Overview
When experts from diverse fields come together, groundbreaking innovations emerge that were once thought impossible. From renewable energy to wearable technology, cross-disciplinary collaboration has driven some of the world’s most remarkable advancements.
Many diverse teams, however, can become siloed, stifling creativity and collaboration, which leads to missed opportunities and hindered organisational growth. But this can be avoided.
To deliver outstanding solutions for clients and stakeholders, you need to combine deep expertise with collaborative innovation. This two-day Korn Ferry Academy course will equip you with critical skills to instil cross-team synergies and drive transformative change. Cross-Team Collaboration and Innovation is designed to foster teamwork and unity, helping you break down silos that limit your team’s potential and enabling them to achieve exceptional performance.
Learning Outcomes
- Explore the Impact of Mindsets: Discover how individual beliefs can either enhance or hinder effective collaboration.
- Enhance Communication and Negotiation Skills: Develop the tools to build trust, facilitate open dialogue, resolve conflicts and foster cross-team synergy.
- Analyse Team Dynamics: Assess the needs and motivations of diverse teams, recognising both competing and complementary priorities.
- Embrace Integrative Thinking: Learn how to transform opposing perspectives into innovative solutions through collaboration.
- Adopt a Systems Thinking Approach: Understand how rewards, incentives, organisational structures and workspace design contribute to a culture of collaboration and innovation.
- Utilise Design Thinking: Apply a user-centered methodology to effectively solve problems for customers and colleagues.
Course Topics
Overcoming Silos: Identifying Barriers to Collaboration
The Competitive Mindset: Understanding Collaboration Challenges
Harnessing the Power of Cross-Team Collaboration
Collaborative Techniques for Collective Success
Identifying Cross-Team Needs and Motivations
Innovative Solutions Through Integrative and Design Thinking
Who Should Attend
Assessment & Evaluation
To be eligible for funding, participants are required to attain a minimum 75% attendance and pass the course assessment. Please refer to our Terms & Conditions for more details.
Course Fees & Funding
| Participant Profile | Self-Sponsored | Company-Sponsored | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SME | NON-SME | ||
|
Singapore Citizen
≥ 40 years old |
$266.70
(After SSG Funding 70% + MCES Funding** 20%) |
$266.70
(After SSG Funding 70% + ETSS Funding* 20%) |
$266.70
(After SSG Funding 70% + MCES Funding** 20%) |
|
Singapore Citizen
< 40 years old / Permanent Resident |
$686.70
(After SSG Funding 70%) |
$266.70
(After SSG Funding 70% + ETSS Funding* 20%) |
$686.70
(After SSG Funding 70%) |
| International Participant |
$2,289
(No Funding) |
$2,289
(No Funding) |
$2,289
(No Funding) |
*ETSS – Enhanced Training Support for SMEs
**MCES – Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy
Self-sponsored participants may use SkillsFuture Credit (SFC) to offset fees
Course Fees are inclusive of 9% Goods & Services Tax
Course Schedule
18 & 19 Sep
Facilitator Bio
Eileen Seah
Eileen Seah is a distinguished faculty member of the Korn Ferry Academy and a seasoned Organisational Psychologist, Executive Coach and founder of The Art of Career. With her innovative "blue-ocean" approach to Talent Management and People & Culture, Eileen seamlessly blends insights from organisational psychology with her rich personal experiences.
As an experienced HR Business Partner, Eileen has successfully driven People, Learning, and Culture initiatives across various sectors, including Defence Science, Banking & Finance, Telecommunications, and Management Consulting. Her multifaceted roles from front-line to mid- and back-office functions—have equipped her with a deep understanding of diverse organisational dynamics.
In her role as an Executive Coach, Eileen works with leaders at both individual and organisational levels, specializing in transformation through strategic design and active experimentation. She champions a psychology-centred approach, empowering professionals to discover their best selves through ongoing renewal and growth.
Eileen is renowned for her strong service orientation and innovative thinking, which she brings to her coaching sessions and workshops. Her achievements include the prestigious global Beta Gamma Sigma award and an HP Silver Award for academic excellence. With her extensive experience and unwavering passion for helping others reach their potential, Eileen has become a highly sought-after speaker and presenter.
Testimonials
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Success Stories
Don’t just take our word for it
Redefining the High-Performing Team in Today’s Business Landscape
If you’re a middle manager in Singapore, this may feel familiar: your senior leaders are shifting priorities with each quarter. Budgets are tight. The market is sluggish. Meanwhile, your team is weary, some demotivated, some anxious about AI, and some quietly drifting. You’re trying to hold everyone together, deliver results, and keep morale up, even when you yourself feel uncertain about the direction.
Leadership has never felt more complex from the middle.
In 2017, Google’s Project Aristotle identified five timeless characteristics of a high-performing team: psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact. But the environment in which these traits must now be nurtured has changed dramatically.
Trade tensions, inflation, demographic shifts, and the rise of agentic AI are reshaping how teams work and what they need from their leaders. The question isn’t just how to build a high-performing team anymore. It’s how to help teams stay human, adaptable, and aligned in a world that no longer stands still.
What’s Holding Teams Back Today?
Even with capable people and good intentions, many teams are underperforming, and the reasons run deeper than individual skill or will.
In Singapore and across Asia, employees are grappling with job security fears, especially in light of slowing markets and restructuring. The rise of AI has made roles less predictable—some feel replaceable, others unsure how to grow with the technology. Many are craving career development, not as a perk but as a survival strategy. And increasingly, especially among Gen Z, there’s a desire for work that aligns with personal values.
📌 Korn Ferry research confirms this shift—employees today prioritise job security, development, well-being, and belonging more than ever before.
At the same time, team structures and leadership expectations are straining under pressure. Uncertainty and ambiguity are now the norm—strategies shift, timelines compress, and few managers feel truly equipped to lead through fog. AI anxiety, unclear priorities, and generational friction make alignment harder than ever.
🧩 When these tensions go unaddressed, even high-potential teams lose trust, energy, and cohesion, making it difficult to perform, let alone thrive.
High-Performing Team Characteristics in 2025 and How Leaders Can Build Them Now
To lead a high-performing team today, you need more than motivation and monitoring. You need to cultivate five core capabilities and translate them into team behaviours week by week.
What great teams look like: They pivot quickly without burning out. They absorb change while protecting emotional resilience and shared purpose.
Korn Ferry’s 2024 resilience study shows that emotionally resilient teams outperform others by 31% during disruption.¹
What leaders must do:
- Talk openly about change; Acknowledge ambiguity without sugarcoating.
- Set a sustainable pace; Model boundaries and prioritise rest.
- Introduce recovery rituals, such as team check-ins and debriefs after high-stress cycles.
Signal that adaptability includes emotional and strategic flexibility.
What great teams look like: They stay focused even when the world shifts. Everyone understands the “why,” the “what,” and their role in delivering it.
A 2024 meta-study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior found that clarity of purpose is the most reliable predictor of team performance in volatile environments.²
What leaders must do:
- Establish shared goals and revisit them monthly, not quarterly.
- Co-create team norms and decision rights using simple tools (e.g., RACI, team charters).
- Start each week by anchoring on priorities: “What matters most now?”
- Use ambiguity as a moment to clarify, not retreat from, direction.
🎯 A powerful example came from Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s ministerial statement following recent tariff announcements. While he couldn’t provide certainty, he showed up quickly, framed what was known and unknown, and, most importantly, shared what the government planned to do next. That’s the essence of clarity in uncertainty—and what today’s teams need from their leaders.
What great teams look like: They don’t just feel comfortable—they feel courageous. Team members speak up even when it’s hard. They challenge assumptions, surface risks, share contrarian views, and still rally behind the final decision once it’s made.
What leaders must do:
Since the pandemic, many leaders have rightly focused on comfort, responding with empathy to burnout, disconnection, and stress. But many now find themselves stuck. Their teams are pleasant, but passive. Harmonious, but hesitant.
The next evolution is moving from comfort to courage. Teams must feel safe enough to speak hard truths, share unpopular opinions, and then be committed enough to act decisively together.
To create this, leaders must go beyond good intentions:
- Invite respectful dissent: “What are we not seeing yet?”
- Acknowledge contrarian views, even when uncomfortable.
- Show that disagreement and alignment can coexist.
- Pay close attention to your words, tone, and body language—are you empowering individuals or causing them to shrink?
A leader must constantly ask themselves: “Am I creating light—or casting a shadow?”
Courageous cultures aren’t accidental. They’re designed, moment by moment, by how leaders show up.
What great teams look like: Trust isn’t just relational—it’s operational. People deliver. They keep promises. They give visibility, not just updates.
Korn Ferry’s 2023 research found that operational trust, built through transparency and follow-through, is the strongest predictor of performance in distributed teams.¹
What leaders must do:
- Use visible team dashboards to track progress.
- Acknowledge and reward consistent delivery, not just heroics.
- Set clear expectations around responsiveness, turnaround times, and ownership.
- Create norms for feedback: “I expect to hear from you if you’re stuck.”
What great teams look like: They don’t wait for direction—they shape it. Everyone has a stake. Leadership is distributed, and execution is faster because buy-in happens early.
According to the Center for Creative Leadership, inclusive teams make better decisions 87% of the time and execute 60% faster.⁴
What leaders must do:
- Use “decision canvases” to co-create decisions with teams.
- Involve people early when scoping change, not after the plan is made.
- Delegate not just tasks, but outcomes and authority.
- Regularly ask: “Who hasn’t spoken? Whose view haven’t we heard?”
💡 To activate these shifts, leaders need new tools and capabilities. Korn Ferry Academy offers leadership programmes like the strategic problem-solving course and business communication training course, built to equip leaders with the mindsets and methods to lead in today’s environment.
Learn from the Experts in Building High-Performing Teams
To develop a high-performing team in today’s dynamic economy, leadership development is essential. At Korn Ferry Academy, we support organisations in building high-performing teams through expert-led programmes rooted in real-world insight and behavioural science.
Our programmes cover:
- Developing emotional intelligence and adaptability
- Creating clarity in complex environments
- Managing a high-performing team across generations and geographies
- Coaching leaders through AI transitions and strategic uncertainty
Whether you’re managing a high-performing team today or aiming to build one, we’ll equip you with the mindset, tools, and frameworks to lead with impact.
Middle Manager’s Survival Guide: 5 Moves You Can Make This Week
- Re-anchor your team. Start Monday’s meeting with: “What’s changed? What’s unclear?”
- Show your presence. Even if you can’t give certainty, offer clarity: “Here’s what I know, and what I don’t. Here’s what I’m focused on this week.”
- Make one person feel heard and stretched. Ask someone, “What’s something you see that others might be missing?”
- Normalise feedback. Schedule 15-minute check-ins. Praise challenges and contrarian views.
- Don’t fake optimism. Be honest, be hopeful, and keep moving.
It won’t fix everything. But it will build trust, direction, and momentum—one conversation at a time.
- Korn Ferry Institute. (2023–2024). Global Talent Trends.
- Journal of Organizational Behavior. (2024). Meta-analysis on clarity and performance.
- Edmondson, A. (2019). The Fearless Organization.
- Center for Creative Leadership. (2023). Inclusive Leadership and Decision Speed.
- Microsoft Work Trend Index. (2024). AI Readiness at Work.
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Great leaders know an opportunity when they see it—and grab it on the spot. There’s no better time than now to start investing in yourself and your people. Speak to a Korn Ferry Academy consultant today.
