For the last four decades, businesses have been selling out their teams.
They’ve chosen to obsess over Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)—often related to cost, quality or time, numbers designed to serve shareholders and short-term profits—while neglecting the very thing that drives those results: the effectiveness of teamwork.
Instead of investing in developing leaders and equipping them with tools to understand how their teams truly function, most organisations have left managers and their teams underprepared, unsupported, and set up to fail. The human element of success has been sidelined in favour of dashboards, spreadsheets, and quarterly returns.
And time and again, the same hollow phrases continue to appear in corporate reports and leadership speeches:
“Our people are our greatest assets.”
But when you strip back the slogans, the reality tells a very different story. The investment has gone into metrics, margins, and management frameworks—not into people, leaders, or the dynamics that enable teams to thrive.
The evidence is overwhelming:
- Research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) and YouGov in 2023, reveals that 82% of managers are “accidental managers”—promoted without the necessary training or support to lead their teams effectively.
- Around 80% of teams never measure the effectiveness of their teamwork, focusing solely on KPIs. (LinkedIn survey 2024)
- Studies by organisations such as McKinsey, Harvard Business Review, and Google’s Project Aristotle consistently show that only about 10% of teams are truly high-performing.
The results of these misplaced priorities are painfully visible:
- Dysfunctional teams, struggling in silence.
- High project failure rates that repeat year after year.
- Rising burnout, disillusionment, and wasted potential.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The future of organisational success will not be found in creating even more KPIs—it will be found in measuring and improving teamwork itself. The focus must shift toward understanding the drivers of performance, not just the outputs.
That means focusing on:
- Clarity – ensuring teams understand their shared purpose, goals, and priorities.
- Connection – fostering psychological safety, trust, and a sense of belonging.
- Contribution – enabling every team member to feel that what they do genuinely matters.
When these three elements align, teams become more resilient, engaged, and capable of sustaining high performance. And when teamwork thrives, KPIs naturally follow.
Until businesses realign their values with their actions, the phrase “our people are our greatest assets” will remain nothing more than a shallow soundbite.
The organisations that will thrive over the next 40 years will be those courageous enough to change what they measure, how they lead, and where they invest. They will recognise that true success lies not in numbers on a dashboard, but in the synergy, trust, and collective energy of their people.
It’s time to stop selling teams short.
It’s time to invest in leaders, in teams, and in the tools that make teamwork work.
