7 practices of successful interdisciplinary teams (and behaviors to avoid)

For the last 20 years, I’ve been on a variety of academic and non-academic teams that have achieved remarkable things — including the creation of Texas State University’s Bobcat Farmopens in new tab/window, a student-run regenerative fruit and vegetable farm that also serves as a research site. This experience has enabled me to recognize common strategies and behaviors of successful teams — at what to avoid. Here are some important ones.

1. Facilitate effective administrative systems

Administrative burdens can be a death knell to productivity if not managed effectively. While younger academics will have less experience with the complexities of administrating projects and internal academic systems, seasoned team members and leaders must recognize how to enable efficiency when it comes to administrative tasks. This includes taking action when systems can and should be improved.

2. Hold consistent, focused meetings — and set the schedule early

The beginning of each semester — when students and faculty are fresh and schedules haven’t been consumed with commitments — is a great time to identify and commit to setting a meeting schedule (e.g., weekly, monthly). This seems simple, yet is so impactful for efficacy. If you don’t seize the opportunity, you may not get another one since finding one common time for a busy group of people to meet may become impossible as the semester progresses. For your graduate students, this simple action is such an efficient way to facilitate progress and open communication while not having to take time constantly to find a time to meet.

When holding regularly scheduled meetings, you can amplify your effectiveness by setting deliverables due for the next meeting. This is especially helpful for students. Even if there are some weeks you may cancel your running meeting because there is little to be addressed, at least that time has been allocated should you need it.

To find a time for everyone to meet, use a meeting poll tool like Doodleopens in new tab/window or When2meetopens in new tab/window instead of sending out a vague email to everyone asking, “When can you all meet?” — which leads to inefficient back-and-forth emails. Worse, just setting a time with little notice and consultation with others causes unnecessary stress. I’ve been on teams in which the leader did both, and it left me (as an assistant professor who didn’t want to rock the boat) answering more emails than necessary and being double booked. Not fun.

Speaking of not having fun as an assistant professor, I’ve felt held hostage by team leaders who seem to have more time to indulge in meeting “creep” and getting off topic. While taking time to have sincere personal, non-work-related conversations — or conversations about work issues that are outside of the scope of the team — can be an important part of getting to know other people and solve problems, these types of conversations should be eliminated or kept to a minimum when a group of people have gathered for another purpose. One of the most oblivious behaviors a leader can engage in is to not respect everyone’s time and facilitate efficient meetings. One effective strategy to avoid straying is to set a meeting agenda and send it to everyone ahead of the meeting in the calendar invite. When a meeting strays, gracefully and respectfully redirect the conversation back to the agenda rather than suffer in silence.

3. Communicate effectively — and use communication resources

Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication. — Mike Krzyzewski

It is imperative that team leaders set the tone for the importance of communication and enable the entire team to effectively communicate. While this may seem obvious, even the most senior and experienced professors and administrators can improve. For example, I was on a large, complex grant that included outside stakeholders with a tenured leader who wouldn’t cc me (or others) on emails that contained important pieces of information for me to effectively accomplish my role on the team, so I was constantly in the dark about what was going on, who was being communicated with, what the next steps were, and what follow-up actions I should take. Not only does this lack of inclusion lead to team member frustration and feeling unimportant — not what you want your team members to feel! — it creates more work for team members to figure out what’s going on and take appropriate action independently. By all means, don’t usher in those pesky, unnecessary transactional emails, texts and conversations. While learning the art of when and when not to cc others is a skill, always work to create an inclusive environment where everyone on your team knows their role and assigned tasks. Do not undermine team members by keeping them in the dark with pieces of information that could help them and the team be successful. Remember, cooperation trumps competition — territorial wars and lack of awareness of others’ needs and pain points do not win the championship.

In addition to appropriately using the cc, effective teams use project management software. Tools such as Microsoft Teamsopens in new tab/window or Canvasopens in new tab/window may seem overwhelming if you or other team members don’t know the software, or create more work on the front end. However, the right tool will enable effective communication, especially for sharing files, helping students to stay on top of assigned tasks, and helping the whole team to stay organized. Once up and running, project management software will help reduce transaction, one-way back and forth communication while keeping everyone in the loop. If you do field work, or team members are on the move, a phone app like GroupMeopens in new tab/window or Discordopens in new tab/window can help everyone stay connected.

4. Delegate

This one can be especially hard for those of us micromanagers, but it’s necessary for team effectiveness and personal balance and productivity. Additionally, engaging team members, especially students, in administrative, procurement, research, infrastructure and writing tasks facilitates awareness and project management skills.

5. Double dip

Remember to feed those two birds with one scone. The most effective team members amplify their work, output and deliverables by not missing opportunities to get two or more bangs for their buck.

6. Set boundaries

Setting boundaries includes staying focused in meetings, avoiding project creep, taking time to think about the ramifications of saying yes to new requests, avoiding high service commitments (especially as an assistant professor (unless you can feed two birds with one scone), and avoiding too many students to manage. There are so many more examples in this category, but most of us think we know that setting healthy boundaries is a no-brainer. Yet it’s easier said than done. A bonus of setting healthy boundaries is that you lead by example, which is especially inspiring and impactful for others, like students, who are less practiced and may be afraid to set boundaries.

7. Set a positive, can-do tone

A positive attitude is priceless. Be a leader and set the tone with an attitude of gratitude. Make positivity and problem-solving (rather puzzle solving!) contagious and watch how much easier things start to become. Doing so will make you a great mentor and role model to others — and ultimately lead your team to success beyond what you imagined.