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The Inner & Outer Game

Mastering the Inner and Outer Game of Team Performance

At Meta Team, our research proves that truly high-performing teams don’t just focus on skills, leadership, or individual strengths, they master both the Inner Game and the Outer Game.

  • The Inner Game defines how a team works together: building trust, resilience, shared purpose, and focus.
  • The Outer Game shapes how a team delivers impact: adapting to change, influencing stakeholders, acting with agility, and executing with discipline.

Most team development models fail to balance these two critical dimensions.

Our research shows that when teams strengthen both games simultaneously? they unlock double-digit improvements in productivity, execution speed, collaboration, and business impact.

The 8 Habits of High-Performing Teams

Eight fundamental team habits separate the best teams from the rest. These inner and outer habits are at the core of Meta Team’s approach.

The Inner Game — How Teams Work Together

The foundation of every high-performing team, the Inner Game shapes team cohesion, trust, and resilience.

  • Trust — Psychological safety and inclusion
  • Resilience – Confidence under pressure
  • Purpose – Aligned goals and shared accountability
  • Focus – Prioritisation and discipline

The Outer Game – How Teams Deliver Business Impact

Great execution isn’t just about hard work, it requires teams to navigate change, influence stakeholders, and act decisively.

  • Adapting – Flexibility and responsiveness
  • Influencing – Building trusted relationships with key stakeholders.
  • Agility – Future-focused innovation
  • Taking Action – Decisiveness and follow-through

79% Distracted

Teams say multiple priorities are pulling them in different directions.

— META TEAM DATA —

26% Unsure

Teams do not have a clear and compelling team purpose.

— META TEAM DATA —

It’s difficult

“No wonder team development is difficult as traditional approaches aren’t sufficient so companies are missing a trick.”

— META TEAM DATA —

23% Increase

A proven increase in performance and value from those teams that displayed the eight high-performing habits — tested with over 1000 teams from around the world.

— META TEAM DATA —

41% Struggle

Teams struggle to improve how they work together.

— META TEAM DATA —

26% Unaware

Teams do not recognise their shortcomings

— META TEAM DATA —

Beyond Theory: 32 Immersive Workouts That Enable Change

Most team development programs rely on insights and theory—we focus on action. Our 32 immersive, high-impact workouts are designed to embed the behaviours that drive breakthrough team performance.

With four workouts available for each of the eight foundational habits, teams don’t just learn, they apply, practice, and refine new ways of working in real-time. Each 2-hour session is practical, engaging, and built for immediate impact, ensuring that teams move beyond awareness to lasting behavioural change.



Team Journey Planning: The importance of sequencing the team’s work

Building a team’s commitment to change is just the first step of our development programme. We use the data and insights from our Team Performance Profiler to establish buy-in from the team. Our next step is to deliver development that completely engages the team, provides actionable change and motivates them to continue on the path.

Using AI and our algorithm, we sequence the first 6 of 32 possible workouts each team needs to make the greatest immediate impact on their performance. Meta Team’s algorithm provides a fast track to better cohesion, collaboration and performance.

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