What Research on Teamwork and Adaptability Can Teach Us About Workplace Learning
Explore research on teamwork and adaptability in the workplace, and how dance offers opportunities to practice communication and performing under pressure.
10/15/20264 min read
What helps people work together effectively—and keep going when circumstances change?
These questions sit at the intersection of organizational psychology and performance. Researchers have examined whether training can improve teamwork, how people learn to perform under pressure, and what happens when mistakes become part of the learning process.
Their findings offer useful insights for workplace development. They also connect naturally to an environment where communication and adaptability are practiced every day: professional dance.
Teamwork Can Be Developed Through Training
Teamwork is sometimes treated as something that develops simply by putting people together. Research suggests that deliberately practicing how to work together can make a difference.
A systematic review and meta-analysis by McEwan and colleagues examined 72 controlled comparisons involving 8,439 participants. The researchers found that teamwork training improved both teamwork behaviors and team performance. The review covered multiple settings, including healthcare, aviation, military, and academic contexts.
This distinction between behavior and performance matters. Training can be evaluated by examining how people coordinate and communicate, as well as how successfully they complete a task.
For workplace learning, the findings support giving people structured opportunities to practice working together. They also raise a practical question: what kinds of experiences make teamwork visible enough to examine and improve?
Practicing Under Pressure
Being able to complete a task does not necessarily mean it will feel equally manageable under pressure.
Low and colleagues explored this issue in a meta-analysis of pressure training. Across 14 studies involving 394 participants in sport and law enforcement, practicing under simulated pressure improved subsequent performance under pressure. After an outlier was removed, the average effect was medium in size.
The findings suggest that preparation can involve more than repeating a skill in comfortable conditions. It can also include practicing how to use that skill when the situation feels challenging.
However, the setting matters. These studies do not establish that every challenging activity will improve workplace performance. They support a more specific principle: carefully designed practice under pressure can help people perform under pressure in the contexts studied.
Learning From Errors Can Support Adaptability
Another relevant area of organizational psychology is error management training.
Rather than guiding learners to avoid every mistake, this approach encourages active exploration and teaches people to learn from errors. In their meta-analysis, Nina Keith and Michael Frese found that error management training was particularly useful for transferring learning to unfamiliar tasks.
This is relevant to adaptability because new situations rarely unfold exactly like practice. A person may need to recognize that an approach is not working, manage their reaction, and choose a different response.
The implication is not that mistakes are automatically helpful. Their value depends on what happens next: noticing the error, reflecting on it, and using that information to adjust.
A Broader Perspective From Tomorrowmind
In Tomorrowmind, Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman bring together research on navigating a changing working world. Their PRISM framework includes prospection, resilience, innovation and creativity, social connection, and mattering.
The framework helps place teamwork and adaptability within a wider discussion of professional development. Employees need opportunities to build relationships, respond to uncertainty, and explore new possibilities alongside their technical responsibilities.
The intervention studies above address a related but distinct question: whether particular training approaches can improve behavior or performance.
How These Skills Appear in Professional Dance
Professional dance offers a concrete way to understand these ideas.
A dancer prepares choreography, but a live performance still requires adjustment. Spacing may feel different on a new stage. A cue may arrive unexpectedly. Another performer may be slightly out of position. A dancer may forget a movement and need to recover while the performance continues.
In these situations, adaptability becomes an action: noticing what has changed and choosing what to do next.
Teamwork is similarly visible. Dancers coordinate timing, spacing, entrances, and shared movement. They communicate through rehearsal discussions and demonstrations, but also through attention to movement and other nonverbal cues.
Rehearsal creates opportunities to examine these processes. Where did coordination break down? Was a cue clear? What adjustment would help the group on the next attempt?
These examples illustrate parallels with the research. They do not prove that dance experience automatically transfers to workplace skills. They show why dance can provide useful situations in which to explore communication, coordination, and recovery.
From Professional Practice to an Accessible Learning Experience
Participants do not need to become professional dancers to explore these situations.
A simple group movement task can create opportunities to give instructions, interpret cues, coordinate with others, and adjust when something changes. Reflection can then connect the experience to a familiar workplace challenge.
This is the approach behind The Secret Dance Technique’s corporate workshops. Activities draw on situations familiar to dancers—learning unfamiliar movements, coordinating as a group, and continuing through unexpected changes—to explore creativity, performing under pressure, and team communication.
The aim is to give participants an experience they can examine together: what they noticed, how they responded, and what they might try differently.
The research supports the value of developing these skills through structured practice. Movement offers one way to make that practice tangible, while further evaluation is needed to understand how participants apply it beyond the workshop.
Resources
McEwan, D., Ruissen, G. R., Eys, M. A., Zumbo, B. D., & Beauchamp, M. R. (2017). The effectiveness of teamwork training on teamwork behaviors and team performance: A systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled interventions. PLOS ONE, 12(1), e0169604.
Low, W. R., Freeman, P., Sandercock, G. R. H., Winter, M. E., Butt, J., & Maynard, I. (2021). Pressure training for performance domains: A meta-analysis. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 10(1), 149–163.
Keith, N., & Frese, M. (2008). Effectiveness of error management training: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 59–69.
Kellerman, G. R., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2023). Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience, Creativity, and Connection—Now and in an Uncertain Future. Atria Books. Read the coauthor’s introduction to the book and PRISM framework.
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