Module 4

Building a team that works: safety, roles, meetings, conflict and inclusion

A group of excellent lawyers is not automatically an excellent team. Some groups of strong individuals work badly together: information is hoarded, credit is fought over, mistakes are hidden and the best ideas are never spoken. Others, with less brilliance on paper, produce better work and keep their people longer, because they trust one another and know how they work. Research on team performance in many fields, including studies of teams in large organisations, points to a handful of conditions that matter, and the most important is a team’s sense that it is safe to speak up. This module teaches what those conditions are and how a leader builds them: safety, clear roles and norms, meetings that decide things, handling conflict early, including all the voices in the room and adapting to remote and hybrid work.

General education on leadership in legal practice, using invented people and organisations. It is not legal, HR or professional-conduct advice. Professional rules and employment law differ between countries and change: check the rules that apply to you and take advice on real cases.