a diagram explaining the 6 conditions of team effectiveness using triangles

Designing Powerful Teams with Ruth Wageman

By PowerLabs, Randall Smith, Ruth Wageman

Watch this recording of Ruth Wageman to learn how you can put in place the 6 conditions that make it more likely to create a great team.

Contents

Introduction

Small teams that can take effective action in alignment with many other teams are the building blocks of great organizing. Yet many “teams” never quite get off the ground, struggle to develop appropriate norms and work practices, and accomplish little, or even disband.

Fortunately, decades of research has identified six conditions that can be deliberately designed into a team to make it more likely that great teamwork emerges. The 6 Conditions framework has been applied in countless teams around the world, including teams organizing around elections, climate, health, and many other causes. Watch this recording of Ruth Wageman, one of the leading experts on team effectiveness and author of Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great, to learn how you can put in place the conditions that make it more likely a team will be great.

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Learn more

Introduction to the 6 Conditions of Team Effectiveness – a free self-paced introductory online course on the 6 Conditions of Team Effectiveness framework. The instructors, Dr. Ruth Wageman and Dr. Krister Lowe, provide learners with a fundamental grounding in the 6 Conditions of Team Effectiveness framework. The course consists of 11 video-based lectures comprising 8 hours of content sourced from the 6 Conditions: The Science & Art of Great Teams podcast hosted by Ruth and Krister. The 11 lectures which range from approximately 20-40 minutes in length, provide a step-by-step and systematic introduction to essential determinants of team effectiveness.
6 Conditions for Team Effectiveness Certification – Join the community of consultants, coaches, learning and development practitioners, and team leaders who are using the 6 Team Conditions to foster brilliant collaborations in their teams. Getting certified provides you access to knowledge, tools, and a global community of supportive practitioners.
Behind the Scenes of Sunrise’s Volunteer-Led Phone Bank Program – Learn how Sunrise Movement staff and volunteers designed and supported eight teams of volunteers that led one of the largest voter contact programs in the 2020 elections.
Reflections on Sunrise Movement’s Strike Circle Program: Learn How We Created Hundreds of Local Teams – Learn how Sunrise Movement created hundreds of local teams that organized climate strikes at their schools.
Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great – Although this book is focused on senior leadership teams in corporations, senior staff teams in progressive organizations and activist/member teams face the same challenges. The methods in this book work in our contexts.

Presenters

Ruth Wageman is one of the foremost scholars studying and working with teams, especially leadership teams. Ruth’s research, teaching, and practice are focused on the conditions that influence superb team performance. Ruth especially focuses on teams whose purpose is to solve complex problems and lead system transformation. She builds collaborative leadership capacity within and across organizations, especially with multi-sector leadership teams working to transform health and society.
Randall Smith is the founder of PowerLabs. He specializes in helping clients use evidence-based strategies and tactics for high-participation people-powered campaigns. He is a leading expert on team effectiveness and has coached and advised senior leadership teams and member teams at Dream Defenders, Sunrise Movement, People’s Action and many other organizations. Randall has supported organizations to launch and support over 2,000 member teams using the 6 Team Conditions framework. Randall is certified to support teams to increase their psychological safety through the Fearless Organization External Practitioner Certification and has the highest level of certification from 6 Team Conditions to improve overall team effectiveness.