A team becomes good when everyone knows what the others know, what they can do and what they will do next.
Attunement is what no longer needs to be said in a team. The core statement contains three things: you know who knows what. You know who can do what. And you anticipate what the other person will do next. The third makes wordless coordination possible.
The team principle in detail
Four steps through the principle: understand, check, connect, apply. Open any topic to read more.
The explanationThe mechanism is simple. A team does not need to know everything if everyone knows whom to ask.
- The mechanism is simple.
- A team does not need to know everything if everyone knows whom to ask.
- It does not need to agree on everything in advance if everyone shares the same picture of the task and of how they work together.
- That saves time, reduces errors at handovers and frees up energy for the work itself.
Read closelyWhat the principle says – and what it doesn’t
A team’s strength lies not only in the skills of its individual members, but in what they know about one another. This matters most when interdependence is high, time is short and there is little opportunity to talk.
- It does not say
- The longer together, the better. The benefit of shared experience levels off and can reverse after a very long time.
- That you may never change a team. What is supported: don’t break up established lineups without good reason – and after a long time, deliberately bring in fresh input from outside.
- Strictly speaking
- Attunement isn’t portable. It applies to exactly these people in exactly this setting. Those who move on keep their skills, but not the interplay.
The signs3 signs that the principle is at work · 3 that it is missing
- Handoffs are short and complete.
- Questions go straight to the right person.
- In tight moments, one move dovetails into the next without much being said.
- Work gets done twice or not at all, because everyone thought someone else would take care of it.
- No one knows exactly who knows what.
- Under time pressure there is a lot of talk, yet people still act at cross purposes.
The research6 sources: 3 primary studies, 2 meta-analyses, 1 theory · 1987–2019 · with research limitations
- low
- moderate
- high
High – two meta-analyses on team cognition, plus field data from software projects and cardiac surgery.
- 1987Daniel M. Wegner
Establishes the concept of transactive memory: groups don’t need to know everything as long as everyone knows who knows what.
- 2002Shawn L. Berman, Jonathan Down & Charles W. L. Hill
23 NBA teams, seasons 1980–81 to 1993–94: shared experience boosts performance, but the effect diminishes and turns negative after a very long time together.
- 2006Robert S. Huckman & Gary P. Pisano
Cardiac surgeons who operate at several hospitals: mortality falls with their recent case volume at the same hospital, not with their case volume at other hospitals.
- 2009Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats & David M. Upton
Software projects at an Indian services firm: how often members have worked together before markedly improves team performance. Mere tenure with the company does not do so reliably.
- The benefit does not grow indefinitely: in the NBA, the effect of shared experience levels off and eventually reverses.
- How strong the relationship turns out to be depends on measurement, task and culture.
- Familiarity is tied to people and place – it cannot be transferred to another team.
Read more: what the research shows
Research speaks of team cognition: the knowledge a team holds collectively. It includes transactive memory – knowing who knows what – as described by Daniel M. Wegner, and the shared mental model, a common understanding of the task and of how the members work together. A meta-analysis by Leslie A. DeChurch and Jessica R. Mesmer-Magnus found that team cognition is strongly and positively related to team processes, motivation and performance. Field data show the same for team familiarity, that is, shared work experience: Robert S. Huckman, Bradley R. Staats and David M. Upton found it in software projects, Robert S. Huckman and Gary P. Pisano among cardiac surgeons.
The originFrom team research · not from John C. Maxwell
- 1987OriginFrom team research
Earliest source: Daniel M. Wegner
- 2001For comparison
John C. Maxwell’s The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork has no separate law for it.
The related team principles10 Communication · 21 Development · 22 Investment · 09 Bench
Attunement is the counterpart to “Communication” and needs “Development” and “Investment”.
“Bench” is a close neighbor.
It stands in tension with “Diversity”, “Dissent” and “External Relationships”: very close-knit teams wall themselves off more easily.
The action steps5 steps: Keep lineups stable.
- Keep lineups stable. Don’t break up people who work well together without good reason.
- Make visible who knows and can do what – for example with a simple list: Who is the go-to person for what?
- Practice critical procedures together before things get serious, and give handoffs a fixed format.
- Allow for a ramp-up period with new members and stand-ins. Someone who steps in is not yet attuned – so spell things out more than usual.
- After a long time together, deliberately bring an outside perspective into the team.
The questions for your team3 questions for your team conversation: Who among us knows what – and where are we still just guessing whom to ask?
- Who among us knows what – and where are we still just guessing whom to ask?
- At which handoff do we most often lose something?
- Which procedure should we practice together before it next has to work under pressure?
Take time for one question at your next team meeting. Talk about it openly and note down what you take away from it.
The picture to rememberThe dots move jerkily and bump into one another. Gradually they fall into sync, running along flowing paths like clockwork.
- The dots move jerkily and bump into one another.
- Gradually they fall into sync, running along flowing paths like clockwork.
What the Team Principle of Attunement looks like in practice
What Heart Surgeons Learned From the Pit Stop
Surgeon Martin Elliott and intensive care specialist Allan Goldman of Great Ormond Street Hospital in London see their own handover from the operating room to intensive care mirrored in a Formula 1 pit stop. They have their handovers filmed and assessed by motor racing experts; the researcher Ken Catchpole distills the lessons into a four-step protocol.
The First Day Together in the Cockpit
In 1994, the US agency NTSB analyzes 37 serious aviation accidents from 1978 to 1990 in which the crew was named as a cause or contributing cause. Of the 15 cases with data, in 73 percent the captain and first officer were flying their first day of duty together.
Forty Years, Four Musicians, No Change
In 1947, Norbert Brainin, Siegmund Nissel, Peter Schidlof and Martin Lovett found their quartet, which from 1948 on is called the Amadeus Quartet and makes some 200 recordings over four decades. When Peter Schidlof dies on August 16, 1987, the other three do not look for a new violist – they disband the quartet.
