Although the definition of a team indicates that you can build a team of two to 25 team members with eight to twelve members being the optimal size, having a team of only three members is definitely a challenge. But it’s not impossible.

Your team success will rely on your ability as team members to leverage the strengths of each team member. You certainly don’t have the luxury of larger teams where there is a smaller impact if the strengths of a team member are not used. So here’s what you need to do.

1. Define what roles are critical to team success. As a team, get together and brainstorm a list of team roles. Talk through this list until you have agreement among the team members that the roles are valid for your team purpose.
2. Identify individual team member strengths. Each team member should do two things to create this list of strengths. First they should make a list of their own personal strengths (e.g. great communicator, good with customer service, very organized, etc.). Next they need to make a list of strengths they see in each of the other two team members. Then the team should get together, share the lists and agree on a consolidated listing of strengths for each team member.
3. Put it all together. As a team, use the list of roles you determined were critical to team success and the individual team members strengths lists to determine who should do what role to accomplish the team purpose. Implement any needed changes and communicate to your stakeholders.

Follow this process to build your small team and you will be unbeatable!