The World Economic Forum recently released its Future of Jobs Report 2025. In the report, the WEF provides a list of the current top work and business skills that will still be core in 2030. [1]
As expected, AI and big data feature high on that list. But perhaps more interestingly is what appears in the categories labelled as “working with others”, “self-efficacy” and “cognitive skills”.
These include:
- Resilience, flexibility and adaptability
- Curiosity and lifelong learning
- Creative thinking
- Leadership and social influence
- Motivation and self-awareness
- Systems thinking
- Empathy and active listening
A clear confirmation, if there ever was one, that we’ll also need to turn up the dial on very human- and relationship-focused capabilities, and the skills that relate to how we work together.
It also reflects how we’ll have to think differently about teamwork. The same tried-and-trusted models we’ve been using will no longer work when our environment has changed so much.
For example, the famous and influential Tuckman team development model – forming, storming, norming and performing (and later added stage, adjourning) – was developed in the mid-1960s.
Xerox had released the first commercially available fax machine the previous year (1964), and Peter Drucker hadn’t yet written about the “knowledge economy” (1969). Management thinking was firmly rooted in the industrial era, and the working world seemed much simpler in comparison to today.
Tuckman’s linear four-to-five stage model worked very well for those times. It was functional, robust, and it paved the way for a lot of our foundational understanding of teams – ultimately, that dynamics impacted performance.
The model also helped us grasp that most teams will experience some form of conflict (i.e. the “storming” stage) and it’s less about avoiding it altogether than having strategies to transition through it.
Today’s workplace is far more complex. In its review of the Post-Pandemic Workplace, Gallup demonstrates the level of change we’ve experienced in just the last five years. Amongst the factors are falling employee engagement, navigating increased levels of disruption, a mental health and wellbeing crisis, AI and the evolving role of managers.
This pace of change shows no signs of slowing.
Evolving the team development playbook
So even though teams will form, storm, norm and perform to some degree, we need an approach to team development that is fit for a constantly changing environment. One that is more emergent and agile, caters for nuance and, frankly, a messier backdrop.
We need to shift from team development to team culture development.
While these may seem similar at first glance, there is a subtle difference which leads to a different outcome.
Here’s why.
Coursera defines team development as:
“…an intentional, ongoing process by an organization to improve the efficiency and progress of a team working toward a common goal or mission. Many team development goals focus on improving the working relationship of team members through improved methods of conflict resolution and communication skills, so that everyone feels understood and valued”.
This is all a vital part of developing team effectiveness. However, team culture development includes an additional layer.
When we develop culture, we are also creating the container around a team that connects and grounds them as they move through different phases.
To do this, we need to surpass resolving in-the-moment challenges like conflict and communication, and also develop the foundations that define a team’s identity, such as values, principles, systems, processes, routines and rituals.
Amidst high levels of uncertainty and change, this requires a team practice of having regular conversations about ways of working.
And the more this happens, the more a team builds key skills in facilitation, co-creation and managing change as well as the ability to deal with future challenges together.
So, to briefly compare:
Team development supports a team through a current and specific situation or project. It is more reactive, immediate and tactical. Valuable, but also fleeting.
Team culture development includes the above, but is also strategic. It considers the longer-term foundations that support a team now and how they’ll need to operate effectively in the future.
There is nothing wrong with team development, but the future requires an approach that builds resilience and adaptability in a world that is becoming even more unpredictable. That’s what we achieve with team culture development.
With this in mind, some approaches that would benefit from an update include:
- One-off and ad hoc team-building events
- Using one-size-fits-all solutions to address team culture challenges
- Making culture solely the leader’s responsibility
- Operating on autopilot
- Using meetings only for information sharing
- Taking a reactive approach to culture
Here’s what we can do instead.
Building team culture every day
Team-building activities are often viewed as something that takes place separately from core work. You may organise a special event to encourage colleagues to bond and build trust. The intention is that this will spill over into the day-to-day environment, so working relationships are easier.
These activities help form social connections and feel like a welcome break from work. But if they are run without any intention to address the root cause of any challenges, they can be perceived as a tick-box exercise. They must be planned thoughtfully and inclusively so they do not feel like “forced fun”, which can backfire.
It’s also a pretty high expectation that a team will magically transform their working relationships in a single event!
With collaboration becoming increasingly vital, creating cohesive relationships needs to be a core part of working together.
Real team-building doesn’t happen away from work – it happens as we work, when we find opportunities for regular micro-moments of connection.
This could look like ensuring project kickoffs include a “here’s how to work with me” discussion so that team members can share their working and communication preferences, or morning Slack “check-ins” for virtual teams so that everyone feels connected as they start their day.
Measure team culture and track progress over time
High-performing teams make the best of everyone’s diverse expertise, perspectives and backgrounds. This diversity within a team, together with the nature of their work and the context in which they work, makes every team unique.
And so every team will face unique challenges.
If that complexity wasn’t enough, team culture covers a broad range of areas, which can be overwhelming and difficult to know where to start.
While there are general patterns, themes and trends in team dynamics, what works for one team may not work in the same way for another. There is no one-size-fits-all.
So we need to gather external stimuli, zoom in on a team’s situation and translate this information into a solution that will be most meaningful and impactful for them in a specific given moment.
Firstly, aim to get a snapshot of your current team culture situation, what you need to address and where to focus first.
When we work with teams, we use our framework (alignment, cohesion, communication, design and change) to diagnose their biggest challenges. This way, a team begins their journey with awareness of what is most relevant and important for them.
Secondly, make sure that any training, workshops or sessions include time to reflect and plan next steps. Ensure team members share their insights, actions and commitments to keep moving forward.
Lastly, create a roadmap for improvement. The most sustainable change happens in small, subtle shifts over time, which can be easy to overlook. Review your progress against your initial snapshot so you can see what’s improved and what needs further attention.
Try: take a simplified version of our culture assessment to see the opportunities for your team.
All team members are invested in team culture development
The role of the leader has been evolving for some time. We’ve been shifting from the solo visionary figure who has all the answers towards valuing leaders who can empower their teams to do their best work.
One of my favourite quotes on this is from Linda Hill in Collective Genius:
“Instead of trying to come up with a vision and make innovation happen themselves, a leader of innovation creates a place–a context, an environment–where people are willing and able to do the hard work that innovative problem solving requires”.
I’m also noticing another shift that reframes this responsibility.
While it’s clear that a leader sets the tone for their team – Gallup’s research shows the impact of a manager’s style on engagement – the complexity of leading a diverse team in an ever-changing environment is making it more challenging for one person to stay on top of this.
This means a leader needs to move from being solely responsible for culture to distributing this responsibility across the team.
Leaders need to aim for a team of culture co-creators who all feel invested in creating a great working environment, rather than a group of “culture consumers”.
Building a high-performing team culture is not something that is done to a team. It’s done with them.
Read: From consumers to co-creators: how to involve your whole team in building team culture
Being intentional about developing team culture
In a world of constant notifications, endless feeds and negative news cycles, it’s easy to have a bias towards reactivity.
The same can be true in our work environment. We respond immediately to emails, chat messages and real or perceived emergencies, leaving little time for non-urgent but important tasks where we can make an impact doing valuable work.
We need to build spaces for this kind of work because the default doesn’t provide it for us. This means being intentional about collaboration.
When your team works by default, they are pulled in different directions, which keeps them rooted in the short term. They might run the same ineffective meetings, communicate inconsistently and have no time for focused work.
When your team works by design, they reclaim their time, understand how they operate best together, and ensure they use this knowledge to craft their schedules and rhythms.
This requires a strategic mindset, using their collective expertise to drive growth and innovation, and setting clear structures for achieving it.
This can be a breakthrough for teams when they realise they have more agency and control over how they get their work done, rather than being stuck with methods that aren’t effective.
Working by default is out, working by design is in!
Using team meetings as culture touchpoints
When we have a wide choice of tools to share one-way information and updates asynchronously, what could be the true value of bringing colleagues together at the same time, especially if they aren’t co-located?
Our synchronous gatherings can be used to deepen understanding, reflect on nuances, address conflicts, problem-solve, generate ideas, and make sense of challenges and opportunities together in real time.
This means reserving status updates for assigned communication channels and designing our meetings as team culture touchpoints that help us connect, learn from each other, ask questions and create value.
Resource: Gamestorming is one of my go-to resources for workshop and meeting design. Sunni Brown and Dave Gray have an updated edition, coming soon.
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While it’s clear that technology will continue to impact us in ways we can’t predict, one thing we do have control over is how we work together.
Skills such as resilience, flexibility, adaptability, curiosity and lifelong learning, creative thinking, motivation and self-awareness will remain vital for the workplace. It’s developing these very human skills that will also enable us to respond to uncertainty and change.
Building collaboration for the future workplace requires us to shift our mindset now from reactive “fire-fighting” to proactive “fire-proofing”. We need to go further than tactical and ad hoc solutions to develop our teams.
The pace of change requires us to build strong foundations now, so we’re better prepared to navigate future challenges and opportunities together.
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Start your team culture development journey with a Team Culture Reset.
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Notes:
- To view the graphic, ensure you have cookies enabled and scroll down to the section that says “Core Skills 2030”