3C’s of Team Effectiveness

What it is

A comprehensive framework of the many factors by which your teams will either succeed or fail, organized around three big “C’s”: Clarity, Climate, and Competence. By one count in the academic research, there are at least 140 (!) competing frameworks on the factors of team effectiveness. With so many to choose from, it would be hard to prove one as “best,” but the 3C’s frame been tested with thousands of teams, with generally positive feedback on its utility. 

When to use

Whenever you want to spark a meaningful conversation with a real team about how they can up their game together. Real teams are almost always 10 or fewer people (roughly following the famous “two pizza rule”) who work closely together with a high degree of interdependence toward common goals with shared accountability. 

When not to use

When the group in question is not a real team—which, sadly, is quite often as the term “team” is tossed around far too lightly in most organizations, referring often to working groups, loose networks of collaborators, or even entire functions, business units or companies.

Tradecraft tips

When most people think of teamwork, they go straight to collaboration—which is important but not all-encompassing. A team can get along like old friends, but if they don’t have the right combination of skills, workflow processes, and organizational support, they can only get so far. In approaching a project on team effectiveness, it’s critical to think broadly and keep an open mind about where the most critical constraints may be, knowing that group dynamics is just one (important) piece of the puzzle. 

Source

The 3C’s framework comes from the boutique consultancy Squadify, which is all about team effectiveness. You can learn more about the 3C’s here. Also, Squadify co-founders Pia Lee and Dan Hammond host an excellent podcast on team effectiveness, called appropriately “We, Not Me.” 

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