Getting Everyone on Your Team to Play the Same Game

Key points

Teams perform best when they share a clear understanding of mission, risk, and urgency.

The “meta-conversation” builds alignment before action in complex, high-pressure settings.

Clarifying scope and crisis level helps reduce friction and focus effort where it matters.

Shared mental models turn multidisciplinary groups into coordinated, adaptive teams.

Are we playing chess or checkers? Source: Maarten van den Heuvel / Unsplash

Coherent action from multidisciplinary teams requires that everyone be playing the same game. But the less time team members have spent together—or the more the situation around them changes—the harder it is to agree on what game that is. Unfortunately, newly formed groups and rapidly changing situations are exactly what you’re likely to face when