Programme overview
Technical depth: Practitioner · Practical mode: Role-play
Introduction
Complex projects and services now depend on teams that bring engineers, analysts, clinicians, commercial staff and support specialists together. These teams often stall because each discipline works to its own language, priorities and reporting line, while the manager in charge has limited formal authority over many members. This Core Concept course equips managers to design, launch and lead multidisciplinary teams with recognised team effectiveness models and practical operating tools. Participants rehearse the critical conversations in role-play and leave with a Team Leadership Charter for their own team.
Course Objectives
- Diagnose the current effectiveness of a multidisciplinary team using the GRPI Model and a structured team survey
- Apply team effectiveness models, including Hackman's conditions, Tuckman's stages and Belbin team roles, to design and develop a team
- Establish a team charter, decision rights and operating rhythm that let specialists from different disciplines work to one plan
- Influence specialists and peers over whom there is no line authority
- Resolve conflict and trade-offs between disciplines before they stall delivery
- Produce a Team Leadership Charter ready to agree with the team and its sponsor
Target Audience
- Managers leading teams that combine technical, commercial, operational and support specialists
- Project and programme managers responsible for cross-functional delivery teams
- Clinical, engineering and research leads coordinating professionals from several disciplines
- Matrix managers who direct specialists reporting to other functions
- Heads of shared services and centres of excellence working across business units
Course Outline
Day 1: Multidisciplinary Teams and Their Context
- Team Structures: Functional, Cross-Functional, Matrix and Project-Based Designs
- Katzenbach and Smith Team Performance Curve
- Disciplinary Mindset and Professional Language Mapping
- Team Current-State Diagnosis Using the GRPI Model
- Team Effectiveness Baseline Survey Design
Day 2: Team Effectiveness Models
- Hackman's Conditions for Team Effectiveness
- Tuckman's Stages of Group Development
- Belbin Team Roles and Team Role Balance Analysis
- Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
- Edmondson's Teaming and Psychological Safety Framework
Day 3: Leading the Team Day to Day
- Team Charter Drafting: Purpose, Scope, Norms and Escalation Routes
- Decision Rights Allocation with RACI and RAPID
- Influence Without Authority Using the Cohen-Bradford Currencies Model
- Operating Rhythm Design: Stand-Ups, Reviews and Decision Logs
- Structured Feedback Across Disciplines Using the SBI Model
Day 4: Conflict, Friction and Performance Problems
- Conflict Style Diagnosis with the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
- Professional Trade-Off Resolution Using Principled Negotiation
- Dependency and Handoff Mapping Across Functions
- Groupthink and Expert-Dominance Controls: Devil's Advocacy and Pre-Mortem
- Team Health Check and Retrospective Formats
Day 5: Role-Play Practice and the Team Leadership Charter
- Role-Play: Launching a New Multidisciplinary Project Team
- Role-Play: Resolving a Specialist Standoff Over Priorities
- Role-Play: Holding a Senior Specialist to Account Without Line Authority
- Team Leadership Charter Drafting for an Own Team
- Peer Feedback Round and Charter Refinement
Skills You Will Gain
- Team Diagnosis
- Team Design
- Cross-Disciplinary Communication
- Decision Rights Allocation
- Lateral Influence
- Conflict Resolution
- Team Facilitation
- Accountability Management
Why Attend This Course
- Return to work with a Team Leadership Charter for a real team, refined through peer feedback
- Rehearse the hardest conversations in multidisciplinary leadership before facing them at work
- Recognise when a team problem lies in its design rather than its people, and fix the right one
- Exchange practice with managers who lead mixed teams in other sectors and countries
Conclusion
Multidisciplinary teams deliver what no single function can, but only when their members share a purpose, clear decision rights and a way of working through disagreement. This course moves from diagnosing a team's current state, through the principal team effectiveness models, to the charters, rhythms and influence methods that make daily leadership work. The final day rehearses the conversations that test a team leader and turns the material into a Team Leadership Charter that participants take back to their team and sponsor.