Finding Harmony in Diverse Teams

Introduction

Whether you have worked in the field of team development or have been part of a team yourself, you know that there are myriad factors that ultimately determine team performance. One of these important factors is team harmony. What does this mean (Here’s a clue: it’s not an absence of conflict) – and why is harmony so important to effective team performance?

Imagine what would happen if we purposefully built a team made up of adversarial and diverse individuals and told them that they should place significant value on unique perspectives, philosophical differences and dissenting opinions. What kind of team do you imagine this would turn out to be? For most people, the thought of an intentionally diverse team is completely counterintuitive; after all, we all know that teams need to agree and collaborate in order to deliver on their mandates and achieve their performance expectations. However, this is only partially right. While a team like this would require considerable oversight and strong team development processes to support the desired culture, the characteristics of dissent, diverse opinions and conflict have been proven to improve their chances of meeting their performance goals.

Teams are now seemingly the basic building blocks of organisations, so the ability to establish, develop, and maintain teams of diverse individuals is critical to the organisation’s success. Music offers us a great analogy: in music, it is the different notes combined together that make it sound good. If everyone sang the same note, the resulting sound would be flat, monotonous and boring. Similarly, in an orchestra, when the instruments harmonise together, they fill the gaps in each other’s sounds, producing a delightfully melodious piece. That’s the power of diversity!

In teams this means that the ‘magic happens’, when completely different people with unique skill sets, personalities, and motivations can cooperate and collaborate.

There are complex dynamics in every team; through the lens of Enneagram, what follows are insights into team dynamics and how you can leverage this understanding of the Enneagram and the way Types respond to create harmony and more effective team performance.

What does it mean for a team to have harmony?

Let’s start by looking at what constitutes an unharmonious team. Boring team meetings, everyone consistently bobbing their heads in agreement, none of the team members challenging the status quo, and conformity of thought or perspectives. Although the placid nature of these team behaviours might suggest a harmonious environment, in reality, it is the very opposite. It could signal danger to the longevity and sustainability of the team. It is import to remember that harmony in teams is not the absence of conflict in teams.

The harmony of a team is more than just individuals working together to achieve a goal. It is also about the way the individual members fit together and create balance. In other words, it is about how the participation of diverse team members, each contributing to the team’s ability to work efficiently and achieve results. Team harmony, therefore, is not the opposite of diversity – instead, harmony acknowledges and leverages team diversity.

It means that stifling differences and pushing for consensus (not considering conflicting views), undermine the innate diversity in the team and the unique value it offers. Accessing a team's unique experiences, knowledge, and skillsets could, therefore, result in alternative ways of thinking and problem-sovling. Teams that learn to embrace this diversity are more likely to achieve harmony.

When teams can manage the inevitable opposing forces and trade-offs inherent in their make-up, they can work through differences. How? By engaging in productive, unfiltered debate free from feelings of insecurity or embarrassment. They transform the potential for conflict into the potential for creative tension. Team members feel safe to air conflicting opinions and perspectives when their unique qualities and contributions are embraced, and this leads to wholeness or harmony.

By embracing productive conflict (a specific kind of conflict) and safeguarding psychological safety, teams are actually more - not less - likely to find harmony.

As team researcher and author Patrick Lencioni explains, “Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are not afraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”

Why is harmony an enviable team characteristic?

When there is harmony in a team, for instance, when the relationships between members are healthy, there is consensus (if not agreement), congruence, productive conflict, as well as a sense of safety, connection and trust. These teams exhibit the following:

• Team cohesion around purpose
• Honest feedback, questions, exchange of ideas
• Thoughtful, measured responses
• Mutual support and rapport
• Shared responsibility and accountability
• High individual productivity and performance

These characteristics drive profound progress towards the shared vision and goals, and therefore, team effectiveness and success.

In contrast, in an unharmonious team, when the relationships between members are taken for granted, when conflict is avoided, or engaged with in a non-productive manner, and when unresolved challenges, problems, and issues create suspicion, distrust and fear, we see the following characteristics:

• Reactivity or passive-aggressive responses
• Depleted energy
• Lack of support (no one taking responsibility)
• Embarrassment, rejection and potentially even punishment for those who speak up
• Blaming abounds
• Lack of innovation when people don’t dare or care to disagree
• Individual lack of engagement
• Higher levels of stress

Ultimately, these characteristics results in low team productivity and stalled forward momentum, which, over the long term, will inevitably translate into team failure.

Here is a truly beautiful illustration from nature underscoring why harmony in a team is desirable..

According to author Dan Coyle, these starlings “represent the ultimate in group performance: cohesive, cooperative, agile. They do not possess ‘soft skills’ of any kind; after all, their brains are the size of a grain of rice. But they can perform like this because they are good at one thing: paying continuous attention to small signals of connection, space, and direction”. The starlings illustrate the potential harmony that is possible within a team. When members feel that they are safely connected, sharing accurate information, and know in which direction to move. When a sense of balance is achieved, and there is congruence (not uniformity) in their approach.

The latest trend analyses and research support this. Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends and Workplace Design Trends 2017 and Beyond reveals how central teams are to organisational success. More to the point, they show how successful teams – who meet performance expectations – are those that don’t avoid conflict. These teams are capable of addressing issues as they transpire, are aware of their team dynamics and stage of team development. They honour and leverage individual members’ motivations, styles, talents, aspirations and passions.

How can the Enneagram support teams achieve harmony?

A team’s Enneagram profile, or style, reflects the product of the individual members’ core Enneagram Types. The team style offers tremendous insight into how the individuals relate to each other, the team as a whole, as well as how well the team relates to its broader context.

Understanding the individual members’ core motivations, entrenched patterns of behaviours and triggers, as well as the team’s collective values and motivations, affords team members the opportunity to build their social intelligence, explore and embrace the polarities that exist between members, understand members’ approach to conflict and respect, and leverage the differences between team members. These insights and perspectives derived from the Enneagram increase the team’s ability to foster harmony.

Looking at each of the possible team styles, we see that harmony is possible when:

Conclusion

Teams, and the diverse individuals that they are comprised of, are a reality of the modern organisation. Helping teams achieve a state of harmony, which strongly correlates with increased team cohesion and productivity (i.e. high team performance) is of paramount importance.

Understanding the true nature of harmony is a fundamental element of this work. If we erroneously assume that harmony is just a synonym for ‘no fighting’ and ‘conflict’ in a team, we miss the intricacies of the notion. As a result, teams will struggle to truly achieve team harmony. When we understand that the success of a harmonious team lies in its abaility to leverage its members’ diversity, and to provide the space and conditions for productive conflict, we bring wholeness, balance and harmony to the team.

The Enneagram provides a practical framework for this work and provides us with an understanding of the individuals’ and team’s styles . It also highlights the ways to embrace and manage the many paradoxes and polarities that exist within teams. In doing so, organisations can leverage the diversity of the team members, and help them understand that productive conflict is not about winning - it’s about psychological safety, and deepening our understanding of the truth.

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