Principles of Organizational Behavior, 3rd Edition

18Teamwork in Organizations: The Best Teams Learn, Adapt, and Are Resilient

ALLISON M. TRAYLOR¹, SCOTT TANNENBAUM², ERIC J. THOMAS^3,4, and EDUARDO SALAS⁵

¹ Department of Psychology, Clemson University

² The Group for Organizational Effectiveness

³ The Mcgovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center Houston

⁴ The University of Texas At Houston – Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety

⁵ Department of Psychological Sciences, Rice University

Teams have long been essential to organizations. However, in the wake of massive technological advancement, rapidly evolving workforce demographics, and increasingly complex challenges facing today's organizations, today's teams must work more efficiently and effectively than ever before. In dynamic, challenging environments, a team cannot sustain success unless they effectively learn, adapt, and demonstrate resilience. Teams must be positioned to reflect on their past behavior to make improvements, change their course of action when challenges arise, and bounce back quickly when they experience setbacks. Without this, a team may manage to produce a short-term win, but it is unlikely to demonstrate long-term effectiveness and almost certainly will not become a great team.

Team learning, adaptation, and resilience are distinct, but interconnected capabilities that help teams assess, overcome, and improve in the face of challenges. Team learning describes an ongoing process of reflection and action ...