Businesses operate in a very different world than they once did. Instead of stable conditions, predictable competition, and gradual technological advances, we must navigate a world of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. There’s no avoiding this VUCA world, only adapting to it.

Team building is one of the most important jobs for any manager. After all, unified and collaborative teams are exponentially more powerful than any one person alone. And one of the best ways for managers to bring teams together is by emphasizing communication and team-building activities.

I’ve worked as a freelance product manager for most of my career, allowing me to work on various products in a wide range of companies. Each opportunity allowed me to help a new team form and grow.

Through my work with all of those teams, I’ve developed a first-hand, in-depth understanding of what it takes to make a team work and the specific steps to take as you form teams to maximize your effectiveness.

If you were to ask me what I know now that I wish I had known when I started working with teams, I’d be quick to say, “Apply Whole Brain^® Thinking.”

Thankfully, Stop & Think - Herrmann’s new Whole Brain^® Thinking app in Microsoft Teams - provides powerful insights and application tools that have helped me create new teams and add new members to existing teams in a way that ensures that teamwork actually makes the dream work.

Here’s a look at what makes an effective team and how I’ve used Stop & Think to instill those characteristics in teams I’ve started and grown.

Many employers have committed to better representation and diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. While there are many ways to approach this challenge, talking about the goal is only the first step. These commitments must be followed by action. Fortunately, diversity and inclusion best practices are available to organizations that want to create real change. 

If the only constant is change, then we have no choice but to learn how to change. But what does it mean to successfully navigate change in the workplace? And what does that look like inside your teams?

If you're like the majority of us out there you may have not yet settled on your New Year's Resolution. But don't worry, it’s never too late to get started or rethink your goals entirely. So many people set resolutions in January only to have forgotten or decided to already stop them by February. 

It is hard to focus when you're hungry. We've all been there, feeling "hangry" and irritable because we need food. Now imagine being a child in school, trying to learn and grow, but struggling because you're hungry all the time. That's why the Herrmann team was so excited to partner with The Kind Mouse during our recent retreat in Tampa, Florida.

Every team invariably runs into communication issues in the workplace. No matter the cause — a language barrier, different communication styles, or simply a misunderstanding — effective teams must diagnose and overcome these communication challenges.

For most of my professional life, I’ve worked with software product development teams, as a business analyst and product manager. That means I get to collaborate with several different people to accomplish anything.

As a result, I’ve built a love-hate relationship with meetings:

I love meetings when they help my team build products and customers solve problems.

I’m not a fan of meetings that don’t make progress toward those outcomes, which seem to be most of them.

I suspect a lot of you can relate, so here are some thoughts on meetings, why they’re important, what challenges they present, and how you can make your meetings work with the help of Herrmann’s Stop & Think app in Microsoft Teams.

As organizations strive to build diverse and inclusive workplaces, it's important to understand the role that cognitive diversity can play.