Many people never learn how to work on a team. The reason many projects fail has little to do with expertise or intelligence. Instead it’s the fact that as soon as you have two or more people working together, they have to figure out to how to share, collaborate, and trust each other.

“Playing well with others” is something few adults learn, or remember to practice. If we learn it, it’s by the good fortune of being on one good team early in our careers.

If you discover you are the leader of a team in trouble, here’s the simplest playbook:

1. Build a theory of what’s wrong. The superficial reasons a project is struggling are rarely the important ones. We notice symptoms first, not the causes. Racing to fix symptoms often just creates other symptoms (and cultures that always operate in panic mode have a culture prone to dysfunctional teams). Instead, go into detective mode for an afternoon or a day, and listen to theories from other people on the team about what’s wrong. Talk to people in private, offer confidentiality, and shut up and listen. What are the common frustrations you hear? (If none of them involve you, you haven’t heard the whole truth yet.)

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