It’s not surprising that enterprises across industry and government are turning their attention to mastering teamwork at scale when disruptions of all types are making adaptability an essential cultural capability. Slow decision-making and disconnected execution can destroy value in an instant. Fortunately, there are powerful counterexamples, like Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan, which drove business growth while reducing its environmental footprint. By executing the strategy using a one team approach, Unilever demonstrated the power and value of cohesive, enterprise-wide teamwork from R&D and marketing to supply chain.
So, how do you master teamwork at scale? First, open your mind to the real cost of siloed thinking. Then, reimagine teams as connected entities that align, collaborate, and learn seamlessly across all levels. That’s the One Team advantage: turning connected, adaptive teamwork into a strategic edge.
The Real Cost of Silos
Silos are like locks on a river—designed to control and direct, but also restricting the natural flow of communication and innovation. They lead to duplicated effort, misaligned priorities, and missed opportunities that slow down decision-making and innovation. The real victim of siloed thinking? Your customer. When teams fail to communicate and collaborate, it’s not just internal frustration—it’s your customer experience that takes the hit, dragging down both your reputation and your bottom line.
Think One Team: Scaling Teamwork Across Boundaries
The Think One Team method starts with a mindset shift and is brought to life through simple tools that build habits of teamwork, connecting everyone from the executive level to the frontline.
Three core principles—Align, Collaborate, and Learn—drive this transformation, drawn from performance psychology practices of agile, team-oriented organisations like special military units and emergency services.
- Align: True alignment isn’t just about planning; it’s about commitment. It’s a continuous effort to sustain direction and That means clarity of purpose and priorities. It also means aligning from the why to the how, reinforced through accountability conversations to ensure everyone understands how their work is contributing to the bigger picture.
- Collaborate: Collaboration goes far beyond being friendly and cooperative; it’s about engaging in difficult, honest conversations and building solutions together. In high-performing teams, sharing isn’t optional—it’s ingrained. You see it in the pooling of resources, the sharing of insights, in mutual accountability, and the understanding that success hinges on their collective strength.
- Learn: Agile and adaptive teams prioritise learning at every turn. They admit mistakes, challenge assumptions, and adapt quickly. In an unpredictable world, this ability to learn and pivot is the ultimate competitive advantage. While individual learning is crucial, it’s team rituals like pausing to debrief that ensure it holds up when conditions get tough.
Perhaps the best-known example of the success of teamwork at scale driving transformation is the “One Microsoft” vision led by Satya Nadella. By fostering alignment, collaboration and learning across departments and embracing accountability, Microsoft transformed its culture, driving innovation in cloud computing, AI, and other cutting-edge technologies. This unified approach allowed Microsoft to reclaim its position as a market leader and adapt quickly to new technological trends, including the rapid adoption of cloud services.
Leadership Capabilities for the One Team Era
Scaling teamwork requires leaders to move well beyond traditional command-and-control to genuinely empower people and teams to contribute, challenge, and innovate at pace. This needs a blend of psychological safety and accountability—a workplace where voices are heard, and standards are upheld. To lead your transformation towards driving teamwork at scale, here are three ways you can succeed:
- Provide Clarity
In uncertainty, your most important task is to provide clarity—people need it to trust your leadership. Be clear about expectations: what needs to be done, why it matters, and how the team should work together. Don’t shy away from the challenges; address them head-on, but always anchor your team in the big picture.
- Model Vulnerability
Jim Collins in the classic Good to Great described great leaders as showing “High humility and fierce resolve.” Trusted leaders admit when they don’t have all the answers. Vulnerability isn’t a weakness; it’s a signal to your team that it’s safe to experiment, speak up, and take ownership of their actions. Are you ready to show your vulnerability? Start by seeking feedback and demonstrating that you are open to learn.
- Disagree without Being Disagreeable
In a one team environment, conflict isn’t something to avoid—it’s a powerful tool for growth. Coach your teams to engage in healthy debate, challenge ideas respectfully, and work through disagreements constructively. It’s not about competition; it’s about finding the best way forward together. Netflix exemplifies this approach with a culture that encourages open, honest debates where leaders challenge each other’s ideas respectfully but commit fully once a decision is made. This practice that they call “disagree, then commit” drives high performance by turning conflict into a catalyst for better decisions, not competition.
Embrace the One Team Advantage
Teamwork at scale is rapidly becoming a defining characteristic of organisations that lead in today’s complex world. Whether you’re navigating digital transformation, managing a hybrid workforce, striving for market leadership, or battling a pandemic, the message is clear: Provide Clarity, Model Vulnerability, and Disagree without Being Disagreeable. The One team advantage is more than just working together—it’s working as one.
High performance is driven by daily habits of alignment, collaboration, and learning. Set the standard. Be prepared for the next disruption and turn it into an opportunity with your culture of teamwork at scale.
Graham Winter is a performance psychologist and author of Think One Team (3rd edition)
www.thinkoneteam.com
