Lessons from the Advanced Surgery R&D Leadership Team
By Rainer Scholl, Senior Vice President, R&D
When people think about high-performing teams, they often focus on expertise. While experience matters, our recent Cohesive Teams experience reinforced an equally important truth: Great teams are defined not just by what individuals know, but by how effectively they work together.
Recently, the Advanced Surgery Research & Development (R&D) Leadership Team participated in a Cohesive Teams session facilitated by The Table Group. As a global leadership team spanning multiple countries, functions, and areas of responsibility, we used the experience to strengthen alignment and explore the behaviors that drive team performance.
Collaboration Is a Competitive Advantage
Our team includes leaders based in Germany, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Diverse perspectives strengthen innovation and decision-making, but distributed teams must be intentional about staying connected and aligned.
The Cohesive Teams experience gave us an opportunity to step away from daily priorities and focus on how we work together. Through facilitated discussions and assessments, we explored ways to strengthen teamwork across locations and functions.
Breaking Down Silos
One concept that stood out was the idea that leaders belong to two teams: the teams they lead and the leadership team they are part of.
The framework encourages leaders to view the leadership team as Team One, helping ensure decisions are made with the broader organization in mind rather than through a purely functional lens. This perspective fosters collaboration and reduces silos, strengthening alignment around shared priorities.
Understanding Different Perspectives
Another valuable takeaway came from exploring personality and communication styles through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Everyone approaches challenges differently. By better understanding how colleagues process information, make decisions, and communicate, teams can reduce friction and build trust, working together more effectively.
For our team, the exercise reinforced that diverse perspectives are a strength when paired with mutual understanding.
Aligning Around What Matters Most
The session also challenged us to identify a single thematic goal, a shared priority that represents the most important challenge facing the team in the months ahead.
In complex organizations, competing priorities can pull teams in different directions. Establishing a common focus creates clarity and helps ensure energy and resources are directed where they will have the greatest impact.
Team Health Multiplies Performance
Perhaps the biggest takeaway was that team health is a multiplier for performance.
Technical expertise and experience are essential, but trust, communication, accountability, and alignment determine whether a group of talented individuals can consistently deliver exceptional results.
Investing in team development is not separate from business performance. It is a critical contributor to it.
Investing in How We Work Together
Strong teams do not happen by accident. Building alignment and fostering collaboration requires ongoing attention, especially for globally distributed teams.
The Cohesive Teams program provided valuable tools and insights, but perhaps its greatest contribution was creating space for meaningful conversations about how we work together and how we can continue improving.
In the end, even the most talented teams achieve their greatest success when they are aligned around a common goal and committed to helping one another succeed.