How Teams Learn to Play Their Own Game Series: Part 1, The Hidden Foundations of High-Performing Teams

What Great Teams Really Need: Beyond Trust Falls and Brainstorms

🔎 A Real Look Behind the Scenes: When Teams Don’t Work (Even When They Should)

I’ve seen it in both locker rooms and boardrooms: teams that should work, but don’t.

In sports, it’s the team that trains hard but plays with half its energy—players holding back because the structure suffocates spontaneity. The rules are too rigid, the joy is gone, and no one dares to take a risk or play outside the system.

In business, it’s the team that wants results, dreams of innovation, even talks about trust—but misses the spark. Goals aren’t shared, fun feels like a luxury, and everyone’s just trying to survive the meeting instead of shaping the outcome.

So many teams want to perform. To win. To get better *together*. But most never find the rhythm or the safety to do it.

It made me ask a different question: what does a team *really* need—not to look good, but to *feel alive* and function?

That question led me to patterns I’d seen but couldn’t name—until I read the research of Susan Wheelan. Her work made the invisible visible. And strangely enough, so did play.

🎯 From Pressure to Play: Why We Must Talk About Team Needs

We talk a lot about outcomes in teams—goals, KPIs, quarterly progress. But we rarely pause to ask: what needs to be *true* for those outcomes to be possible?

What if the way in isn’t more pressure, but more play?

Play, after all, reveals the truth. It strips away performance and shows us how people really interact—how they make decisions, handle uncertainty, and relate to each other. It’s where dynamics surface naturally, without a single PowerPoint slide.

Whether in business or in sports, thriving teams aren’t just about “we”—they’re also about *me* in *we*.

Can I bring my full self?
Do I feel seen for who I am—not just for what I do?
Am I supported, or held back by unnecessary structure?

When those questions remain unanswered—or worse, unasked—progress stalls. Performance becomes compliance. And the energy that fuels great collaboration disappears.

So before we focus on what we want to achieve, we need to create the conditions where people can actually show up—and shape something together.

Most teams are not struggling because of a lack of skill or ambition. They struggle because the foundation is not there: unclear roles, low psychological safety, misaligned expectations.

High performance isn’t the result of pushing harder. It comes from learning how to work smarter—*together*. And often, that learning begins with play—because in play, teams explore without fear, connect without agenda, and discover how they truly function when the pressure is low but the stakes are real.

🧠 What Great Teams Have in Common: The Essentials in Action

Teams that thrive don’t rely on magic. They practice essentials—day in, day out. And often, they rediscover these through shared experiences, including play. Because play doesn’t just surface dynamics—it reveals what makes a team *feel like a team*.

Based on Wheelan’s work and my own experience in sports, business, and creative teams, I’ve distilled these essentials into a lived, observable set:

– A shared goal that feels real and relevant to everyone.
– Open communication, where questions are welcome and listening is active.
– A sense of safety, built on respect, curiosity, and the absence of judgment.
– Clarity of tasks and roles, so people know what’s expected—and what’s theirs to own.
– Visible values, not only named but lived.
– Room for individual expression within the collective.
– Regular evaluation, not just of results, but of how we work together.
– Appreciation and recognition, so effort doesn’t go unseen.

These are the building blocks I see in teams that thrive—not perfectly, but with presence, progress, and trust.

To ground these essentials in research and give teams a deeper framework to reflect on, Wheelan’s original model offers ten dimensions that help diagnose and develop high-performing teams in practice:

1. Shared, clear goals — not just in a deck, but in people’s minds and actions.
2. Agreed rules and defined roles — knowing who does what, and why.
3. Real interdependence — success depends on *us*, not *me*.
4. Adaptive leadership — leaders who guide, then share control.
5. Open communication and feedback — feedback that’s useful, not weaponized.
6. Time spent on decision-making and planning — because speed without thought is noise.
7. Implementation and accountability — what we say, we do.
8. Norms that support excellence — habits that reward clarity, curiosity, and challenge.
9. Lean and flexible structure — no excess, no chaos.
10. Constructive conflict and cooperation — disagreement in service of progress.

These aren’t management ideals. They are observable patterns. And they show up when teams are willing to invest in more than output.

🧭 Where Teams Quietly Get Stuck: The Hidden Gaps That Derail Progress

Here’s where many teams lose their way:

They *assume* alignment, but never check it. Roles evolve, but expectations aren’t revisited. Feedback is reserved for annual reviews or crisis points. And conflict? Either completely avoided—or taken personally.

These gaps don’t just create friction. They slowly erode the very trust and ownership most teams are trying to build.

🎮 Why Game-Based Experiences Create Real Movement: The Power of Play

You can tell a team how important psychological safety is—or you can invite them into an experience where they *feel* it disappear.

That’s the power of game-based learning. It strips away formalities and reveals how people actually show up in uncertain, shifting, real-time environments.

In Miki Island, for example, the dynamics surface fast:

– Who speaks first?
– Who waits for permission?
– Who leads when no one’s assigned?
– Who listens—and who’s always right?

A 60-minute game becomes a mirror. Suddenly, teams have shared language:

“Remember when we froze?”
“Remember how we only listened to two people?”
“Remember when we surprised ourselves?”

That shared experience becomes a turning point. It moves reflection from abstract to embodied.

✨ From Awareness to Action: Building Momentum That Sticks

Once a team sees itself more clearly, change becomes possible.

That doesn’t mean transformation overnight. It means a new rhythm: check-ins that matter. Feedback that lands. Decisions made with intention. A culture where trying something different isn’t just allowed—it’s encouraged.

Great teams don’t happen because of strategy decks or inspirational posters. They happen because people feel safe enough to speak, brave enough to act, and committed enough to grow.
And the best part? These are skills. You can learn them. Together.

🧩 Closing Invitation: Let’s Play, Reflect, and Grow

If your team is ready for a fresh perspective, a shared language, or simply wants to reconnect with what really matters—start by playing.

Or better yet, let’s talk. I’d love to hear what your team is navigating right now, what’s energizing you—and what’s getting in the way.

Sometimes one conversation is all it takes to see the next step a little more clearly.

Not because it’s fun (though it is). But because it makes what matters visible. And once you can see it, you can shape it.