What drives cohesiveness in a team?

How can you tell if your team is merely a collection of individuals or a healthy interdependent high performing team? Looking at the results will help. But you can't change those once they've happened. Better to look at what's happening internally to shape the results externally.

Interdependence is defined as ‘reliance on one another to complete tasks, reach goals and enjoy rewards. So it's worth looking at what types of interdependence there are for a team that exists already, These can be described as one of these three areas: 1) task, 2) goals and 3) rewards.

Tasks - if actions take more than one person to achieve then interdependence is crucial but may also be forced. If tasks are positioned so that together the team are stronger and can achieve more by working together, then it is likely everyone will commit to the task. If people buy in to why they need to complete the task, and are left to decide  how they complete it. Then the team will really want to own their work and enjoy their success as a result.

Goals -  this is more a unconscious interdependence. The feeling that to achieve certain goals in the future will require the help of groups of people. "I cannot reach this goal on my own". Goals are bigger than tasks, take longer and usually require the accumulation of many successful tasks to reach them. Team interdependence is build into the assumptions of individuals when they consider how they will hit those goals. And therefore if teams change or members leave, it can impact other members' belief in their ability to hit those goals.

Rewards - reward interdependence correlates to the reward or bonus system that organisations have. The aim of a reward makes for a better team performance. Often team incentives are more powerful than individual rewards because the belief of shared success - that not only have you triumphed, but through your efforts you have helped peers succeed - is a very powerful motivator.

Tasks, goals and rewards are intrinsic parts of business that occur on a daily basis. It is likely that teams are engaged in some or all of these, all of the time. Subsequently the degree of interdependence or cohesiveness will fluctuate over time. Yet it is important that teams have the ability to adapt to the changing and volatile nature of commerce. What makes them successful now, may not be the same that makes them successful in the future. Only truly adaptable teams are able to sustain high performance across long periods of time.