The secret ingredient to successful team building is not what you think

A great organization requires a great team, which is not defined by its collective skill set, cumulative experience, or education. A great team just feels different. An obligatory sports analogy should go here, but I won’t force it (because I know nothing about sports). I will say this, though: if you’re not picking team members based on how well they “click” and instead prioritizing talent or pedigree, you’re bound for failure. The vibe is what drives team success. Always. 

That’s because what defines a great team is chemistry or what this Harvard Business Review article calls the “it factor.” High performing teams have a “buzz” about them; you know it when you feel it. Unfortunately, people tend to hire based on résumés as opposed to chemistry, even though successful teams aren’t built this way. In fact, HR systems are designed to ensure that no one without certain requirements is even taken into consideration, and standardized interview processes often diminish the opportunity for authentic human connection. 

In almost every movie about a team sport (a good number of which I have seen and do know about), the winning team often consists of misfits who get picked up along the way to the championship. The coach sees that special something in them and knows they’ll be a good fit. This is how I’ve built every successful team in my career—by relying on chemistry as the key to success. 

Defining Chemistry in the Workplace

Chemistry in the workplace has no precise, universally agreed-upon definition, but the research on it looks at mutual respect, collaboration, and the amount of collective effort expended to produce high-quality results. It requires having confidence in each other’s abilities, prioritizing the organization’s goals and interests over individual self-interest, and actively participating in the growth and success of the team. Chemistry doesn’t necessarily entail personal friendship, but it does require trust, respect, and a willingness to support and assist one another when times get tough. Teams thrive when the people in them choose to work together. 

The team I work most closely with today embodies a set of shared values that define chemistry for me. These values include self-awareness, self-motivation, dedication to personal growth, collaboration, kindness, curiosity, a constant thirst for learning, and the ability to tame one’s ego for the benefit of the team’s success. 

One thought-provoking study examining the concept of “team chemistry” through the lens of chemistry itself challenges the traditional emphasis on expertise in the work environment. Drawing parallels between chemical interactions and team dynamics, the study suggests that scientific principles can offer valuable insights into how teams function best. Responding to the study, Harold Kroto, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, points out that “the key creative process in chemistry is synthesis in which two or more known compounds are brought together in a reaction to produce a new and hopefully valuable compound.”

If we think about building a team in the purely scientific terms outlined by Kroto, prioritizing expertise almost seems silly. Instead, the most important consideration is how well the many come together as one. This isn’t to say that expertise isn’t valuable. In a work environment characterized by segregated tasks and siloed performance targets, expertise holds undeniable value. However, in a collaborative setting, the importance of chemistry cannot be understated. Synthesis can’t happen without chemistry, which makes it the binding agent that ensures team cohesion, which, in turn, fosters a harmonious and supportive atmosphere for effective collaboration and problem-solving. 

Effective communication is a direct outcome of chemistry. When individuals get each other’s communication styles, preferences, and nonverbal cues, the speed and clarity of communication improves, which then reduces misunderstandings, and facilitates the discovery of common ground. There are lots of non-cheesy exercises that can help with this including simple ones like user manuals. A team that understands one another is better equipped to resolve conflicts and disagreements efficiently and effectively. 

Teams with good chemistry address conflicts swiftly and constructively, actively seeking out compromises and solutions that benefit the whole. This fosters trust and mutual understanding, leading to better collaboration. Critical for risk-taking, trust is a prerequisite for innovation. Team members who trust and feel more at ease with one another are much more likely to share ideas that challenge convention and end up changing the world. 

Chemistry for the Win

It’s not a stretch to say that I’ve made a career out of challenging convention—especially when it comes to hiring—and it has rarely steered me wrong. One of the best examples I can remember is from a turnaround I did for a Canada-based biometrics company. The place was plagued by toxicity rooted in the founder’s ego and the CTO’s unwillingness to collaborate. The result was a culture that pitted people against one another. It was a mess. 

Amidst this chaos, I came across an administrative assistant whose capabilities far surpassed her lack of formal education. What impressed me most about her was that despite having little experience in the field, she had the genuine respect and admiration of colleagues who had spent years earning engineering degrees. Because of her innate understanding of the company’s internal workings, she was the go-to person in the entire office (you know the one).

Everyone thought I was crazy for promoting this young woman to Executive Vice President (EVP) overseeing all production. Despite not having the résumé to prove it, her deep comprehension of the company and its personnel was unmatched. The power of her leadership created a collective synergy that the company had never experienced. As a result, the toxicity was replaced by harmony and collaboration. Her ability to leverage the strengths of her colleagues and nurture a shared vision propelled the organization forward. And, yet, because her résumé didn’t fit the bill, no one would have hired her for the role that, in my eyes, she was clearly destined to fulfill. Today, she is at a multibillion-dollar company, where she serves as director of all marketing for the Americas.

Chemistry Creates Clarity, Enhances Capabilities

Chemistry creates open communication, clarity, mutual support, and smoother performance, which eventually leads to increased expertise. By hiring based on chemistry you’ll be forced to redesign the entire interview process. Instead of passively sifting through available candidates and then asking a set of prescribed questions, the interview process becomes about building relationships by actively searching for people who align with a company’s culture. This makes the search process itself a team project that creates buy-in and sets up the new employee for immediate success. 

I’d like to claim that I naturally came by the understanding that chemistry matters more than expertise, but actually I learned it by not falling on my ass in college. It may be the most clichéd way possible to learn the importance of team chemistry, but it really happened—on one of those obstacle courses you’re forced to complete as part of a team building retreat. 

The goal was to get the team across a suspended balance beam that moved as we moved. In those days, I was athletic enough to do it with ease, but when my teammate stepped on the beam with me, he fell off. I argued, selfishly, that since I hadn’t fallen, I didn’t fail, but the rules were pretty clear. Since my capabilities alone were useless, I had to work with and through the entire cohort to ensure that we could get across without any of us falling. Once we came together as a group, we won the challenge. Humbling experiences like this one have taught me how effective and rewarding it is to prioritize chemistry and collective success over expertise and personal wins. 

Where someone went to school or previously worked can tell you something about them, but nothing you couldn’t learn from a robot. Like this recent New York Times opinion piece highlights, over the centuries, advances in engineering and computing have decreased the value of physical labor, and soon AI will surpass our technical acumen. Inevitably, we will arrive at a place where the only skills that remain unique to us are “soft” ones like empathy, negotiation, relationship development, and inspiring others. It will be our human connection—our chemistry—that binds us and enables us to improve the world.