Team Chemistry

«We simply can’t work together!» A statement that suggests teamwork should run smoothly and effortlessly. But team chemistry isn’t a coincidence; it’s created through conscious choices, daily interactions, and an attitude lived by visible principles. What counts is how we meet one another. This article explores how teams can build a culture where people thrive together through reflection, tools, feedback, and relational competence.

Team Chemistry: Anything but coincidence

Hybrid work, increasing turnover, and phenomena like «quiet quitting» suggest that it is high time to think bout chemistry within teams. It’s a crucial factor in retaining employees. When the chemistry is right, an environment emerges where people want to stay, grow, and achieve something together.

In such an environment, collaboration feels effortless. Work is enjoyable, and ideas flow. Innovation – full steam ahead! But chemistry that works doesn’t just happen. It’s intentionally created.

 «Team chemistry is the result of many small decisions made every day – sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.» 

Let’s look at everyday working life: even before setting foot into the physical or virtual office, experiences, situations, and expectations shape your mood for the day. Maybe you’ve just had a hectic morning with the family, an inspiring run along the river, or a difficult coordination call with the team in Asia. These moments influence your next interaction – whether you want them to or not.

That’s true for everyone, including your colleagues, who experience the same. Each person starts their day on a different note and carries their own experiences, moods, and expectations into their next encounter. In such moments, a conscious decision is needed: Do you simply pass your energy on, as it is? Or do you pause, take notice of the other person, and build a bridge?

When each encounter is seen as a chance to build bridges, without bending yourself backwards, the chemistry within the team changes for good. 

 Building bridges and influencing team chemistry 

Teams that struggle with this benefit from reflection, dialogue, and transparency, all of which strengthen collaboration. The following tools can help build bridges:

• Anonymous feedback loops with Mentimeter: to gather what’s left unsaid.
• Feedback from teams and leaders via SurveyMonkey: to measure changes in team dynamics. Tip: Strategic support during volatile times helps leaders grow in ways that positively shape team culture.
• Workshops with personality assessments: to help team members recognize behavioral patterns and use that insight to improve communication.
• Buddy systems: to improve collaboration. Two team members intentionally pair up to consciously support each other and provide feedback. 

 «Build a bridge today. Not because you have to, but because you can.» 

These approaches are most powerful when embedded in a culture of conscious collaboration and applied across the team. For this to happen, the team must see bridge-building not as a task, but as a shared mission – like the stonemason who isn’t just carving stones, but building a cathedral. Because bridges aren’t built by instruction, but through connection. Sometimes, a single moment of real presence, vulnerable honesty, and courage to take responsibility is enough to connect perspectives within a team.

Where people truly meet, chemical reactions happen – positive ones. Still, team chemistry isn’t a laboratory experiment. It’s more like baking a cake together: everyone brings something, and everyone contributes. Timing matters, and in the end, no one may remember who brought what or whose recipe it was – it simply tastes wonderful. Out of exchange comes connection, out of cooperation comes togetherness.

Take the tool Mentimeter, for example: its anonymous word cloud function can help surface honest input during meetings. Even quieter team members start participating. Here’s a practical example of how such tools can work in reality: 

 This example shows that teams who give each other space, practice active listening, and how using tools wisely can foster strong collaboration – quietly but effectively. In the end, it’s not about perfect meetings or flawless suggestions, but about people who feel seen. And that’s the best foundation for true chemistry.

Investing in relationships: the «Karma Bank»

These bridge-building tools strengthen the will and the mission to engage with one another. The next step is to nurture that team chemistry by repeatedly and consciously investing in the relationships around us. For that, I use what I call the «Karma Bank».

It works through the sum of many small interactions. Positive actions create a surplus, while unhelpful behaviors lead to withdrawals.

In the «Karma Bank», every team member has an account they contribute to daily - or deplete through emotional withdrawals. 

The principle is simple: every action and interaction affects the balance and becomes visible through self-reflection or coaching. The Karma Bank gets interesting when interactions align with the organization’s values. And by the way, the model also works as a team tool.

 Further examples for interactions: 

 Conscious investments build trust, openness, and safety, regardless of personality type. Good team chemistry, then, isn’t luck, but comparable to a relationship balance that grows over time through consistent actions. 

Genuine understanding shapes chemistry 

To counter randomness further, personality assessments like DiSC can be used. Instead of leaving collaboration to chance, they enable conscious communication and teamwork. Such tools make individual traits and behavioral patterns visible and help team members understand themselves and others better.

Exploring others’ personalities improves perception and awareness. It also provides insight into how one’s behavior affects others and how communication can be shaped more effectively. You learn what to watch for, what the other person needs in a conversation, and how to collaborate most effectively.

The key point: the test result alone changes nothing. True impact only happens when these insights are integrated into everyday work and used for real change.

Tip: Establish rituals such as «DiSC Tuesday», once a week, reflect together on whether team strengths are being used effectively and how differences are being handled. 

Conclusion: Team chemistry is a matter of attitude 

Good collaboration is the result of deliberately triggered chemical reactions. It happens when people are willing to adapt to one another, question their own patterns, and invest in the relational quality of the team. The key is to…

…dare to build bridges, even when it’s uncomfortable.
…do something anyway, even when it takes extra effort.
…let go of familiar approaches.

Personality assessments can become door openers when used purposefully in daily collaboration and to improve interactions.

But tools on their own are not enough. What matters is showing attitude from the very first moment of interaction, while maintaining fresh neutrality each time. Sounds contradictory? Not really. It means showing attitude without losing conviction or opinion. Neutrality here applies to the other person, ensuring that preconceptions don’t color your behavior toward them. Take the example of the Karma Bank: just because a team member doesn’t pitch in doesn’t give you permission to drop your own commitment to collaboration.

Team chemistry is something you can shape if you’re willing to live genuine relational competence. So let’s leave nothing to chance and intentionally steer team chemistry toward a state that works for everyone.