses sharing

  • Team effectiveness 360° feedback

  • Vulnerability modeling by leader

  • Trust-building rituals

Trust Red Flag: "We're all professionals here" (code for: we don't share anything personal or vulnerable)

2. Conflict: Healthy Debate

What It Means:

Productive, ideological conflict around ideas. Team members debate passionately and unfiltered about the issues that matter most.

What It's NOT:

Mean-spirited personal attacks or destructive fighting. It's vigorous debate in service of the best answer.

Why It Matters:

Teams that avoid conflict make inferior decisions and create "artificial harmony" that breeds resentment.

How We Build It:
  • Conflict norms and agreements

  • Mining for conflict (surfacing buried issues)

  • Real-time permission ("I want to disagree with that...")

  • Devil's advocate assignments

  • Conflict resolution skills training

Conflict Red Flag: Meetings end too quickly and easily. Everyone agrees too fast.

3. Commitment: Clarity & Buy-In

What It Means:

Team members commit to decisions and standards of performance, even when they initially disagreed. Buy-in comes from being heard, not from consensus.

What It's NOT:

Requiring consensus or unanimous agreement. You can "disagree and commit."

Why It Matters:

Without commitment, teams struggle with ambiguity and revisit decisions. With commitment, teams move forward aligned.

How We Build It:
  • Cascading communication (what are we telling the organization?)

  • End-of-meeting recap of decisions

  • Deadlines and clarity around everything

  • "Disagree and commit" practice

  • Worst-case scenario analysis (reducing fear of being wrong)

Commitment Red Flag: "I thought we decided that last month?" Decisions keep getting revisited.

4. Accountability: Peer-to-Peer

What It Means:

Team members hold one another accountable for behaviors and performance. Accountability doesn't fall solely on the leader.

What It's NOT:

Waiting for the boss to be "the bad guy." Peers call out each other directly and respectfully.

Why It Matters:

Teams that rely solely on the leader for accountability create resentment, lower standards, and miss opportunities for course correction.

How We Build It:
  • Team dashboard with shared goals

  • Public declaration of what each person will do

  • Regular progress reviews by peers

  • Accountability conversation training

  • Team rewards (not just individual)

Accountability Red Flag: People complain to the leader about teammates rather than addressing directly.

5. Results: Collective Outcomes

What It Means:

Team members prioritize collective results over individual goals, departmental objectives, or personal ego/status.

What It's NOT:

"Every person hits their individual goals." Real team results are interdependent and collective.

Why It Matters:

Without focus on collective results, teams become collections of individuals optimizing for themselves at the expense of the whole.

How We Build It:
  • Clear, measurable team goals

  • Public scoreboard everyone can see

  • Tie rewards to team performance

  • Celebrate team wins (not just individual)

  • Call out individual heroics that hurt the team

Results Red Flag: "My department is doing great" (while overall company/team struggles)



Our Team Effectiveness Services

Multiple ways to develop your team's performance

Team Assessment & Diagnostic

Duration: 2-4 weeks

What We Do:
  • Team effectiveness survey (all 5 behaviors)

  • Individual interviews with each team member

  • Meeting observation

  • Team dynamics analysis

  • Comprehensive feedback report

Best For:

Teams that want to understand their current state before investing in development. Also useful for measuring progress.

$8K - $15K

Team Offsite Facilitation

Duration: 1-2 days

What We Do:
  • Pre-work and preparation (2-3 weeks)

  • Custom agenda design

  • Expert facilitation of difficult conversations

  • Team-building exercises

  • Action planning and commitments

  • Post-offsite follow-up plan

Best For:

Teams needing intensive time together to reset, align, address issues, or build relationships. Great for new teams or teams in crisis.

$12K - $25K
MOST POPULAR

Team Coaching Program

Duration: 6-12 months

What We Do:
  • Initial assessment and offsite

  • Monthly team coaching sessions (2-3 hours)

  • Real-time team dynamic observation and feedback

  • Between-session leader coaching

  • Progress measurement and adjustment

  • Sustainability planning

Best For:

Teams committed to sustained development. Most effective approach for creating lasting behavior change.

$35K - $75K

Team Development Workshops

Duration: Half-day or full-day sessions

What We Do:
  • Focused workshops on specific team behaviors

  • Trust-building session

  • Healthy conflict workshop

  • Accountability practices

  • Meeting effectiveness training

  • Decision-making workshop

Best For:

Teams wanting to develop specific skills or behaviors. Can be standalone or part of broader team development.

$5K - $12K per workshop

Team Intervention (Crisis)

Duration: 4-8 weeks intensive

What We Do:
  • Rapid assessment of team dysfunction

  • Individual and team coaching

  • Facilitated difficult conversations

  • Conflict resolution and mediation

  • Team reset and rebuilding

  • Sustainability planning

Best For:

Teams in acute crisis—major conflict, complete breakdown of trust, toxic dynamics, leadership changes requiring reset.

$25K - $60K

Executive Team Development

Duration: 12-18 months

What We Do:
  • C-suite and senior leadership team coaching

  • Quarterly offsites + monthly coaching

  • Strategic alignment work

  • Board presentation preparation

  • Individual executive coaching

  • Succession planning support

Best For:

CEO and executive teams wanting to maximize their effectiveness and model high-performance for the organization.

$60K - $150K


How We Assess Team Effectiveness

Multiple lenses to understand your team's dynamics

Our Comprehensive Team Assessment Approach

Team Effectiveness Survey

Research-validated assessment measuring all five team behaviors (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results)

Output: Team profile showing strengths and gaps across all dimensions, benchmarked against high-performing teams

Individual Interviews

Confidential 1-on-1 conversations with each team member to understand individual perspectives, concerns, and hopes

Output: Thematic analysis of common themes, hidden issues, and divergent perspectives

Meeting Observation

We observe team meetings to see dynamics in action—what's said, what's not said, patterns of interaction, decision-making processes

Output: Behavioral observations and patterns that may be invisible to team members

360° Team Feedback

Team members give and receive feedback from one another on specific behaviors and contributions to team effectiveness

Output: Individual and team feedback reports highlighting blind spots and development areas

Working Styles Assessment

Personality and work style assessments (DiSC, Myers-Briggs, Strengths, etc.) to understand individual differences

Output: Team composition map showing diversity and potential friction points

Performance Data Review

Analysis of team performance metrics, meeting effectiveness data, goal achievement rates

Output: Quantitative picture of team results and trends

Assessment Deliverable

At the end of assessment, teams receive a comprehensive report including:

  • Current state of all five team behaviors
  • Specific strengths to leverage
  • Priority gaps to address
  • Root causes of dysfunction
  • Recommended development roadmap

This report becomes the foundation for all team development work.



Types of Teams We Develop

We work with teams at every level and function

Executive Teams

C-suite and senior leadership teams responsible for strategy and organizational direction

Common Focus: Strategic alignment, decision-making, trust, succession

Leadership Teams

Department heads, VPs, directors responsible for functions or business units

Common Focus: Cross-functional collaboration, breaking silos, conflict resolution

Project Teams

Cross-functional teams assembled for specific initiatives or transformations

Common Focus: Quick trust-building, role clarity, decision rights, momentum

Functional Teams

Intact teams within departments (sales, engineering, operations, etc.)

Common Focus: Performance, accountability, efficiency, team cohesion

New/Transition Teams

Newly formed teams, teams with new leaders, or post-merger integration teams

Common Focus: Rapid trust-building, norming, role clarity, early wins

Virtual/Distributed Teams

Teams working across locations, time zones, or in hybrid/remote settings

Common Focus: Building connection, communication, trust at a distance



Team Transformation Success Story

Tech Company Leadership Team: From Dysfunction to High-Performance

Team: 12-person leadership team (CEO + direct reports) | Company: 800-employee software company | Duration: 12-month team coaching program

The Situation:

A high-growth tech company with brilliant individual leaders who couldn't work together effectively. Meetings were tense or superficial. Cross-functional projects failed repeatedly. Turnover was high. The CEO was exhausted playing referee.

Specific Dysfunctions:
  • Zero trust: Leaders were guarded and political with each other
  • Artificial harmony: No one challenged anything in meetings; all real disagreement happened afterward
  • Unclear decisions: Meetings ended without clarity on what was decided or who would do what
  • No accountability: Leaders didn't hold each other accountable; only CEO did
  • Siloed focus: Each leader optimized for their department, not company results

Assessment Results:

Team effectiveness survey showed severe gaps across all five behaviors. Individual interviews revealed deep frustration, distrust, and pessimism about the team ever improving.

Our 12-Month Approach:

Phase 1: Foundation (Months 1-3)
  • 2-day offsite: Vulnerability exercises, personal histories, strengths/weaknesses sharing, team commitment

  • Monthly coaching sessions: Practice new behaviors with coach present

  • Between sessions: CEO coaching, team homework assignments

Phase 2: Building (Months 4-8)
  • Conflict practice: Learning to engage in productive debate

  • Decision-making process: Clear framework for how team makes decisions

  • Accountability training: Peer-to-peer feedback and accountability

  • Scoreboard creation: Shared team goals everyone tracks

Phase 3: Embedding (Months 9-12)
  • Real-time coaching: Coach in their regular meetings, providing feedback

  • Self-facilitation: Team learning to self-manage without coach

  • Sustainability rituals: Team practices that reinforce behaviors

  • Final assessment: Measure progress and celebrate growth

The Results:

Metric Before After (12 mo) Change
Trust Score 2.1/5 4.3/5 ↑ 105%
Healthy Conflict 1.8/5 4.1/5 ↑ 128%
Commitment/Clarity 2.4/5 4.4/5 ↑ 83%
Peer Accountability 1.9/5 3.9/5 ↑ 105%
Focus on Results 2.6/5 4.2/5 ↑ 62%
Meeting Effectiveness 35% 82% ↑ 134%

Business Impact:

  • Cross-functional project success rate: 30% → 85%
  • Decision-making speed: 50% faster
  • Leadership retention: Zero departures (vs. 4 in prior year)
  • Employee engagement: ↑ 28% company-wide
  • Revenue growth: Accelerated from 15% to 35% annually
"Twelve months ago, I was seriously considering replacing half my leadership team. The dysfunction was killing us. Today, this is the strongest, most aligned leadership team I've ever been part of. We debate passionately, decide clearly, and execute together. The transformation is remarkable—and it's showing up in our business results." - CEO
What Made It Work:
  • CEO commitment: Fully invested and willing to be vulnerable first
  • Team buy-in: All members committed to the process despite skepticism
  • Sustained work: 12 months of consistent practice, not a one-time offsite
  • Real-time coaching: Coach present during actual team dynamics
  • Accountability to each other: Team held each other to new standards
  • Celebrating progress: Acknowledging improvements along the way